Vox Continental

You’ll no doubt be familiar with the distinctive sound of the original Vox Continental organ – think House of

the Rising Sun by The Animals and The Doors’ Light my Fire – and DAW users may have tried Arturia’s software emulation. Now this ’60s classic is back in hardware form as well – albeit with some tweaks and additions.

The new Vox Continental is a more versatile beast than the transistor-based original. Not only does it emulate that characteristic organ sound, but it also apes another transistor organ from the same era, and Korg’s CX-3 combo organ (touch drawbars enable you to adjust the harmonics and tone). You can enhance your organ tone with vibrato/chorus and a rotary speaker emulation, and there other vintage effects included on the Vox Continental, too.

There’s a lot more to the new Continental than just organs though: you also get an electric piano section that provides Tine, Reed and FM models, along with amp and cab sims. Grand, upright and electric grand pianos are covered in a further ‘part’, while the Key/Layer section offers more keys, brass, strings, synth and other sounds. The effects section features chorus, phaser, flanger, compressor, drive and wah processors, along with four types of delay, five types of reverb and EQ. Korg’s Nutube is also included to provide warmth and drive.

The Vox Continental features a semi-weighted waterfall keyboard, and you can adjust the feel of this using a Dynamics knob. It will be released in October priced at £1,769 for the 61-note version and £1,869 for the 73-note model.