Settings to make nord stage 4 B3 organ cut through? Especially during solos

[dremellover420]

Piano, keyboard, all the other non-organ sounds cut through. Organ just gets totally buried. Am I missing something here? I am new at organ sounds and I have a soul gig with loud guitars tomorrow, would really appreciate any help!

My settings are:
B3 organ
Rotary speaker drive 7
Fast
Compressor 7/10

~888111111 verses, sometimes pulling more out gradually
~888666888 choruses/solo

does anyone know any settings to cut through better/have more presence? thank you

[dremellover420]

I think irl organs have an expression(?) pedal that helps with volume. I only own a sustain pedal so have not been doing any pedaling if this is something I should be doing

[FZiegler]

In order to get sounds levelled, you might need to set normal piano layers to around -6 dB and organ to 0 dB. And of course, you will need a swell pedal (expression type) for organ.

I've never set compression to something even close to 7 - there's almost no dynamic left then. But you're right that you may need some drive to 'cut through' (something between 2 and 7). If you have a swell pedal, the drive value can get way lower.

[dremellover420]

is there any way to do it without swell pedal? could I assign the wheel to swell or something?

[cphollis]

Piano, keyboard, all the other non-organ sounds cut through. Organ just gets totally buried. Am I missing something here? I am new at organ sounds and I have a soul gig with loud guitars tomorrow, would really appreciate any help!

My settings are:
B3 organ
Rotary speaker drive 7
Fast
Compressor 7/10

~888111111 verses, sometimes pulling more out gradually
~888666888 choruses/solo

does anyone know any settings to cut through better/have more presence? thank you

I play lots of AP/EP/synth/etc. but I use a lot of B3 for solos, as it cuts with great tone. No external FX required.

It took a while to figure out how to make it work well in a live mix. I have it set to be the loudest of the three sections, so I use an swell (expression) pedal to tame the beast -- but you could use a wheel morph mapped to the volume slider for a similar effect.

Your chorus/solo registration is healthy (much more than I use), so that's not it. Most of my registrations are a handful of stops, nothing more.

I run my pianos and synths at ~50% of the volume slider -- and my master volume at 12:00 -- which leaves plenty of room for the organ to come out on top when needed. Headroom is your friend with electric bands.

I often use heavy key click and soft percussion to make the individual notes thunk a bit. I don't use any compressor, the B3 sound is naturally compressed by design.

The treble-y speaker emulations add more cut -- but don't sound good standalone -- as you'd expect. I don't use them but you might want to. Don't forget the "power amp" drive in the EQ section -- it has a different, useful color than the rotary drive. Put in on a morph when you want to dig into the grit.

Other fun things? Pitch bend. Putting the leslie speed on a wheel morph and "playing" it. Putting a bit of horn (real or synth) behind your B3. Doing a duet with a gliding synth or similar.

With an amped up B3 tone, I think there's a fine line between "just right" and "too much", so be prepared to adjust on-the-fly.

I look forward to my B3 solos because there's a lot that can be done around the NS4's base capabilities.

[mtier0067]

If you listen to great Hammond solos in the same genre as you are playing, some consistent things that I usually find are:

Sometimes I try to Use simple drawbar settings. Too many stops is full but it’s also muddy and can make a nice line sound flat instead of punchy. 888800000 or even 838000000 comes to mind.

Sometimes cranking the drive in the Nord’s internal Leslie can make it cut through a mix nicely. If you have access to a drive pedal or a eq, both can be nice to hit for a solo. I use a MXR 10 band and a lounsberry tall and fat and/or a boss blues driver in mono before my organ signal hits a neo vent 2. All of this can be done within the Nord though. Set up the eq to give you a boost to the mids and a little drive (without an amp sim on). I usually hit some combo of those before the solo.

Have different drawbar/vib/perc settings for each 8bars of a solo that go along with slightly different playing styles. First 8 bars = percussion on, 808000000, short rhythmic meody, second 8 bars = perc off, 888800000, chordal melodies, last 16 bars = pull a few higher drawbars and throw the c3 on. Swells and gliss and big held notes can be good.

Work the Leslie speed during a solo. I sometimes start on slow and work my way up to full speed. The Leslie fast Doppler effect can dull some of the punch of a big overdriven single note vs if that same note is played on slow speed. Both have a time and a place! Variety is your friend )

There’s good advice on this thread already! Blending in a little mono synth with high note priority (on ns4) can be a good trick!

[LeftyBass68]

Send organ to output 3 then to a Ventilator pedal.
The Yamaha FC7 expression pedal has a 3-5db boost available at the end of travel that is spring loaded!
Changing speeds DURING a solo? Especially trem is never going to happen in my world.Stop and C3 almost exclusively.
Write a live patch setting on panel B organs for solos on Stage models.Have it dimed and one button away!

[Valpurgis]

is there any way to do it without swell pedal? could I assign the wheel to swell or something?

I would say a dedicated expression pedal for playing organ is a must and a crucuial part of the whole experience. Using the wheel (if it is possible) for expression would effectively make you a one handed player.

[Kaffimusic]

There had been some valuable tips.
But... maybe your band misses somthing here. And that is leaving room for someone playing a solo. This is way more impartant than "having to cut through". A common misconception of arranging music in a band. One thing is making music, the other thing is competing in a loudness war.
You should be forced to raise volume or "open up" the sound just slightly and there you should be clearly audible, embedded in the sound of the band. Not fighting guitars and drums.
This means - seen from the other side - you as well should have a more decent and low profile sound while playing other parts in the song. Something that "fills" gaps that are left by guitars and other instruments. Usually original song arrangements show pretty well how this sounds.
Dynamics - it´s always about dynamics of a band and most of them do not control them.

[madmaxtheking]

You're at 7/10 on compression, which is a decent starting point. I recommend lowering the threshold to apply a more consistent level of compression throughout the range and increase attack time to preserve the punch of the organ. Retro Bowl