Quote:
Originally posted by abacus:
Hello Smokey
VSTs (Of which the B4 is one) are basically software equivalents of hardware expanders that you connected to your instrument via midi, and which allowed you to use sounds that were not available on your own instrument.
Now because these expanders are now done in software, it makes them a lot easier and more flexible to use (Less cabling. Big Screen) then the old hardware versions.
Let’s look at a couple of VSTs
B4. As you may know there is no substitute for a genuine Hammond B3 and Leslie speaker system, (Although modern keyboards do have extremely good samples) however very few people can afford or have the room for one, but if you use the B4 VST, you have a layout on screen that is identical to the original instrument and operates like the original instrument, it also features a software sound system that gets mightily close to the real thing, the combination of the above 2 items means that to all intents and purposes you have a B3 organ available to you, that you can play using your own instrument.
Kontakt 2. Instruments these days mainly use samples of the real instruments, however the more samples you make of the instrument (For instance sample 25 different levels of each note on a piano instead of just 3) the more accurate the sound becomes, unfortunately more samples means more memory is required, (and hardware keyboards have a very limited amount) Kontakt 2 (And others) provide a means to play large samples (Using a computer) which would be impractical to incorporate in a hardware keyboard, thus they give you a truly astonishing sound quality and accuracy.
I hope the above makes things clearer, however if you are still not sure about anything, then post again and I will try to help.

Bill


I now use B4 as a standalone with a controller board. What would I gain by running it as a VST through OMB?
Smokey