how do I play the vintage B3 organ upper and lower manual with one midi controller?

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Level 2

352 points

how do I play the vintage B3 organ upper and lower manual with one midi controller?

How do I play the vintage B3 organ's upper and lower manual with only one midi controller?

I've taken measly attempts at switching layers, channel strips, trying to send to midi channel 1 versus 2, nothing seems to work. Heck I'd be happy if I could just quickly switch between the plug-ins presets. But all my attempts at that have failed - I don't know how to assign a screen or hardware control to the presets. Can assign everything else - but the presets don't seem to want to cooperate with 'Map Parameter' or other 'Learn' buttons

Posted on May 12, 2017 12:32 PM

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Answer 1

lifenoise

Level 4

1,019 points

May 15, 2017 3:37 AM in response to DHodges

The following configuration will work. In layout mode, select a group of pads from the screen control palette and drag onto the layout area. Size the pad the pad group as needed by dragging the corner. Select a pad and assign it in the screen control inspector. Repeat for each pad.

In edit mode, select a pad, then in screen control inspector, select tonewheel organ>vintage B3 organ>preset keys>UM preset. Map the parameter to the desired note(saved value, range max, range min). Repeat for all the pads. Done.

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Answer 2

lifenoise

Level 4

1,019 points

May 14, 2017 9:45 PM in response to DHodges

Set the VB3 plugin to multi mode. Then, with the organ channel strip selected, in the instrument channel strip inspector, select MIDI input>keyboard>multitimbral. Assign channel 1 to your upper keyboard and channel 2 to your lower keyboard.

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Answer 3

lifenoise

Level 4

1,019 points

May 15, 2017 3:37 AM in response to DHodges

Open the VB3 plugin by clicking on the center area of the input in the channel strip. It opens in the main section of the plugin. Select split in the lower right corner. In the lower left, a three-way switch toggles to single, split, or multi. For use with one keyboard, choose split. There you can set the split points for pedal, lower, and upper manuals.

As for assigning presets, what type of presets are you trying to assign? A slider to a drawbar? A hardware control for the organ presets?

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Answer 4

DHodges Author

Level 2

352 points

May 13, 2017 1:00 PM in response to lifenoise

The latter - assign a hardware control (say, a pad set to C0-B0) to the Organ drawbar presets. .i only have a 61-key controller so setting it's far left notes to C0-B0, eliminates too many keys from the keyboard. I had not tried the split function not being sure how that might work plus reading elsewhere that I needed multi timbrel to send out the upper and lower manuals signals. Thank you for your response to this perplexing problem Ive had since first owning this software 3+ years ago. I will give this a try.

My goal is simply to set up any keyboard or multiple keyboards to perform similar to a Hammond B3 organ with at least the upper and lower manuals, the presets, the vibrato and percussion knobs, etc. The foot pedals are not so critical

Thanks

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Answer 5

DHodges Author

Level 2

352 points

May 14, 2017 3:25 AM in response to lifenoise

Thank you very much for the detailed and helpful response. I will try the keyboard split next for the main keyboard.

I do have a second keyboard attached to my setup. How would I use that as the upper or lower manual in a single patch?

Success story so far - i was able to set my pads through their hardware (Nektar P6) - to emulate the keys C0-B0. So I'm now able to switch presets without need for the pads to be represented on my Mainstage screen.

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Answer 6

DHodges Author

Level 2

352 points

May 15, 2017 3:55 AM in response to lifenoise

Again, thanks. I will try that as well. I'd previously attempted to use the multi-timbral option with only a single keyboard, thinking that by splitting that keyboard under Layer Editor would be the answer. Now that I've re-enabled the 2nd keyboard, this may be the simpler solution.

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