Organ-off 2021! feat. Galileo 2, Hammond B-3X & VB3m - Daveypoo, The Mobile Music Minstrel

[@hjstern]

Thank for the video comparing these apps, Daveypoo! At 3:52 you said there was no way to turn off the Leslie on VB3m however there is a "direct out" option on the effects page. There are 2 Leslie effects, then a guitar amp of sorts and the direct out option.

[@DaveypooMMM]

Thanks for pointing that out, Howard! I don't see that option on the "Effects" page in my video above, but VB3m was just updated yesterday to fix a few issues, one being the scaling which I pointed out here as being a problem. This video was filmed prior to the most recent update, so if this option to turn off the Leslie was included in yesterday's update then I wouldn't have seen it. I did notice that they added some parameters for the mics on the Leslie, so they are definitely continuing to work on this. Great app, and I'm so happy to see the GSI team working on the few little issues I had with it.

[@hjstern]

@@DaveypooMMM Ahh, that makes sense. I love VB3 and bought VB3m today after listening to your video so mine is version 1.1.

[@DaveypooMMM]

@@hjstern There you go - makes sense. Glad you liked the video enough to pick up VB3m - it's excellent!

[@JamieMallender]

Dude! You are amazing at these comparison videos. This was an absolute blast. You make it fun too. I think you have the right balance - the depth you go into. There’ll always be someone who says you should’ve looked at this or pressed that but you can only do so much. I like Galileo 2 and also HaNonB70. I do love a jam on the organ but with my limited skills I don’t think I’d do justice to B-3X. Plus, by the time you get it in a mix -Galileo 2 does a stunning job. I think that slight high frequency harmonic really helps with that. Keep em comin dude - you have mad skills. My kids say that so it must be a cool thing to say.

[@DaveypooMMM]

I find that these side-by-side comparisons really help me hear the subtle differences so I hope they help you guys as well!

[@danaowens30]

Your right about the ADA sound sir. Now bc of you i now am using my organs VST way better. I deleted the previous comment bc i was wrong and out of line. Im sorry sir. And thank you for opening my eyes and drilling this wonderful knowledge in my stubborn head. Bless you sir.

[@danaowens30]

I love u sir🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@johnhowardnardine6815]

That was a great comparison, and the wine analogy was a great analogy. Really, it's only side by side you can hear how the IK Multimedia one is the real deal. Just wish the price tag didn't go with that.

[@DaveypooMMM]

It is costly, so I understand your hesitance! If you keep watching the price I'm sure it'll go on sale again.

[@MobileMusicPro]

Love these comparisons thanks!

[@DaveypooMMM]

I appreciate that - I find it useful to hear apps like these right next to each other, especially for things like pianos, organs, and electric pianos. I hope these help folks figure out which app is for them!

[@ingmarbm]

10:41 Sounds like Hammond's Leslie is stereo and Galileo's is mono 🤷‍♂️

[@DaveypooMMM]

I think that Galileo Leslie is in stereo but it's certainly not as wide as B-3X. It's been a while since I used Galileo but I know that you can set the width of the pan for the "mics" on the Leslie in B-3X - it's possible you can do the same in Galileo.

[@fozziegibs]

Thanks for the great video! Really helpful to have the side by side comparisons. I have the VB3 app and am very happy with it but having heard the comparisons, the Hammond just sounds way more responsive and rich. I will be keeping an eye out for the next sale. How about more in depth videos for how to get the most out of these apps? Keep up the great work!

[@DaveypooMMM]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm so glad you got something out of it. I plan on doing more videos soon about this - I appreciate the suggestions!

[@jacquelinebishop8465]

That Hammond B3x just does it for me , I've got a Neo vent and please believe me this with the app sounds amazing.

[@DaveypooMMM]

I agree - B3x is astoundingly good.

[@sazieboy64]

Great vid. How do you access both mauals in the the vb3. I can only get top one?

[@DaveypooMMM]

I don't believe that there is a second manual in VB3m, however if someone does know please correct me. I've only ever used a single manual there, but I've removed the app so I am unable to check.

[@pdxfunkjunkie]

Daveypoo, thanks for this comparison / update. Based on your earlier comparison of B-3X vs Galileo, I said "What the Hell" and downloaded Galileo 2 to see if it was good enough to get me by for my "extreme lightweight" iPad-based setup (I also own, and love, a Hammond XK-1.) BUT I NEED YOUR HELP! PLEASE! HOW can I turn off my keyboard's bottom octave from triggering presets!!?? The owner's manual states (on page 16, under "MIDI note to Drawbar layout") "You can also disable this feature herein." Great - BUT HOW?? I have tried a lot of tweaking without success. I want to be able to play bass lines down in the bottom two octaves, so having those keys invoke presets simply won't work for me and MUST be disabled. I have a feeling that there are controls somewhere using the hieroglyphics 'buttons' shown at the bottom of the Banks and Presets menu - but I can't find anywhere a decoder ring for what those buttons do.

[@pdxfunkjunkie]

OK, after further searching I discovered how to disable the Bottom-octave-keys-to Presets thing. But I'm still curious about those hieroglyphics...

[@DaveypooMMM]

@@pdxfunkjunkie Sorry for the late reply - under the "Expert" section if you select MIDI from the right hand side, there is an option to choose the MIDI NOTE to DB LAYOUT. It's here that you can choose "None" and that should disable this for you (sorry if you already figured that out before I was able to respond). Regarding the symbols at the bottom of the Presets screen - from Left to Right these are: Add a new Bank, Delete a bank, Add new preset, Overwrite current preset, Move current preset to different bank, Delete a preset, Random and Search. Hope that helps!

[@pdxfunkjunkie]

@@DaveypooMMM - THANKS! Very helpful. Regarding the hieroglyphic 'buttons' shown at the bottom of the Banks and Presets menu, I finally figured out that those controls are all described, one by one, in the text descriptions on pp. 3-4-5 of the owner's manual. D'OH!! After quite a bit of tweaking parameters such as "brightness", Organ Model, Leslie etc. I finally feel like I have a pretty good-sounding setup now. I plan to delete most (if not all) of the existing drawbar presets and replace them with clones of my own personal new preset, so that all my tweaks get perpetuated as a starting point for every subsequent preset I create. SPEAKING of drawbars, I just took delivery of an iCON MIDI controller with NINE faders, for easier control of manipulating tone changes on the fly during performance. Wish me luck - I'm no master at programming MIDI hardware, but I figure I'll be a lot more educated by the time I get this little number set up and working smoothly.

[@DaveypooMMM]

@@pdxfunkjunkie Good luck!

[@torstenmadsvin1153]

Really excellent comparison my man! No doubt the Hammond sounds best, much fuller tone and clean at the same time. VB3m was close, the low end sounded really good, but the overall grit of the sound was too exaggerated for my taste. I own the Galileo 2 and never use it, as its way to bright unfortunately. Thanks for this video.

[@DaveypooMMM]

You're welcome. No B3 app I've found TRULY sounds like an actual Hammond, but I feel that B-3X comes very close, and the Leslie is the thing that sells it. Thanks for watching!

[@torstenmadsvin1153]

@@DaveypooMMM Definitely right about that. But B3X sounds at least as good as or better than the dedicated clonewheel synths out there so thats excellent even tho the price seems steep at first glance. In other news: GSi just announced a new auv3 rotary effect like 2 days ago. Could this, put together with the VB3m, be the new B-3X slayer? Im excited!

[@DaveypooMMM]

I saw that the other day - I like VB3, and I do own a number of GSI apps, but the price point is a but much for me at the moment. The demo sounds good - not sure I need another Leslie, but maybe down the road if they do a sale or something. I like GSI's apps, so I trust that this is another solid offering.

[@Keybkeybkeyb]

Great comparison! Thanks!

[@DaveypooMMM]

You're welcome!

[@robertsteinberger5667]

Can someone tell me how galileo compares to the C3B3 app?

[@DaveypooMMM]

Sorry - I don't own that one so I'm unable to compare.

[@TheIvoryman]

Stay away from both C3B3 and Galileo. They are both totally horrible! VB3m is a true quality sounding Hammond tonewheel emulation. It sells for around $14. And you will have an enjoyable and satisfying organ experience with VB3m. The others aren’t worth spending a dime on. Hammond B3-x is another quality Hammond emulation. However, at $120 it can be a bit pricey for some. I have all of these organs. If you are on a budget, you will be more than satisfied with VB3m.

[@michaelhagglund7136]

Thanks for the comparison I have to say though that you had drive on with VB3m so it had a grittier sound than the other two making it not an even playing field IMO. Either way Galileo came out third.

[@DaveypooMMM]

The version of VB3m I demoed in this video was the first release, so there are features that I wasn't able to adjust at the time but have subsequently been added, like the Leslie on/off. I'm not sure if this was editable at the time I filmed it - if not, sorry about that. Thanks for watching!

[@davebassP5]

Its taking me a while to switch from VB3m to B-3X. VB3m just seems less complicated and seems to sit in the mix a bit better. But B-3x is more full on and has more life in it, so i want to go over to using that all the time soon. I do find some of the higher drawbars can be quite loud, even at lower settings. As you pointed out in your video, there is sometimes a whistling sound. I don’t get this with other Organ apps. Its not too noticeable though.

[@DaveypooMMM]

Hey - go with works best for your gear and your ears! 😁

[@davebassP5]

@@DaveypooMMM only thing is i don’t trust my ears lol.

[@DaveypooMMM]

@@davebassP5 Then trust your wallet 😉

[@davebassP5]

@@DaveypooMMM my head conflicts with my wallet lol.

[@joebowbeer]

Beathawk B3?

[@DaveypooMMM]

Well firstly, I don't have it, so there's that. Secondly and my more importantly - the Beathawk B3 is more of a sample player than a full blown, fully editable organ app, so I don't think it would be a fair comparison. Besides, I would think that someone looking at a Beathawk sample pack wouldn't necessarily be interested in a stand-alone organ app and vice-versa. Different audiences/markets for these apps.

[@joebowbeer]

@@DaveypooMMM Just wondering.. OTOH, the Beathawk Acoustic Grand is a real contender in the piano space, but I guess organs and pianos are really quite different "inside".

[@DaveypooMMM]

@@joebowbeer I have a preference for stand-alone, single function apps (Ravenscroft Piano, for example) over multi-instrument/multi-effects apps (Beathawk) so I've not invested too heavily into the Beathawk expansion packs. I have a couple, but not being a fan of romplers, the Piano and B3 packs aren't something I've explored. I agree - a piano, being a more singular tone set, should be easier to recreate using samples than an organ, which is very much an early analog additive synthesizer. Having the tonewheels (which add harmonics to alter the tone) and how they interact with the vibrato/chorus, percussion and rotating speaker tends to make recreating an organ solely via samples very difficult.

[@itme7685]

I like the IK Hammond B-3X best. I held off on buying it for so long, but got it on sale one day. One thing about the B-3x is my Air 2 can really only handle this and this alone, or it starts crackling. I can just use it on my 2017 iPad Pro, but the Air 2 is smaller and fits in my setup a bit better.

[@DaveypooMMM]

It's VERY system heavy on my 2015 iPad Pro also, but it's worth it 😁

[@davebassP5]

I was in a similar situation, only my ‘live’ ipad was an Air 1. Its fine with VB3m, but B-3x was just not going to happen. I played around with it on my 2020 ipad pro, but that isnt goingt o be used in a live situation, as it doesn’t fit my ipad holder on my stand. Ended up getting an ipad 9. Funny thing is, B-3x seems to sound a bit nicer on the cheaper ipad.

[@itme7685]

How do you find the new iPad 9? I’m thinking about replacing the air 2 with one soon, as that air 2 is just not able to do a whole lot at once, especially if I want B-X3 and anything else at the same time.

[@DaveypooMMM]

@@itme7685 I've not upgraded yet but I'm interested to see how the new ones perform. They look good on paper but the lack of a headphone jack is always frustrating as an audio person.

[@davebassP5]

@@itme7685 i really love it. As much as i love the Pro, i had forgotten how much easier the old ipad style was to hold. I only intended it to hit in a holder on my keyboard rig and do B-3x and iM1, but i seem to use it for a lot more now. It seems just as fast as my pro for real world stuff. No issues at all with B-3x running with 128 buffer. I also like the touch ID. Im fine with face ID, but where the ipad sits is too far for the face to be picked up. The button is more convenient. I dont use wired headphones, but having another physical output is a good feature. I had almost got the ipad 8, just for this, but glad i waited a few weeks. Ive been using it more than i thought, and have a lot more apps on it than i planned to.

[@TONYERRE]

I like VB3m

[@DaveypooMMM]

It is a great sounding app!

[@amossingleton7921]

VB3m for my taste. The grit is indeed adjustable too. You also CAN’T beat the price nor cpu footprint. My 2 pennies.

[@TheIvoryman]

Neither Leslie effect in Galileo 2 come anywhere near the Leslie effect in the original Galileo. I find Galileo 2 to be a pathetic attempt as a follow up to the original. Not only did they fail to correct any of the anomalies in the original version, but, failed miserably in every aspect of Galileo 2. I have both versions of Galileo. I also own Hammond B3-X. This is an outstanding product. I own the original version of VB3 for my laptop PC. VB3 was really the only game in town, for a decent Hammond emulation, at the time I purchased it. Listening to the new version of VB3m for IOS, it has way too much distortion present! Can’t this be dialed back?

[@DaveypooMMM]

Yes - there is a DRIVE control in the effects section so you can turn it down. They also just dropped an update where they add Mic Postition settings and scaling, so the are definitely still giving it some love.