New Vox Continental organ plug-in - free, and good.

[David Polich]

Just released for Mac - AU version of Combo V, a Vox Continental
emulation. It's free - and it's surprisingly good.

http://www.martinic.com/combov/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Happy post 2345 David and thanks for the heads up. This reminds me of why I am a pianist and not an organist... LOL!

[James Steele]

Just to save somebody else the head scratching upon loading this VI. It will come up with the GUI totally one blank red square above the keyboard until you click the dark great word "Settings" at the very lower left corner of its GUI.

It's really fun. I stuck a reverb plug on it, set to preset "8685 46" and then crashed and burned not even halfway through Bach's Bouree in Em. *Sigh* What little I learned in piano classes years ago has sadly, sadly atrophied.

[David Polich]

It's perfect for "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"...

I love the ability to adjust the attack and level of the keyclick.
And the modwheel is wired to vibrato by default - with ComboSister,
you have to use the MIDI learn function to assign the Mod wheel to
vibrato, and it sometimes doesn't "learn".

This guy got it right. I'm surprised he doesn't charge for it.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Lots of call for In The Garden Of Eden these days...

[mhschmieder]

BTW, the webpage says the manual is included with the installer, but this does not appear to be the case, so I recommend downloading the PDF while you are at the site for the Audio Units installer. Maybe it's included in the VST installer.

Dave, you mentioned earlier that this plug-in is good for Vox Jaguar as well as Vox Continental. Would you say it is also good for Elka Panther and Gibson G101 Kalamazoo? I don't have hands-on experience with those models, and thus far my only "virtual" exposure to them has been through your Yamaha MOTIF voice libraries. I have been moderately successful emulating what I THINK they're supposed to sound like using NuSofting Combo Sister, but with the usual caveats about that quirky and crash-prone interface.

[David Polich]

BTW, the webpage says the manual is included with the installer, but this does not appear to be the case, so I recommend downloading the PDF while you are at the site for the Audio Units installer. Maybe it's included in the VST installer.

Dave, you mentioned earlier that this plug-in is good for Vox Jaguar as well as Vox Continental. Would you say it is also good for Elka Panther and Gibson G101 Kalamazoo? I don't have hands-on experience with those models, and thus far my only "virtual" exposure to them has been through your Yamaha MOTIF voice libraries. I have been moderately successful emulating what I THINK they're supposed to sound like using NuSofting Combo Sister, but with the usual caveats about that quirky and crash-prone interface.

I think the sound is close to that of the Elka Panther - of course, I'm recalling from memory since that organ was sold back in 1970. If memory does
serve me, the Panther was very close to the Continental - I believe it was
a "me too" product from the get go. Looked very much like a Continental, right down to the tubular chrome legs. It didn't have drawbars, though, it
had tabs.

I never had or used a Gibson so I wouldn't know about those.

[jloeb]

Nice catch, thanks.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I was thinking Farfisa Combo but it had a cleaner sound as I recall.

[mhschmieder]

The Farfisa is a VERY different sound from the Vox/Elka series. And yes, I think the Elka Panther was pretty close to the Vox Jaguar from recordings that I have, and not terribly different from the Continental.

The Gibson was in some ways a bit more akin to a Hammond, as I recall. It was used by The Doors so is a sound that many are familiar with. I have sat down at one within the past five years, as a friend of my aunt has one in Florida and I was rather shocked to see it in her house when we visited. Still, it is a bit closer to a combo organ than a tonewheel.

I'm pretty sure the Gibson was the organ that was used in The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian". I don't think it got much use otherwise though, as it wasn't so well known and probably didn't sell very well.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Keep in mind I am trying to remember something from the 60's...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvGJvzwKqg0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mikehalloran]

Oh my...

A friend from high school (40 years ago !?!?) had a Farfisa Mini Combo and a Gibson. He stopped playing both when he got his Hammond.

I am going to have to download this.

Just took a listen. It's just like having Allen Price (Animals) in your studio. Love it!

[BobK]

BTW, the webpage says the manual is included with the installer, but this does not appear to be the case, so I recommend downloading the PDF while you are at the site for the Audio Units installer. Maybe it's included in the VST installer.

FWIW: The web page says it's included with the Windows installer.

[Kubi]

Oooh, thanks, working on a project right now for which this may be very apropos...

[mhschmieder]

Although not related to the timing of this product announcement, there is a discussion going on over at the Keyboard Corner forum, about the use of certain Combo Organs by The Doors, with some excellent photos:

http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthread ... /2213308/1

At any rate, this posting confirms that the Vox Continental was used on the first two albums, including for "Light My Fire", but that the Gibson Kalamzoo was adopted later and for live work due to greater reliability.

The pictures of the Gibson combo organ in that forum discussion are quite large -- the largest I've seen so far. It does look more Farfisa-like, but my recollection is that its sound was in between that and a Hammond.