Nord Electro 3 Bass Organ

[mcpepe]

I am thinking in buying a Nord Electro 3.

Is there any posibilitty to play bass organ with and Electro 3?

I mean with left hand bass? or with the legs adding a midi pedalboard?

I know the NE3 is not bitimbral, but you can split the keyboard with 2 organ sounds...

Will a 61 note be enough to play this low notes with your left hand?

[Tobias Åslund]

Of course you can play organ bass - though, you only have upper and lower "parts" for the organ. IMO the lower manual doesn't really have enoguh "power" for bass lines, probably due to foldback of the 16' drawbar - it doesnt go as low as the pedals would. I also have an XK1 which have a separate bass part - and it has way more "oumpf" when playing bass. For organ playing with the Electro 3 I would recommend a two keyboard setup.

 

Also if you're considering using i for piano playing I strongly recommend to get the 73 key version.

 

About the 61 key for bass - the organ doesn't really go lower than the lowest C of the five octaves. If you use octave shift or an 88 note keyboard with the NE3 you will only hear the lowest notes repeated in the lower octaves - that's what Hammond calls foldback.

[Meisenhower]

Will a 61 note be enough to play this low notes with your left hand?

 

I've done it on my NE2 in a pinch and it was ok.

 

61 keys are on Hammond B, C, A & RTs (with or without foldback), so you don't need more than that to do Hammond style LH bass. Granted, its not quite as deep or loud as the pedal drawbar, but is certainly enough to do the job. Lots of left hand bass playing Hammond guys around out there doing exactly that.

 

The only issue is the single manual, which the bass lines could get in the way of some soloing. Control the lower manual via Midi & 2nd keyboard and you'll be fine.

 

 

[MuzikTeechur]

The Electro is bitimbral - you can assign the lower to another MIDI channel just fine; what it is not is tri-timbral. If you're using the upper and lower manual either on a split or with two keyboards for upper/lower, you can't attach pedals or play a third line on a third split for bass lines.

The lower manual can get pretty low, but as others have noted you run out of room and foldback is an issue.

 

[mcpepe]

The whole organ thing is new to me, but I want to get deep into it. Really liking more and more the organ sound and way of playing.

I own a Kurzweil PC3x and really like the organ sound, but i cannot play well with the weighted keys. This is how my hammond organ romance has beginned. Everyone talks good things about the NE3 organ and I want to buy a second tier so...

 

Maybe PC3x + NE3 + MidiPedalboard is an option. It could be a very flexible setup.

[Jim Alfredson]

If you want to get deep into organ playing, specifically Hammond jazz organ playing, you need drawbars.

 

My two cents.

[theGman]

The Electro 3 keys are a nice light touch compared to my Hammond XK1. For me, I found the advantage of light keys outweighed the lack of real drawbars.

 

 

 

The whole organ thing is new to me, but I want to get deep into it. Really liking more and more the organ sound and way of playing.

I own a Kurzweil PC3x and really like the organ sound, but i cannot play well with the weighted keys. This is how my hammond organ romance has beginned. Everyone talks good things about the NE3 organ and I want to buy a second tier so...

 

Maybe PC3x + NE3 + MidiPedalboard is an option. It could be a very flexible setup.

[Meisenhower]

If you want to get deep into organ playing, specifically Hammond jazz organ playing, you need drawbars.

 

My two cents.

 

 

+1

 

Absolutely correct. If organ playing is what you really want to get into, you should just be done with it and get a Hammond XK3c rig. This will give you the regular drawbars and the additional drawbars for the bass pedals and the flexibility to expand to lower manual and pedals.

 

This is of course assuming you don't need the other capable sounds that the NE3 brings to the party.

 

[kanker.]

My two cents.

 

 

+1

We have 3¢. Do I hear 4?

[richwhite9]

Can the PC3X drawbars (sic faders) be programmed to control the Nords drawbars?

 

Can it be a zone with an organ/ organ bass layer available on the PC3X?

 

Can the midi settings be saved as a patch of multi of sorts (Whatever Kurzweil calls them) or is it a global setting?

 

 

[mcpepe]

Can the PC3X drawbars (sic faders) be programmed to control the Nords drawbars?

 

Can it be a zone with an organ/ organ bass layer available on the PC3X?

 

Can the midi settings be saved as a patch of multi of sorts (Whatever Kurzweil calls them) or is it a global setting?

 

 

The 9 faders of the PC3x can be programmed to the CCs you want, so I think the answer is yes.

 

I have done programs with a KB3 organ on top and a VAST organ for the bass organ. No problem.

 

You can do global settings or patch settings. Whatever you want. The PC3x is very flexible.

 

BUT being flexible and powerful is not the same as being easy and fast. You need to do some programming...and this is not fun.

 

In Europe the Hammond X3c is very expensive (2450). You can almost buy 2 NE3 with that money. Even the Nord C2 is cheaper (2290) and you have the 2 manuals...

[Mogut]

The Electro is bitimbral - you can assign the lower to another MIDI channel just fine; what it is not is tri-timbral.

Expanding on this, it is bi-timbral in organ mode only. A very limited bi-timbral. You cannot adjust the level separately between these two midi channels.

[Nillerbabs]

Is there such thing as a pedalboard with self-contained foot bass sound? Or a sound module capable of reproducing that sound successfully?

 

It would be quite lovely if the NE3 allowed separate EQ settings for each organ manual.