Organ Section

The mechanical drawbars are accompanied by LED graphs, showing the settings for a focused PRESET.

PRESET 1 AND 2

PRESET 1 and PRESET 2 provide two independent drawbar settings, useful for switching between two distinct sounds during a performance.

When a KB Split is active and the Organ is assigned to both the Lower and Upper sides of the split, Preset 2 is assigned to Lower and Preset 1 (and Drwb Live) to Upper.

LOCK

Preset 1 can be locked, by pressing Shift+Preset 1, which activates the LOCK LED. This is useful for scenarios where you want to be able to prepare drawbar settings before switching to Drwb Live from a preset.

DRWB LIVE

With DRWB LIVE selected, the LED graphs are unlit and the physical positions of the drawbars are used. A program can be stored with Drwb Live active, allowing for that program to be loaded with the physical drawbar positions being instantly used.

Swell is a characteristic organ feature, controlled from a continuous pedal. Swell is not only a volume control – for the B3 model it also makes the sound softer, by reducing the mid range presence, at low swell levels.

To use Swell control on the Nord Electro 7, make sure the [EXP PED] LED next to the LEVEL control is lit, activated by pressing SHIFT or EXP PEDAL ASSIGN in the Program Section and turning the Organ LEVEL control.

An attached Expression Pedal can be configured in the Pedal Menu (see page 44).

The B3 model is based on the classic electro-mechanical tonewheel organ. This simulation utilizes innovative and advanced methods to capture every nuance of the original sound. Here are some examples:

• An extremely accurate capture of the original chorus and vibrato scanner
• Modeling of the individual contact bounces for each harmonic
• Modeling of the unique frequency characteristics of the built-in pre-amplifier, which forms the “body” of the sound
• Simulation of the energy robbing on the tone wheels that results in the typical “compressed” sound
• Authentic tuning of the tonewheels according to the original design.
• Extremely fast keyboard response
• Full polyphony.

B3 DRAWBARS

The harmonic intervals for the tonewheel organ are printed on the panel below the drawbars. Each drawbar represents a partial with a fixed harmonic interval in relationship with the played note.The illustration below shows the pitch interval among the nine drawbars when the key of C3 is played. Note that the 5 ⅓′ drawbar actually is a 5th above the fundamental harmonic (8′) but in most situations is perceived as sounding below it.

DEEP CHORUS

The DEEP CHOR (Deep Chorus, Shift+Vibrato/Chorus) setting increases the modulation amount of the Chorus effect. The non-Deep and Deep Chorus settings correspond to early and late eras of the original design.

In other words, if you play a note or a chord and then add more notes without releasing the previously pressed keys, there will be no percussion effect in the new notes. You have to release all keys to be able to play new notes with the percussion effect.

In POLY mode (Shift+Volume), the Percussion is polyphonic, producing the percussive attack on each new stroke, regardless of how many keys are already pressed down.

The VOLUME SOFT button toggles between Normal and Soft percussion level. The DECAY FAST button toggles between Slow and Fast decay times.

The HARMONIC THIRD button toggles between using the 2nd or 3rd partial as the source for the percussion effect.

The original Vox™ organ 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 compact and portable organ instruments. Compared to the mighty sound of tonewheel based organs, transistor organs generally sounded reedier and weaker, but this one had a distinctive sound character which together with the portability made the instrument massively popular at the time.

VOX DRAWBARS

The labels used for the Vox drawbars are printed on the row directly above the drawbar LEDs.

For basic drawbar operation, please refer to “Drawbars and LED Graphs” on page 15.The seven drawbars to the left control the level of each partial. Each partial has a fixed harmonic interval relating to the played note. The illustration below shows the pitch interval of the drawbars when the key of C3 is played.

The rightmost drawbar controls the mix between a filtered signal sounding soft and dark, and an unfiltered signal sounding bright and intense.

VIBRATO

There are several types of vibrato and choruses available for the Vox model, which is activated using the ON button in the Vibrato section. The V3 setting is the one that is modeled after the original instrument.

The typical “buzzy” sound of this vintage instrument is one of the most distinct and easily recognizable organ sounds ever created; yet it is actually possible to get quite a wide range of sounds out of the instrument. Note that the voices aren’t supposed to replicate the instruments they are named after, but rather to describe the basic tonal characteristic of the voice: Flute = soft, Oboe = reedy, Trumpet = brassy etc.

FARF REGISTERS

The labels used for the FARF drawbars/registers are printed on the upper row, above the drawbar LEDs or drawbars.

The drawbars act as on/off switches, or “register selectors” when the Farf model is selected. Instead of drawbars, the original instrument used rocker switches for selecting instrument voices (in reality different filter settings) in various footage (octave) ranges. Drawbar LEDs 5-8 are lit up for an activated voice, and drawbar LEDs 1-4 are lit up for a deactivated voice. Pulling a drawbar more than half way out will activate that register.

The table below shows the original register name.

The illustration shows the pitch interval between each voice when the key of C3 is played. Though some voices have the same pitch, they differ in tonal character.

VIBRATO

The original instrument has two basic vibrato modes; “Light” and “Heavy”, with different rates for each mode. There are several types of vibrato and choruses available for the Farf model on the Nord Electro 7, which are activated using the ON button in the Vibrato section.

The V1, V2 and the C3 settings are the ones that are modeled after the original instrument’s.

For scenarios where a B3-like sound is desired, but without the keyboard click and other artifacts, the SOFT B3 is an appropriate choice. The drawbars correspond exactly to those of the B3 model.

With the Soft B3 selected the B3 Percussion has no effect on the sound.

The PIPE organ model faithfully recreates a principal pipe section – the sets of metal pipes, or ranks, that commonly make up the backbone of a pipe or church organ. While other ranks may attempt to recreate the sounds of other instruments (flutes, trumpets, strings etc.) the principal sound is non-imitative and unique to the pipe organ.

The pipe lengths available for the Pipe models correspond to those of the B3 model, ranging from 16 feet to 1 foot.

PIPE VIBRATO/CHORUS

Activating VIBRATO/CHORUS for the Pipe organ switches to a model which is tuned with less precision. This produces chorus-like effects, slight dissonances and adds realism when combining registers.

The Rotary Speaker settings are described in detail in the Effects chapter