Nord Stage EX v6.x
6. The Instruments: The Organ Section
Page 27
T
HE
V-T
YPE
M
ODEL
(V
OX
C
ONTINENTAL
II)
The Vox Continental is probably the most famous of all the transistor-based combo organs that
emerged in the early 60’s. Transistor technology made it possible to manufacture much more compact
and portable organ instruments. Compared to the mighty sound of tone-wheel based organs, transistor
organs generally sounded reedier and weaker, but the Vox Continental had a distinctive sound char-
acter which together with the portability and cool design (inverse keyboard and chrome “Z-frame”
stand) made the instrument massively popular at the time. The sound is timeless and recreated faith-
fully in Nord Stage EX.
T
HE
D
RAWBARS
The original Vox Continental used drawbars to change the timbre of the sound. The harmonic inter-
vals for the V-Type organ are printed on the upper row above the drawbars (see
page 24
for a general
description of how the drawbars work in Nord Stage EX).
In the figure you can see the
pitch interval among the six
drawbars used by the V-Type
organ. Note that the 6th draw-
bar from the left controls three
harmonics simultaneously (3rd-
4th-8th). The two rightmost
drawbars determine the mix of
the two basic waveforms that
make up the sound generating
source of the organ sound, just
like on the original. You have
access to sine (soft) and triangle
(bright) waveforms which can
be freely mixed together. If
these drawbars are both fully
“pushed in”, the organ will not
produce any sound.
V
IBRATO
There is only one type of vibrato available for the V-Type, which is activated using the
O
N
button in
the Vibrato section.Note that the V-Type vibrato is common for both Panels if a dual manual organ
is used.
F-T
YPE
M
ODEL
(F
ARFISA
)
The typical “buzzy” sound of the Farfisa organ is one of the most distinct and easily recognizable
keyboard sounds ever created, yet it is actually possible to get quite a wide range of sounds out of the
instrument. For the Nord Stage EX a Farfisa Compact DeLuxe was used as the source model.
In the illustration above we have chosen C3 as our reference note. The FUND
drawbar is considered the basic (fundamental) harmonic in the organ sound.
The arrows point at the respective note that each drawbar represents when C3
is our reference note.
