Moog Music Forum

I was browsing a synth site just now, and in amongst the Moog modulars and ARPs there was a photo of a small Hohner organ, for some reason.

The only reason I'm interested is because I happen to have one in a box in the next room. I bought it years ago. There's no contact info for the owner of the site I was looking at, so I thought I'd ask here. Is this thing rare or something?

What's the site address?

http://www.synthfool.com/images/organetta.jpg

I had a very long look round the net last night, mostly for the Organa (the one I have) rather than the Organetta. It seems there was a whole series of them from the fifties through the sixties, but the basic sound-making procedure doesn't seem to have changed much, if at all.

I found some very low prices (not surprising if based on sound), but also some odd positive comments. A studio in the States actually listed one of these in its vintage instruments list, and I found a guy who's recording with one. He said he likes the way the tuning becomes unstable if you depress the keys very lightly. (true, it does). And he said it sounds like an analogue synth because of that (not true, it doesn't).

And many of the sites were in German, perhaps unsurprisingly.

Maybe the tide is turning and this cheapo instrument is about to have a resurgence? If so, I'll give the resulting music a miss and just sell mine, I think.

I suppose I could start a Voyager v Organa thread. But I'd rather not.

Now, what does it do? I didn't see any buttons, knobs or drawbar-type gadgets. Do you merely turn it on and make it groan?

You turn it on and a fan starts up inside at massive volume.

It does have one control. There's a flat bar under the keyboard that increases the volume of the notes (presumably to alter the mix between the notes and the fan). At least, the Organa has this. It's quite possible the Organetta has it as well, as it isn't very visible.

Maybe for lovers of this instrument the fan is part of the charm? I used the Organa a couple of times when I only had that and a Casio. I put a mic in the bottom of the cabinet and fed it through a flanger and a bit of echo. I can't remember now, but maybe the fan noise sounded ok flanged and echoed. It probably did. Someone once seriously said `hey, that sounded good!' when I switched the power on on the Casio. The bump from the switch gained immeasurably with a ringing tone from the flanger and some reverb. (Well, it was 1982.)

The things they can do these days.

Anyway, back to the Voyager, the Technics polysynth, the MS20 and the Fender Strat and so on. The Organa can stay in its box. But who knows, maybe someone will actually buy this thing?