Hollow Sun – Organa (KONTAKT, NKI, NCW)

ORGANA
The samples for Organa are taken from a very early Hohner ‘Organa 30’ from the 50s or early 60s belonging to Hollow Sun Deutsche freund, Matthias Shuster.

Little is known about this other than it was an electric reed organ with a fan that blew air through reeds that were opened and closed with the keys. In many ways, it’s an electric harmonium where a motor rather than manually pumped pedals pushes the air around.
It has a distinctive sound which is harmonically rich and somewhat ‘wheezy’. It certainly has ‘character’. It is only capable of a few basic tones but Hollow Sun’s ‘Organa’ takes this a stage further by making them available simultaneously and mixable using drawbars which allows very big sounds to be created. The phase innacuracies of the layers add to the overall richness of the sound when the various ‘ranks’ are combined.

However, while the motor noise is considered by some to be a major irritation, it is a significant component of the sound so there is a control which allows you to mix some fan noise in with the signal.
All this combined with the ‘Tone’ control, envelope, FX and convolved reverb allows you to create a far wider range of quirky, organic tones than the original was capable of and whilst it’s no Hammond and it will not do synth basses and string pads, Organa CAN bring something unique constraint to the mix.

FEATURES
* 48kHz / 24-bit
* From a very rare, early Hohner Organa 30
• Unique user interface featuring …
– Drawbar mixing of reeds
– Fan noise control
– Tone control
– Envelope shaper
– Chorus, rotary cabinet and echo
– Convolved reverb featuring vintage spring reverbs