Which analog electronic organ has the best-sounding piano?

[Keyboardguy]

As per the thread title, what d'ya reckon? The piano voice used to be something of a selling point for organs, and was percieved by some that the more realistic the piano was - the better the organ I read somewhere that the piano was very difficult to replicate accurately using the electronics of the era and it has to be said that the offerings from most organ manufacturers weren't very convincing to say the least, but some however stood out from the rest. Now this is a subjective topic, but I'm sure there is general agreement on what was considered the the most authentic analog piano voice, eg. some Conns, the later Hammonds. I always felt that a 16' preset was more versatile than an 8'.

So away you go, and remember - no digital samples allowed!

[OrgansR4Me]

Piano was introduced by Gulbransen and was considered very good. Compared to today's advanced sample voices it would be considered primitive. It was generally best used for a single lead note melody. Wasn't as convincing with chords unless they were played in an appegio style. I've not used the piano feature much on my Thomas or Conn organs, but did use it on my Hammond Colonnade, especially on the lower manual where it had an automatic appegiator. It added nice variation to novelty sounds and pop songs.

[kurtdaniel1]

Buy the Casio Privia, you won't be disappointed in playing your piano music and you can get 'em at BestBuy.

[Orgrinder010]

Hammond Aurora has a decent piano for being LSI.

[andyg]

I think general agreement would probably be that it's Gulbransen. It certainly was 'back in the day'. Conn didn't get there until the Martinique, IMHO, the VFM piano was a joke and the piano unit in the likes of the 580 and 651 were affected by the vibrato. Thanks heavens for the Solo Trem Cancel on the 651! Hammond's piano in the LSI series, though good, never quite did it for me like the Gully did. The Thomas Palace piano impressed me at the time but now, listening to recordings of it, I have to wonder why! 16' pitch is always richer than the 8' versions, Gully put it at 16' in the Paragon and Theatrum, but all the other models were, I'm sure, at 8'.

[paulj0557]

I find my Thomas Palace III's piano is fairly acceptable for 1966. With the sostinuto (knee sustain lever) to control decay and tabs to select grand piano,harpsichord, and accordion it really adds a variety of piano dynamics to what is not a bad sounding piano tone especially for single note lines. It is best suited for accompaniment, but in the scope of things it's nice to have something, anything with a hammer & decay effect. Thomas really went all out and used everything they knew. Unlike the Rialto II and the Elegante , the Palace's piano isn't synthetic so in some ways it sounds as if it had the same ADSR as these two, it would probably blow them both away. It would interesting to sample the Palaces piano and shape it on the computer.

[andyg]

Maybe it's the recording quality, then Paul. It comes across as very stringy on the vinyl. Now I at last have a new turntable, I'll get some Thomas tracks posted and you can see what I mean.

[Herbert]

Slightly off subject. Does anyone have a pdf of the Theatrum specification, leaflet or user manual. I find myself developing an interest in having one. I know it has great flutes but just want to fine out what else other than the piano. I was about 11 the last time I played one!