VR Organ Tuning Guide

Classic ‘Hammond’ settings on VR

The VR09/VR730 Roland organ engine has a ‘sound on its own’ that cannot reproduce all the timbres of a Hammond B3: the ‘base sound’ – the ‘pure sine waves’ – is ‘too sine’ and lack fine overtones.
When you try ‘standard’ B3 registrations on VR, some will work, some won’t. Some of of the ‘don’t work’ can be tuned by a number of ‘tricks’- these tricks, which are are collection of personal experiences of VR players (you might find them usefull or disagree – it’s each personal taste) are discussed in the article.

VR organ by music-style:

Due to its character, VR organ is

  • well suited for Rock, cheesy churchy Church Organ (exellent), Bob Marley style Reggae, Latin (Santana & al)
  • difficult to use for Jazz: while some “Jimmy-Smith-all-stops-out” still work, particulary modern Jazz with colourised tones, from mellow to spherical, is sometimes impossible to reproduce. VR09/730 is not the best organ for Jazz players 😉
Tuning and ‘fixing’ VR organ

The following chapters explain how to get more out of VR organ:
(I) “Learn playing” (II) Tuning VR Organ (III) Tuning VR Rotary (IV) VR Rotary Settings

We explain how to “fix” important VR issues (taming ‘harsh’ VR Overdrive and correcting Rotary rotational speeds and ‘ramps’) and further show how to use MFX ‘Twin Rotary’, finetune harmonics (drawbars), handle leakage etc

(I) Learn to play ‘Hammond’

Classic ‘Hammond playing techniques’ are fundamental for creating authentic Hammond sound:

  • An excellent book for ‘initiating’ organ play is Hammond Organ Complete (Dave Limina/Berklee, your local shop, amazon etc): it teaches playing techniques, typical registrations and includes an audio CD.
  • Those mastering the language of Goethe can work through Bonedo Hammond Workshop – an excellent introduction into organ playing
  • Tons of ‘organ guides’ can be found in the Wide Web (youtube, google, etc)

IMPORTANT : on Roland VR09/730 organ, “standard” registrations might not deliver the exact tone Hammond players would expect. Eventually balance drawbars by “ear”

(II) Tuning VR Organ

VR Tonewheel engine is ‘not bad’ but does reach the level of the top tier stage organs (Hammond SK, Yamaha YC, Viscount etc.) but VR offers a number of ‘parameters’ which can significantly improve the ‘factory’ organ sound

  • Organ Type: ‘RockOrgan’ is probably the most used organ type – but for ‘mellow tones’, don’t hesitate to experiment with organ type ‘Jazz’ and Rotary type 1/2 or ‘standalone Twin-Rotary’ (see below) – it can sound better on your PA than default Rock-organ
  • Rotary Type: see chapter below
  • Organ-Vibrato/Chorus: while VR ‘Vibrato’ maybe is one of the worst Hammond-VC implementations ever, VR ‘Chorus’ is not bad. Be carefull when combining Chorus and ‘VR Rotary’: Chorus-3 plus Rotary Type 3 produce a ‘muddy’ sound. Eventually select Chorus 1 or 2 – and/or use Rotary type 1 or 2. Chorus 3 works well with ‘standalone Twin-Rotary’
  • Higher harmonics: the Roland Tonewheel organ lacks a lot of ‘Hammond’ overtones (high frequencies). To a certain degree this can be compensated by adding small amounts of high harmonic bars. Example: to a typical 8880… organ-registration add 1 or 2 units of 1 1/3′ and/or 1′, e.g. 888800011. Note: using VR rotary in combination with MFX ‘Twin-Rotary’ and setting the MFX knob at 11 o’clock or higher pushes those ‘added harmonics’ towards the characteristical fine Hammond leakage (‘glass tone’), thus compensating the too dull ‘VR leakage’ parameter
  • Taming of the Overdrive (OD): VR overdrive is one of the most critisised features of the VR: harsh’, ‘digital’, ‘scratchy’. Another complain is that the OD knob lacks sensibility and immediately ‘goes full’. The following measures allow to tame the OD:
    • Use organ level : At default organ level (10) the OD-knob works rather “on-off”. The trick to ‘spread’ the range for adjusting OD is to reduce organ level: set OD to e.g. 12 o’clock, then reduce the organ level (LEVEL draw-fader): the OD effect softens. Adjust level so that OD sounds moderate: now you have the entire range of the knob to fine adjust OD
    • OD ‘stepping’: Turning the OD knob does not increase the effect continuosly but in steps – “ranges” – where the effect changes its tonal characteristic towards harshness: play with OD knob and organ level to find your personal ‘sweet spot’
    • Pre-Amp distortion : Avoid running organ into (added) pre-amp distortion (see next paragraph)
    • ‘OD dry’ (wet/dry) option : In VR menu ‘EFX’ you find the ‘OD dry’ parameter: it changes the ‘mix’ between ‘dry organ’ part and ‘overdriven organ’ part in the end signal. Note that this can be counter-productive: increasing ‘dry’ might want you to regain the lost amount of OD by turning the OD knob to the right – but turning the knob right places OD in the harsher sounding ranges (see before)
  • Overdrive (OD) vs. ‘VR preamp distortion’: a too high level drives the organ (and any other sound like EPs) into VR internal preamp (soundchip?) saturation which leads to harsh distortions (sounding like broken headphones) added to the original Overdrive effect as a supposedly ‘overly harsh’ overdrive. The following examples demonstrate organ with pure preamp distortion and organ with OD and preamp distortion:
    [LEFT] ‘clean’ organ (without OD): level is rised and preamp crackles kick in at second ‘5’ on each ‘rotary peak’
    [RIGHT] organ with some OD: level is rised and preamp crackles kick in at second ‘6’, rendering the “overdrive” overly harsh.

    Clean organ, preamp saturation at second “5”
    Organ with OD, preamp saturation at second “6”

    A typical trap for running organ into preamp-saturation is applying VR-OD: it not only adds overdrive but also rises overall organ level, as a consequence organ runs into preamp saturation. This usually happens unnoticed and VR-OD “seems” to be become overly harsh
    Other traps are TONE knob to left or right, too high organ level-fader, organ GAIN etc

    One can prepare ‘save’ registrations that prevent VR organ of (unintentional) preamp saturation (use headphones or use good monitors):

    • select organ type, rotary type, etc and set rotary ‘fast’
    • pull drawbars full out (or at least to the maximum you will use)
    • set OD to 12 o’clock (where OD-induced organ level is maximum)
    • adjust to taste: TONE, Organ Gain, Twin-Rotary, etc.
    • play massive chords, try to sonically identify preamp distortion ‘crackles’
    • adjust organ LEVEL fader until the ‘crackles’ completely disappear (organ-level can go down to 2-3)
    • save to a registration

    Now you can change drawbars and amount of OD without risk of running into preamp saturation

    NOTE: preamp saturation can be used intentionally e.g. for creating brute transistor amp distortion, e.g. for heavy hard rock

  • TONE: TONE knob is a ‘V’ (lambda)-shaped equalizer: turn clockwise to rise highs and bass for a clean, aggressive sound, turn counter-clockweise for a ‘nosey’ sound (TONE at 9-10 o’clock replicates quite realistically B3, Nord or Hammond SK timbre. Eventually compensate reduced bass with organ LOW GAIN)
  • Organ GAIN: in VR menu ‘Organ’, Low/High Gain can be used to reshape the tonal character. It can be combined with TONE for a sort of ‘3-band EQ’
  • Leakage: VR09/730 leakage (crosstalk) adds a lot of (non-authentic) ‘deep fuzz’ – especially ‘bass-centric’ speakers start rumbling like a powerplant substation – so be careful when adding leakage. To improve the leakage ‘timbre’, see above ‘higher harmonics’
  • Cry Baby, Cry: particulary VR Rotary types 2 and 3 produce a rather ‘damped’ tone. To make VR organ very bright:
    • turn TONE knob clockwise
    • play with ‘organ gain’ (VR menu ‘Organ’): example: set ‘low gain’ to -5 and ‘high gain’ to +10
    • use the brighter sounding VR Rotary type 1 – or even more extrem:
    • use ‘standalone TwinRotary’ for a sharp, cutting-through transistor rock organ or clean Jazz organ
  • VR organ level bug: in a ‘mixed’ registration (organ + other sounds), VR does NOT SAVE ORGAN LEVEL (the level jumps back to default 10 when recalling the registration). There are two workarounds to change level in mixed registrations:
    • Organ GAIN (VR menu ‘Organ’): setting low and high gain to indetical values (e.g. -5 / -5) changes the level without changing the EQ curve
    • CTRLR Editor : when VR is connected to CTRLR Editor, the latter sets an additinal ‘hidden organ level parameter’ in VR – which is saved in registrations (note: you can adjust level with both VR level-fader or the level knob in the editor)

(III) Tuning VR Rotary

Everybody loves ‘VR Rotary type 3’ introduced by later firmware update. But with all the excitement don’t forget the ‘older’ rotary types as they can produce decent (sometimes better) results with respect to PA and music style. You might also exploit the possibilities of MFX ‘Twin Rotary’.

‘Real Leslie’ rotational speeds and accelerations

All men are equal – but Leslies are not 🙂 There is no such thing as the true unique real ‘Leslie speed’. Leslies rotate differently depending on model, ageing of bearings, tension/ageing of belts (friction, slip), the chosen pulleys of the belt driven horn, etc. etc. etc.

Grosso modo ‘authentic values’ are: tremolo (fast) speed: 360-400 rpm, chorale (slow) speed: 40-50 rpm.
Setting (slow/fast) speeds of drum and horn to identical values will result in a ‘church like’, rather ‘clean pulsing’ effect as drum and horn will be phase-coherent. Setting them slightly apart causes a ‘phase shift’ between drum and horn, which makes the sound more vivid.

In real life, rpms of horn and drum always differ to a certain amount (on purpose or by imperfections/ageing) and usually the horn rotates faster. On real Leslies the ‘pulleys’ of the belt driven horn can be changed which varies speed about ca. +/- 10 rpms.

VR Rotary types

VR has two ‘principal’ rotaries: the ‘VR rotary’ (VR left panel ‘ROTARY SOUND’ button) and the ‘Twin Rotary’ from VR MFX section (which is a full fledge rotary on its own).
Both rotaries can be used standalone (‘pure’) or in combination (the original idea behind ‘Twin Rotary’).
VR menu ‘Rotary’ options (type, speed/acceleration options etc) apply to both ‘VR Rotary’ and ‘Twin Rotary’:

  1. ‘pure’ VR Rotary with types 1-3: this is active when the (VR left panel) ‘ROTARY SOUND’ button is ON (and MFX is zeroed): the types differ both in ‘amp characteristics’ and ‘rotary effect’
  2. ”pure’ Twin Rotary with types 1-3: this is active when (VR left panel) ‘ROTARY SOUND’ button is OFF, VR MFX is set to ‘Twin Rotary’ and MFX knob is set to max
  3. combined Rotaries with types 1-3′: this is active when (VR left panel) ‘ROTARY SOUND’ button is ON and MFX is set to ‘Twin Rotary’. While the (original) idea of running two Leslies on stage (used by some rock bands) might be ‘doubtful’, adding Twin Rotary to VR Rotary can significantly improve the sound of ‘VR rotary’

Important: the tuning parameters for rotary speeds and accelerations depend on the selected rotary types: see tables below

Using VR Twin-Rotary ‘standalone’

MFX Twin Rotary (TR) can be used not only as a effect added to VR-Rotary but as a Leslie on its own. As such it is fully controlled by ‘slow/fast/stop’ of ‘ROTARY button’/mod-lever and by all parameters of VR menu ‘Rotary’

‘Standalone Twin Rotary’ produces a very clear, sharp, transistor-like sound that can be used ‘as is’ for aggressive Rock organ or clear Jazz or Reggae organ or as ‘base sound’ feeded into an external ‘amp simulation’ FX processor/pedal.

To setup ‘standalone Twin Rotary’:
– switch VR ‘ROTARY SOUND’ OFF (this switches the VR Rotary ‘amp simulation’ off)
– set MFX to ‘Twin Rotary’
– turn the MFX knob clockwise (preferably to max)
– chose a ‘Twin Rotary’ type: Twin Rotary varies with the ‘rotary type’ selected in VR-menu ‘ROTARY’:
      type 1 sets Twin Rotary to a rather ‘monophonic’ rotary effect
      type 2 sets Twin Rotary to a decent stereo rotary effect
      type 3 is _identical_ to type 2 but slighly louder
– tune ‘rotary’ speed/fall/rise/acc. options in VR-menu. Note: values differ for Twin Rotary (see tables below)
– apply Overdrive, organ Chorus/Vibrato, organ low/high gain etc. to your taste

Using VR Twin-Rotary in combination with ‘VR Rotary’

Adding an amount of MFX ‘Twin Rotary’ (TR) to the standard VR rotary can positively influence the rotary sound.
The contribution of MFX Twin-Rotary to the ‘rotor sound spectrum’ becomes significant when rising the knob to 11 o’clock or plus:
– it adds more ‘complexity’ to the ‘rotor tonal spectrum, making the sound more ‘vivid’ and ‘spheric’
– it improves the (not so nice) ‘whining’ character of VR Rotary
– it pronounces high organ frequencies, adding (authentic) Hammond leakage ‘glass sound’ (that lacks in VR organ)

Be careful: large amounts of ‘Twin Rotary’ (2 o’clock and more) have a risk of turning the thing into ‘chorale’.

Important: as discussed above, ‘Twin Rotary’ is (also) influenced by the ‘speed/rise/fall’ settings in VR men ‘Rotary’ – but the menu values result in significantly higher rpms compared to VR standard Rotary (see ‘Tuning Tables’ below).
When MFX pot is set past 11 o’clock, ‘TR rotation’ overwhelms ‘VR rotation’ and the audible rotation speed flips to a multiple of VR Rotary speed.
This ‘rpm change’ affects the slow speed regime but not the fast mode
To correct the rotation open VR menu ‘Rotary’ and adjust slow speeds as follows:
– for fotary type 1: woofer: 5, tweeter: 5 (both ca. 55 rpm)
– for rotary type 2+3: woofer: 3, tweeter: 10 (both ca. 47 rpm)
Notes:
‘tweeter 10’ for type 2/3 is no typo: with Rotary type 2/3 VR Rotary tweeter speed dominates Twin Rotary tweeter speed (for any high MFX level)
the adjustment is necessary only for MFX-TR settings higher than 11 o’clock, with MFX-TR equal or lower 11 o’clock , standard VR settings do apply

(IV) VR Rotary Settings

The tables below show examples of ‘rotary tuning parameters’ for VR Rotary types.

Some hints:

  • Roland ‘factory settings’ are “un-authentic” and do not correspond to real Leslies : ‘realistic’ settings for RPM and ramps are given in the tables below
  • ‘values’ (numbers) set in VR menu Rotary correspond to different speeds and ramps for different rotary types. Example: the same value for ‘horn slow’ results in different rotation speeds with Rotary type 1 and 3
  • ‘golden rule’: Leslies usually spin at ca. 45-55 rpm in slow and 370-420 rpm in fast mode
    Woofer speed is slighly slower than tweeter : ca 5-10 rpm (equal 0-2 units in VR menu) in “SLOW” and 5-30 rpm (1-6 units in VR menu) in “FAST”
  • Mapping ‘rpms’ and ‘times’ to VR ‘Rotary values’
    To map rpms to ‘VR values’:
    a) VR ‘tap tempo’, for example ‘woofer slow’: pull some low harmonic bars (16, 8), set rotary speed to slow,
        in VR menu ‘Rotary’ set speed of Tweeter to 0 (bringing it to a halt).
        Listen to a tone (preferably on headphones) and start tapping the ‘rotary beat’ on VR ‘Tap Tempo’.
        Observe the displayed values and average
    b) CTRLR EDITOR V-ORGAN shows real rpm and fall/rise times

Using the tables: the given ‘value’ is the number to set in VR menu ‘Rotary’ (or CTRLR EDITOR), the brackets show the equivalent ‘rotations per minute’ (rpm) or ‘fall/rise/acc. times’ in seconds.

  1. VR ‘factory’ settings (un-authentic)
    VR ‘factory settings’ do not correspond to ‘real Leslies’ – but if you like the sound leave it as it is.
    • VR Rotary Type 2+3 factory setting:
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 12 (56) 23 (108) 62 (292) 99 (467)
        Woofer RISE Tweeter RISE Woofer FALL Tweeter FALL
      value (time) 36 (7s) 92 (1.2s) 36 (7s) 80 (1.7s)

     

  2. VR ‘authentic’ setting of a ‘real Leslie’ (used in CTRLR EDITOR)
    VR ‘authentic settings’ correspond to an ‘averaged real Leslie’

     

    • VR Rotary Type 1 ‘authentic setting’
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 9 (42) 10 (47) 80 (377) 82 (387)
        Woofer Accel. Tweeter Accel. – –
      value (time) 6 (6s) 12 (1.5s) – –
    • VR Rotary Type 2+3 ‘authentic setting’
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 9 (42) 10 (47) 82 (387) 85 (401)
        Woofer RISE Tweeter RISE Woofer FALL Tweeter FALL
      value (time) 50 (5s) 90 (1.2s) 50 (5s) 85 (1.4s)
    • VR Twin-Rotary (on rotary type 1) ‘authentic setting’
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 5 (55) 5 (55) 94 (360) 95 (370)
        Woofer Accel. Tweeter Accel. – –
      value (time) 6 (6s) 12 (1.5s) – –
    • VR Twin-Rotary (on rotary type 2/3) ‘authentic setting’
      important: TR slow speed settings are somewhat strange: woofer slow speed MUST be 1 unit higher than Tweeter to approximately match the 50 rpms.
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 3 (48) 2 (48) 74 (390) 77 (380)
        Woofer RISE Tweeter RISE Woofer FALL Tweeter FALL
      value (time) 50 (5s) 90 (1.2s) 50 (5s) 85 (1.4s)

     

  3. Examples of ‘real Leslies’ and other ‘Rotary sims’
    VR Rotary parameter sets derived from ‘real Leslie’, ‘organ apps’ etc.

     

    • ‘Leslie 147’ (measurement by Mr. Fischer), values for VR rotary type 2/3:
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 8 (35) 10 (47) 72 (340) 85 (400)
        Woofer RISE Tweeter RISE Woofer FALL Tweeter FALL
      value (time) 50 (5s) 91 (1.2s) 50 (5s) 83 (1.5s)
    • Averaged values of a couple of ‘real’ Leslies, values for VR rotary type 2/3
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 9 (42) 9 (42) 78 (368) 79 (372)
    • Neo Ventilator, values for VR rotary type 2/3
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 10 (48) 10 (48) 83 (390) 87 (408)
    • GSI VB3-II ‘organ app’, values for VR rotary type 2/3
        Woofer SLOW Tweeter SLOW Woofer FAST Tweeter FAST
      value (rpm) 9 (43) 10 (46) 81 (384) 88 (414)
        Woofer RISE Tweeter RISE Woofer FALL Tweeter FALL
      value (time) 42 (6s) 97 (1s) 58 (3.5s) 105 (0.8s)