Using the EVB3 Percussion Effect

The EVB3 emulates the (Key) Percussion facilities of the original B3. The Percussion facility is available only for the upper manual—as per the original B3. The effect adds the second or third harmonics to the attack envelope of a note. These harmonics quickly fade out, leaving the chosen drawbar tones.

The Percussion effect is polyphonic, but is only (re)triggered after all keys have been released. If you release all keys, new notes or chords will sound with percussion. If you play legato, or sustain other notes on the upper manual, no percussion is heard.

On/Off button: Turn on the On button in the Percussion section to activate percussion.
2nd/3rd button: Click the 2nd/3rd button to determine which harmonic is heard (the button toggles between 2nd and 3rd).
Time wheel: Drag to adjust the percussion decay time.
Volume (Vol) wheel: Adjust to set the decay level. This is an improvement from the B3, where Time and Vol could only be turned on or off.
Vel wheel: Sets the percussion velocity sensitivity (unlike the original B3, which is not velocity sensitive). If you engage percussion on a B3, the volume of the normal, nonpercussive registers is reduced slightly.
Up Level wheel: Alters the balance between the upper (percussive) manual and the lower manual/pedals. On the B3, percussion is available only if the “B” preset key is selected (see Using the EVB3 Preset Keys).
Note: Set the Perc parameter (found in the Organ section) to Only B, to simulate the B preset key restriction. If you want percussion to always be available, choose Always.

EVB3 Percussion Time Paradise Setting

The Time parameter has a maximum setting called Paradise. In this position, the percussion doesn’t decay at all.

The name is derived from the famous Jimmy Smith recording “Groovin’ at Small’s Paradise,” where Jimmy used a B3 that had a defect in the percussion trigger. The cool thing about this technical flaw is that one harmonic sounds without Chorus-Vibrato, while the drawbar harmonics feature Chorus-Vibrato. Although this is very specialized, it is a nice inclusion—especially for jazz-oriented players.