That B3 sound: permanent classic or retro fad?

This has some flame potential but it strikes me as an interesting question. You hear B3-sound everywhere right now and it sounds great. The instrument has a huge history and 'that sound' seems adaptable to almost everything. I'm playing an x-station with B4 and use that instrument almost always when I'm playing with other players. I know that I'm shortchanging the instrument with my nasty little 49-key semi-weighted board but that's life for now. And everybody loves it: I love it, the other players love it, the audience loves it. They don't even seem to think the silver keyboard with a PowerBook velcroed to it is dorky.

Is this real or am I caught in some sort of mid-life boomer nostalgia vortex?

Permanent classic, I think. It's been around for 70 years now, and there's still a demand for it.

I once uploaded a B3 clone into the Reaktor User Library. There's nothing special about it, but it's become my highest-rated upload. Go figure.

It'll go out of fashion when the piano does.

The piano, B3, Rhodes and Wurlitzer will be forever. "Synthesizer" sounds ebb and flow with fashion and taste, but those four are forever.

I just noticed your signature. I love Milk Chocolate Wilbur Buds!!!

I have been to the Wilbur store a number of times.

Originally posted by HomeInMyShoes You're caught in a vortex. Good sound/tone never goes out of style. It may fade out from time to time, but it's always there. A quality Fender Amp, a quality B3 sound. It might be a bit of the flavour-of-the-month, but it will always be there and always have it's place.

+ 1,000,000

Always searching for the "new thing" throws out the baby with the bathwater.

Originally posted by MartinHines I just noticed your signature. I love Milk Chocolate Wilbur Buds!!! I have been to the Wilbur store a number of times.

Once someone eats Wilbur Buds, they'll never be satisfied with Hershey Kisses again!

I agree... those sounds are timeless. The day that any of those sounds lose relevance in popular music will be the same day that musicians have no more use for a drumkit or acoustic guitar.

W3rd.

dB

My desert island axe! The Hammond will never go out of fashion.

Unlike a piano, the B3 is definitely tied to music with a certain vibe, which isn't a dominant style now and hasn't been for a long time. However, it's hard to imagine that there won't always be at least some demand for that sort of music.

Classics ... but how prominent they are in music will wax and wane ... also, if anything's overused, it risks becoming parody ...

But once you try this ...

... you won't eat all day.

More specifically besides 3 series consoles there are CV, BV, BC, A, E, and a slew of others are the glue that holds a lot of music together and can't be duplicated. If you guys play a console next to a Leslie you will feel like you have come home. It is the best vibe and puts everything else to shame that tries to replicate it. You can rely on that sound for so much and in so many kinds of music.

Okay, I'll go along with timeless classic. I'm curious about two things then:

1) What is it, musically, that makes that sound so stinkin' great?

2) What is it, acoustically, that makes that sound so stinkin' great?

will go on forever.

So, I was jammin' on my B3, wolfing down some Wilber Buds, when, all of the sudden....

If ya have to ask, you haven't sat down and seriously spun some air with one.

I'm not trying to be cute either - it's just something which spoken language is not adequate to communicate.

+1000

it's one of those things you just have to experience, feel deep down inside, ya know?

Well, I guess, not EVERYone likes Hammonds, but I sure do... all my life....

So... just go and find a Hammond somewhere and get it up & running.... See if you like it........ It might change the way you (want to) play music

I'm afraid that this is code for "stupid question" which I cannot accept. As much as I love playing that sound and however deep my aesthetic appreciation of it may be, I don't think I can fully grow within it until my logical understanding goes beyond "golly, that's nice."

Let's start with a simple question, then: What is it about the characteristics of the Hammond sound as it is usually played (888 or 8888 + whatever percussion, leslie, distortion etc.) that allow it to slip into a guitar band context so seamlessly? (slips in much more easily than the other big sound, piano, which collides with the other sounds unless you're very careful).

Maybe because even with all stops out, you still only have a few levels of harmonics in the sound. It's not an overly complex tone so it doesn't get buried. And your chorus/vibrato and leslie will give you enough motion in the sound to keep it standing out in the mix if you need it to.

Just a random thought...which could be totally wrong.

For me, one of the main reasons that I got it was that it gives me some tonal control with my sound. I'm always playing with horn players and guitarists who work so hard on their tone all the time, and I'm just confined to the tone of the pianos wherever I'm at. There's my thing about different tone through voicings and touch but thats another topic completely. Anyways with synthesizers you can tweak your sound and I love my synths but they don't fit what I am playing, and a lot of people think they are 'cheesey' (so do I a lot of times). And you can do some playing with electric pianos but I'm not to keen on them either except for certain tunes. And even though I've got a small handful of normally-used settings on my organ, it still gives me the option to have this instrument where I can shape the sound how I want.

It's not a stupid question. It's just, well, that you have to experience it.

I know that if you don't have access to a Hammond to play, that the only avenue available to you is to talk about it and ask questions.

But those of us who have owned and played Hammonds for many years have had the experience directly, and I don't know how to communicate it.

Those people who have not played a Hammond, who have not been in the same room with a leslie, who have only played a patch on a rompler with an electronic sim, haven't heard the magic. The instrument is alive, the ear knows it, and you can play a simple sound like 888000000 for HOURS without getting tired of it. Your soul rejoices.

See what I mean? I'm getting all mystical and crap on ya. You could try to be objective and say that it sits so satisfyingly in the mix because it mixes with guitar better than piano, that there are no upper harmonics above about 4K to clutter the mix. But I'd rather just say that it makes me feel great.

I can still remember the day I experienced a Hammond w a Leslie in person. It was way back in the late 60's or maybe 1970. It was summer on the National Mall in Wash D.C. A band called Crank was playing and I heard that unforgettable leslie sound. It has always been something I have loved hearing. I guess its a passion, you either have it or you don't. I have it, I have been playing keyboards for about a year. I have Alesis ION. It was my first and was really an uneducated purchase. I am looking for a rompler for about 1K that will come close to the sound in the clip.

Hear is a link to a clip, its only half the song because I dont want to give away peoples property.

Tha sound gives me chills.

Joe

http://members.cox.net/jpbrannon/6th%20avenue%20clipped.mp3

It's a battery for God.

Permanent retro fad.

Nah, I think it's such a perennial favorite because it's so simple that it goes with anything, and it's so animated that it doesn't get boring.