![]() Some authoritative sources use the first form, and other sources the second. ![]() One final bit of trivia: there seems to be some confusion over the capitalization of “Vox” vs. Some of the more notable ones include The House of the Rising Sun (The Animals), Light My Fire (The Doors), I’m a Believer (The Monkees) and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly) … ah, those were most certainly simpler times. The Vox Continental was used on innumerable hits. Arturia’s virtual recreation is of the basic two-manual model (with foot board). A number of variations of this model were produced over the years, but the sound largely remained the signature Vox Continental sound. The two-manual version initially was priced around $1200 USD. But the sound was reportedly consistent.Ī couple of years after the basic model was released, a two-manual version was made available and that also had an optional ($100 USD) one-octave foot board. The British and US models offered wooden, plastic-laminated keys, for example, whereas the EME models used keys that were all plastic. The instruments from Italy suffered a little in quality. But the bulk of the instruments would end up coming from Italy from a company called EME (Electtronica Musicale Europea) who would go on to produce the considerable majority of Vox Continentals. Additional manufacturing capacity was added in California. The instruments were initially manufactured in the UK, but the factories there couldn’t keep up with demand. The sound of this organ was also well suited for the music of the time as the bright timbre could compete in mixes with the electric guitars inevitably present. The look of the Vox Continental was a perfect match for the mod look of the early British Invasion bands, who were normally composed of trim young men, well-groomed and nattily attired in matching sport coats and ties – sharp-looking band and sharp-looking keyboard. ![]() Prices would drop somewhat as manufacturing efficiencies were realized. To put that in perspective with respect to inflation, a new entry-level family sedan could be bought in the US at that time for a bit more than twice that amount. The initial price of the first Vox Continental was $999 USD. It had a striking appearance with a bright red-orange case and a keyboard with black naturals and white sharps. In 1962, they introduced the first Vox Continental organ. They later became noted for their Vox line of amplifiers, especially among guitarists. Arturia has the occasional sale with good discounts that make for a great buying opportunity.Ī company called The Jennings Organ Company (later incorporated as Jennings Musical Industries, or JMI) began life manufacturing electronic console organs for home and church. It is also found in Analog Lab ($149 USD) but only has presets that allow limited programming capability. The organ is included in the V Collection 6 bundle ($499 USD list). The Vox Continental V has a list price of $149 USD. Installation and authorization are done using the online Arturia Software Center software, but offline activation is supported. Arturia virtual instruments are compatible with all major DAWs on PC and Mac, but are 64-bit only. I am most grateful to whoever constructed this site for the wealth of knowledge it provides.įirst we must get a few essentials out of the way. ![]() In doing research for this piece, I came across a goldmine of information on combo-organs here: The third Arturia organ is the venerable Hammond B3, which is also covered in this month’s issue find that review here: The other Artruria combo organ recreation, the Farfisa V, will be the subject of an article in our next SoundBytes Magazine issue. One of these combo organs was the Vox Continental and that is the instrument that inspired the virtual recreation that we’ll be looking at here. The introduction of the transistor had a profound effect on how an organ sound could be packaged into a relatively lightweight and compact case. They became very popular among bands who might have preferred a Hammond B3 but whose budgets didn’t allow for roadies and large equipment trucks. Two of them are so-called “combo organs” – small, portable, and somewhat affordable instruments that became widely used in the pre-synth era of the 1960s. Here is a look at Arturia’s virtual recreation of one of the most popular of them.Īrturia’s line of virtual electronic organs includes three instruments. The combo organ was big in the 60s and has never really lost popularity. ![]()
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