iOS Hammond clones vs Hammond XK5 vs Nord Stage 3
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- This is an overview of the main Hammond clones available for iOS: IK Multimedia/Hammond B-3X, GSI VB3, Yonac Galileo, and how they compare to Hammond XK5 and Nord Stage 3, with the following criteria; they have to have full reproduction of B3’s layout and functionality ( not simple sample playback ) and they have to be AUV3 compatible, which rules out some good sounding competitors, like Premier for Korg Module , Garage Band or Logic Pro B3. Pocket Organ and HaNonB70 don’t meet the high quality criteria, in many aspects, especially in the processing department.
For Leslie’s , there’s Eventide Rotary Mode, and GSI Rotary. The former works better for guitars or other sounds, but not for organ. GSI is, as far as I know, the only external plug-in that works well for organ.
For the sake of simplicity, each organ is presented here in a single manual configuration. Although possible, It would be super complex to configure a double manual setup for each of them at the same time.
If you don’t have time to watch the full video, here are my final conclusions:
B3-X - The most realistic, powerfull effects section and a lot of control over the most important parameters
VB3m - The “smoother” sounding, very good Leslie and overdrive. Limited editing capabilities
Galileo 2 - The oldest and the least realistic of the three,
with powerfull and versatile effects section, and crazy sound designing capabilities
GSI Rotary - Another excellent option , in case you don’t like
the internal Leslie from your clone.
Hammond XK5 - “The new original”, realistic, raw, insanely customizable, complex, stick to presets if you don’t know what you are doing. If you do, you can clone every Hammond that ever existed. All the drawbars, and all the controls available like you would find on the real thing.
Best key action, similar to the real B3, with 3 contact points.
,Nord Stage 3 - The standard versatile stage keyboard.
It just works, for everything.
My own leslie settings for XK5:
145 Rear ( choose Front if you want a smoother sound )
Horn speed: Slow 38, Fast 410, Ris 4.5, fal 6, Brk10, dl .2
Horn mic: widt 40, Cntr -33, Dist 30
Drum speed: Slow 38, fast 410, Ris 4.5, Fal 6, Brk10, dl .2
Drum mic: Widt 40, Cntr +13, Dist 30
Level: Sub -12, Drum -2, Horn -4
The B3-X with Gsi Rotary is a perfect combination. Truly a beast.
With all due respect, you've never played a real Hammond obviously. The B-3X & its Leslie simulator sound more authentic than ANYTHING on the market. This from a guy with 14 Hammonds & 11 Leslies under his belt & a destroyed back. lol.
I also have a destroyed back, from carrying 25+ kgs Rolands, Yamahas, Kurzweils, including flightcases, cables, pedals etc... by myself. Not a specialist on Hammond by any means, but have some experience, as many blues festivals had one for all participants. Love to play on blues festivals because of that! Did some shows with hired Hammonds and recorded on some Hammonds on studio. You see, where I live a real Hammond is an exotic thing, with very few qualified people to maintain it. But I do know about Hammond clones, 30 years on the road. I watched closelly the development of those, and
allways thought that the dificult part is the final stage, the amp, the drive, the rotary effect, the propper reverb, the controls, etc... not the dry sound of it. And I still do, although many clones fail immediately on the Chorus/vibrato part, not to mention the percussion, at those the B3x excells. The effect of a real leslie spining on our back is dramatic thing. I really cannot find this drama on B3x. Although I agree it is the most realistic thing out there, I might prefer other less realistic but that comes closer at the final stage to the drama I feel with the real thing.
It will allways be a subjective thing. I'm a pianist, what I really know about is pianos, both real and digital, and it's the same thing: there's no consensus among my coleagues, about sound, expressiveness, playability, keyboard feel, etc... You can never get it all with a clone. So you have to choose what you value the most, subjectivelly.
Fantastic comparison, very informative! Thank you, hope you keep making iOS videos!
Thank you! Not easy to keep up, with all other professional stuff, but there will be something comming soon!
@@FaustoFerreira Nice, I’ll be there! In the meantime I’ll dive into your previous videos ✌
Hope you enjoy them, and that they are helpfull!
VB3m only costs $15 USD and sometimes is on sale for $12 USD. I also really like the other two organs from GSi: Red Animal and Compact DeLuxe (which only cost $20 USD as a bundle). The Red Animal is very useful when playing songs by The Doors and Van Morrison. The quality that you receive for such a low price is absolutely amazing. I have an iPad and a MIDI keyboard that weighs less than 16 pounds (7 kilos) and I can do so much. It is a great time to play keys! Keep on making these videos (brass, EPs, etc.).
It's true, I am an hardcore iOS user, iPad pro M2 it's my main computer now. As to GSI, I think that everything they do is just ..special ! My only complaint was: why not VB3 II, with complete editing capabilities? I would gladly pay the same price as for the desktop version.
Love my GSI VB3 11....gig with it on my laptop as it doesnt even take up much cpu....love its dirt,warmth & leslie emulation & its tweaking ability is endless....never let me down on stage.
Love both VB3m and VB3II. Different but both sound amazing
Well, the IK MM is $150 USD. Same for their computer version, $150 USD. No discount! But can one use iPad on a gig and not have it take a dive? And I have zero idea how to hook up one 88 key keyboard split (Numa Compact 2X) or two 61 key MIDI controllers for use with an iPad app. How is it done?@@FaustoFerreira
If you're talented like Fausto You can play anynofnrhese organs, tweak the EQ settings , draw bars and play any old Hammond B 3 songs in a live settings and still put smiles on people's faces.
Only musicians with trained sensitive ears and a broom stick up their noses will hear the subtle brightness, how thin, flat or warm rhe app or drawbar settings sound.
Gee, thanks, I hope that was a compliment. But you're right, any of this will work well on a live context, just as long as you take the most out of it, in terms of expression and placement in its especific context.
Great comparison, thanks!
Thank you for watching!
thanks so much for this!…really insightful!
Thank you very much for this video. I was really needing it. I want to point out that there is also another iOS organ called Hanon B70 that looks good in the reviews and is fairly cheap and fairly simple, I how you can review it in near future
By the way... the Hammond with the GSI leslie sounds WONDERFUL!
I was very happy when HaNon B70 came out. Tryed to use it, but it is no match for any of the organs presented in the video: wrong tonewheel mappings, very poor effects section, some keyboards from the 90's had better Leslie simulation. There's other problems but this is enough for me to stay away from it.That's why I didn't consider it and some other cheap Hammonds for iOS in this video. I also didn't consider sample based Hammonds, like the ones in Korg Module and BeatHawk, even if they sound good, because you don't have full control over them. If you don't want to spend the money on IK Multimedia/Hammond B3-X, the VB3m is still a very decent option, and Galileo as the minimum for serious organ playing.
@@jjptechIt really does! Thank you for joining in and for your contribution!
Thanks for sharing this comparison. I have GSI VB3 on my laptops and iPad. Absolutely love it.
I recently acquired an XK3c and it great but I don’t like the Leslie emulation. I use a Neo Vent II pedal and it’s beyond amazing.
However, I may now try your XK5 Leslie settings on the XK3c and see if it helps.
Thanks! I'm curious to hear how it will work on a XK3c, as the XK5 has allready new tech on it, but I believe it cannot ever substitute the Vent.
@@FaustoFerreira the vent is just special and magical. They did well with this one.
Another incredible video Fausto. Though I do not have much knowledge regarding organs, I find the B3-X to be pretty good, got a bit more weight than the Nord. I must ask you though, how do you find the GarageBand/Logic Pro organ? I thought I found it very convincing, but I don't know how it compares to the amount of organs you have here.
Thank you! I haven't dig enough into Logic Pro on iPad, I'm more of a Cubase/ Cubasis user, but soon I will haave a word for you, regarding the sound of the Hammond and also how it accepts the control from the XK5.
@@FaustoFerreira If it helps to simplify things, you can just open GarageBand on your iPad and load up the B3 organ there and play around with it.
Of course if you need more advanced options, you can do that on a Mac.
But I am looking forward to your comment on it.
Thanks again Fausto!
If I would simplify things, I wouldn’t be me :) Still on vacation, have the iPad Pro but don’t have a proper keyboard or sound system with me. As soon as possible I will test it ;)
The vintage organ in Logic for GarageBand is not nearly as good as the full version in Logic for iPad , i love that organ , i have them all and always uses the Logic for iPad or Mac version of the vintage organ , in a band context it sounds the best to my ears , it can sing over tones in the high registers , try to listen to the preset jam band organ and change the drawbars with the modulation wheel ( not the GB version ) 😊
23:16 indeed hammond never liked the Leslie speakers, to the point that Leslie gave away the schematics for free and hammond never picked up, it wasn’t until 80s that hammond purchased the Leslie company and then sold it 10 years after. So, hammond completely disregarded the Leslie speaker up to this days. Hammond went as far as to put a proprietary connection to the speaker out to prevent the leslie usage. So, it’s not surprising that they still make a boring leslie effect this days
That would be self sabotage. Do you think Hammond Susuki/ Ik multimedia today are honouring Hammond's vision, making a bad leslie simulator? I just think some do it better than others. That being said, the Leslie simulator on new Hammond clones are not bad at all. The one on the XK5 is quite good and effective. Then there's the matter of taste, and the infinite variation in Leslies today, as well as recording techniques and acoustic environments. Don't think they are neglecting it for tradition's sake.
They where far behind when Nord, Crumar, Ventilator competitors came up, but now I think they are just as good. Just each one is unique. As is each lealie and leslie recordings.
@@FaustoFerreira Not to the point of self sabotage, but Hammond was never keen on doing the best hammond ever. They adopted it later for popular demand, but not for the belief that it was a key part like leslie himself did since the beginning.
Would be a nice video making a set of sounds on ipad trying to make a Nord Ios.. Pianos, organs, some synths, mellotrons, fx..
Thanks for your suggestion! I'm planning a video about the perfect live setup! I will compare it to the Nord and others!
Excelente vídeo, com comparações muito interessantes e esclarecedoras! Tenho um XK3c que adoro, no entanto, a emulação do Leslie não é boa.
Obrigado! No XK5 a emulação de Leslie está já num nivel excelente. Mas um passo atrás do Vemtilator.
I would say that there is no right or wrong here. It's all up to you how you set them up really. To me the B3-X is the king hands down,I use it on a windows computer with a M-Audio Oxygen Pro 61 controller aswell as a few other controllers. Before the B3-X i used a Hackintosh with Logics B3. And mind you I do own a Hammond M-103 together with a 760 Leslie(with a Marshall The Guvenor pedal in between) but the hauling of these beautiful beasts is not soooo awesome :) I'm considering the SKX Pro but the price difference is massive.
I agree, you can get good results with all of them, if you know what you're doing and what you are looking for on an organ. The B3X might have the most accurate dry sound simulation ( including vibrato and chourus ) and good effects, but just falls short in the leslie simulation, for my hears. It is subjective of course, as there is a multitude of real leslies, all different, and they all sound diferent depending on the acoustic of the room, not to mention that there is infinite ways of microphone positioning for capturing its sound. I miss some "drama" on the B3X leslie. I love my XK5 more and more. I managed a very good balance between "drama" and realism, which make it very versatile. And the 3 contacts keyboard really makes a difference, it would be great if they made it compatible with the B3X
@@FaustoFerreira Just wondering have you tried any of the Ventilator series of pedals? Seems like they are really good Leslie simulators. Although they are abit pricey.
@mikaeljohansson83 I did, just briefly, didn't do an extensive try but I agree, they really bring any Hammond clone alive!
Why does GSi get its own group on your iPad? Why not move each GSi instrument to the "proper home" (Solo Trumpet belongs with the Brass, Drum80 with Drums, etc.)? I am just curious - you can organize your iPad however you want. 😀
Hello Jammie! I did it just to show all the GSI apps together on the video. However, I would like to be able to multiply any app icon: Solo trumpet would be on GSI folder And on Brass folder simultaneous. I feel that almost every app that I use could be on two or three diferent places. Easy on Windows, not possible on iOS
Do you prefer the Hammond-XK5 over the ik multimedia B-3X? I was amazed how close they sounded though it was hard for me to decide/compare between the two
The XK5 provides an amazingly realistic playing experience. The perfect keyboard, with the three contacts and all the controls on the right places, its a pretty convincing experience. Be aware that it's also super customizable, it can sound however you want it to. The B-3X also, but in a lesser degree. The XK-5 is designed to work with a real leslie, they still could improve the leslie simulator, but its much better than older versions.
@@FaustoFerreira thank you so much for the response. So the main advantage is the ability to use with a real Leslie? and of course greater live performance control is great too. But without a Leslie you think the sound and Leslie sim of the B-3X and Hammond XK5 are neck and neck? It seems so. I love the authenticity the XK5 looks to provide but the portability of the B-3X as a vst is so convenient
I like them both, sound wise. Just failed to explain myself: I think Hammond never cared much to improve their leslie simulation, because the typical costumer would allways use a real leslie. I think they are better but still not perfect.
My preference in order, for leslie: Real Leslie :) and Ventilator on top; Yamaha YC; GSI/Crumar; Nord; XK5/B3X a level below, its a matter of taste; below that its crap.
What really sets XK5 appart, soundwise, is the tripple contact: it really affects the sound and the way you play.
XK5 for proper Hammond playing; B3X for almost the same good level of sound, in a portable package ( depending on tour controller ). For studio work, in certain music styles, B3X works better and more practical; but for example, in a blues band where the organ is super important and responsive to the band, the XK5 ( + leslie or ventilator ) is much better
@@FaustoFerreira the external Leslie or neo vent is definitely another notch. I didn’t realize all those details about the XK-5. Thank you so much for that breakdown. Very helpful!
The B-3x sounds bright, the Galileo and VB3-II sound thin, and the VB3-I sounds warm.
It’s true! At least we have choices, which we didn’t, until recently ( for iOS ).
One more good one... Blue3 by GG Audio.
Thank you! I guess it's still not available for iOS...
@@FaustoFerreira Now it is!!! 🙂
Thank you, Fausto. Wonder how you would compare this with Yamaha YC?
YC ( with the latest updated leslie ) : smooth, lovely sound, convincing and dramatic leslie effect with very good overdrive, good to have the lightened drawbars, I like the concept and the 61 keys are really good and versatile; XK5 more realistic in general, lovely B3 layout and keyboard, but more raw sound, convincing leslie but less dramatic, better controled by an Hammond expert, specially if you plan to use a real leslie; Nord Stage: good overall standard sound that fits everywhere out of the box; B3X: good and realistic overall, but I still prefer the
VB3 with smooth sound, dramatic leslie, and better overdrive ( although you can get very good overdrive on B3x with a mix of severall fx modules and real volume overdrive ) but I prefer the less realistic but simple knob on VB3, which gives you impressive results: Logic Pro ios Hammond: good, but falls behind all of the others in every parameter.
How does one actually hook up two keyboards or one 88 keyboard (and split it) for an iPad app? There is only one input on camera connection kit for a usb plug.
I think the IK MM sounds better than the Nord ($3000), but is it reliable for a gig?
Great video!
You can connect as many devices as you want, as much as your PD USB Hub allows!!! I have a screen, two or three keyboards, an audio interface, and even an old Usb mouse and keyboard connected. It works both with old ipads and camera connection and new ipad pros with Usb C. I said Powered Hub ( PD Hub ) because in some cases, with some usb powered devices, they require too much power, which the iPad might not be able to deliver. A good PD USB Hub solves this, powering both the iPad and the external devices. It's allways good practice to start a long session with a full charged ipad. That will avoid overheating due to battery charging, and if the PD Hub provides enough power, battery will allways retain 100% power, even after hours of heavy work. If you start low on power, the ipad might struggle and overheat.
Thanks! So the key is a powered hub? I'll buy one of those. Is it possible to split any of these organs like one would actually use in real life so that the lower and upper manuals have different sounds? This would be for one, 88 key or 73 key slab. I have Numa Compact 2X, which is 88 key and has the great Fatar TP9 keybed in it. I was a little confused which iPad organ you liked better - the IK MM one for $150 or the $15 one, they have similar names. Thank you for responding!@@FaustoFerreira
@JeffreySaxophoneTallNewton You just have to assign diferent midi channels to the lower and upper part of the keyboard ( or two diferent keyboards ) and assign the same chanels to Lower and Upper manual on the Hammond plug-in/App. And sometimes "Better" doesn't mean "Expensive"😉. Trust your taste and feeling. All of those organs sound amazing. Start with the cheap VB3m. Now GSI also has the VB3ii, much more expensive. Do I like it more? Maybe not...
Thanks! I'll get the cheap $15 GSI VB3m and try it with my Numa Compact 2X (88 key) and my 61 key MIDI controllers (as new Nektar and and old Novation Impulse (with the Fatar TP9). I have a 1969 Hammond E0-100, 350 US pounds in weight, that my dad bought for me then. I have no love for Nord, so if I want to spend $3,000 USD, I'd probably get the real Hammond. See, I;m a saxophone player and keyboards are my double, so I also need acoustic and electric piano sounds. Perhaps the newish Pianoteq 8 for iPad will cover that? Thanks again for your help!@@FaustoFerreira
I just bought the $150 GSI one, but first I got the earlier version, which is a trial. The earlier one has a great interface, but the newer, paid one only has a partial interface!@@FaustoFerreira