Neo Ventilator II Questions on setup and sound

[Tom Werner]

I recently purchased a Crumar Mojo, EV ZLX amp and a Ventilator II. The Mojo sounds great with only minor tweaking. Tone is good and the internal simulator sounds very good. When I add the Vent to the Mojo and route to EV speaker, I get a lot of feedback. I have tried adjusting the gain on amp and adjusted the Overload. More feedback with turning the Mix/Dist Hi knob counterclockwise. I also have screeching of the upper octaves of both keyboards- especially the F and high C notes. Not present without the Vent. Haven't used any simulator before and tried to follow the set up in directions and set the Pots. I set up mono-R out of Mojo to R in of Vent, then R out of Vent to R in of EV ZLX. May be how it is supposed to sound but the feedback and screeching of the high octaves is not acceptable and may have to use Mojo as is. (Not too bad matter of fact). Only have screeching with Vent. Any ideas or suggestions on settings for the Vent? I would appreciate any comment. My B3 and 122 is too hard to haul anymore. Thanks!!

[geoelectro]

I’m not sure how anything can be feeding back. Perhaps I don’t understand the description as stated.
First, does the overdrive on the vent light up?
Second, does it sound normal with the bypass switch on?
Is there a big difference in volume between bypass and not bypassed?

Geo

[Tom Werner]

I’m not sure how anything can be feeding back. Perhaps I don’t understand the description as stated.
First, does the overdrive on the vent light up?
Second, does it sound normal with the bypass switch on?
Is there a big difference in volume between bypass and not bypassed?

Geo

Yes, overdrive does light up with maximum volume and I bring it back till light goes off. When the bypass switch is on, or pressed, there is normal Mojo sound and all notes are normal in intensity. There is an increased volume with the bypass off. The Vent is louder. I can decrease the speaker noise- I called feedback -by reducing the EV amp to about -4 db. Not having seen one used before I bought it, I just wanted to find if anyone had issues with theirs. I only hear the speaker noise with the Vent. When Mojo hooked straight to amp, no noise. Maybe a grounding issue with the 12V adapter? Sorry on the descriptions, but hope that may help you. Could the different Modes 1-5 of the Vent II be a factor in volume increase? Thanks Geo.

[geoelectro]

When using any external effect like the Vent, the Mojo Leslie sim must be turned off. Otherwise, you get a Leslie sound going into another Leslie effect which sounds awful. I use a Vent II all the time and the only thing you have to watch for is not over driving the input. The default settings should work fine but tweaking is recommended.

Maybe you could record the bad sound and post it. I'm still not sure what exactly is going on.

Geo

[Tom Werner]

I will check the overdrive and also definitely make sure the internal sim is off. If the speaker sound is still there, I will see about a recording. -both before Vent powered on and during use to hear the difference. Thanks a lot Geo.

[Tom Werner]

I will check the overdrive and also definitely make sure the internal sim is off. If the speaker sound is still there, I will see about a recording. -both before Vent powered on and during use to hear the difference. Thanks a lot Geo.

Geo, I saw this piece on Facebook under the Clonewheel Organ group page. I hope the gentleman doesn't mind me quoting him. " I picked up a used Mini Vent II to help with that problem. The Vent arrived today and - as a test - I did an A/B comparison with the sim in my Hammond XK-3c I keep in my home studio First I reset the Vent to factory default settings. The default settings didn't sound as good as the organ's sim - too pronounced Leslie effects on fast and far too much drive/distortion when the organ was played loud or with lots of drawbars out. I had to open up the Vent, per the instructions and make a physical setting change to reduce its gain, then change the Vent's software settings to minimum drive and "distant" microphones to get the simulation that sounds as close my Leslie as possible. With those changes, the Mini Vent II sounds noticeably better that the XK-3c's built in sim." Even though mine is no a Mini it is a Vent II. This is the way mine is acting. Does that help you any? I didn't see directions to open up the Vent and adjust the gain. Mine is loud and does have distortion. Maybe find out how to adjust the gain?

[geoelectro]

We sell Vent II’s but not the Mini Vent. The Vent II has an input volume control that allows you to adjust the level to prevent distortion. The overdrive lamp is helpful with this adjustment. I believe the Mini Vent has no such adjustment.

Setting this adjustment is critical. Overdriving the input stage is not a pleasant sound. To set it, you should play the loudest volume you will ever play and adjust the Vent input for no distortion and no overdrive light coming on. Then, use the external amplification for the desired volume level.

I too like setting the mic placement to more distant which sounds better to me. There are many setting for fine tuning the Vent but the levels need to be set first.

Geo

UPDATE: I mis-spoke saying to adjust the input volume of the Vent. Actually, you have to adjust the output volume of the instrument. The Vent doesn't have an input volume control. When we connect these to Hammond's, which have a very large signal, we have to pad the signal down ahead of the Vent. Sorry for the confusion.

[Silken Path]

Tom, did you go into settings and select "Organ" as the source? (Do you need the manual? I have it in PDF.)

[Tom Werner]

Silken Path,
I did go to the secondary functions at put the mode to 5:00 which I think was what they recommended. I will double check because when I switch back to primary I understand it is supposed to save those settings. I have the little booklet that came with Vent II. Is there another manual and if so, yes, can you put it on a link? Thanks.

Geo,
I found an old link you started in 2010 about Vents when you bought yours. Somewhere in there it was said that the shrillness in the upper octaves is common with clonewheels and an external EQ may help it. I guess I thought I could get rid of it with the vent. Also I have adjusted the overdrive couple times. Room is small and wonder if that could affect the sounds. Will check the overdrive also. Thanks Guys. You know though, having played b3 and 122 for 40 years, I want to get back into gigs. I must have OCD- I guess I want it to be exactly like my 122 and know I can't get there. But I do love the sound of the Vent.

[Silken Path]

Tom, I have the German-English manual with the English part being 32 pages. Yes, 5 o'clock on Mode is supposed to be KEYboard. Let me know if you can't find it at NEO any longer.

I have my Vent II stuck between my little Rodgers by Roland organ's mixed line out and my ART mixer to two powered Truth monitors. I haven't noticed any shrillness in the upper manuals, but I do have it set with left and right MIX/DIST to 3/4 in order to hear the mechanical sounds of the Leslie. I leave the Vent in-line all the time and press the Bypass button to bypass it when I'm not using the clonewheel effect.

My Vent II has failed once and had to go for warranty repair. That was due to a chip failure that kept the bypass from working.