Motion Sound KBR-3D Reviews

Sort By Date Sort By Rating

Customer Reviews

Tim Michael
from Houston, TX
May 5, 2012Music Background:
Musician

Motion Sound has "done it right" with the new KBR-3D!

This amp is giving me all I need in my keyboard rig. I've just had it for several weeks and I am just getting used to the full effects of my keys in the mix. It definitely has a fuller, richer sound, with every voicing, and the Horns are a real bonus! The real "tale of the tape" comes from the others in our group: they absolutely LOVE the sounds, as well!

Guido Guzzo
from Ottawa, Canada
July 8, 2011Music Background:
Former Pro, semi Pro now

Motion Sound KBR-3D

OK I dont understand the comments of haveing to mic the the thing. It has 2 XLR outs with a small mixer in the back to balance the amount of horn mic and low rotor. What are people talking about. Yes there is a direct out for the horn but why would you use this. OK I have owned this amp for 10 years, I am one of the first owners of this thing, I bought it without testing it or even seeing it. I have various keyboards and they have all sounded great through this thing, it is funny the keyboards have changed, Korg, Roland , Kurzweil, Nord etc etc but the amp has stayed the same over 10 years. This thing Rocks, yes the clean channel could be a bit louder but that is what external PA is for, as long as I can here myself I dont care about anything else and I have no problem here. I just bought it for some service not that anything was wrong I just wanted to ensure that it was cleaned and oiled up. Never had a problem, this thing ROCKS!

Pete Ferrell
from Charleston, West Virginia
April 2, 2009Music Background:
30 years of playing after high school and still rocking on the weekends

I've owned the Motionsound KBR-3D for seven years now.

I'm going mention the bad first just to get it out of the way, then move on to all the great things. The worst thing I can say about this amp is while the design has two built in microphones on the leslie rotating horn, there is NO direct output on the speaker section. This means you only get the highs off the horn, unless you mic the speakers. Also, if you are playing straight through the stereo amp sections, then you have no internal mic or DI output from the amp, again you must mic the speakers. I found it best to use a small mixer (I have a Soundcraft stereo ten channel). I use two stereo DI's off my Motif ES8 and Korg Triton ProX. This means I have four inputs, stereo off two boards and pan two channels each for left and right on the mixer. Then I use the XLR outputs for the internal rotating horn mics to two panned channels on the mixer. Then it's a simple task to send the stereo output of the mixer to the snake and PA. This works extremely well. For smaller venues such as clubs, the amp has 100 watts per channel stereo and forty watts if I remember correctly to the horn. Plenty for a club setting. I also replaced the factory stick on knobs with a little better quality that had a set screw.

The great things to mention is the tone. This is a close to the famous Lesie sound as you will ever come without dragging that heavy @$% Leslie cabinet around. This amp is compact, plenty of power, and draws compliments everywhere I take it. Other keyboard players die in envy to the sound. I highly recommend buying a 3.8 thickness road case with good wheels to protect it. I take it out of the case, put the top back on the case bottom, set the amp up on top of the assembled case. It sets it the perfect height behind me for self monitoring. This is a great amp no matter how you look at it, less the mic issue I mention at first. I love mine, and will not part with it.

Chuck Hollis
from Boston, MA
November 20, 2010Music Background:
Long time semi-pro and weekend warrior

No-Compromise Keyboard Amp

Yes, it's expensive. Guess what -- they could probably charge more for this unit. You get a killer stereo keyboard-quality amp PLUS a real-deal preamped rotating leslie horn. If you play classic keyboard sounds, it does it all in an industrial-strength package.

I've been playing mine for about a year, and I love it. Stands out clean and vibrant over the other band members. Plenty of volume in reserve if ever needed -- but I've never had to really crank it up.

Not everyone wants a top-shelf keyboard amp, but if you do, this is it.

Danalog
from Nashville, TN
April 29, 2010Music Background:
Recording Engineer, Keyboard Player

Perfect Combination of Features

If you play organ AND other keyboard sounds this is the perfect rig. You get a real rotating horn. The organ input has a 12AX7 tube preamp. Nice tone controls for getting the sound just right. The rotation horn is mic'd internally. The stereo channel gives you a couple inputs for your other keyboards or synths. Then everything gets mixed down to 2 XLRs on the back. This cuts down my setup time. All I do is plug-in my keyboard and give the FOH the balanced stereo outputs and I'm done. The only thing preventing a five star rating is the main full range amps are a bit noisy with a little background hiss (not present on the direct outs only the amplified sound) but this is not noticeable in a live setting. It's an acceptable amount below the noise floor of many keyboards and the speakers sound great especially when you crank it up. Great "Leslie" sound and a very portable package.

Dave Wallace
from Fresno CA USA
January 16, 2011Music Background:
Organist, musician

It's got its share of pros and cons...

This is my second KBR-3D and my fifth Motion Sound product. As one reviewer pointed out, if you own one of the first models of these, only the horn sounds will be sent to the XLR outputs. On the new generation, all the channels now are mixed down to these outputs, but the circuitry that does this is of poor quality and has been bad mouthed by every sound tech that has tried to use them. For p.a. use this amp must be miked, and it takes four (YES!) to properly do this, just like a real Leslie. Just putting one or two mics in front of it and hopeing you get it all won't work. Also, the newest version of this amp looks much better than pictured, the grill cloth is now darker and made from thicker material, the same color as on the KPS500, and the face plate is now black with better looking letters and graphics. Visually, the new version is a tremendous improvement. If you ever run across someone who hasn't seen or heard one of these, they'll be blown away. The stereo separation on all channels is great, if your synth has Rhodes patches with the old "ping pong" vibrato, this amp will make that sound really sweet. The expand mode on the stationary channel makes anything you put through it sound lush and full, but this channel generates a hum at about half volume level. I'm not a tech, and might not understand about wattage ratings, but to rate this amp at 240 watts is absurd. I also own a Peavey KB-300BW with a claimed 160 watts, and two of these M.S. amps could not keep up with one Peavey. I like almost everything about this amp, but it just needs more honest power and a few of the bugs worked out. When lifting it by the handles, it will try to roll forward on you, it's top heavy and the handles should have been placed higher, but to do that would have interfeared with the amplifier inside and it's components. The new version also has wider, longer, and deeper handles than those pictured. The new foot switch now has LED's to tell you what position your rotors are in, nice. The overall sound of all channels is better than acceptable, the build quality is not as solid as my Peavey or other amps I've owned. It's good that the top horn and bottom rotor simulator's speeds are variable, but to do this requires the cabinet to be stripped of all it's electronics, and doing that [carefully] takes about 45 minutes, then you have to reassemble everything, not good. For what this amp was designed to do, it's amazing. It will take three keyboards and give one of them a true rotary channel, I just wish it went louder without breaking up. I don't always have the luxury of a p.a. system to play through, and when band volumes increase, this amp can't keep up. When I'm playing gigs without a p.a., I'll put four mics in front of it and run them into the Peavey (it has three instrument channels and one XLR mic input) and that seems to be enough volume, but it makes for a lot of extra time, weight, and space. I'm wishing that Motion Sound would increase the output power of this amp, if they did, all the other inconsistancies would be a lot easier to overlook, it would be close to perfection.

Anonymous
April 5, 2006

Finally, a single amp for my keyboard rack - awesome

I'd grown tired of the simulated rotor effect of my Roland VK7. There's nothing like the real thing. However, I was suspicious of the potential sound for my Yamaha P80 piano or Tyros2 keyboards... would it have enough guts to fill the small clubs and churches I play?

Oh man... it's great. The "Leslie" is superb - real rotors. Ahhhhh... And the two 10" speakers just flat out rock. Very loud, very clear, plenty of punch.

Impressive amplifier. Highly recommended.