Voce V5

Take a short look at the unit and you will be able to handle it.

It goes for a B3 - so no Leslie simulation, but that is ok as most of those are useless. The rest is just as B3 plus the possibilities of programming seven presets and adding much too much leakage noise and overdrive.

As an old Hammond player who plays a C3 and a RT3 I was a bit disappointed by the first sounds I heard from the V5. But I played it through a normal amp - no effects at all. The whole thing changed totally when connecting it to a 122 Leslie. The sound came much nearer to the real thing but IMO not close enough.
First of all there is one fact: the sound itself is ok, but when you change a drawbar setting on a real Hammond very slightly - lets say you change a single drawbar within two steps - you will hear the sound difference. But not with the Voce. Here you have to make much bigger changes of about four or five steps to hear at least something. That means you do not have the subtleties and variations a Hammond can offer.
Secondly the percussion is a bit cold and too soft. The so called normal volume just corresponds to the soft volume of a Hammond.
Thirdly the vibrato-/chorus-section cannot be compared with a Hammond at all. It misses the warmth and depth - another reason why you cannot play it without a real Leslie.
And finally there are some incredibly bad features like the overdrive/distortion and the leakage. You simply cannot adjust the levels properly as their ranges are somewhat like extremely odd. They obviously used wrong potentiometers.
As a roundup I would say the sound is ok for all sorts of music where the Hammond sound is not in first place. But if you want to play stuff like Emerson, Wakeman, Jimmy Smith etc forget it.
I use it to mix an Hammond sound with other sounds like strings or so. Something I cannot do with my C3 and for that purpose it works pretty well.

Never had a problem.

Once called them and did not have the impression that they were interested in my questions.

The big plus of this unit is the concept of a cigar box size with drawbars. The sound is much better than those so called Hammond sounds in various synthesizers but still cannot be compared with the real thing. There are some weak points but I can live with them as I only use it as my second Hammond on stage.

Very easy to use, controls are simple and physical. Drawbars control the tone and buttons toggle settings for "percussion" effect. 7 writable presets are easy to call up. Knobs for volume, overdrive, key click, and "leakage." You hook it up, you're ready to go ... if you're familiar with MIDI and drawbar organs. If not, check the manual. It's very small but it tells you what you need to know. My only complaint is that the chorus/vibrato effect is cyclical (you have to keep pressing the button to cycle through the 6 settings in order to get the one you want.

Full polyphony. Multi-channel control capability so you can use two manual keyboards and a pedalboard. Seems relatively easy to set up but I have never actually used it. On-board effects are very basic, similar to what would have been available on a classic Hammond organ: Key click, overdrive, tonewheel leakage, vibrato/chorus. What it has is adequate, but limited when comapred to other units (Roland for instance) that have all the bells & whistles. Onboard Leslie emulator is noticably absent - but that's arguably part of the Voce's "authenticity." I give it a 6 because its features are limited, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Velocity & aftertouch are irrelevant, it does not respond. As far as imitating the sound of a Hammond organ, this little box does the job, giving you the complete range of tonal possibilities from the nine drawbars. At first I thought it sounded a bit thin & feeble, but after tweaking & processing a bit, I've got it sounding SWEET. I live & play in an apartment where I can't make lots of noise, so a real Leslie cabinet was out of the question. Runing the Voce through a Boss RT-20 rotary emulator, it sounds pretty darn good. The Voce's onboard overdrive is ugly and useless; turn it up just a little bit and it's already too much. Same with the leakage. But the keyclick is great, the percussion sounds authentic, and the vibrato/chorus is very useful (though after I got my RT-20 I usually just turn the Voce chorus off.) You need to understand that this box just produces a basic, raw organ sound which you will need to process and/or amplify properly to get the most out of it.

This review is actually a follow-up of one I wrote in October 2003 about a V5 that was malfunctioning (controls were randomly mapped to the wrong buttons, drawbars and knobs were all mixed up.) I returned the defective unit and got a good one, and have been happily playing it since then. I feel like I can rely on it completely. It has never failed or malfunctioned.

My only dealings with the company involved a phone call to the service number in the manual regarding the first, defective, unit which I had purchased. The person I talked to seemed uninterested in my problem and told me to "just return it."

If something happened to my Voce I would probably buy it again. It was cheaper than any comparable item available at the time (though adding the rotary effect pedal which I bought to go with it pushed the price up to about the same as a Roland drawbar unit with the Leslie effect built-in) I have played a Nord Electro and I really like it, but the price makes my chest hurt. It would all come down to price-point, but I would definitely consider Voce again if I had to replace it.

I bought this used on Ebay after over a year of reading everything I could get my hands on concerning this module. I've always been on a Quest to find the best possible Hammond B3 emulator. I HAVE ARRIVED!!! The factory presets are GREAT and I use almost all of them one way or another. I'm telling you it doesn't get any better than this orange box!!! I have owned alot of stuff in my Quest. I am 53 years old and have been playing keyboards of all sorts on and off since 1965. That's right I'm a product of the 60's. I started with a Farfisa mini compact thru a Silvertone twin tube head and cab. Later bought a Farfisa 2 manual Compact Combo with pedalboard used. Holy Cow it came with a Leslie 147 and preamp....Didn't have a clue of what I had!!! Long gone now. Had my share of Roland, Korg, Yamaha Synths. Later I had a Roland VK09 which I used beneath an original Korg CX3 with a Brianizer footbox gizmo for "leslie effect", Owned the Voce DMI MKII organ module and the Peavey Spectrum organ module also. Broke down at one point and bought a Hammond M3 and a Porta B. I've owned 2 Korg G4s (jump on one if you can find one!) and the MotionSound Pro 3t. Wasn't that impressed for the money I had to lay out for it. So, you're getting a good idea about my Quest! IMHO FORGET everything out there....this is the BOMB!! Voce has blown all the competition out of the water...and at a price no one can touch.

Full polyphony just like the real deal. Ok, here's my complete setup.... I play a Roland 250s piano (read about this ole girl) Atop the piano I have a Fatar 610 (61 key controller) Velcroed next to Fatar is the Voce V5 (the top of the 250s is deep enough as to place the V5 so the drawbars are not hanging inspace vicariously. Next to the V5 is an Alesis NanoVerb for alittle reverb flavor. Atop the Alesis is a BlueTube stompbox (by Butler) with a 12au7 tube for the right amount of gain for the solid state amp. I guess I better explain the amp setup. For $499 plus $150 shipping.. I won this wonderful compliment to the Voce V5 on Ebay. It is a Universal RS10 setup. Never heard of it before. It is essentially a copy of the Leslie solid state model 760. Looks almost identical. However it is in two sections. Horn assembly in top cab and the speaker and rotor in bottom. It cranks out 200 watts and has the footswitch for slow to fast action of the horns and rotor drum. Seems someone would have been in a patent lawsuit over producing this baby....it's a Leslie! The BlueTube is there to drive the solidstate amp for those Lee Michael Stormy Monday licks or to date the Gary Moore/ Gov't Mules organ riffs. Out of overdrive mode the Blue tube provides a creamy thick bluesy tone for the Voce/Universal combo. I run to V5 into the Blue Tube and then into the Alesis into the Universal. I have less than $1,500 invested in this awesome Hammond B3 TONE MONSTER setup.

Today, I play mostly Blues, Blues, and more Blues! This setup more than fits the bill. I am constantly leaving people scratching their heads trying to figure out where the organ is in my rig. I've had more compliments from musicians and music lovers on this beast!!

I have to depend on all my gear. Too poor to replace any of it very quickly! No backup...flying by the seat of my pants!

Only called Voce once and got an immediate answer to my questions concerning Leakage and Overdrive functions. The guy seemed in no hurry to get off the phone. Very down to earth and very INFORMATIVE!

If it were lost or stolen, I would have to get a perscription for anti-depressants immediately. I don't want to even think about losting this awesome, long waited for center of my setup! As if I haven't mentioned this enough in my review.......BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!

few,intuitive controls on a small,nice,metal box.
Nine beautiful touch feeling drawbars.No display.

Full poliphony with two 61 keys manuals and a 25 notes pedalboard
(In this eventuality you must use a MIDI merge box)
Overdrive.Likeage.No Leslie effect inside.

This is THE BEST Hammond clone module.It gives you superwarm,organic,fat Hammond B3 sound,and doesn't sound digital at all.Overdrive is so-so,likeage effect is strange buzzy noise you must use with moderation.With no overdrive,keyclick on thirteen,and just a bit likeage you obtain a realistic sound.Percussion and VibratoChorus
are better than those in the V3:With a Pro3T sounds astonishing,but also with an all digital Leslie makes you wonder!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strong,all metallic construction,but the drawbars must be handled carefully,because are without protection.

If lost or stolen,I'd look at the new VOCE V5+
which seems to be a classic V5 with improved sound quality ( ! )

Couldn't be much easier. Everything is pretty much one button, one function and there is not a lot to know, just as on a B3. It is all in the playing and using the drawbars, percussion and vibrato/chorus to advantage. The only drawback is switching to a chorus/vibrato effect. There are 6 settings here and they must be chosen sequentially with one button which means you may have to press the button 5 times to get to the setting you want. The manual tells you everything you need to know.

Polyphony is full over 3 different manuals so you can't ask for more. Built in effects include percussion, key click, leakage and overdrive. The overdrive is only alright and I much prefer overdriving my pro 3T for that distortion effect. Key click and leakage I find can add to the sound if used sensibly. No expansion capability which is a definite minus. I see Voce have just released the V5+ which includes an improved vibrato/chorus section and increased volume on the percussion effect. Such a pity that V5 owners can not receive this update to their modules as with these 2 improvents the V5 would be the bomb and more.
Multi-timbral control is possible on up to 3 channels simultaneously for use with double manual and footpedals.

Having owned a B3 in the past I am pretty familiar with the sound that Hammond clones are trying to emulate. The V5 takes you there. The sound is organic and realistic. More so than any of the other clones I've tried.

I've used it for about 6 months and not had a single problem yet.

If lost/stolen I would replace this immediately with the V5+. I know there is nothing out there that competes with it in terms of quality for money. If the Nord Electro or the Roland/Korg emulators were comparable in price then they would get consideration but this box can't be beat.

The manual is dead easy as the unit is. Plug the cables in, use the buttons, knobs and the drawbars! And you'll be ending up with a superb sound!

Polyphony is indefinete, just like the real thing. Midiing is easy for both manuals plus pedals, just works out great. No expansion, but why? It is just ok. The effects are great, except the (why is this there?) overdrive which has no effect but disturbing the other effects - that's the reason for the "9". The keyclick and the leakage just sound stunning!

This sounds like the real deal - I have the real deal at home (M-100 plus Leslie 122) so I can tell you!
It performs even for the Jazz-Ears really well. Nothing better on the market.

I run it without backup.

don't know of a customer support over here in Europe.

If somebody would steal it I'd get my organ bench and get this person .... and would try to replace it immediately - with a V5. Yes. The price I paid is a lot less than what I would have paid for a VK8-M or Electro Rack or even Hammond XM-1 - and all of these sound worse than the V5. I had a EMU B-3 before, also sounding great but - not ready for street use (unreliable) and its Leslie sim and Overdrive sucks - so I had a Korg G4 plus ADA MP-1 anyway - and this combination (V5 + MP-1 + G4) gives you a killer sound. People turn round and ask where this Hammond is... It is an inspiring and very very useful little orange box - I love it and don't want to miss it anymore!

Very easy to use -- plug it in, connect a MIDI cable to the Voce V5's MIDI input from your MIDI keyboard, and make sure the transmit/receive channels are the same.
The presets sound fantastic -- especially through a Motion Sound Pro 3t or (even better) a Speakeasy Vintage tube preamp followed by a Pro 3t.
The drawbars, chorus/vibrato and percussion buttons basically act as the patch editor for this unit. Anyone familiar with a Hammond B3 organ layout will feel at home right away.
The manual is helpful, but not really needed unless you're new to MIDI and electronic keyboards.

Seems like alot of whining on this site about this unit. I got mine from E-Bay, cut a rubber mousepad to size and glued it to the bottom of the unit, headed to Best Buy to purchase a Case Logic portable DVD player neoprene case to hold the Voce V5 and its AC power transformer (perfect fit), and was ready to go. The unit performs flawlessly. The mousepad mod allows it to fit on my Roland RD-700 or Roland XP-80 without incident. It sounds great -- excellent move to focus on the base Hammond B3 sound, since pros won't use a wimpy digital leslie simulator anyway. The MIDI merge capability will allow the one unit to be controlled by two keyboards for a dual manual effect, but I'm now considering buying a second dedicated Voce V5 so I have more drawbars, more soundshaping control, and less MIDI issues to deal with. For what it is designed to do -- replicate the B3 sound, this compact unit can't be beat.

I still can't believe the sound this small unit puts out! Very, very close to a real B3 when pre-amped/leslied/amplified correctly. The drawbars shape the sound very accurately and are easy to use. The percussion, vibrato and chorus settings are accurate, and I like the key click and leakage setting options, too (in moderation). I'm still getting used to the fact that the V5 only has a key range that's exactly equal to a real B3's (61 keys). For 76 or 88 key controllers, if you play too high or low on the keyboard, no sound emanates. This adds to the authenticity, though, and is easily worked around once the user spends some time playing.
There's a reason this module won a "gold" award for authenticity and balls in Keyboard Magazine's 1999 B3 Shootout. Even with newer boards like the Nord Electro coming out, the Voce holds its own, in a very portable way. Only a real B3/Leslie 122 or 147 would get a "10" rating from me here, so the "9" is a great achievement for a clone.

I have been able to depend on my V5 -- it always powers up and does what it's supposed to do.
Unlike other raters on this site, I'm not worried about the drawbars being too flimsy or susceptible to damage -- just push them in at the end of the night, and put the unit in a decent padded case like the CaseLogic I mentioned earlier.
I would use the unit on a gig without a backup.

I have not dealt with the company

If it were lost or stolen, I would immediately buy a replacement. This thing is worth every penny. It nails the Hammond B3 tone -- especially through the Speakasy Vintage tube pre and the Motion Sound Pro 3t. I have been playing professionally for over 20 years, and own a 1976 Fender Rhodes Stage 73 with Speakeasy Vintage Suitcase Vibrato preamp, a Roland RD700 digital piano and the Roland XP80 workstation in addition to the V5. I route everything through a Mackie 1642 mixer, and route the organ through an Ernie Ball volume pedal and the Motion Sound either before or after the Speakeasy Vintage preamp stage (depends on the gig). Two Roland KC300 amps are run in stereo for onstage amplification. I compared the V5 with the Roland VK8, the new Roland 760 combo keyboard (with drawbars built in), the Roland drawbar module - based on the VK8 engine), the Nord Electro, the Hammond XK2 and the Korg CX3. Because I already have the Roland XP80 workstation, the Voce V5 was the right choice for me. It's smaller than the competing Roland drawbar module, it cost less (since I found a used one), and I think it sounds warmer, too. The V5 and XP80 in combination do much more than any Hammond clone could do on its own, and I need the extra sequencing capability and overall flexibility to mix and match components for various gigs.
I love the V5's user interface -- it's easy to make adjustments on the fly. With the rubber mousepad mod, it sticks to any keyboard that I place it on, without any annoying velcro strips. It really helps me get the organ sounds I need. The percussion is a bit subdued, but the new V5+ supposedly addresses that. It's not a big enough deal for me to upgrade, but if I buy a second unit to get the ultimate double manual experience, it will be a V5+. I'm glad there's no digital leslie simulator on this unit to add more clutter to the interface, but I must admit a built in digital reverb would have been a good addition.

Voce refused to reply to emails from my service tech (CAE Sound)....
as a result they have given up trying to fix it and are sending it back unrepaired. What can they do? Voce won't send the parts!
Four months and not a single part sent, not a single email answered.

Decent sound to start with but what good is that if it needs repair and no one can fix it because the sole parts supplier won't send any parts? An orange $700.00 paperweight. Yippee.

Here's the deal. I'm a piano player in a classic rock band.. trying to fake the B3 stuff. I have a Yamaha P80 88note piano/keyboard controller with VERY limited controller functions.

I WAS using the organ patches in a Kurzweil MicroPiano but over time I started to hate it. I have a Motion Sound Pro3T and LP120 bass unit - a complete, LOUD, mini-Leslie. Sometimes I play organ by itself but most of the time I play piano and organ simultaneously. Organ volume adjusted via a Morley volume wah pedal.

A friend has the V5 and I thought it sounded good. So I saved my pennies and bought one.

What I found is this - the V5 has a 61-note range. Unfortunately their idea of Middle 'C' doesn't match that in my 88note controller. When I play a chord on the P80, the V5 plays that same chord an octave down!! Not tolerable.

I emailed Dave Amels on this. He did respond, like instantly. He said to fix that on the controller - transpose the midi notes transmitted.

Luckily those functions do exist in the P80. I stopped sending MIDI Program Change when I change patches on the P80, and I transpose the MIDI notes sent out +12 semitones, or one octave up. I hope the P80 remembers these changes between power-ups.

SO - if you play an 88note controller, be aware that the 61 notes in the V5 map poorly, if at all, and you're going to have to play some MIDI configuration games to make it usable.

For those of you with separate keyboards driving the V5, I'm sure you're ecstatic.

would I replace it? I don't know. I've had it two weeks, two rehearsals, and am about to do 6 gigs in 6 weeks. I may check back here. For now if it broke I'd go back, not happily, to the B3 sounds in the Kurzweil MicroPiano.

BTW the VOCE V5 and Motion Sound top and bottom can't be beat.

p.s. no, I won't give out Dave Amels' email address.

I want to make it clear that I just got my V5 but I have spent quite a bit of time with it, and I encountered a bizarre problem I wanted to share... Anyway, onto topic. Very easy to use. If you've ever played a drawbar organ, you already know how to use the V5. And if you've never played one, the skinny 14-page manual tells you what you need to know. The controls are all physical and intuitive. Most are single-function. No mystifying sequences of multi-function menu buttons and what-not. Even the MIDI channel selection is simple: there's a physical selector knob on the back of the unit. I would have given it a 10, but my unit has a malfunction. Read on...

This thing is just a drawbar module. It has no keyboard of its own, so the action depends on what you use as a controller. There are controls for Overdrive, Key Click, and Leakage. It has three levels of Vibrato and three levels of Chorus, plus Percussion on/off, fast/slow, loud/soft, and 2nd/3rd harmonic. Everything that would have been on a classic Hammond organ is here, and that's all that is here. It supposedly has the ability to play on 3 MIDI channels (two manuals and a pedalboard) and there's a "split" feature that puts the upper and lower manuals at both ends of one keyboard in a single channel. I was worried about the drawbars hanging out in space in front of the unit when I was shopping for one but after actually using it, the drawbars feel pretty sturdy. I'm no longer worried about them bending or anything. I wish the V5 had an onboard Leslie emulator, which would make it more useful for my MIDI "silent studio" needs, but I have signal procesing gear I can use to fake my way around that. There are no expansion capabilities, no sequencer, room for only 7 presets. It's pretty bare-bones, just a box that sounds like a B-3.

I decided on this unit over the Roland VK8M because it was a hundred bucks cheaper, and all the reviews said it sounded "warmer and more real." Not being in an area where I can actually go and try one out without driving all day, I bit the bullet and ordered the Voce. It DOES sound really great. It's got all that I had expected from something claiming to replicate tonewheel organ sound. It's got the rich & syrupy and the sad & wheezy and everything in between. It doesn't quite have the aggressive crunch that you hear in 1960's psychedelia, but I suppose that is mostly dependent on what amp you are running it through. Perhaps the Roland has all that right out of the box, but for $100 I don't mind a little extra jury-rigging with stuff I already have. I will say that the onboard "overdive" doesn't really sound that great. The "key click" only controls the key-on click, and not the key-off which is unadjustable and noticeably snappy. The "leakage" sounds terrible even at lowest volume. I can't imagine a possible use for that.

Here's where my problem lies. And apparently this is just MY unit. Other reviewers' comments indicate they have V5's that work fine. But when I unpacked mine, hooked it up, and turned it on, right away something was wrong. All controls were in the wrong place, i.e. the 1' drawbar was controlling the "leakage" instead of the highest harmonic. The 1 1/3' drawbar was controlling the tuning and the tuning knob on the back panel was controlling the key click. The leakage knob was actually controlling overdrive, and the overdrive and key click knobs were the 5 1/3' and 16' harmonics, respectively. All the rest of the drawbars were shifted down two spaces in terms of their actual function. It took me a while to figure all this out... And then, when I pressed the "split" button, everything moved. The controls seemed to rotate one space clockwise with each press of "split" (but not actually every time; it was sort of hit-or-miss) and by pressing it and testing a few notes, I was able to get everything in the right place. But then, turning it off and powering it up again, everything was back in the wrong place. I give it a rating of 1 in this category only because I assume it might have worked correctly when it left the factory (I hope they had some sort of quality control at Voce??) Otherwise I'd give it a big fat zero. Also, when I turned on the "percussion" the sound of the 1' drawbar would be turned off completely. I don't know enough about drawbar organs to know if this is supposed to happen. Seems like it shouldn't.

I called the phone number in the manual, and the guy I spoke to didn't seem to want to hear about my problem. He just said "return it" and that was that. I also sent an e-mail and I'm waiting to hear back. I guess I will return it, which is going to be a hassle, and I'll have to wait to get another one. What I have to decide is whether to exchange for another Voce or go ahead and shell out the extra hundred to swap for a Roland instead. At least the Roland will have Big Corporate Clout behind it, and their quality control will no doubt insure the unit is working when I get it. I'm seriously considering that option.

Based on the malfunctioning unit I got, I would not buy another one. If it was working right (and I was able to get a brief taste of that) I'd be delighted with it and willing to accept its limitations. But my confidence in it is shaken and I'm in doubt now concerning my original reasons for purchasing the Voce V5. Depending on what I do next, I may post a follow up on my exchanged, correctly-working unit.