Native Instruments B4 II

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NI's B4 Organ softsynth has been upgraded, I am taking a look at version 2.

Native Instruments B4 II is the second generation of their popular B4 Organ softsynth. It is a softsynth that reproduces the classic sound of a B3 with it's rotary speaker. This new version comes with an incredible list of updates, enhancements and new features. This new version works on Mac OSX and Windows XP operating systems, and runs as a standalone application, or as a plugin via the VST 2, Audio Units, RTAS or DXi standard.

The B4 II optionally has a drawbar controller available. This unique little piece of hardware is a tool to help manually use the drawbars of the organ for those of you that just don't like to use the mouse for things like that.

The Interface

The main user interface is very clean and simple, laid out just like an old-school organ with two keyboards, foot pedals and a row of drawbars across the top of the upper keyboard. Above that is the small patch selection menu (a much larger patch listing is available within the application as well) and the buttons that provide quick and easy access to the other features within B4 II. B4 II comes packed with 120 different organ sounds, and, in addition to the B3 sound reproduction, also reproduces the sounds of a Vox, Farfisa and a Harmonium.

As stated earlier, this update to the B4 application does come with a substantial list of new features.

One of the more notable improvements is the tube amp and speaker modeling. You now have a software tube simulator along with the ability to choose from several speaker cabs to use with your virtual organ. You have a choice of 12 different speakers or a D.I. box. Add to that the user also has control over the volume, tone and distortion of the tube amp as well as the microphone setup on the speaker.

Many parameters of the B4 II are editable in many unusual ways. One of the more fun ones is the ability to set the "age" of your organ by setting the tonewheels to different tunings or even different tonewheels all together from the other bundled synths mentioned above. There are also adjustable reverbs and vibrato as well as rotary adjustments for the cabs.

Down To Business

OK, enough of the 10,000 foot fly-over, let's get down to business. I will start out by saying this program is all business.

The first thing I did was take a quick pedal through all the preset sounds, no drawbars or anything, just playing a few chords, flippin' through all the sounds. There is such a wide range of sounds ranging from gospel organ to overdriven 60's nasty rock; something will work for almost any possible need. Of course, each one is totally tweakable as well.

The next thought I have is "OK, now, how about the drawbars and such tweaks", but have to figure out how to teach B4 II what I want each control assigned to. I drop down the "file" menu and I see a "Load Controller Map" option...hmmmm, sounds promising, open that up, and wouldn't you know it, right there, a prebuilt map for the Radium 49, my controller. Load that and there I go; loads of controls already mapped and ready for use.

Drawbars are fun and all that, they have different ways of changing the sound and they do what they are supposed to. OK, enough of that, on to the amplifier, cabinet modeler, mic configuration and stuff...

Amplifier, Cabinet, Microphone, EQ, Rotary and Other Signal Tweaking

The amplifier has volume and drive controls as well as treble and bass. The drive is assigned to a Radium 49 control, the pitch bend wheel, actually, so I start holding some chords, cranking the drive up it gets really dirty and the little tube pictured next to it gets a hotter and hotter glow. The overdrive sounded really authentic, not a sweet silky distortion but a gritty overdrive as it should be. The bass really has control as well, cranking the bass REALLY brings up the bass.

The cabinet configuration has a lot of choices and it does have a pretty big impact on the sound, the openbacks are much or "free" sounding, a bit thinner whereas the closed cabs are much more powerful and thick. The rotation is fun to play with, really adds some authenticity to the sound.

I gotta say though, probably the most interesting feature I found was the "aging" of the synth. The "leakage" control was quite cool. The higher you turn up the leakage the more and more pronounced neighboring keys become. Turn it all the way up, hit one key and you have yourself and oddly tuned auto accompany feature. Turn it down and the keys are precisely tuned and perfectly sensitive. Depending on the "velocity" setting, which actually isn't very authentic since the first B3's didn't have velocity, but, well, it's hard to survive these days without it, so NI tossed it in for good measure.

Some of the other signal control options include effects such as reverb and chorus as well as vibrato and percussion. Reverb and chorus are pretty much as expected, nice sounding effects, with all the standard parameters. Vibrato is nice, from subtle to extreme, with the expected mix and depth control.

The rotor control can be a single or dual rotor setup with treble and bass rotors including a distortion control. The rotors are really what make the B4 II what it is, a B3 modeler, and it does it very well, not much more to say than that, really.

Tonewheel tweaks are also available within B4 II. You can swap tone wheels between the different synth/organ models, but you can also age your organ, not only with the above mentioned leakage control, but by setting your tone wheel to different types as well.

Setup control is simple and straight forward, controlling all the options of your MIDI controller. There is also a screen similar in appearance with which to select your preset sound to use as a foundation for your tweaking enjoyment.

My Two Cents (Current Market Value of .01)

In my experience with B4 II thus far I have found no issues or bugs within the application itself and the included controller map for my controller, the M-Audio Radium 49 worked very nicely right out of the box.

The included presets are extraordinary with a very wide range to suit almost any use, and the tweakability of them is head and shoulders above the previous version. The amp control and cab modeling is a major part of the tweakability and a heck of a lot of fun to play with. The interface is clean and easy to understand, it sounds great, it's pretty quick loading for the size of the samples and stuff...quite a well done app indeed.

If you are into the sound of the old B3's or original rock organs like it, this application/virtual instrument could very well save you lots of money and space while still providing you with the sounds you want. It's surely worth checking out; a demo can be downloaded from the Native Instruments web site. At $199 (USD) from some online resources, it is surely more time and cost effective than finding the original organs and trying to get all the possible sounds from them.

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