B-3 RealTrack distorted, or is it just me?

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Just had my first chance to test-drive the RealTracks Hammond B-3 (blues, background from RT Set 10). Kind of disappointing -- every variation sounded distorted. Same result when I played back several of the WMA files directly from Windows Media Player, rather than with BIAB.

The narrative for the Real Track describes the sound as "Gritty". Funny... I worked with a B-3 player every weekend for two years. His axe never sounded like that. Just a clean, powerful sound from that rotating Leslie cabinet. The BIAB B-3 is virtually useless to me.

Tried downloading and reinstalling the latest posted RT updates for Sets 10-12, dated 11/23/08. Also tried copying the Organ folder directly from the USB drive that contained the 2009 UltraPak -- Of course, they were the same files, and produced the same distorted result.

Has anyone else run into this?

I'm running Windows 98SE on a Sempron 2800, 512MB RAM, 160 MB 7200 RPM drive about half full. Sound card is a Creative SoundBlaster Live. Using no external synths or other hardware of any kind. Boot configuration is extremely "lean and mean".

Drive is defragged weekly and this box has never had an Internet connection.

BIAB version is 2009, build 282.

Thanks in advance!

Jon

ColoradoGuy;

Mine sounded funny too when I just listened to the samples in the folder. The organ was ok in my right speaker, but the left one sounded like a space ship taking off. However in a song, it was un-noticable. I don't know, I have never used it until tonite.

I used the B-3 here: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6879039 I thought it came out alright, but I guess I ought to listen again (but I can't right now).

Kevin

Quote:

The narrative for the Real Track describes the sound as "Gritty". Funny... I worked with a B-3 player every weekend for two years. His axe never sounded like that. Just a clean, powerful sound from that rotating Leslie cabinet. The BIAB B-3 is virtually useless to me.

There are many "voices" to the mighty B, in this instance, the one you got used to was set up for a clean sound, the one recorded for these particular RealTracks is set up for a distorted sound ala blues and rock players.

Perhaps in future pgmusic will record some B tracks from a different organ, but for now, it is what it is. Save it for dirty blues tracks.

--Mac

I suspect that the BPM element may be slower than the lower limit of the preferred BPM range for the B-3 Real Track instrument. That circumstance invariably results in unstable rendering of the wave based instrument. Try speeding up the passage. Any different?

"Same result when I played back several of the WMA files directly from Windows Media Player, rather than with BIAB."

And that sidesteps the BPM thing altogether.

No, it is indeed the fact that the particular organ and leslie used to record these RealTracks is set up for a distorted sound and it is intentional.

Whether or not you like that kind of sound -- or more exactly, the type and genre of music in which you would like to invoke a B3 track -- is the issue.

--Mac

Thanks for your answers! Mac’s final answer is the one I suspected, but still don’t want to hear.

I was trying to use the track in an instrumental version of “More Today than Yesterday” (Spiral Staircase), and also planned to use it in “Smoke From a Distant Fire” (Sanford Townsend Band). A good B-3 track would make these tunes killers!

Luvs3rds: Thanks for listening to the BIAB samples. For what it’s worth, I had More Today than Yesterday set with all “B” part markers (to keep the drummer cookin’), which had the adverse effect of pushing the B-3 into its “grittiest” mode – which I guess would be called True Grit (nyuk, nyuk).

Kemmrich: I listened to your tune. The B-3 is pretty well buried in the mix (which is fine); so I couldn’t hear any obvious distortion. Since yours is a classic blues tune, the B-3 RealTrack is a perfect fit.

To DrDUBose: I was using the B-3 at 140 BPM, the upper end of its tempo range. When I suspected the distortion was possibly due to time-stretching, I used WMP to get a “second opinion”. But thanks for the thought.

To Mac: I didn’t even know it was possible to get a distorted sound from a Big B (at least one that’s working right). Shows you what I know. You da man.

Since there is only one B-3 RealTrack available at this time, sounds like a “clean” B-3 track is a prime candidate for the Wish List.

Meanwhile, since my immediate objective is recording, I’ll try setting all the part markers to “A” and rendering just the B-3 track. Maybe that’ll tame the beast a little.

Thanks again,

Jon

Jon:

If you're interested in recording a clean-sounding B3 into a sequencer program like RealBand, Sonar, etc you might want to consider the VST instrument
VB3 by Genuine Soundware
http://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=24

It is a fantastic sounding B3 with 9 drawbars, Leslie and reverb - nearly all the controls from a real B3. It costs 49 Euros -- about $ 63.

I bought it a few months ago and am very pleased with the sound quality and the flexibility of the sound.

There are audio samples as well as a working demo you can download.
The system requirements are listed in the manual as:

Minimum System Requirements:
• Microsoft Windows 98se/ME/2000/XP
• Intel Pentium 3 @ 500 MHz or AMD Athlon @ 500 MHz
• 256 Mb of RAM
• 4 Mb of free disk space
• An ASIO compatible sound card
• A 61 keys MIDI keyboard

Recommended System Requirements:
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Intel Pentium 4 Dual Core @ 3000 MHz or AMD Athlon @ 3000 MHz
• 1 Gb of RAM
• 10 Mb of free disk space
• An ASIO compatible sound card with near-zero latency
• Two 61 keys MIDI keyboards and an expression pedal
VB3 is a VST plug-in, and needs a VST host application to run.

John

I use the B4 plugin from Native Inst. and it is awesome. It has a great interface but you really won't use it much because the preset styles cover just about everything from Jimmy Mcgriff to Greg Rollie (Santana) although I'm still trying to find the perfect style for Garth Hudson( I know, I know, he played a Lowrie)

John, thanks for the info. I just listened to the VB3 streaming samples and downloaded the demo. This shows some serious promise! I’ll play with it first chance I get.

Zan, the Native Instruments B4 seems to be the gold standard (Mac swears by it). Thing is, it doesn’t run under Windows 98. And for a vast variety of reasons, I plan to avoid an OS conversion for as long as possible. That’s my story, and I’m stuck with it. Thanks for the thought.

For what it’s worth, I added “clean” B-3 RealTracks to the Wish List. If anyone else feels this would be useful, please go over there and “ditto” my request.

Thanks,

Jon

The original B4 version 1 ran under win98SE. Perhaps you could find one on ebay or the like if interested.

--Mac