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Preamble
OK, the forum is named "Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards" but it became mostly a "Digital Pianos" forum. Not sure about what exactly the "Electronic Pianos" are (it looks redundant with the DP part) but, then, there is the "Synths & Keyboards" and, funnily enough, some of the DP guys forget about the forum scope and criticize when someone ask a question on synths, controllers etc.

End of preamble a.k.a. cut to the chase a.k.a. stop beating around the bush

Enough with Kawai, Yamaha, Roland!!! Let's vary the diet a little.

I found the demos below entertaining (I am glad they are short ).



It is a pitty he quickly go through some of the patches.



FWIW I am not a huge fan of organs (keyboard category I suppose?), with a few exception and I think the use of organ, at least, those used in pop/jazz, boring.

Hello,

Nice!!

😋 Funny you should start this thread right this moment -- I just finished two hours of experimenting, key mapping, drawbar and other controls mapping, sound testing and so on because I am rather interested in (Jazz) Hammonding.

I am building a setup around the Acousticsamples B5v3 virtual Hammond library (a sampling/modeling hybrid). There are some software troubles to shoot/workaround but the sound is very convincing.

Boring? Heck no! Here are two definitely not boring (let's say, mind-blowing) examples that hugely inspire me:





Cheers and Let's Jazz,

HZ

Whenever I hear an organ I reach down to tighten my roller skates. Too bad folks lost interest in organs and roller rinks. My cousin's son had a B3 when we were young, I had no idea it would become a legend.

Booooooooriiiiiiing!!!! I couldn't stand more than a few seconds listening to them.

OK, just joking, kind of (except for the time I spent hearing): it is not the style of music I appreciate. This is not to say they are not talented or skilled, it is just not my cup of tea. TBH, I find much of what is called jazz somewhat boring after a few minutes, it must be more fun playing than watching (like archery, which I practiced for a few years. ).

There used to be many orchestral style organ players a few decades ago. Here's Mr Tyros before Tyros existed: go to 1:15:27 for something impressive.

I think organs are super cool. I have a soft spot for transistor organs especially like Vox Farfisa and Ace Tone, but Tonewheel is cool too!
I believe SK PRO has the best organ sounds of a portable keyboard and it even has a really nice sounding theater organ if I recall correctly, even though it's pricey.
Not sold on the interface too as it seems very menu driven, tweaking many synth engine and organ parameters. Granted, I never sat at that keyboard so I could definitely have a wrong impression here.

Also could be just me being too lazy .. I applaud people with patience to scroll through menus and adjusting every parameter to exploit the fullest. For me it has to be a knob per function interface or close to that.

I have a Casio CT-S1. A far cry from being an "organ" but it has excellent organ patches even though there's no control or drawbars (usually "non-organ" keyboards have good pianos but crap organs) I enjoy playing them very much!

Hello,

Yes, two or three organ sounds in that Casio are nicely done for such a somewhat simple keyboard in a somewhat low price category.

I have a CT-S1 too, since just a few days. I bought it as a budget upper manual for my 'Hammond', because all the 61 key MIDI controllers at this price level are so rickety rattly that they are just undoable in my mind.

I also use a little fader MIDI controller which sits on top of the CT-S1's speaker cloth strip, and functions as nine drawbars and I remapped the knobs and buttons to control other functions of the organ like tube amp drive, Leslie rotary speed, percussion system and so on.

This afternoon I remapped the 88 keys of my Roland FP-10 to give a bass manual, partial lower manual, and the 'black octaves' (drawbar presets) for the lower and upper manuals.

Image of experimental setup here: https://pianoclack.com/forum/d/259-...sive-synth-action-midi-controller?page=2

Is great fun!

Cheers and Let's Roar,

HZ

PS No menus! when I am behind the 'organ' (nor when I'm playing 'piano').

Which is the little fader MIDI controller you use? Sounds like you created a great setup!

@HZPiano

yeah I agree, very neat setup and it seems the FP-10 is not very heavy too! about 12 kilos.. + your Casio and the controller we basically carry the same weight to a gig only that I carry 1 board and you have 2 :-)

playing with 2 boards is LOTS of fun. Only for my use totally unnessecary as I currently only gig solo (piano) or with a couple of singers as the only instrumentalist in which I mainly play Bass LH with Piano/EP on the RH...

I bought the CT-S1 as a "fun" portable keyboard to take out to jams, parks, friends', etc. I got the red model but I gotta say the black looks serious and sleek, Like a business man in a suit.

Bloody wonderful! How did those two meet? What a combination. You could lose yourself in a drunken stupour listening to that . . . .it is all consuming. I wish . . .

I think EPs are purely analog, like the old Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzers. Someone who knows more than I can confirm or deny this.

It makes a lot of sense.

Thank you! It's all new to me and takes some getting used to, because before I only had the FP-10 (as a piano controller only) in front of me with no bells and whistles to distract me. But I am starting to like this 🙂.

The fader controller is:

https://www.bax-shop.nl/midi-studio-controllers/devine-ez-creator-fade-usb-midi-controller

I suspect this is an in-store branding of a Chinese product that may be found elsewhere under different brand names.

Cheers and happy playing,

HZ

Thanks! For me things are even lighter to carry to gigs because... I don't gig 😋.

Yes, I find the looks of the CT-S1 quite stylish, modest and calm. It is the first keyboard (not counting pianos) I actually like the looks of. Of course the quality of the keybed was the first criterium, and while the quality isn't outstanding I like it better than any MIDI controller at similar prices. I also tested the CT-S100 but that keybed is strange: noisier and with black keys that bottom out hard.

Cheers and happy playing,

HZ

What a beauty indeed it is to see how two (three if we include the drummer!) people non-verbally (and thus the more powerfully) communicate through their music, reaching a synergy that, in this case, quite literally swings us off our butts.

Cheers and happy energies,

HZ

So, interesting coincidence: the first organ post for a while, and Tony from Bonners releases a video on the brand new Hammond SK Pro Ex dual manual organ.

Nice!!

Thanks for spotting the coincidence and posting Tony's video!

Cheers and Let's Jazz,

HZ

I suggest a new thread for this. Let's shake the Kawai/Yamaha/Roland guys a little.

Hello,

I just had a moment to watch that Hammond Skx Pro video...

Wow! It's a beast! I like it (or so it seems)!

Just... €3700 over my current budget. Oh well... I just bought that CT-S1 so all should be good anyway... 😲

Cheers and sweet dreams,

HZ

Interestingly, there is viable competition to the Hammond clonewheel. The Viscount Legend being the most obvious contender:



It's sampling versus modelling, just this time with clonewheels.

Hard to beat the original though.