From ccmacdon@rogers.com Wed Jan 14 06:05:29 2015
Subject:Re: Vent/Roland
Bob, thanks for posting your thoughts on Ventiilator vs Strymon Lex Your first paragraph you said you used a "Roland clone (xk-3) & a Roland amp", I think you meant Hammond clone? I think that most members would agree that the Vent is a superior sounding sim, but I'm not sure that the Nord fans will agree that the Strymon Lex is an improvement over the newest Nord sim (assuming I read your post correctly), but I'll leave that for someone else. Just one point, I'm not a fan of these "secondary functions" in an instrument that is designed for live performance.. Accessing and editing these parameters isn't easy during/between songs. This is where I think the Burn has a huge advantage over the Vent's and other leslie sims because it has presets.. With the Vent's 32 available presets if you EASILY pre-program the presets to change any parameters, and you can easily switch between heavily distorted, close mic'd 147 sounds, or a sweet warm 122 just by switching presets (you also have the option to assign the dial control virtually any parameter in real time, AND the various parameters can respond to midi controller input as well!!) I always liked the elegance of the original Ventilator, and that made it easy to accepted it's limitations (such as it's inability to independently change horn/rotor speeds), but I think that the Ventilator 2 loses a bit of the elegance with it's secondary functions, buried a level below the available controls. This is just my opinion, but the Mini-Vent strikes me as a "set-it/forget-it" leslie sim for those people who just want to have 1 leslie (or two because it has 2 presets), and don't require anything else. The Vent 2 is just an enhanced original Vent. It's basically the same pedal, with deeper editing capability, but some of the important parameters are buried and not easily accessible during a live performance, so in reality it's also more of a "set-it/forget-it" box. The Burn on the other hand is hugely flexible and has vastly superior functionality. Just my opinion. Regards,
Craig MacDonald
From: "Robert Borneman redandblue@qis.net [CloneWheel]"
To: "CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com"
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 7:58 AM
Subject: [CWSG] Vent/Roland
I played a party a year or two ago where there was aRoland clone (xk-3) & a Roland amp. It seemed to be optimized to bring out the Leslie effect. It worked. This is probably my first positive impression of a Roland clone or amp. Having said that, here is my impression of the original Vent.
Here are my observations of a Strymon Lex & a Neo Vent connected to a Nord E3 thru a QSC K10 in Mono.
I play. In a Blues/Vintage Rock band and don't consider myself a serious B3 player. I enjoy the music of both Jimmy Smith & Jon Lord. I have owned a Dynacord, a Rotosphere, and a Voce Spin and several Nord Electros. The Vent has a better layout with knobs recessed to minimize damage. The switches on the older vent are superior to the older Lex that I received second hand.Apparently, the Newer Lex has improved switches.The Vent has been updated to stereo in & out.Mine is mono in & Stereo out as is the Lex that I have.The Nord has mono or stereo out to help reproduce LealieEffect animation. Strymon rcommends using a specific output for Mono although I preferred the opposite output.I tried using a dummy plug in the opposite output & did not discern a difference.Power supplies on both the Lex & Vent are external.The one I received with my older vent is very long. The one with the Lex is more than adequate. The Nord power cord is great. Just keep a spare. In the following categories I preferred the Vent over the Lex: Drive- the Vent is darker or lower & smoother. The LexIs focused a little higher and gets fizzy quickly. The knob for this was useful from 7 o'clock to 9 o'clock. Beyond that it became too much for my taste. This is one area where I like the Nord effect the Overdrive is darker & smoother until about 2 3/4 on the knob, between 10 & 11 o'clock then it too becomes a little too artificial especially after it reaches 12 o'clock. The vent & lex both had a Distance Knob for setting the microphone placement. Both units were superior to the Nord and were able to achieve a variety of settings easily. Both units had a Horn Balance or Horn Level which was useful but nominal settings were pretty effective. This didn't require much tweaking, although the Lex seemed to benefit a little by turning counter clockwise or darker.Rotor speed was adjustable on both units. I preferred the Vent in this because to access the Lower Rotor on the Lex you had to access it thru secondary settings which I didn't care for.The Vent had acceleration as a dedicated knob.The Lex had acceleration as a secondary setting. The Vent has Stop settings available on a desperate foot switch. The Lex achieved this by maintaining pressure on the slow/fast switch. I preferred the separate switch on the external Vent foot switch which is an added cost and requires additional connection and setup.
The Lex has some nice secondary features. I read a review where it was suggested these should have been silkscreened on the pedal. I agree. Overall I didn't care for the method to use the secondary settings although this might be easier to manage with Strymon's newer switches or their favorite setting pedal.
Overall the Vent is clearly the better solution. My only issue with the Vent is the Input level can become overloaded at the Nord's hotter output settings which cause a bit of Honkiness if pushed a little bit. The Vent does have a light to indicate when the signal is being overdriven. This is probably a form of digital clipping and for me is the only drawback of the unit. The animation of both units is superior to the Nord effect which seems to lack depth compared to these two units.
I would think the Lex would be a huge improvement to anyone wanting to hold onto an older keyboard like an E2or possibly an Xk-3.
I bought the Lex for convienence but may go back to the Vent. Both are very nice and provide more realism than the rest of the simulators.
Sent from Bob B
On Jan 14, 2015, at 7:01 AM,CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com wrote: