Oberheim OB-3

This is very easy to use and nearly as much fun as the real thing.

It sounds great! I have a prof. recording studio, and as a broadcasting musician have had a lot of experience with hammonds. In my studio I have many Synths and modules and I must say that this is one of my favourites. It growls when you want it ti, it also cuts through my mixes adding a life to them on choruses etc. that only the rael thing can normally produce! Yes there are slight inaccuracies to the real thing, but the overall effects produced with the hands on appeal makes it fun fun fun. The Leslie sim. is excellent and the valve over drive is good but not quite as random as a Hammond. I would defy anyone to tell that it was not a real Hammond and Leslie on a recording. I can't and I've owned and played both for years! Please note, it counds much better than the B4 software and doesnt take up loads of computer processing!

It is as full featured as a Hammond (albeit single manual) The reverbs are not the best available, but I think that they compliment the overall effect. The vibrato is ok, but no way near the real thing. The chorus is slightly better I find that having C1 on goes well with the Leslie Sim. I like the user memories, but it is very annoying that they do not store the percussion settings, which makes a lot of quick button pushing when making fast changes.

No trouble here, although it is never gigged.

I would NEVER be with out it. If you are into this sound and want it in your compositions/recordings then get one. It will cure your depression and give your ears the equivelent of colonic irrigation!!

This unit is super-duper-easy to handle...
Almost impossible to do wrong...

I've got the old version of the stripped OB-3... not on the picture above...
On my unit there are just the drawbars + presets + percussion + overdrive + chorus&vibrato and rotary speaker simulator... no eq as it seems to be on the new models...

Sounds like an Hammond-simulator ( duh ! )...
I haven't heard the real thing, B3, live in person...
( actually standing there and hear it spraying all the swirling, growling sounds across the room... )
And I don't know how much/little those lovely sounds are manipulated on records... so I can't actually say how good/bad this simulator sounds in comparision...

What I've noticed anyway is that it doesn't have that much "punch" as you would want it to have... and it doesn't go so far in the low frequencies as you would want it to...
but I believe that depends very much on your speakers too... run it into 15 inch speakers and you get some more lows...
The rotary speaker isn't as good you would want it to either... but it's absolutely OK if you don't have any real leslie...
One thing though... if the rotary speaker sim gets active, the click noise ( in the percussion section )disappears... NOT visually with the light on that "button"... but it just isn't there when you listen... too bad... I love that dirty sound...

I'm planning to get an Rocktron Multivalve to do the rotary speaker work for me... instead of the built-in sim in the OB-3...
that way I can have both the Click Noise and Rotary Speaker sounds together...

Anyway I think this organ-module sounds very good...

It have stucked on notes sometimes when we've been in the studio... probably 'cause the power been on for several hours...
Just switched it off... waited a few seconds to turn it on...
and we where back on the road again...

Never been in contact with them...

My bands kind of music is somewhere between rock/pop with organs & dancebeats mixed up in a interesting way...
Actually I don't play organ as my main instrument ( which is guitar )
it just happened to be that we needed some organs on our songs when we were in the studio... so I bought this one... so I knew that if we needed the "hammond sound", we've got the "hammond sound"...

Since it's without the keyboard... ( just be sure there is an midi-keyboard where you bring it ) it's VERY easy to move around...
nothing you can say about a real hammond B3

And when you think about it... when playing live there is maybe 20-30 percent of the crowd who can hear the different of this simulator and the real thing...
there's no need bring an big, clumsy, far-to-heavy organ just for thats sake...

This unit is cheap, good and very easy to move...
I would buy it again if I ever have too... ( hope not !!! )

This organ is very easy to use. The manual is very briefly-worded. For a volume-pedal, a stereo-pedal has to be used: manual sais nothing about it.

The soud is very good an multifunction.

I don't rely on this instrument. Worked well for half a year and the the problems started. One presets does not work anymore. After playing for about half an hour, the unit freezes (sometimes it keeps playing one note). You might be lucky getting it started again while switching it off and on, but don't try too hard: it mostly will not start within two hours.

I am tying this by now

Although the sound is very good and it easy to handle, I do not recommend buying this: It is not reliable at all, which is very irritating while performing.

This unit was produced back in 1995, and is the precursor to Oberheim's OB-3 squared organ tone generator. It has nine drawbars that can be used as you'd expect them to be used, as well as six presets. The presents are just different drawbar settings, and they sound okay, but I'm one of those people who likes to mess with the drawbars while I play, so I generally don't use them.

The manual is just a little pamphlet with brief descriptions of what the buttons do. It's not particularly helpful, but you WILL find it useful is you want to change the unit's MIDI settings, because the MIDI functions aren't listed on the unit itself. For example, if you want the unit to accept MIDI on only one channel, each button corresponds to a channel, but the channel's aren't on the unit.

The organ sound itself sounds pretty good to me. It doesn't quite have the character of a real Hammond, but it's certainly a better substitute than the sounds you might find on most workstations. The vibrato works well to give the sound a little more character.

The overdrive sucks. It sounds like white noise and doesn't really mesh with the sound unless the rotary speaker sim is on. The rotary speaker sim, incidentally, is passable, but not great. This unit would sound a lot better with an external overdrive pedal and Leslie sim. This could cost some money, but most of the newer units of this type (Voce V5, OB-3^2, etc.) are also lacking in the effects department, so you might end up buying a newer model only to find you need these things anyway.

Style-wise, it'd work well for pretty much all organ applications. Sonically, I think it sounds a little cheesier than a real B3, so it would probably work particularly well for Smash Mouth-esque organ solos. :)

I don't know what the polyphony is, but in all my bashing on my keyboard, I've never run out, so it's enough to be useful.

This unit works as a MIDI tone generator. It can be configured to receive on any channel, so it will coexist well with other equipment. It includes overdrive, vibrato, and a Leslie sim, as well as inputs for volume and sustain pedals, as well as for a third pedal that can change the speed of the rotary speaker sim.

It's very big and heavy. I haven't a clue what's inside, but it's covered by a sturdy metal case and wooden sides. It actually looks pretty cool, kinda retro-ish.

The guy I got this from said they were pretty good about fixing this unit when it broke, but I've never dealt with them.

This box provides sounds much improved over the organs of my Yamaha PSR-330. The versatility of the drawbars and percussion settings mean you can actually play it like a real drawbar organ instead of a synth patch, so it works fairly well, and can be pretty convincing in many cases. The overdrive is a pretty major disappointment, but you could spend a lot more and still be disappointed, so this box represents very good value for money if you get it for less than $300.

These things aren't very common, so if it were lost or stolen, I would probably save up for a Voce V5. IF you really don't mind spending a lot of money, the Roland VK7 is really a lot better, but I wouldn't hesitate to get one of these if it's less than $250 and you want a reasonably good sound on a budget.

This unit is so easy to use... i like the interface it has a real organ feel to it... as easy to operate as the real B-3!

the expressiveness is pretty good, though without reverb effects it can be a little less expressive. the sounds are very good, one problem is that the 1' drawbar the last drawbar goes all the way up to the last note, which isnt what a real b-3 does it stops that drawbar at the last F instead of continuing up to c. but other than that i think sounds are excellent. To me the overall sound tends to sound like it has a chorus effect in it, which i think sounds nice, and makes up for the fact of the chorus effect not being present in the unit.

The features are very Basic to any hammond organ. percussion and all the percussion settings that are common to the organ. it has vibrato with 3 degrees. and the rotary speaker simulator is a top of the line simulator! yet the one feature that wwasnt included on this unit was the chorus, but the ob3^2 had this feature. having played a C-3 very extesivly i belive that the fetures are very much the same as the real b-3 line of organs.

I cant comment totally on this issue yet cause i havent used the unit too extensively.

The unit is definatly worth the $300 i paid no doubt. i like the unit overall and think it has a very nice look to it also. i have played a c-3 with 122 leslie many times, and think the unit acuratly simulates it. I think this unit beats a hammond XB-2 any day hands down. An Xk-2 or Vk-7 would be a good investment if you had the money but those looking for an excelent hammond sim for a LOW price this is the way to go.

There's not alot to this unit. It has 6 presets and a manual drawbar setting so you can shape your own sounds. Manual only 3 pages long, that's how simple it is to use.

Sounds acceptable for the price but no where near the VK-7 or the Voce V3. The rotory speacker sounds more similar to tremelo, and the sounds in general are not thick. They sound muddy when more than three notes are played. Works okay for leads.

For an organ drawbar module I think it has all the features you would expect. Although I've never played a real B-3 and don't know what other features are possible.

The unit worked fine for about 5 months of gigging, then it went out of tune and the tuning knob would not work to tune it. The one person at Gibson who handles Oberheim products sent me a tuning pot, that wasn't the problem. The unit is currently at Wizard Electronics being fixed, hopefully. Also had problem with the unit switching presets while I was playing. I would use this unit only as a backup, at the most.

The guy at Gibson/Oberheim was very nice but really couldn't help me at all. He could not provide technical support and Gibson/Oberheim does not have a repair department. I had to send the unit to this third party to get fixed.

The organ sounds just are not very good, although the unit is much cheaper than the VK-7 or Voce. If I had it to do over again I would save up money to buy a used VK-7.

This thing is real easy to use. The presets, in my opinion, are pretty useless. I only used one, occasionally. It comes with a manual(one page folded over and photocopied), which is pretty useless. Then again, you don't need a manual. It's quite easy to use.

NO SIMULATOR WILL SOUND LIKE A VINTAGE HAMMOND TONE WHEEL ORGAN!!!!!!!!!! However, the OB-3 is analog, not digital, and therefore sound descent in the world of Hammond simulators. As with all analog Hammond simulators, you will notice less punch on the higher octaves, but with higher frequencies. When, pulling out one drawbar at a time with all the other drawbars zeroed out and accend the keys chromatically, severe volume changes on every key will be noticed (I hear that this is the case in all simulators, even the Korg CX-3 and BX-3). I never really used the on-board vibrato settings so I wouldn't know about their quality. I've heard that the OB-3^2 sounds better, but I haven't tried it. The OB-3 has an on-board Leslie effect with both the slow and fast speeds. A momentary(unlatched) footswitch can be hooked up, if so desired. No simulator will even come close to a real tube Leslie (i.e. 122 or 147). If you don't want a true Leslie, try the Digitech RPM-1 (see review). On a more positive note, I did like the OB-3's sound over the expensive Hammond XB-2 keyboard. When the XB-2 was connected to my Leslie 302, I noticed a frequent chirping, especially on the tremolo speed. I was almost as though the digital tone wheels weren't all in sync with each other. I thought that was a major annoyance.

I got to the point where I didn't want to rely upon the OB-3. Sometimes, it would freeze up because of its low polyphony, and back then I never played anything violently or very quickly. I would literally have to switch off the OB-3 for a moment and then start it back up. Another annoyance was when striking a chord(even a three note chord), the OB-3 would never reproduce that same chord the same way again. I could strike, say an E-minor chord, several times in a row and it would sound different every time. This got to be annoying when I only got the sound I wanted once in a great while. I never knew when it was going to act up. When doing any glides up the keys, I would have to release my glide up the keyboard before I dared to strike a chord from fear of retaliation from the OB-3. It's really a pain when your equipment limits your creativity and controls your playing.

Never dealt with Oberheim. I felt that the flaws were inherent in the beast and not a malfunction.

If you don't want to carry around a Hammond or chopped Hammond, I would recommend the OB-3 or the OB-3^2. If you think Hammonds are rare, you're right. However, I found a C-2 in excellent condition in a small town down in Iowa for only $600. This was in someone's home or church for a long time and played beautifully (it has nice, smooth drawbars, too). It'd never really been played out. I chopped it and put handles on it to make it more portable. I would recommend a real Hammond if at all possible. But, if you're just beginning to play Hammond, like I was, I would recommend the OB-3, especially if paired with a descent Leslie simulator, or better still, a real Leslie. It's very portable and easy to use.

Drawbar organ simulator. Rotory speaker, overdrive. A Hammond B-3 in a box. Simple operation.

This sounds as good as the real thing. The Hammond simulator hags it head in shame next to this unit. It's that good

Any kind of B-3 sound you want you can get. This nails the sound, I highly reccommend it. It has 6 note polyphony, plenty of tone.

It hasn't failed on me yet. Can't really say.

Haven't needed assistance yet.