Blue3 v. B4II

Based on a lot of positive comments, I purchased Blue3 today
First notes I played shocked me that it sounded mushy and just “wrong”.
I did a simple A/B comparison with B4II and B4II just sounded more clear and “right” to me.

I will try more tests tomorrow, but right now I am shocked that Blue3 did not impress me “right out of the box”.
I now understand even more now why B4II has been my favorite VST hammond.
With B4II, when I play it, I just jump right into thinking about the settings to duplicate famous sounds.
With Blue3, when I play it, I start thinking “What is wrong with this thing”.

VB3 (32 bit version) also does not have the crisp response sound of the B4II.

In fact Blue3 reminds me of what I did not like about VB3… being that lack of crisp responsiveness.

(I did use VB3 to get great “Leslie grinder distortion” sounds)

Hi, I am using both.
Each sounds different, for rock songs like Black Night from Deep Purple VB3II is perfect, the distortion and the slow speed leslie.
But for songs like Pink Floyd Shine on you crazy Diamond Blue3 sounds for me much better, it cuts through the band and with some tweeking the fast speed oft he leslie sounds much better than VB3 II.
Also you can choose between 5 different models.
Maybe the presets in VB3 II are better, but take your time with Blue 3 and you will be happy.

But that is only a matter of taste.

What I was saying is:
B4II has something that gives it a clarity, presence, crispness, responsiveness (feels more like the real thing) than Blue3 or VB3 (which, to me, those have a mushy feel/sound compared to B4II)

So right now I am just feeling disappointed in my Blue3 purchase.:pensive:

@pianopaul

Have you ever tried/used B4II ?

Well, they do let you try it before purchasing.

Blue3 has a lot of configuration…have you tried using a different tone wheel set, for example?

Sure!
I use it live for rock songs.
For others like Pink Floyd I use Blue3.
I like both.

I will definately delve deeper. But I bet if I did scientific analysis, it would show there is slightly more “ramp up” time (slower attack) in the Blue3 (slower than B4II). I think I will test that theory out… seems like easy test to do.

@dougalex You could contact the developer, he listens to customer wishes

Hey @dougalex,

I’d love to discuss your observations about Blue3. Feel free to send me an email to (support at gg-audio dot com) and I’ll see if I can help you find what you’re looking for.

Thanks,
Ray
GG Audio

Much appreciated! I will make sure I find out “what aspect I am hearing” that seems to be troubling me initially in my first “hands on” impression. I know Blue3 is highly recommended here and everywhere.
My first quick test will be to zoom in on a recording of attack ramp (with no percussion, no key click) and compare to B4II and see if there is any slight difference in how the attack looks. Then I will email support once that test is done.

What I’ve found is that, in Blue3 the multiple frequencies delivered for each note are more ‘normalized’, with volumes more equally spread across the frequency spectrum, where the B4 II has more volume spikes in certain frequencies. This might account for the ‘sharper’ sound to the B4 II, (and subsequently the more ‘mushy’ sound from Blue3).

They are definitely EQ’d differently, with identical settings. Blue3 has more of a 1k presence across the board, where B4 II seems to specifically diminish its 1k presence.

This test tends to support my impression. In the waveform B4II has “instant on” at full amplitude level. And Blue3 has a few milliseconds “ramp up attack”. (B4II has few milliseconds more latency, but the note sound has “instant on” zero attack time). I honestly think I am actually hearing this difference… unless someone convinces me it should be humanly impossible to hear this difference.:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Unless you do a proper double-blind test, you’re really making your decision based on confirmation bias.

Kind of… half-blind :innocent:
I did loop it with A/B mouse click which I could click without looking. And, made sure I lost track of “which was which”. Then whenever I thought I was hearing the one with more “instant on” sound, I stopped and looked at which one was playing.
I would guess even most trained musicians, (and even hammond pros), might not hear this particular difference. We musicians all probably have what I call “a blessing and a curse” in our hearing. It is a “blessing” when we can use our “detailed hearing” to “get stuff right”. But a “curse” that you hear, and think too much about, “imperfections” that may be miniscule and really irrelevant to the potential enjoyment to be had.:slightly_smiling_face:

Hi, now a real blind test :wink:

Can you say
https://community.gigperformer.com/uploads/default/original/2X/b/b86ad09bcc2cdef94544ffd26f02eafc8e201e17.mp3 https://community.gigperformer.com/uploads/default/original/2X/3/3217d1d0710505a9622e94d2e86bd8097454de8a.mp3 what is what?

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Another blind test:
https://community.gigperformer.com/uploads/default/original/2X/3/312da1d17821d4143c85efd5e554f5bb39de6590.mp3 https://community.gigperformer.com/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c2dd88efa6ceb09608c17ec1bf209af1ab5ecae8.mp3

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Meh — you’re a keyboard player - you can probably play your keyboard without looking at the keys :slight_smile:

More seriously, why don’t you reach out to Ray and ask him. If you do, please report back, I’m sure everyone would love to know more.

Your first demo Green Onions
If this B4II vs Blue3 and drawbars are same, I say the second one is Blue3 because Blue3 also has bleed harmonics (as if high drawbars are out just a tick) which also bothers me, BTW.

You are right!
I set the crosstalk too high, therefore the bleed harmonics.
When you set it full to zero there will be no bleed.

What do you say about the 2nd demo?