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Thread: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?

  1. #1
    Junior Member Neumie's Avatar
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    What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?



    I know every keyboard these days has great sampled sounds ... pianos, strings, oo's and ah's. They also all throw in some abstract synth sounds ... I suppose good for atmosphere or "soundtrack" kind of stuff.





    I'm not interested in any of that. I like organs! Big fat warm nostalgic top-of-the-line $20,000+ Lowreys, Technics, Rolands, Wersi ... organ sounds that sound like organs, not an "organ patch" on a synth.





    Technics and Roland have both had great organs in the past ... has that technology carried over perfectly into any of their keyboards?





    I mean, if a fellow decided he wanted the ultimate home organ, but only had room for a single-manual portable keyboard ... which one tops the list?





    So far, I have yet to see anyone market a keyboard as a real "portable organ" (save for the Hammond-Suzuki keyboards, which are great, but limited exclusively to the Hammond B3 sound.)

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  2. #2
    Member saudade's Avatar
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    Re: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?

    Roland/Rodgers makes one, so does Viscount, and Orla. They have flute and principals at 16 through 2, a mixture, reed and v celeste. The keyboard can be or is split to emulate 2 manuals. The split is settable on some. I picked up an Orla on ebay, 76 keys, digitally sampled organ voices. Has digital effects too. Have connected it to a midipedalboard for a 1 manual organ. Outboard sound system does wonders.
    Wicks Sonatina 1936 3r 2m/p
    Rodolphe Harmonium 2 1/2 sets
    Estey K58 2M/P
    Rodgers C-505
    Ahlborn Archives/Classic Organ Works 2m/p
    Estey Grand Salon 900
    Clough & Warren Centennial

  3. #3
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    Re: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?

    The yamaha tyros 3 has excellent organ sounds, have a look at the yamaha demo clips on youtube for demo, i was very impressed, its not cheap but does seem to deliver the goods so to speak!

  4. #4

    Re: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?

    Look at The Roland VK 7 or 8 not a lot of synth but reasonable second hand price's... if money is not the problem go for the Tyros.

  5. #5
    Junior Member Neumie's Avatar
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    Re: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?



    Thank you, guys.





    I'm going to start with some YouTube demos on the models you mentioned, then do some research with the manufacturer's websites.





    Any other suggestions?

    “I was obliged to work hard. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed just as well.”

    -Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

  6. #6
    Member seamaster's Avatar
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    Re: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?

    You should audition any Roland keyboard that can accommodate the SRX-7 Vintage Keys expansion card, eg E-80. The quality and quantity of organ sounds on that card are tremendous.

  7. #7
    Moderator andyg's Avatar
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    Re: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?



    The trouble is, of course, that just about everything mentioned so far is Hammond B3+Leslie - based, with the occasional sprinkling of 60's Italian transistor organs. As for those big fat Lowrey sounds etc, there's not much on offer. A few odd flutes or 'theatre' sounds but that's about it. Technics did actually put some tab organ sounds (basically old school Lowrey, IIRC) in their KN7000.



    I guess that the manufacturers don't think there's much call for this type of voicing in new keyboards but you could always look at Orla's higher-end range (though these are classed more as single manual organs than keyboards - not that there's much difference!).

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  8. #8

    Re: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?



    Of course another option is to get any one of a number of keyboards with midi output and a computer and the options expand greatly.



    mike

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  9. #9
    Moderator andyg's Avatar
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    Re: What home keyboards have the best organ sounds?

    [quote user="mashaffer"]

    Of course another option is to get any one of a number of keyboards with midi output and a computer and the options expand greatly.



    [/quote]



    True, but you still wouldn't get the sounds he wants 'out of the box'.



    Perhaps run Miditzer and make some custom soundfonts for it?

    It's not what you play. It's not how you play. It's the fact that you're playing that counts.

    New website now live - www.andrew-gilbert.com


  10. #10
    Hi, I have a Yamaha DGX-520 and check out the organ sounds on it. A great Theatre Organ sound, church organs, rock organs, a really great sampling of organs. Check out on you tube

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