Native Instruments B4-II

Before B4
In 1974 I was young, dumb, and so in love with the big warm sound of the Hammond B3 that I purchased a Hammond M2 organ and the obligatory Leslie speaker as my first keyboard. In retrospect this was probably a bad choice as I drove a VW Karmann Ghia and lived on the third floor. Regardless of the size, weight, and a lack of portability, I loved that Hammond sound and hoped someday to be able to upgrade from the M2 to a B3. Fast forward 32 years into the future and inside in my Mac is the Hammond B3 that I always dreamt of, The Native Instruments B4 II.

What Is a B4?
The B4 Version II (henceforth referred to simply as B4) is a Macintosh OS X and Windows XP Hammond B3 emulation that can operate as a stand-alone application or as a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) plug-in. Compatible plug-in formats on the Mac are Audio Units (AU), VST 2.0 (VST), and Realtime Audiosuite (RTAS) for Pro Tools users. As I’m writing this review (Q1 2006) B4 is compatible with Apple’s Logic Pro 7.X, MOTU’s Digital Performer 4.6, Pro Tools 7.X, and Cubase/Nuendo. My DAW of choice is Logic Pro 7 and Mac OS X (10.4) Tiger on my old but mighty 1 Ghz dual processor Power Mac G4.

Please note that because the Apple Pro Audio Web site is all about the Mac you’ve now read everything I’m going to write about the B4 in a Windows environment.

First Impression
I don’t want to sound too biased but the minute I heard the B4 I was hooked. I have several very nice synth modules from Korg, Roland, and Yamaha as well as the very solid sounding EVB3 virtual instrument that is part of Logic Pro 7 and to my ears the B4 stood out as not only the best sounding B3 emulation but the easiest to program as well.

Still as opinions are like the various anatomical parts that we all have in common I’m going to give you a short audio sample in where you can compare Logic’s EVB3 with the B4 and decide for yourself.

Click this link to hear a QuickTime audio/image of B4-II in action.

Under The Hood
For those of you brave enough to venture beyond the stock presets and create your own B4 sounds I’m going to give you a quick tour of the five windows of the B4’s User Interface. Because my life and actions are ruled by what has been recently identified as the slacker gene, I rarely program sounds from scratch but instead edit the parameters of an existing preset to get the exact sound I’m looking for. The Manual, Organ, and Expert windows offer B4 users access to more than enough sound shaping options to turn a great preset into a kick ass custom patch that is something unique unto itself.

Manual View
Using Figure 1 as your first point of reference, the Manual View window is a bird’s eye view of both keyboards and the bass pedals as well as the drawbars and a few of the basic parameters that can be used to edit or create a B4 preset sound. All visible parameters including the drawbars can be edited via the host computer’s mouse and the current preset and edits can be previewed by clicking on either of the B4’s virtual keyboards or bass pedals with the mouse. Note that the upper and lower keyboards as well as the bass pedals are assigned their own MIDI channels. These and other parameters can be changed in the Set Up View window (see Figure 5).


Figure 1: The Native Instruments B4 (Version II) looks and sounds like the real thing.

Organ View
The Organ View window (see Figure 2) gives you a look into the heart of the B4’s warm and tubesque analog sound. By viewing and exploring each of the parameters of your favorite B4 preset in the Organ View even the most technically challenged members of our musical brethren should be able to understand the basics

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Figure 2: The heart of the B4’s warm sound is a virtual tube

Expert View
The Expert View window (see Figure 3) is quite similar to the Organ View window though it offers an even deeper set of B4 sound shaping parameters from which to add or subtract from.


Figure 3:For the hardcore Hammond enthusiast the Expert View window offers a deeper set of programming parameters.

Preset View
In the Preset window (Figure 4) four of the 10 available preset banks are visible. The B4 has a total of 10 preset banks that hold 12 presets each for a total 120 B4 presets at any given time. If 120 presets are not enough, groups of 120 presets can be imported and exported to and from the B4. This applies to single presets as well.


Figure 4: With the ability to import and export single presets as well an entire bank of 120 (presets) file management in B4 is an easy task.

Set Up View
The Set Up View window gives the B4 user access to the B4’s MIDI control parameters including MIDI channel assignment, keyboard splits, and MIDI Controller assignments.


Figure 5: Use the Set Up View window to assign MIDI channels and set up keyboard splits for the B4.

Misc. Stuff
As my studio Mac has Broadband Internet access I was easily able to register my copy of B4 online at the Native Instruments Web site and more important quickly update my copy of B4 to the latest version available (2.02 at this writing). Because the update files are generally quite large (35 MB + in this case) broadband access for your studio Mac is a must.

For the Hammond aficionado who wishes to tweak the B4 via hardware, Native Instruments also offers the B4D (see Figure 6) with real drawbars, two knobs and 22 buttons. The B4D interfaces with the host computer via MIDI.


Figure 6: The B4D

It’s A Wrap
In my world this is a done deal: The B4 (II) is the most realistic sounding Hammond B3 emulation I have ever heard or used. When working with B4 in Logic Pro 7 there was a seamless integration that didn’t interrupt my workflow for even a second. It was all good. Add to the list an easy to navigate programming interface and a great price performance ratio ($229.00 US List Price) and how can you say no?

If you would like to get close and personal with the B4, point your browser toward www.native-instruments.com and download a demo version.

Ron Simpson is a musician, recording engineer, and recovering author currently residing near Seattle.