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Midi keyboard for organ playing?


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Assuming the organ sounds are drawbar controllable, I"d look into picking up a used clonewheel, preferably one where the drawbars send MIDI CCs.

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Yes, I came to that same conclusion a while back when I wanted a waterfall keyboard. I ended up with a v-combo used (great deal) but it doesn't send drawbar info via cc, which is head-scratching as Roland's older vk8 does iirc.

 

I tried a v2 Korg cx3 but it double-triggered so easily when on top trigger mode I couldn't easily play it. It had a "deep" mode but that kind of defeated the reason I was buying in the first place!

 

Unfortunately there don't seem to many controllers made for purposes of playing organ, though of course I've seen some monster players far better than me do just fine on a regular synth keybed.

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I tried a v2 Korg cx3 but it double-triggered so easily when on top trigger mode I couldn't easily play it. It had a "deep" mode but that kind of defeated the reason I was buying in the first place!

One more variable in that CX3 is that they didn't all ship with the same actions. The later ones had a Fatar TP8O with the typical stock springs those have generally had (not the heavier ones Nord uses, or the lighter ones I believe Crumar and Numa eventually switched to). The earlier action was not true waterfall, but had a slight curved lip at the front of the keys. I actually preferred that one, personally.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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I tried a v2 Korg cx3 but it double-triggered so easily when on top trigger mode I couldn't easily play it. It had a "deep" mode but that kind of defeated the reason I was buying in the first place!

One more variable in that CX3 is that they didn't all ship with the same actions. The later ones had a Fatar TP8O with the typical stock springs those have generally had (not the heavier ones Nord uses, or the lighter ones I believe Crumar and Numa eventually switched to). The earlier action was not true waterfall, but had a slight curved lip at the front of the keys. I actually preferred that one, personally.

 

Mine was the true waterfall...I think. It did have quite a low serial number fwiw, something around 500.

 

It felt great, but it just was way too easy to double-trigger. My buddy had the older v-combo and we got together to compare sounds and action. I could get the vcombo to double-trigger but it was pretty difficult; just normal fast playing would cause the cx3 to do it if I had it set to "shallow". I loved the look and feel of the thing so it was too bad, perhaps someone eventually gave it a good home! :D

 

I had the VR700 v-combo and it is my favorite action.

 

Using a regular ol controller doesn't seem to be slowing this guy down! (obviously rock style so that probably matters a lot to a real organ player, which I ain't!)

[video:youtube]

 

 

 

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IMO it's worth the extra expense to get a used Mojo. With the new version coming out, used prices should go below a grand. Just a great and inspiring action for playing organ, I prefer mine to the Vox Continental I owned (a matter of taste, it was close). Mine works great with my HX3 module. With the version coming out, used prices should drop to below a grand.

 

I had the original CX3 and it was quality, definitely not too stiff. I think it was the source of some double-triggering complaints but my technique at the time didn't cause that glitch. Lots of room on top for modules etc- I was very happy to find that the drawbards controlled my Nord Electro 2 rack, when MIDI-ed.

 

For cheap, I believe that LX88 and one other poster liked an older Casio for organ feel, sorry, don't remember the model..

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I have the M-Audio Axiom (gen 1). The breadth of control is pretty amazing, but you may find the mechanical noise of the action itself to be distracting. Still, if you can get one used around $100 US like I did, it's a steal.

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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Keylab is fine. I use an 88 as my my main board. Mojo with waterfall keys just feels so much better. Not a lot of options for waterfall controllers out there. Organ is one of those few keybeds that have unweighted keys with "enclosed" key fronts (what's the technical term?). I think that's very important for doing palm smears and other organ techniques. I'd rather use a weighted board than an unweighted one with thin keys. Ironically, Casiotone is one of the few options out there, but otherwise it's not a great controller and no drawbars, so no.

Something to be said for drawbars with color coded and numbered bars. If I were ever to fall back to faders, I would paint hammond colors: primary and secondary partials are really handy. But yeah, I used my keylab88 for years. I really like the fact that it has A/B banks for the faders. You could very easily do two sets of drawbars on them. Or, I put the drawbars on one bank, and other synth modulators on the other. But I hardly ever use it for organ anymore after getting my Mojo. I hate endless encoders and not having all the controls permanently mapped to features.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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Wow...it's nice to be remembered for a previous post..

 

The Casio I mentioned is the CTK 496. The keys feel great on this ( to me) ... much less resistance than the Fatar that is used on Mojo , Viscount etc. But the keys don't feel cheap for some reason. There is a nice amount of resistance, similar to Hammond.

 

This board has one additional cool feature. It has a mono mic input, so if you are playing in mono ( I do it when using CV on organ ) you can hear the organ module ( for me, HX3) through the headphone jack.

 

Another controller I have that I like very much is the Behringer U controller, the 61 key one. I don't have it in front of me... I think it is called UMX 61 or something like that. If you Google Behringer red midi controller, there are pictures of them.

 

The Behringer keybed feels great to me. The keys are not waterfall, but have a nice resistance that is not overbearing.

 

The Behringer was a thrift store find, as was the Casio.

 

Either of these work great as controller for HX3. As usual , I am into " bang for the buck". I bought the Casio for 69 cents a pound at my local Goodwill " As Is" store. The Behringer was about 40 dollars. They are both a lot of fun to use for organ.

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