Voce V5

The best B-3 emulator out there! I play it through a Trek-II preamp into a 145 Leslie. Warm, ballsy, and has a life of its own like the real thing. The only complaint is that while Chorus III is great, Chorus I & II were somewhat very weak and un-noticable. Otherwise, an excellent choice all around.

No problems thus far...

would definitely buy again...

Manual is great.

Full Polyphony. Even for pedals.

I'm sorry to say this but Roland,Hammond,Korg,and Oberheim;Give up!! Throw in the towel! You can't beat it!!This is the real THING!

I agree with the last reviewer take care of it!!!

Beautiful. I just wish they were not a small company.

I have two of them already plus the Micro B. I've done plenty of gospel concerts and this thing even puts the XB3 to shame. The organist of that church sold his XB3 got the new Roland pedal PK25 and bought the Voce V5.He's now one of top sought organist in Chicago. He always keep in touch with me.Constantly thanking me for "converting him"!!!!!!!

It works like a tiny little Hammond. :)

See all the other reviews.

I just want to throw in my 2? here: I first saw this thing at NAMM a couple of years ago. At first glance, I thought it was about the coolest thing I had ever seen. It was connected to a Spin II pedal. I doubted it would sound as good as it looked, because I had just come from the Oberheim booth where I played that terrible OB3. I walked up, put on my headphones started to play & I could not believe what I was hearing. I walked over to the guy attending the booth (who I now believe WAS Dave Amels, he was kind of odd & idiosyncratic, but hyper-intelligent) & asked him if I could buy the units right there, right then. He said he couldn't sell the units at the show, but they would be available soon. I said "I think it looks so cool..." He said "We are thinking of making it some other color..." I said "Promise me WHATEVER YOU DO, MAKE SURE YOU KEEP IT ORANGE!"

As everyone on here has stated, this module is the BEST sounding B3 simulator out there. It makes all the others sound like a joke. When combined w/ actual rotation, like the Motion Sound stuff, it is so close to being real I bet you could fool almost anyone. I don't understand why it has taken so long for it to be taken up, or why there could not have been more efficient distribution & marketing from the outset but it seems now to be finally getting some recognition & praise & momentum that it deserves.

Just take care of it... How damaged could it get? It's not like you are going to drop it down a flight of stairs like a B3.

Everyone I've ever talked to at DR & Voce has been super friendly & helpful, but the lack of marketing & distribution (most stores don't even know Voce exists) is disturbing.

Well, it's not a B3. On the other hand, I don't think I could give an actual B3 a perfect 10 either. Nothing that weighs 800 lbs. deserves a 10

Thought I would enter my two cents regarding the double drawbar thing, since I just got it going today. I am using a Korg T3 for the top manual and a Fatar Studiologic SL-880 for the bottom. I run these and my other modules all to a Digital Music MX-8 MIDI patchbay. The MIDI out from the SL-880 (on channel 2) goes to a JLCooper Fadermaster, which is a MIDI controller box with 8 sliders. Each one is completely assignable, so I have them all assigned to control one drawbar for the second manual. Unfortunately, there are 9 drawbars, so I just leave off the 1' drawbar (it's not used much anyway). Then from the Fadermaster, MIDI out to the MX-8. Also, the T3 MIDI out (ch. 1) goes to the MX-8. The MX-8 will merge two signals, so these two are merged and sent to the V5. This gives me complete control over both manuals. Never much of a pedal player, except in college at the pipe organ, so I doubt I'll be trying that. When I want to go back to regular operation, I just switch the SL880 back to midi ch 1, and call up another preset. Switching the Fadermaster to another preset also gives me volume control, or whatever else I want. But it makes a handy set of presets. By the way, the multitimbral and Midi out switches appear to be reverse of what they are marked. I talked to the company, and they have been having their own debate themselves as to whether they should switch them! So if you can get your hands on something else for the second set of drawbars, and some way to merge the input to the V5, it works flawlessly. Really nice to have the option of a full B3 set up. Can't say it enough, nothing touches this product for B3 simulation. If they had better distribution, or a top name endorser, they'd go through the roof with sales. It's the best deal on a keyboard or keyboard peripheral I've seen in years. What are you waiting for? Go get one! If you can't find one (a lot of stores don't even know what they are; Guitar Center in Orange County, CA, had never even heard of it), call Voce (DR Strings is the parent company) at 201-599-0100. Happy B3-ing.

Fairly straight forward. If you are familiar with Hammonds at all you will have no trouble. Everything is right there and easy to get to.....I don't run a multi-keyboard organ setup so I use a lot of splits to comp or play bass with my left hand and then solo and comp with my right. Figured out nearly every function in ten minutes.....but then again I haven't tried to interface more than the most basic midi functions. It seems that they really built this module to be a performers box which it does beautifully. It comes with a couple of velcro strips with which you can velcro it to the top of your keyboard.....most boards I have owned this wouldn't work so well.....so I ended up building a Hammond-like cabinet for my controller with a handy dandy niche built on the top left for the module. Works fine.

Full polyphony for two 61 key manuals and a pedal board just like the real thing. Has the usual hammond drawbar set, chorus/vibrato settings, percussion settings, and then some real time pots on top to control volume, keyclick, overdrive, and leakage. Allows you to dial in from a squeaky clean, very digital sound to a messy, dirty beast. You can sync this thing up to all kinds of midi stuff according to the manual--but like I said earlier, my focus is on the live performance aspects and I use the bars/knobs on the box, not on my controller. Everything you need is right there. As far as a performance module I will give this a 10--can't rate the other midi abilites because I don't use them. If you do want to rig up a second keyboard to perform as the other manual then you have to figure out a way to manipulate the drawbars for it.....hopefully you have some handy dandy sliders/knobs to help you out here........

As others here have stated, it is simply the best. And trust me, I have tried them all. Don't buy the Roland VK7, Hammond XK-2 or the Oberheim OB3 squared. If you are considering a Roland VK77, STOP! Go find a real B3/Leslie122(jazzer)/147(rocker) for less then the 6k you were going to spend and hire some roadies to haul it before your reality check bounces again.
First off, you have to understand that your hammond sound is really only as good as the leslie or leslie effect you are running. I would say that the most important part of getting the B3's sound is to find the best leslie simulator that you can. Most of the keyboards and modules that I have tried have their own leslie simulators as part of the controls. I am glad that Voce did not because most of the time, the leslie sim sucks. Bad. Probably the best attempt at it is the Roland VK7(with their COSM(COmposite Sound Model) technology), and really you have to run it in stereo to have it sound even close. Personally I thought the Hammond-Suzuki XK-2 sucked all around, especially in the leslie sim. But how can anyone really digitally recreate the sound of a spinning horn bouncing sound all around the room? Same thing with the leslie tube distortion....you just can't fake the tube sound with a microchip. I am running my Voce through a Motion Sound KBR-3D, which is the SHIT(my review for this is elsewhere...even my $100 Casio on one of the organ patches sounds like a million bucks through this amp.) This combination sounds as good as any hammond I have ever heard live or recorded, and a whole hell of a lot louder(the kbr-3d runs all tube 240 tri-amped watts) while being every bit as organic. It even has XLR outputs for the internal mikes on the horn(think about that, all of you who have tried to mike a leslie in the studio or on the gig) As others here have stated, you have to run the Voce through a tube somewhere in your rig for tonal fatness and believability; In the quest for recreation of the B3 sound the glassy and digital won't cut it. Most people I have talked to and heard run the Voce through a Hughes and Kettener Rotosphere(which is all tube and sounds pretty good, at least in stereo) and sometimes a Blue Tube from Tubeworks which sounds a little bit better. The V5 output is very clean and quiet(unlike the old v3) so at least when you run it through two tubes in series it doesn't get too noisy. That combo is a lot more portable than my 70 pound Motion Sound but again, stompboxes are not real spinning horns, and(from what I have listened to) you have to run your sim in stereo to get even close.....so now we have a couple of good sized keyboard amps to mess with.....anyhow, the point is run through Leslie/Motion Sound if you can, if not find the H-K rotosphere and get a Blue Tube if you can afford it. Make sure your keyboard amps have a hella low end sound--the mids and bass make and break the Hammond sound. I would suggest the Roland KC500, Fender KXR 200, the Trace-Elliot 300 watt behemoth or save your pennies for a pair of Barbetta Sona 41's if you have to rock the free world......
As far as the basic tone of the V5 it is very warm and big compared to everything else I have tried. I did like the VK7 a lot but this thing is better, especially with the right Leslie sim. I played a Hammond-Suzuki through a Leslie 147 and it was weak!....the tone is a sample unlike the Voce and Roland which use 91 virtual digital oscillators like the real mccoy. The only thing going for it is the waterfall keys which are pretty nice. Great. The Oberheim OB3 squared actually isn't bad tonally, it also uses virtual oscillators...but the keyboard action sucks and the leslie sim on it is horrible. Save your money!...go buy the V5 and then get a Fatar sl 161 controller(great organ touch for under $300) or maybe a Roland A70. The Voce/Fatar combo is less than $1000 bucks....with a H-K Rotosphere you are at $1300 with a sound that will blow any other

I'll take it on the road with me for awhile and see how she does.....sturdy metal box, of course the drawbars hang out in space so be careful. Too soon to say.

Haven't had to deal with them, but any voce owner I have talked to says they are great.

It is the best. Play a V5 or a B3 and forget the rest. Nothing else really comes close.

Nice to see this turning into the kind of fan club that the V5 deserves. I sympathize with the commenter who bemoaned the proliferation of little boxes and wall-warts that using the V-5 entails. I also agree with him that its far and away worth the trouble.

Getting two sets of drawbars into the act is an interesting problem so I thought I'd share a couple of little discoveries. The first, which I'll admit involved sheer luck, was finding a set of drawbars that Voce made to go with the V3 (which is a rack unit sans drawbars). Found it used in a store, snatched it right up. Sure enough, that little puppy works just fine to control the lower manual drawbar settings in the V5. You may or may not need a midi merge box. I can run it through the midi "in" on my controller keyboard and it seems to work just fine. The bad news: now aside from your controller keyboard, you've got two little boxes and two wallwarts to deal with, and you've got to figure out where to put them all that makes some ergonomic sense. One suggestion: put it all in a two-space rack box, set the box on one of those quick lock tilted stands right next to you, and go to it.

The other discovery is that the drawbars on the Roland VK-7 send midi data on assignable numbers, so you can use the VK-7 to control either manual on the Voce. It gets better: the VK-7 is set up so that by pressing a button you switch the drawbars between upper and lower manual on the VK-7's internal sounds. I didn't expect that this would work for controlling the V5, but it does! Very cool. In other respects, the VK-7 is not such a great controller for the Voce. The expression pedal cannot be used to control the volume of the V5 because its different than the midi number for "volume." There is no pitch bend wheel to morph between the settings 1 and 2 on the V5, etc. The other bad news is that, the last time I checked, the VK-7 retailed for about $1750, and who's going to pay that for a controller! I already owned a VK-7, purchased long before I heard the V5. Once I heard the V5, there was no going back to the VK-7 sound, but the two make for a good controller/module combination. And having the VK-7 as a controller means that it also serves as a worthy back up to the V5, a contingency I have already used once on a gig when I stupidly forgot the wall wart for the V5 at home (Oy!)

All that said, Voce really should come up with a tailored solution to this problem. I gotta believe it would make good business sense for them to produce a simple little drawbar controller, or just bring the V3 drawbars back into production.

After some experimentation and thought, this is the set up I'm using with the V5: As I mentioned, the VK-7 is a controller. The V5 sits atop the VK-7, with the aid of velcro. The drawbars on the VK-7 are actually dedicated to controlling the lower manual sounds of the V5. The V5's own drawbars control the upper manual. Likewise, the VK-7 keybed is dedicated to playing the lower manual notes. I set a 61-note fatar controller on top of the VK-7 and play that to control the upper manual sounds. This allows me to get the two sets of keys very close to each other. I'm not a pedal-player, so I don't worry about that. I don't need a merge box for this set up to work.

As far as processing the V5 sound, the V5 runs into a Tubeworks Blue Tube, and then into a Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere. I tried alot of things (definitely testing the patience and good will of my music retailer) before settling on this. The Rotosphere has its own tube, and the distortion effect is pretty good. But the Blue Tube is better for this purpose. The combination is fabulous. I get most of the desired distortion from the Blue Tube, and just a little added warming effect from the Rotosphere. I like to control the slow-fast on the Rotosphere with an external footswitch set on "momentary" mode, so that it speeds up when you press it and slows down when you take your foot away. This is the easiest way I've found to stay in the intermediate zone where the rotary speed is constantly changing. With 2 tubes in serious, you of course get a fair bit of noise. If you want a clean-sounding B-3 patch, then you'd probably think it insane to go to all this trouble anyway. If you're used to playing a real B-3 through a real Leslie, then a bit of tube noise is the last thing that's going to bother you.

This set up of course requires a fair bit of effort to set up and break down -- nothing really heavy, just lots of little things to plug in, dial in, and remember. I find that its worth it because I'm so happy with my B-3 sound, I could just play that all night and not bother with rhodes, synths, and whatnot. As far as setting up goes, you can find short cuts. Putting stuff in a rack, pre-wired, is a great way to avoid dealing with stuff when you're getting ready to play. The brief period right before you play should, ideally, be spent getting in the mood (whatever that means for you), not plugging in 47 wall warts, audio lines, and midi cables.

Another set up I'll use is to run the V5 through my leslie 122 using a Trek II preamp. Using a real leslie of course has its own problems. I simply won't do it when it entails being miked-up. But in a situation, such as a small club, where all you're hearing is the sound from the leslie being thrown around the room, it can't be beat. The V5 through a real leslie sounds so good, I just can't think of a good reason to use a real B-3 instead. Well, there is something about the physical experience of sitting in front of a real Hammond. Its inspiring. That has to be acknowledged. But when it comes down to it, I'd rather make my imagination work a little harder and not have to perform the miracle of moving my B. I haven't used this set up in the studio yet, but I surely will the next time its called for.

I've already addressed this (I authored the 12/14/99 submission below). As I and the other commenters have said, its the basic sound quality of the Voce that sets it apart and brings it far closer to the real thing.

Good to see this turning into the fan club the V5 deserves. I think the developing theme is: if you just dabble in B-3 sounds here and there, there are probably dozens of good patches on many different keyboards that would suit you just fine. But if you're going to put the B-3 out front and center, and you can't have the real thing, then you should have the V5. In terms of basic sound quality, the distance between it and everything else is immense.

This drawbar module is easy to use. There are easily grasped tall knobs for volume, distortion, key click, and leakage. The preset, percussion, and vibrato/chorus buttons are easily reached and activated. The drawbars themselves have a nice feel. The design is suitable for live use.

There are bizarre omissions in the area of features, which are only tolerable because the basic sound of the unit is excellent. The most significant omission is the absence of an internal midi merger. As a consequence, to drive two manuals and pedals (i.e., 3 controllers) as in a Hammond B3, you need to buy an midi-merge box.



The other omission is the absence of a second set of drawbars in their product line. According to my interpretation of the manual, it seems they put the capability of two independent drawbar units in the V5, which is fabulous. But they offer no simple solution to controlling the second manual's set of drawbars, an omission which verges on the sadistic, in my opinion. If I am correct in my understanding of the V5, this is a truly bizarre omission on the part of the designer. The least they could do is sell an inexpensive set of drawbars that would allow you to access this hidden feature of the V5. Simply put, to use the V5 to drive a B3-type setup with two manuals and pedals, you have to hunt down and then buy a suitable midi slider box. And this is after you have to buy a midi merge box in the first place. Once you have your midi merge box, you can run a second 61-note manual from a V5 and even adjust its drawbar settings. This is a wonderful feature, no doubt. However, to adjust the drawbar settings for the second manual, you have to get midi sliders with the capability of being assigned to midi controller numbers 21-29. Most keyboard controllers don't have nine sliders. After looking into it, I discovered that such a specialized slider unit is rather expensive (e.g., the Peavey 1600X), almost as much as buying another organ module (e.g., the Voce Micro-B).



It has no onboard Leslie or reverb. I find this acceptable because I use my own external units for the Leslie and reverb. However, I had to pay nearly $300 for the Leslie simulator (a Hughes and Kettner rotosphere) in addition to the cost of the V5 module. Then I had to pay another chunk of money for a midi merge box. I have yet to decide what I'm going to do about the midi drawbars needed for the second manual. A brute force solution is to simply buy another V5. Another is to muddle along with my four slider keyboard controller, using it as a half-set of drawbars. Or I might just cough up the cash for the fancy midi slider or drawbar unit. Regardless, you end up with a V5 and FOUR other little boxes: a reverb, a leslie simulator, a midi-slider box, and a midi-merge box. For the amount the V5 costs, they could have included at least the midi-merge box, and the option of buying a matching set of drawbars from them that would access controller nos. 21-29.



A very nice feature is that the modulation wheel on a synth will cause the drawbar setting of manual 1 to morph into that of manual 2. This is a very useful real-time control that I constantly rely upon in live settings.



The V5 has full polyphony for two 61-note manuals and 25 bass pedals. This is like a B3, and is perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned. However, some of you may care about this: it will not produce tones outside of the 61-note range, so 76- and 88-key controllers do not mate with the V5 from top to bottom of their ranges, unless you do some fancy zone setting in the V5's multitimbral mode (wherein one part of the keyboard is manual 2, another is manual 1).

In my opinion, the V5 sound is excellent, and I give it a solid "10."



For what I wanted, its sound was better than the Roland VK7 and Hammond XK2--though I suggest everyone make up their own mind on this point, since each of these units has something good to offer. I like the core of an organ tone to be solid and fat, and I like very dissonant harmonies to sound clearly. The V5 delivers on these points; on these points it far outdoes the parade of keyboards I have used as pseudo-organs in the past. Complex pedal-point harmony (wherein triads or seventh-chords are superimposed over a foreign bass) sound with superb clarity. The V5 is not harsh anywhere, but warm everywhere. If you want to get a full drawbar, spine-chilling screaming power-chord, like Lee Michaels does, you've got it. If you want to get funkier than Shirley Scott on Sunday, you've got it. If you want an "I am a megalomaniac alpha-male" Keith Emerson sizzle-chord, you've got it. If you want those weird ice-rink-meets-Thelonious-Monk settings of the early Jimmy Smith, you've got it.



With a V5, you do not need to fight a Vale Tudo death-match with your EQ unit to conceal unmusical ugliness in the overtones near the top or bottom of the range. The sound is musically inspiring.



In rapid passages and glissandi, the notes melt from one to the other as on a B3. You do not get that robotic individuation of pitches that many synths and sampler pseudo-organs inflict.



What I love about the V5 is that the slightest shift in a drawbar produces a very real change in the sound. As on a B3, each drawbar is numbered from 1 to 8. And each number actually means a different sound possibility.



The following is not a negative, but should be pointed out. The V5 is a B3 simulator. It does not produce other kinds of sounds. But as a B3 simulator, its basic drawbar sound is very, very, very good.



In my opinion, the key click and percussion are very good. I don't worry about leakage much, so find a "leakage expert" to get an opinion about that feature. I don't use the V5 distortion, but, rather, get distortion from special preamps and the Hughes and Kettner Rotosphere. But I am abnormally fussy about overdrive tone, so I will refrain from giving an opinion about the V5 distortion--even though I found that it does not suit my taste. Many people will probably find the V5 distortion to be perfectly good.



Finally, the V5 gives a nice hot signal to a preamp, so you will not have any problems. It is not at all noisy. (The noise in my sound comes from my Leslie simulator and other tube components in the signal path.)

After decades of horror stories with wall warts, I have post-traumatic wall-wart stress disorder. The V5 uses a nonstandard wall-wart. If I say more about this I will curl up into the fetal position and start vibrating.



The drawbars hang out into empty space, begging to be bent. I guess this is a tradeoff since the unit is marvelously compact. The inclusion of velcro straps suggests that one perch it on a keyboard. Since I need it to work reliably, I have housed it inside a rack on a shelf where the drawbars cannot be damaged and where the wall wart is permanently attached, its cord secured. I situate the rack where I can readily strike the buttons or slide the drawbars. This works well. I wouldn't recommend that you perch it on a keyboard--with midi, audio, and wall-wart cables having to be attached and detached before and after every performance--unless you have a backup and extra setup time.



I am buying something as a backup.

The manual is online, which proved useful when I was comparing features before buying. I have no basis for an opinion about customer support so my rating is "no opinion."

If it were lost or stolen I would buy it again. I have been a professional keyboard player for thirty years. I own a basement full of items.



What do I love about it? I love its basic sound. I wish they had included the midi merge function in the V5 itself, and also had a matching set of optional drawbars you could buy for dual manual performance. I also wish the V5 had a volume knob for the lower half of the split, so that one can tweak the bass volume "on-the-fly," that is, in real time. But if you buy yourself a rackful of little expensive boxes, you can supplement the V5 module and get all the missing features (including reverb and Leslie simulation) taken care of. And then you can be happy--that is, if you don't go twitching insane from all the little boxes and wall warts surrounding you like goblins from a nightmare.



BOTTOM LINE: The sound of the V5 is so good that I forgive all of the designer's sins of omission.



Why did i choose the V5? I chose the V5 because I wanted the best possible organ sound without having to lug a B3. I believe I made the right choice.



If you have questions about the V5, ask the Voce support group on the Onelist Communities site.

As everyone has said, a very simple piece of gear to operate. I didn't even bother looking at the manual the first time I used it - and that was at a jingle session! If you understand MIDI, keyboards, and B3s, you're all set. If not, very slight learning curve at the most.

The main feature - drawbars! How did I live without them? The MIDI capabilities are all you'd need for a B3 module. As you're aware by now, no Leslie effect. Doesn't matter - most onboard rotary speaker simulators sound fine for live work but stink in the studio. Look for the one that serves you best. The comments of others about using tubes are all correct. It is a must. I think the pots for key click, leakage, etc. are very usable and the funky preset set-up is odd and fun.

Other than the guy who liked the V3 best, I agree with everyone here. This thing sounds as close to a B3 as you can currently get. As I stated above, you can get away with murder in most live contexts with fake B3 sounds; i.e. samples from workstations or synths, using just the onboard leslie effect. Depending on how prominent a role the organ sounds play in your situation, there are lots of options that fill the role nicely. In the studio, on the other hand, is a whole different can of worms. My main frustration at sessions has been delivering a really good B3 sound at studios that didn't have a B3/122 combo available. To make matters worse, I use one of the best B3/122's I've ever heard at my church 2 or 3 times a week, and on sessions at our church's studio, so I've grown very accustomed to what that sound should really be. When I've had to come up with a good B3 sound in a studio without a B3, even though 9 out of 10 times the producer, artist, and/or engineer will never complain, I've always felt embarassed by what I was contributing. I've used all different kinds of samples, modules, and combinations to try and get 'the sound'. Never happened. I bought the Hammond X-whatever and took it back, being severely disappointed in how wimpy it sounded. I rented a Roland VK-whatever and took it to a session and thought the same thing - wimpy and fake sounding. Horrendous on-board leslie. I finally got a Digitech RPM-1 Leslie simulator and tried running my Trinity B3 sounds through it. Probably the best combo yet, as the Trinity organs are about as realistic as the current samples get. I will admit I haven't tried or used any sample library B3's, but any sample is going to be static. I finally got the V5, and it is really something. I took it straight to a session after picking it up, ran it through the Digitech RPM-1, which incorporates a tube in the signal path for some real overdrive and warmth. Then through my Tubeworks Stereo DI which gives a bit more warmth via it's tube, and then to the ADATS. The sound is as rich and warm as the real deal, but not quite as detailed. It's highly expressive, highly playable, highly inspirational, and really does the job right. The articulation of notes within a held chord is very chunky, earthy, and very real. The palm smears smoosh up just right (hope my technical jargon isn't going over your heads! ;-) ). The high C, held while ramping up the Leslie, is probably the most fake sounding of all B3 cliches on the wanna-bees. The V5's high C is thick and very convincing, although not quite as moving as the real thing. I personally like a tiny bit of the leakage. Maybe it isn't exactly like a real B's leakage, but in the mix, it adds a very realistic dimension to the sound and to me, the end product is what counts, not some under-the-microscope, anal inspection of every nuance. I've played lots of B3's in studios, concert halls, and churches, and this is the closest thing going right now. I give it a 9 only because a real B3 is the only thing deserving a 10.

Seems pretty sturdy. Made of all metal (no plastic - yea!!), although it's very light because it's so small. I think for gigs, samples could serve as back-ups. The drawbars are a wee bit flimsy, but they are the same quality as the B3 drawbars. I won't give it a number for this category since I haven't owned it long enough to judge accurately.

Called the company looking for a local distributor, and they were helpful and friendly. What more do you need?

No need to go on and on. A better replacement for the beast you won't find. It's orange, which Keyboard magazine thought was dumb. Most of us who started buying gear in the 70s remember all the funky colors on stomp boxes and different things, and so the orange for us is fun. B3 playing should be and sound fun, so it's a good fit. I do love the sound it creates and feel inspired to play interesting parts with it. As I said earlier, the Hammond, Roland, and other wanna-bees just aren't as gritty and don't have the personality this does. I really didn't want another keyboard anyway, and this makes life and business much better. I'm down to gigging with a Fatar SL880, Kurzweil MicroPiano, the V5, and either a Korg X5DR or Roland JV1010 through a Roland KC300 amp. From the days of hauling B3s, Rhodes's, Yamaha CP70s, and big heavy synths and accesories, this type of set up is heaven sent. Total weight of my live rig is under 70 lbs., set up is minutes, and the sounds are superb. If B3 is what you need, especially something very real for digital recording in particular, get this and a good Leslie simulator. The Digitech RPM1 is out of production, but the Pro Motion pieces are excellent, and the Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere has a tube and is supposed to be great. Spin II from Voce seems to be a good product also, though I haven't heard it. My bandmates, studio clients, and myself are all very satisfied.

OK, this is my third submission on this unit. I promise it will be the last if only because no one should be hogging this much space on this site. But not long after buying my V5, I finally had the opportunity to hear and play the V3, and so I thought the comparison was worth commenting on, especially since the first reviewer below had some pretty strong opinions about it. Control-wise can do alot more with the V3. It has an LCD, menus, very extensive midi controls (e.g., you can set it to trigger leslie slow/fast through aftertouch, an interesting possibility that has nothing in common with how most of us are accustomed to playing the organ). And with the V3 midi drawbar unit, you do have real time control over at least manual. But here's another important thing to consider. The V3 is noisy. Read the V3 reviews on this site, they agree. There's a surprising amount of high end hiss. It can be dealt with somewhat by EQ'ing the treble way down, but its still very noticeable and doesn't really add to the realism. The V5, by comparision, is incredibly quiet. I'm not sure where in the V3's circuitry this originates. Maybe its the leslie simulation (though I heard the hiss even with the "rotary speaker" button switched off), in which case you could bypass it with another simulator. Anyway, the V5 has an incredibly clean sound. It also sounds more full and bassy than the V3. The V3 seems to have more built-in grunge and randomness (I think that's what meant by the shorthand adjective "balls") and that might suit your taste, though that can be added to the V5 with the right effects. I have to say I was very attracted to the sound of the V3 for that very reason, despite its noisiness. If you want extensive midi controls, a very good onboard leslie simulation, and a somewhat grungier, ballsier sound, I think the V3 is the way to go (you'll have to find it used, of course). But be prepared for some hiss.

This is just an update to my recent review in which I said I was having trouble using the multi-timbral mode. I've got that figured out now (yeah, reviewers really should have their complete s__t together before speaking out). The problem was in the vagaries of my controller, not in the V5. The V5 allows you 7 presets, plus a "manual" mode (reflecting whatever the bars and knobs current position). The manual mode can be reached by pressing any preset button twice. In multi-timbral mode, you're sending 2 midi channels of data to thet V5 (or 3, if you want to get a pedal board into the act) simultaneously. Each channel can send a program change message that picks one of the presets or the manual mode. I think they can even be the same preset for both manuals. Once these are selected, you can then change any aspect of the sound corresponding to one of the channels, as if you were modifying one of the manuals on a dual manual organ). The preset triggered by the other manual cannot be modified, you have to change presets to do that. Volume messages affect both manuals to the same degree. Some might find this system a bit limiting, but I think it will be adequate for most of my playing situations. I don't tend to mess around a whole lot with the lower manual. The ability to switch between 2 or 3 settings is all I need. I can forsee using the V5 mostly by setting up my controller to consistently leave the upper manual on the "manual" mode, so its always playing just what it looks like according to current drawbar position, while switching between different presets for the lower manual. Using it that way, 7 presets seems like more than enough. But that's just how my playing habits tend to go. According to the manual, the V5 allows you to adjust the drawbars of both manuals at once, but you have to get a controller that will send messages corresponding to those hidden drawbars. There are keyboard controllers out there with 8 sliders and that I think would be your best bet to make this happen but I certainly haven't tried it yet. Now that I understand the multitimbral mode better, I can appreciate that it is simple but elegant, and will probably satisfy most B-3 players. Again, as I tried to explain in my longer review, this unit is conceptually unlike the Roland or Hammond simulators, which I think try to give you the whole B-3/Leslie package all at once such that it sounds like you're listening to the whole deal from somewhere inside a club or on a recording. What you get from the V5 is essentially the same thing you get from the line out of a B-3 before the Leslie. That's not exactly true. If you've ever heard the raw sound from a B-3, its not very pleasant. The V5 sound is quite a bit softer and easy on the ears. But its the same in that you still have to work with that sound source, adding in the leslie and tube distortion components. For that purpose, I think it stands head and shoulders above Roland and Hammond. What the world needs now is a dual-manual controller with the unbeatable action of the Hammond XK-2 (which, verily, is "the shit"). This controller should weigh under 40 pounds and cost in the neighborhood of $1000 or less. If such a thing existed, you could use it to operate the V5, run it through a MotionSound product for leslie/distortion. I am convinced that such a combination could replace the real B-3 for all but the most die hard players (who, in the grand scheme of things, will still be needed so that Hammond repairmen and chiroprators can send their kids to a decent college). Unfortunately, I would guess that no one will undertake to design such a controller because the market niche is too small to justify design and production costs. Que lastima!