Emu B3 Classic Tone Wheel Organ Module (Model 9112)

With all the retro fever regarding analog synths, we'll guess it's only a matter of time before the organ makes another (welcome) comeback. Those musicians who were around during the golden age remember hernia-inducing episodes moving console organs and rotating speakers. An ordeal, indeed, but nothing else gave that sound. Combo organs were available but were cheesy at best.

Many have stepped to the plate to make that original sound easier to wrangle, and, in many ways, this may be the best time for the king of instruments. Hammond leads the way with their XK2, a dead-on perfect recreation of one keyboard of a B3, and the Roland VK7 is within one step of the Hammond.

Modules are a different story, but here comes E-Mu with a winner. They went the whole hog here and took the fine Hammond B-3 and Leslie owned by John Novello (the superb organist in the group Niacin) into a studio and sampled the hell out of it. They went as far as to include samples of the starter motor revving up, the sounds of drawbars being pulled, and even the distinctive background "hash" noise that you hear from a Leslie speaker cranked on 10. (Rumors that they carbon-dated the wood of the cabinet proved to be unfounded.)

The organ tones are great, and include every combination under the sunÖ384 ROM and 512 user presets. The fast and slow controls for the Leslie speed can be assigned to any controller, like a mod wheel/lever, and they will fool you, we guarantee. This box sounds like the real thing.… read more Let's be honest: the E-Mu B3 will never replace a Hammond Organ pumping through a Leslie speaker. But for those who crave that sound, and don't have the room or resources for the real thing, this rig is the next best thing.

Features
Ý 64-voice polyphony (expandable to 128 voices with Turbo upgrade)

Ý 32mb Sound ROM with 384 ROM and 512 User Presets

Ý Rotary speaker simulation

Ý 32 MIDI channels give you extreme versatility in the studio

Ý 24-bit dual stereo-effects processor

Ý 12 assignable real-time front panel controls, giving you instant control over your sounds read less