Genuine Soundware and Instruments VB3-II User's Manual

VB3-II – Virtual tonewheel organ

USER'S MANUAL

Version 1.1.1

www.GenuineSoundware.com

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INTRODUCTION

VB3-II Virtual Tonewheel Organ

As of its date of release in 2018, GSi VB3-II is the result of almost 15
years of study, research, experimentation and development of the
simulation of a vintage Hammond B3 organ. It is the evolution of the
GSi VB3 1.x with a new sound, a new parameter set, endless
possibilities of sound customization. It's not a simple update to an
old software, it's a whole new product. It's based on the same sound

engine that was written first for the Hamichord Organ, then for the
Crumar Mojo, and is also found in the Crumar Mojo61 and in the GSi Gemini. The DSP
part of VB3-II was rewritten from the ground up around 2010 and has been
constantly updated during all these years by adding features and improvements
suggested by many users of our hardware products. Many people requested this
sound engine to be released as a software for regular computers, and here it is. Now
you can have the sound of a full-featured clonewheel organ right into your
computer.

Main features:

Full polyphony (61 upper + 61 lower + 25 pedals = 147 notes)
91 modeled tonewheels with accurate phase synchronization
Adjustable leakage noise and cross modulation between tonewheels
A total of 22 different tonewheel generators to choose from
Generator shaping for a total of 154 generator combinations
Adjustable global tuning from 430 to 450 Hz
Foldback on 16" deactivatable
Complex wheels
Resistor wiring with multiple options
Realistic “run” motor wow & flutter
Busbars and 9 key contact simulation
Two separate sets of drawbars per manual
Full "inverted octave" presets
String Bass with adjustable release time
Loudness "robbing" effect
Single triggered percussion with natural capacitor discharge/recharge
Adjustable Percussion Level & Decay
Vibrato/Chorus virtual scanner
Adjustable Vibrato Scanner depth & mix
Separated Upper and Lower V/C tablets with smooth switching
Dynamic tube overdrive simulation
Spring Reverb (pre) and Digital stereo reverb (post)
Rotary speaker simulation with virtual microphone positioning, tube overdrive, tube feedback
Rotors "Front Stop" brake position with adjustable preferred position
Very low CPU consumption
Advanced MIDI Learn function with import/export of custom mappings
Upper and Lower manuals SPLIT with adjustable split point
Adjustable output level
Supports pedal sustain
Custom programmer with import/export of Programs and Banks
...and many more.

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INSTALLATION

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

VB3-II is available in the following formats:

– for Windows: VST2 x64, VST3 x64, Standalone x64
– for OSX: VST2 x64, VST3 x64, Audio Unit x64, Standalone x64

Windows:

– any Windows computer manufactured after 2010 running Windows 7 x64 or

greater

– ASIO compatible sound card for low latency performance

OSX:

– OSX version 10.9 or greater

Of course you need a MIDI controller keyboard to play VB3-II, and if you want to
enjoy the experience of a real dual manual console organ, we advice you to check
out GSi DMC-122:

Please visit www.GenuineSoundware.com for more informations.

INSTALLATION ON WINDOWS

An automatic installer is provided. Double click its icon, accept the EULA and follow
the on-screen instructions.

INSTALLATION ON OSX

An automatic installer is provided. Double click its icon, accept the EULA and follow
the on-screen instructions. At some point you might be asked to insert your user's
log-on password, this is required by OSX to authorize the copy of the files into your
Library.

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AUTHORIZING YOUR LICENSE

When the product is installed, it runs in DEMO mode so that you can test its sound
and functionality, but with some minor limitations: the sound will go silent for a
second every 15 seconds, and importing / exporting Programs and Banks won't be
allowed.

If you have purchased a license, you can authorize your copy by doing copy & paste
of the 24 characters license code into the registration screen.

If the computer is connected to the Internet, just insert the license code and click
REGISTER, the rest of the process is fully automatic. In case you wish to install VB3-II
on a computer that isn't connected to the Internet, click the “Offline registration”
option after inserting the license code, you'll be presented a numerical code in a
read-only text box, copy that code somewhere (on paper or in a text file that you'll
later save onto a USB stick), then go at a computer connected to the Internet, point
your browser to http://www.genuinesoundware.com/activate and follow the
instructions. The basic personal license allows three installations; extra installations
can be purchased separately. Please contact GSi for this.

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THE MAIN WINDOW

Since you're using VB3-II can we assume that you already know what the fabulous B3
organ was, how it was done and how it is used? You should be well aware of what
drawbars are, what the percussion circuit does to the sound and how the “scanner
vibrato” impacts on the overall sound, not counting the Leslie rotating amp.

Well, what you see on the main screen of VB3-II is pretty much what you see when
you sit at a real B3, with every little bit exactly where it belongs. In the center of the
screen you have six knobs for the basic adjustments such as Volume, Bass & Treble
EQ, amount of KeyClick, amount of Overdrive and amount of Reverb.

On the left you have the controls to select and activate the scanner vibrato effect, on
the right you have the four percussion tabs; on the bottom there are all the drawbars
(how many!) and the classic “half-moon” switch to select the rotary speaker speeds.
Now let's just examine the rest.

DRAWBAR PRESETS

Right above the drawbars there are two rows of 12 buttons each with some symbols
below them. These represent what on a real B3 is the octave with inverted colors that
is used to recall the “presets”.

Since VB3-II is a software, the concept of “preset” can assume a different meaning.
VB3-II is capable of storing up to 128 “Programs” in a “Bank”, each Program stores all
parameters, including the drawbar positions, so there would have been no need to
implement the old-style drawbar presets, but this is an added feature that VB3 has
always had since its first release. Drawbar presets just store the drawbar registrations
and nothing else. The first button is the “Cancel”, i.e. a zeroed preset (no sound on
that manual) and the buttons labeled A or B switch between the drawbar sets A or B.
Remember that, for what concerns the upper manual, the percussion is only
available on the SET B and the 9th drawbar (1') will be muted if the percussion is on.

Storing an organ preset is as easy as
right-clicking on the desired preset and
doing what the menu asks for. Once the
preset is stored, its content is
graphically represented below it by
gray vertical lines.

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SPLIT

If you don't have two keyboards but still
want to play left hand walking bass on
the lower manual and comping or
melody on the upper manual, the SPLIT
function comes handy. Click on the
button to enable / disable this function,
right click to select the split point. Both
these parameters (split toggle and
point) are stored with Programs. The
split is only done between the upper
manual (on the right) and the lower
manual (on the left), but if you also wish
to play the pedal tones on the left part
of the keyboard, open the Edit Organ
window (explained later) and activate
the “Pedals to lower” parameter. Now
the Pedal tones will play along with the
lower manual tones on the left of the
keyboard. The lower manual will still
respond to its associated MIDI channel.

ON SCREEN KEYBOARDS

On the bottom right corner of the interface you see a small button, click on it to
show or hide the virtual keyboards that will allow you to play VB3-II from your screen
by clicking with the mouse on the keys, or by using your computer keyboard; the
most useful function of virtual keyboards, though, is to visualize what's being played
from the MIDI keyboard. This comes very handy if you're planning to use VB3-II to
teach the Hammond technique to your students or if you just want to show what
you're playing on a big screen at a fair or in a video.

Virtual keyboards are always hidden by default.

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THE PROGRAMMER

One of the most interesting features of VB3-II is the programmer. This section allows
to Write / Recall user Programs, import /
export single Programs or entire Banks,
also copy & paste Programs from one
location to another, or initialize the
current Program for a fresh start.

Each Bank consists of 128 Programs numbered from 0 to 127, like the good old MIDI
protocol required. To recall a Program, either use the UP / DOWN arrows on the left of
the main display, or click on the Program name label for a full pop-up list of the 128
available Programs, or recall them from MIDI Program Change events (needs to be
activated from the Settings Window).

To store a Program: once you're done with all your tweakings and you decide it's time
to store the Program, just click the WRITE button if you wish to overwrite the current
Program; if you want to give it a new
name, right-click the name label and
type the new name, press <ENTER> to
confirm. In case you wish to store it to a
new location, right-click the WRITE
button, a dialog window pops up
asking you to select a location from a
drop-down menu.

Other operations with Programs and Banks can
be performed from the FILES menu that you can
access by clicking on the FILES button. Here you
can export or import single Programs or entire
Banks. Programs and Banks use a proprietary
format and are saved in binary files with the
extensions .VB3Program and ..VB3Bank, and the
built-in bank is automatically saved every time a
Program is written or the application / plugin is
closed. The functions “Copy to clipboard” and
“Paste from clipboard” can be used for
reorganizing Programs in a Bank, and “Reset
Program” recalls an initialized program with
default parameter settings. Operations such as
import, reset or paste, that apparently overwrite
the current program, actually use a temporary
volatile memory that is lost unless the WRITE
function is used. Lastly, it's also possible to reset
the whole Bank or restore the factory Bank.

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