Today Arturia released a software emulation of the sixties-era transistor-based combo organ, the VOX Continental 300, called (not surprisingly) VOX Continental-V .
Introduced in 1962, the VOX Continental, or ‘Connie’ as affectionately it became known, was originally designed as a portable keyboard to address the needs of touring musicians. Our readers will recognize the organ by its distinctive sound in The Animals’ ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ and ‘Light My Fire’ by The Doors. Although the VOX Continental was discontinued in the early 1970s, the organ and its distinctive sound show up in tunes by bands like Madness, Elvis Costello (in his Attractions incarnation), and Tom Petty.
The VOX Continental-V is modeled on a rare VOX Continental 300 dual-manual model, along with a Jennings J70 (the VOX organ predecessor). The dual-manual VOX Continental 300 emulation is complete with upper manual, lower manual, and bass pedal sections with independent channels per manual; multiple output effects processors with several popular effects, including Leslie and guitar amp simulator outputs; individual pitch tuning; alterable key contact timing; and authentic noise bleed control.
VOX Continental-V works as a plug-in with popular DAWs and is also available as AAX, AU, VST, and VST3 standalone versions for Mac (OS X 10.7.5 or higher) and PC (Windows 7 and 8). The software also integrates seamlessly with Arturia’s KeyLab professional MIDI keyboard controllers. You can listen to some tunes using VOX Continental-V on the Arturia website.
Pricing and Availability. VOX Continental-V is available for purchase as a software download for €99.00 EUR ($99.00 US) from the Arturia online store or as a boxed product for €119.00 EUR ($129.00 US) from the Arturia online store or authorized dealers. More information is on the Arturia website.
i own or owned four arturia products already: analog laboratory, analog lab, minimoog and imini. every single one sounds good and looks good. but neither of them is developed to a stage where you can actually use it in a professional environment. too many bugs. key features missing.
so i doubt this organ thing will live up to its promise…
What bugs ? Its not just you who use some fucked up cracked versions. Arturia is some of the god damn best sounding VST´s out there if you ask me.
Seems like this kinda sound could easily be gotten with nice small looping samples.
Now this is just me, but this music (in the above demo) makes me spit up in my mouth a little.
It would actually be funny to watch one of these ultra-retro bands that worship genuine vintage gear so hard go onstage with a laptop. Credit lost in no time.
Always loved Vox and Farfisa organs. But what really killed me was the song.
How can dudes younger than me like music that’s older than me?
Something’s gone pretty skewed there.
Well Jay, believe it or not, some ‘dudes’ even like a bit of Bach. That’s gotta be older than any of us. How crazy is that?!!
I love Stephen Foster… like Bach he is so much older than all of us. To the point where our potential ages apart mean nothing. He is my hero of what not to do (die of drunken brokenness) and what to do… write a tune or melody that many people know 100’s of years later.
I wonder whether this has something to do with the fantastic free http://www.kvraudio.com/product/combo-model-v-by-martinic not being available anymore. Maybe Martinic sold the modelling engine to Arturia?
Check out the developer site:
http://www.martinic.com/combof/
Yep, precisely. Combo F is the Farfisa emulation, and Combo V was the Vox Continental emulation that is not available anymore
I was playing this until 3 am last night. I like it. A lot actually. I even used it in a piece for a client…. Assuming the client likes it than the VOX Continental has paid for itself already.
I hVent really found bugs yet. I was using it with sequencers and controllers like gestrument, soundprism, little midi machine, thesys. And an IRig BlueBoard to control pedals and effects. I still need to set it up so I have two keyboards like on the actual organ.
Tonight I will learn me Doors riffs… So for those interested… Buy it, it’s cool. for those unhappy about software… Well clearly not for you. 🙂
http://youtu.be/fU9WbS7fbJ8 Not VST! 😉
If you have anything that includes sine and pulse waves, you can build a Vox with ease. Its incredibly simple for pretty much any synth. I accept a certain number of calls for “authenticity,” but this is stupid-simple. You can go great guns with a passable sense of synthesis and effects. I think they covered several of the sweetheart pluses well, but try it at home first. Even the bass pedals and the noise bleed should be well within reach of any workstation or DAW’s effects. A little buzz or grit for character is seconds away. That $100 can buy you an expansion pack and some booze. 😀
it’s funny to me how one dude will argue til he’s blue in the face that nothing can ever be as good as a vintage keyboard and then another will argue that any synth can match it!
In reality, it depends entirely on how obsessive-compulsive you are about matching the sound of a vintage machine. Today’s circuit-modeling synths can get 99% of the way there, but they aren’t going to match the way a vintage keyboard sounds different from day to day, how it will sound different depending on the temperature or how one vintage axe sounds different than another. It’s funny how people complain that 303 clones don’t sound the same as an original – when the originals were made with crappy components and all sound a little different themselves.
If you need ‘that sound’ this will probably get you closer than any other clone out there, but it’s not going to be the same as playing a vintage Continental. Whether that really matters is a whole nother issue.
Good points, actually. I’m just one who had enough hardware to be as grateful as hell that now, I DON’T have to wrestle instruments that drift in pitch when its hot! When I read “nostalgia” or “vintage,” I partly think “unstable money pit.” If you’ve ever had work done by a good synth tech, you know how much cash flies out the window. Its well-earned, but OUCH. Software has its own set of issues and madness, but I’ll trade that for troubleshooting cables any day. If you feel that drawn to a thing, go for it, but if you can’t synthesize a Vox or some wind, give your synths to a needy child. 😛 Seriously, give yourself and your gear a shot at it once in a while. Many presets are killer, but you define yourself by your ability to tweak the fine points.
$79 for the Arturia faithful is a decent price for a cool little organ, with some added stuff to create the right character. Sounds good to me. Sure there are some Logic and Komplete bits that can sound similar, and even my Kurzweil has a nice patch … but this is a nice little app for those who love organs, and way the heck cheaper than buying a real one, which is somewhat the business model here.