Sweetwater Virtual B3 Organ

In the early part of 1997, Sweetwater released their "SW-B3" for the K2500. It was the first Kurzweil-based realtime drawbar B-3 that used *actual* B-3 Tone Wheel Samples. Even today, now that Kurzweil's excellent "KB3 Mode" is finally available, there are situations where our VAST-based B3 emulation is the better choice for the K2500.

Although we've received many positive e-mails, letters and phone calls about our SW-B3 freeware, we've received even more requests from K2000 owners who pleaded with us to design a realtime drawbar system for the K2000. There were many technical reasons why this seemed impossible and Sweetwater, Kurzweil, and others have often posted that this probably couldn't be done due to the smaller engine and lack of polyphony.

One night, after reading yet another request for a "KB3 that works on a K2000", I decided to create a version for the Internet (sort of as a joke) that would clearly show why such a K2000 program was useless, even if it could be made to work.

The key word that described this "joke" program was "Duophony" as the program could only play two notes at a time. (9 Drawbars + 1 Percussion divided by 24 Notes of polyphony = only 2 full Notes.)

After tweaking the Duophony version I decided that I would offer it to the public as a great B-3 Lead (only) program to show that Sweetwater at least attempted the effort to fulfill the many requests for real-time drawbars on the K2000.

Before releasing it to the public I decided to try at least one more trick to make it a bit less voice-hungry. I chose Algorithm 12 which has:

where the Keymap and the SINE Wave each had their own GAIN block as well as their own separate audio path until they mixed at the final AMP.

This succeeded in increasing the polyphony as each Layer now played two Drawbars. The downside was that the DSP SINE Waves are rather grungy and the resulting organ sounded like a transistorized Casio. And there were no VAST tools left to do any timbre processing. So I pretty much gave up...

...Days later I'm taking a shower and it hits me like a frying pan:

Q. What is a LowPass Filter to a SINE Wave?
A. A Volume Control !!!

I figured, "If I use a LowPass Filter on those grungy DSP generated SINE Waves and then attach a Drawbar to Filter Cutoff Frequency I can accomplish two things with one DSP Block: Filtered Pure Sine Waves with dynamic Volume Control!"

Now it really started to sound like it was supposed to. But the resulting polyphony consumption was still too high for the K2000's 24 voices. So I installed all of my gizmos that make one Layer have more Voice-Stealing Priority than another and it gives back voices that weren't being heard.

B3 Drawbar Organ

Then I gave the 1' Drawbar its own Layer that doesn't even Enable until the Mod Wheel (CC#1) is up slightly.

Now we have enough notes of polyphony to allow a left-hand bass note plus a full right hand chord. (On a K2000!!) But it still lacked the impact of a B-3.

So I edited all of the ROM Sine Wave Samples and created Alt. Start Points that started slightly away from Zero Crossings. This effect is heightened because each Layer starts slightly after the one before it. The resulting sound of all those singular clicks being flam'd is just like the multiple B-3 buss bars clicking.

Then I added about ten more improvements including a Dual Rotor Leslie that pans in stereo (without Panner!!), variable control Chorus/Vibrato, variable Key Click, Leakage and a separate Program that adds 3rd or 2nd Harmonic Percussion in place of the 1' Drawbar (just like a real B-3).

This latest version of my K2B3 also varies the quality of the Key Clicks based on which drawbars are pulled out.

Since many of the e-mails about Kurzweil's KB3 Mode commented about the lack of a Lower Manual and Foot Pedals, I decided to try creating a special Lower Manual and Pedal Manual that would allow these additional Programs to exist on "non-Drum Channels" for those who don't have K2000 version 3.54 and P-RAM.

To do this I called many of my B-3 friends and asked them which Drawbars they "had-to-have" for their left hand. By trimming away a few Drawbars in the Lower Manual you actually have a situation where using Upper, Lower and Pedals actually gives you much *more* polyphony! (Check out the Demo Sequence with the MASTER/Utility/Voices display on.)

There are also External Leslie versions of each SW_K2B3 Program that are ideal for external Leslies or Leslie Simulators. You can use either the MIX Outputs or the B Outputs.

If there is a Reverb Depth that you prefer, you can change it without affecting the Leslie by adjusting the "Rev in: Dry" Adjust parameter in the EFFECTS Page and saving.

If you always want Polyphonic Percussion, you can EDIT the Prc>mw Program, go to the FUN Page and change FUN 3 B Input from "MIDI 29" to "ON" and save.

If you'd like less Key Click, EDIT a Program and go to the KEYMAP Page. Change the "Alt. Start" parameter of *each* Layer to "ON" and save.

Well, I hope that you enjoy playing this Program as much as I enjoyed designing it. The K2000/K2500 is simply the most exciting Sampler/Synthesizer I've ever played with. And if I can get a little preachy for just a moment:

Remember that this SW_K2B3 program could have been made on any K2000 *eight years* ago!! (Just like the Pink Floyd "Darkside" program.) All of the tools needed were available in VAST even then. It just took people wanting this badly enough that it was finally invented.

There are thousands of amazing Programs still waiting to be born with VAST. And no matter what the problem is, somewhere hidden inside VAST are probably 10 different ways to solve it. So go make something! (End of preaching.)

Daniel Fisher
Director of Soundware Engineering
Sweetwater Soundware Development Facility