Manual B4000+ authentic organ modeller FERROFISH advanced audio applications
Introduction Introduction Thank you for choosing the B4000+. We trust that you will have just as much fun with your B4000+ as we had developing this unique and characterful organ. Please read the manual thoroughly in order to take full advantage of the many features the B4000+ has to offer. The B4000+ is a drawbar organ in the tradition of the fabulous Hammond B3TM.
Quick start Quick start Attach your B4000+ to the power supply and connect it to the wall socket. Press and hold the On key to power the B4000+. Connect the loudspeakers to the Audio Out plug, or your headphones to the Phones plug. Attach your MIDI keyboard to MIDI A. You can play the upper register (manual) via MIDI channel 1. The lower register is on MIDI channel 2, and the pedal register on MIDI channel 3. In order to attach another MIDI keyboard for the lower register easily, use the MIDI B input.
Operation Operation Operating the B4000+ is very easy thanks to the TFT display. However, all functions of the B4000+ can be controlled directly at the device. More than 80 parameters influence the sound. Have fun playing with them! To keep track of things, we grouped the functions as follows: GENERATOR Here the sound is generated and mixed. Adjust the global sound parameters by pressing Sound and Percussion. By selecting Tone you mix the registers and also the external input.
Operation REGISTER Using the three keys Pedal, Lower, Upper you choose which register is attached to the drawbars. The actual setting is shown in the top part of the display. By long pressing one of these keys you can copy the drawbar positions in the corresponding register. By double-clicking the key the register properties can be set. First select the function by pressing the appropriate key, then change the parameters by turning the knobs A-F.
Sound Sound When pressing this key the six most important sound parameters of the emulation are shown: EMULATION FEATURE Click On a Hammond B3TM, the mechanical triggering of the sound by the keyboard creates a noticeable, rather ’spitty’ click.
Sound EMULATION FEATURE Condition As time passes, the condition of the tonewheels of a Hammond organ tends to degrade, which affects the sound quality and tuning integrity. With this control you magically alter the condition of the tonewheels from brand new (’NEW’) to ’needs repair’ (’REPAIR’). EMULATION FEATURE Leakage On some organs you hear quiet overtones in the background when keys are played, even when all drawbars are in zero position.
Percussion Percussion As with a HammondTM organ, the percussion effect is available only on the upper register and sounds only when a detached fingering style is used. If you play legato style (i.e. with overlapping notes), only the first note played triggers the percussion. EMULATION FEATURE On/Off Enables the percussion. EMULATION FEATURE Level Controls the overall level of the percussion. EMULATION FEATURE Harmonic This controller changes the pitch of the percussion.
Percussion ADDITIONAL FEATURE Attack Controls the duration of the percussion. Since this feature isn't available on the original, set this value to minimum for the original sound. EMULATION FEATURE Decay Controls the duration of the percussion.
Tone Tone Here you mix the registers and external input: EMULATION FEATURE Pedal - Lower - Upper Adjust the volume of the corresponding register. ADDITIONAL FEATURE Input You can feed an external signal in the Audio In plug. This signal can either be fed directly to the mix or via the effects section. Adjust the volume of the input signal with this knob. In case you don't need this input, please set the volume to minimum to avoid noise coming in from the unused (open) input jack.
external Input external Input When pressing the Tone key a second time, this screen will be shown. Here you see the chain of the sound generator and the effects. The external input signal can be inserted at arbitrary points. This way the signal is inserted before a specific effect, or can also be fed as dry signal to the output, or a combination of both.
Rotor Rotor This screen control the motion of the rotating speaker (LeslieTM). When you press the Rotor key again, the Horn and then the Bass screen is shown. Here you adjust the speeds of the Rotor, and also control break and acceleration. EMULATION FEATURE On / Off Enables the rotor. EMULATION FEATURE Slow / Brake / Fast Switch the rotor speed between slow, brake, and fast. The speed of the rotor can also be switched using the external switch plug.
Rotor ADDITIONAL FEATURE Modwheel / Aftertouch When enabled, you're able to switch the rotor between slow and fast by using the modwheel and aftertouch. So, if you press the key harder (aftertouch) or turning the modwheel, the rotor switches between slow, brake, and fast. The MIDI threshold for modwheel and aftertouch can be adjusted in the Settings.
Horn / Bass Horn / Bass After pressing Rotor again, the Horn- and then the Bassscreen is shown. These controls are used to adjust various rotor settings. Many rotary speaker systems used a speaker for bass frequencies and a horn for treble signals, which rotated at different speeds. This rich, complex sound is faithfully reproduced and fully programmable in the B4000+. EMULATION FEATURE Slow Controls the rotary speakers’ slow rotation speed when the ’ROTOR’ switch is set to the ’Slow’ position.
Horn / Bass EMULATION FEATURE Brake Controls the braking when switching from ’Fast’ to ’Slow’. EMULATION FEATURE Tone The bass speaker and horn each have a tone control. By adjusting these you change the overall tone color and resonance of the rotor effect.
Chorus / Vibrato Chorus / Vibrato More effects are implemented in the B4000+, which you control using the FX key: Chorus/Vibrato, reverb and compressor EMULATION FEATURE Vibrato Lower On/Off - Vibrato Upper On/Off This effect can be switched on for the upper and lower register seperately. EMULATION FEATURE Data Wheel The data wheel controls the strength of the vibrato and chorus effects.
Reverb Reverb With this screen you can switch on and adjust the reverb effect.
Compressor Compressor Since you're able to play up to 250 voices on the B4000+, the dynamics of this device is very high. The compressor is used to get a stronger sound. Press FX three times to get to the compressor screen. ADDITIONAL FEATURE On / Off Enables the compressor ADDITIONAL FEATURE Gain, Amp. Sets the strength of the compressor.
Presets Presets Press the Preset key to call up the a preset. Select a preset by using knob A, and the bank by knob B. To find a preset of a specific category, set the category filter with knob C. Bank 1 is used for the 128 factory presets, which are not writable. The banks 2-16 are unused. By long pressing the Store key you store a preset. Select the location by using knob A and B, and then press Preset again to execute. The name of the stored presets are “user 0001” etc.
Play Play Use this key when playing live. Here you have an overview of the drawbars, and you can adjust the volume by using knobs A and B. Knob A controls the volume of the B4000+ simulation. If you enabled the tube-amplifier emulation, you will hear tubedistortion when turning up this volume. Knob B just sets the output volume at the jacks. The presence of MIDI input signals is always shown on the very top of the TFT display. The small triangles show MIDI signals for MIDI A, MIDI B, and USB.
Pedal - Lower - Upper Pedal - Lower - Upper Press one of these keys to connect the drawbars to the corresponding register. The active register is always shown in the top right border of the screen. To prevent accidental changing of the drawbar settings you also can disconnect the drawbars. When pressing one of the keys long, you copy the current drawbar settings to the register.
Pedal - Lower - Upper ADDITIONAL FEATURE Attack This controls the attack time of the organ signal. When turned fully left (minimum position) the organ sounds immediately at full strength, while turning it fully right (maximum position) makes it fade in smoothly. ADDITIONAL FEATURE Release This controls the decay time of the signal. When turned fully left (minimum position) the sounds stops immediately after you release a key.
Settings Settings MIDI To adjust the MIDI setting, press long the Setup key. Here you select the channels for the three registers, adjust the octave position, and select keyboard splits, for playing more than one register on one keyboard. To attach a second keyboard easily, there is an additional MIDI input. The default setting of the MIDI channels are as follows: Register MIDI IN A MIDI IN B USB Upper 1* 2* 1 Lower 2* 1* 2 Pedal 3* 3* 3 Ctrl.
Settings So, easiest is to set both keyboards to MIDI channel 1, and plug in the upper-register keyboard to MIDI A, and the lowerregister keyboard to MIDI B. MIDI controller messages are processed on the “Ctrl” MIDI channel. Usually this is the same channel as you use for the upper keyboard. So, with the upper keyboard you also can select the Preset, and send other controllers. If you don't want the B4000+ to react on these controller messages, set the “Ctrl” MIDI channel to off.
Settings Settings ADDITIONAL FEATURE Aftertouch Threshold You can also switch the speed of the rotor by using aftertouch. The higher the number the more you have to press the key on your keyboard to switch the rotor to fast speed. ADDITIONAL FEATURE Modwheel If you like to control the Rotor using the Modwheel, set this switch to “On”. ADDITIONAL FEATURE Switch: slow/fast ↔ sustain This selects, if you use the switch input on the back of the B4000+ for controlling the Rotor, or for the Sustain function.
Settings ADDITIONAL FEATURE Switch: 2state ↔ 3state 2state switches (On-Off) are commercially available. However, since the Rotor has three positions, you can also connect a special switch with three positions, using a stereophone jack. This switch should connect tip with sleeve, and ring with sleeve. ADDITIONAL FEATURE Switch: switch ↔ key Alternatively to a switch, you can also connect a momentary key. When using a key, every keypress advances the Rotor by one position.
Settings The minimum and maximum value can be set with the knobs A and B. The arrows show the actual position of the pedal. The pedal function can be inverted with knob C. Version Here you find the firmware version and the serial number of your B4000+. Please check our website for new firmware versions. ADDITIONAL FEATURE show Num.: no ↔ yes Most settings of the B4000+ are shown as rotary potentiometer, but internally stored as MIDI values between 0 and 127.
additional functions additional functions Demosong Start the song by pressing the Demo key long. Panic No panic when a MIDI note gets stuck. Press the Panic key long to stop all playing notes. On / Off Press the On key long to switch the B4000+ off. If possible, please switch off the B4000+ using this key and not by removing the power plug. This way you're sure, that all settings are stored correctly.
CE / FCC Compliance CE / FCC Compliance This device complies with the limits of the European Council Directive on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to electromagnetic compatibility (RL89/336/EWG, RL73/23/EWG). This device complies with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC rules. RohS This device has been soldered lead free and fulfills the requirements of the RohS directive.
Warranty Warranty Each B4000+ is tested by us and all functions are checked extensively. Only high quality components are used, which enables us to give two years full warranty. As confirmation for the purchase date please keep the sales receipt. In case of a defect please consult your dealer. Defects, which are caused by improper installation or use are not subject to the warranty. In this case the repair is with costs. Compensation in any kind, i.e. of secondary damages is excluded.
