Tips and Ticks for the V3

Switching Percussion

Unlike a Hammond B-3, the V3 doesn't cancel the 1' drawbar when percussion is added. Some of you may may be saying, "Well, it's about time someone fixed that!" but long-time Hammond players can find these little changes upsetting to their style. Personally, I think the lack of 1' output helps compensate for the high-frequency bump that the percussion gives to the sound, keeping the overall timbre in balance. Luckily, there's a way to fix it -- although you have to give up something to get it: namely, the "morphing" feature of the V3.

1. Go into the controller map menu (you should see a "C" at the top left of the V3's LCD display) and set the PERC ON/OFF SW and the DRAWBAR MORPH to the same MIDI controller.
   
   
2. If you use the MIDI Drawbar module, set the 16' DRAWBAR and the AUX 16' DRAWBR to the same MIDI controller. Continue this process for the 5 1/3', 8', etc. -- but do not set up the AUX 1' DRAWBAR.
   
   
3. Set the AUX 1'DRAWBAR controller to OFF.
   
   
4. For each patch you have saved, set the MAIN and AUX drawbar settings to the same values, then set the AUX 1' drawbar to "0", if it is not already there. (Yeah, I know this takes a lot of time, but it's worth it in the end!)

Now, when you hit the percussion, the V3 will switch to the AUX drawbars, with no response from the 1' drawbar.

Use the Effect Out

One of the biggest complaints about the V3 is its noisy output. There is a noticeable amount of hiss in the background any time a key is pressed, plus occasional pops when the volume is changed with a pedal. You may not be all that bothered by it if you use 888864447 all the time, but try 888000000 and you'll see what I'm talking about. Guess what? When you connect your amplifier to Effect Out, rather than Out1 or Out2, all of these noises go away, and the V3 sounds like the warm, nasty Hammond clone you always knew it was capable of being!

What causes all noise? There's a lot of analog circuitry in the V3, plus digital controls for the MIDI, etc. and unfortunately, analog and digital don't really mix all that well -- especially from an audio perspective.

Obviously, you have to be giving up something when you're using the Effect Out, or this whole problem wouldn't even exist, right? Here's what the Effect Out signal contains:

• all 3 manuals (Great, Swell, Pedal)
• drawbar control with morphing
• expression pedal control
• percussion
• vibrato
• key click
• hum/leakage

Here's what you have to give up:

• bass/treble settings
• volume control
• the Spin rotary simulator
• the Leslie (R/S) jack
• muting on startup (all 96 tone generators come on for 2-3 seconds during power-up)

If, like me, you use an external amplifier (or a combo pre-amp) between the V3 and your Leslie, there's no important feature that you lose by using the Effect Out. If, on the other hand, you use the R/S output directly into a Leslie, you need to either: a) rethink your strategy, or b) have the V3's internals modified to send the Effect Out signal to the R/S outputs -- which is major surgery.

Hot-rodding the Percussion

The V3 does not provide a 6-7dB volume drop on the drawbars when "normal" percussion is engaged. This means that to get the classic "Green-Eyed Lady" sound you have to soften the drawbars to around 666000000. Voce has placed a fairly simple modification on their website to boost the percussion to the proper balance, which is available at this site -- although it still doesn't drop the 6dB. I highly recommend this modification, as it's easy, doesn't void your warranty as long as it's done carefully, and improves the sound.

Once you make the modification, you will want to go into each saved patch and change the "soft" pecussion volume from 90% to around 80%.

Increasing the Expression Pedal Range

Many V3's have too little dynamic range (the difference between max. and min. volume) when using the Expression control -- the right way to control volume on a Hammond or clone. After talking to several owners, I've come to the conclusion that there was a fair amount of component variation in V3 production, so that some units will have near "perfect" pedal range, while others will not seem to be able to get soft enough -- at least, compared to the Hammond AO-28 or AO-29 preamps. There's very little that you can do about the V3 itself short of major surgery, but if you use an effects box with MIDI parameter change capability, you can compensate for this problem -- if you use the pedal input on your MIDI keyboard or the MIDI Drawbar unit, not the analog pedal input in the back of the V3.

Let's use the Alesis Quadraverb as an example, and assume that you're using the "stock" expression pedal control, MIDI controller #8, as your expression pedal source. The Quadraverb has the ability to control up to 8 functions through MIDI controller messages, and several of them happen to deal with signal levels. The best one is the MASTER EFFECT LEVEL, which controls the volume of the EQ, Pitch, Delay, and Reverb outputs all at once.

1. Set the Direct Signal path to POST-EQ. That way, all of the signals go through the MASTER EFFECTS LEVEL.
   
   
2. Set the Go to the MIX section, and instead of setting the MASTER EFFECTS LEVEL to the level you REALLY want, set it 5-10 steps lower. (You'll have to play around with the value a bit to get it just right, and it will vary from V3 to V3.)
   
   
3. Go to the MODULATION section, and set one of the unused MOD SOURCE parameters to the same MIDI controller as the expression pedal -- i.e., CONTROLLER #008, for this example.
   
   
4. Set the MOD TARGET to EFFECT MIX LEVEL.
   
   
5. Set the MOD AMPLITUDE to +nn, where "+nn" is equal to the same number of steps as you backed off the MASTER EFFECTS LEVEL in Step #2 above.
   
   
6. Now, when you floor the expression pedal, the QV will add a little more volume to the mix, extending the dynamic range of your V3!

This method works with the Other Alesis products like the Quadraverb GT, MIDIverb 4, Quadraverb 2, Q20, etc. (although the exact steps you need to take may vary with the model used), but it also works with any other effect unit that can obey MIDI controller messages. I used to own a Korg DRV-2000 that would do just fine, as would some of the better A.R.T., DOD/DigiTech, Ibanez, Lexicon, Roland, and Yamaha rack units.