From oldzuto@yahoo.com Thu Nov 17 15:31:53 2005
Subject:Re: Any B4 II owners yet?

Craig/Tony,

Wanted to add my two cents worth on a couple of points about this subject.

First of if you like the Doepfer LMK4+ as a weighted hammer controller and are considering replacing your Nord as the organ controller, you might want to consider the Doepfer D3C waterfall "organ" style keyboard controller. I own one of these as well and really like the feel of the board. I am having a hard time making my mind up to give up my XK-3 because I love the sound of it so much, but as to the keyboard feel I like the Doepfer D3C just as much...and it's very very light and very cheap (about $525). It would sit nicely on top of the LMK4+ with plenty of room left for the B4 drawbar controller. I should of brought it with me to your gig last weekend Tony so you could borrow it and see what you thought, as I have not made it a permenant part of my rig yet.

As to the sound of Tony's B4/Muse setup compared to his Nord Electro....sure I'm a huge fan of real Leslies and he did not have one with him last weekend, and his on stage Yorkville amps could not be heard one bit out in the club, even when I was standing two feet in front of him because of the direction he had them pointed (at him more like monitors) his sound was only coming thru the FOH system and I listened and critiqued his sound at many different places in the club.I was there thru both of his bands' entire sets and I can tell you (in my opinion, of course!) that the B4 was way better than the Nord. That's not to say the Nord was bad, just that the B4 sounded very good.... much more detailed and, well kinda hard to discribe....more real. I wish he had his XK-3 so I could of listened and compared the B4 with it in a live gig enviroment. Same sound man (great sound man by the way), same feeds to the FOH system, same venue, same player...with all those factors being the same I
feel the A/B comparison was as accurate as one could be, and the B4 sounded awesome. The Leslie sim was excellent to. You could hear very clearly the different ramp up and down speeds of the upper and lower rotors.
Won't be too long down the road till I own the B4 set up. I'll wait for the version II to come out and make sure it's solid. But with a couple of light weight boards like the doepfers and a small rack case with the muse in it a great sounding, mega fully featured rig can be had.


tonysounds wrote:
Hey Craig....

I currently use my Electro to control it. I use a Doepfer LMK4+ (recommended to me by Bob Manzitti, a great call) and the electro as the "remote" controller. Organ is always played from the Electro as are some synth parts. I have a b4d drawbar controller, but as of yet, I have not successfully integrated it into the system. My new job has buried me, and this week I seem to be burnt out (might have something to do with the "display" Bob saw of myself and my bands in Michigan) and have been going to bed at 9pm (I get up at 5am).

The drawbar controller works because it's definitely affecting my other modules, but I use my Receptor in Multi mode, so I think there's a little more going on that I haven't gotten a handle on yet. When I do get that figured out, I think I might still use my Electro as the controller; one less device to hook up, etc. I've been holding on to my XK3 for the same reason; that and both units sound really good.

The Receptor is really easy to use, sounds great, and is definitely a Key Buy. As much as I love my Electro, and my XK3/leslie combo, I am satisfied enough with B4 into my amps that I may not carry my leslies any more. I haven't since I got that rig, and recordings I have made, both "ambient" and from the board at gigs, have shown me this is a brutal combo.

As for amps, I use a pair of Yorkville 300k amps (2x10s, 2xhorns in each) and it sounds fantastic. At rehearsals, I have a Crest power amp into a pair of EV S1202 boxes, and it sounds great there too.

I never liked the KC amps; too damn boomy, and just "raw" sounding to me.

Other than my drawbar issue, which obviously is a big issue, I have had no qualms with B4/Receptor. My initial time with this rig was spent programming it for my Pink Freud (pink floyd tribute) band, which doesn't require a lot of drawbar manipulation while playing, so it wasn't a priority for me. With Hello Dave, it is a priority, and I'm so thrilled with the way it sounds, I want to use this rig for Hello Dave too. I'll be spending some time on it this weekend....hopefully.
T

ccmacdon wrote:
Tony,

I'm considering putting a B4/Receptor rig together and I was
wondering what you would recommend for controllers, and
amp/speakers.. What are you using now, what would you recommend, any
specific issues to keep in mind with the B4/Receptor rig?

I'm currently leaning towards the 61 note CME controllers because
they have 9 sliders, and a drawbar mode, they seem pretty solid, and
also have a continuous controller input and sustain input for
expression and triggering leslie speed respectively.

I have two Roland KC500's that I've used for keys (piano/synth
stuff), but I've never been too happy with the KC500's for
reproducing organ sounds.

I'm very interested in your thoughts because you are currently using
this configuration, but also interested in other opinons as well.
Thanks. Craig

--- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com, tonysounds
wrote: