(A) VOX Continental

 
VR “organ type” Transistor Organ reproduces the classic double-manual VOX Continental II (also called Super Continental for the variant build in Italy)

While VR-Vox ‘out of the factory box’ sounds thin and ‘digital’, it can be ‘tuned’ into something very usable, probably not perfectly authentical but a variety of nice, cheesy Vox-like sounds

Aspects and comparison of Continental and VR-Vox:

• Sine and Sawtooth wave “mixer”:
  Conti/VR-Vox has 2 ‘wave flavours’ that can be mixed (together) using 2 dedicated drawbars (on VR: the 1-1/3; and 1′ drawbars):
      the Sine wave or ‘flute’ (drawbar symbol “~”)
      the Sawtooth wave or ‘reed’ (drawbar symbol M aka “mirrored w”)
• The “harmonics”
  VR harmonic drawbars principally corresponds to the Super-Conti configuration:
      upp: 16, 8, 4, 2-2/3, 2
      low: 8, 4, 2, 1-3/5
  The difference between VR-Vox and the Conti is:
  VR-Vox is using (simplified) ‘pure harmonics’ like on Tonewheels while the Super-Conti has drawbars labeled “II, III, IV” (instead of upper 2-2/3 + 2 and lower 1-3/5) which are so called MIX drawbars of several harmonics:
      II : 2-fold mix of 5-1/3′ and 1-3/5′
      III : 3-fold mix of 2-2/3′, 2′ and 1′
      IV : 4-fold mix: 2-2/3′, 2′, 1-3/5′, 1′
     
• Percussion:
  Some models of Conti-II had percussion: percussion switches “I” and “II” (4’ and 2 2/3’), and switches for “long” and “soft”
  This corresponds to Hammond-percussion (“2nd” = 4’and “3rd” = 2 2/3′) so VR-percussion can used
  (Note: italian SuperConti has different percussion option: 8′, 4′ and MIX, the latter being a mix of 5-1/3′ and 1-3/5)

“VR-Vox” weak points and solutions

• Bass pedal:
  Conti II/SuperConti have bass pedal registers (sine and square wave faders and 8″/16″ switch) while VR-Vox has no bass pedal option
  Workaround: pedal-bass (left hand bass) can be added with CTRLR EDITOR using a bass patch (e.g. from hidden Atelier ‘Organ’ groups)
• Sine- and Sawtooth mix:
  The ‘sine’ fader provides a much weaker volume than the sawtooth-fader (VR-Vox replicates the original). For equal level, set Sawtooth fader at 1/3 maximum (with Sine fader at max
• Vox-Vibrato:
  One way to add the ‘Vox Vibrato” is using “VR organ Vibrato/Chorus” : “C-1” is most closed to the original Conti Vibrato.
  While VR organ V/C is fixed to one rate, the Conti has hidden potentiometers to adjust both rate (frequency) and intensity
  A workaround for adjustable rate/intensity is using MFX Twin Rotary instead of V/C and customising ‘rotary type’ and rotary parameters (for the ‘rate’) in “VR menu Rotary”.
  Using Twin Rotary adds a stereophonic effect but this can be ignored or even considered as a “sonical enrichment”
  1. set MFX to Twin-Rotary (Organ Rotary must be OFF)”
  2. in VR menu “Rotary” select one of Rotary Type 1 or 2:
      Type 1 produces a richer sound with less R/L separation, Type 2 sounds dryer with more R/L separation.
  3. For Type 1/2 set all Accel(erations) respectively Rise/Fall times to maximum (= shortest ramp)
  4. Switch rotary to FAST and adjust Tweeter Fast Speed for ‘vibrato rate (set all other speeds to 0)
        Typical values for “The Doors” recordings for Tweeter Fast Speed : Rotary Type 1: 90 ; Type 2: 70
  5. Adjust vibrato intensity with the MFX knob (usually between 11-12 o’clock)
  6. Use ‘Rotary FAST/SLOW’ button to switch “Vibrato on/off (Organ Rotary must stay off)
• ‘Fattening’ the sound
  the naked VR-Vox sound is thin and digital – but applying EFX it becomes decent:
      Overdrive: just ‘switching it on’ is enough for thickening the sound
      TONE and VR menu “Organ” low/high GAIN to make it more dull or more biting.
      MFX ‘Bit Crasher”: adds ‘vintage LoFi” (with “amp noise”). Use MFX post at 10-12 o’clock
• Key Click
  Like Hammond organ the original Vox had a little key-click: in VR menu ‘Organ’ , adjust the “Note ON click” while keeping “Note Off Click” rather low to zero
• Hall (Reverb)
  It’s recommendet to use typical reverb types of ‘those times’, “Spring” or “Plate”

(B) Other types (Farfisa, Acetone etc)

 
VR has neither a dedicated engine for these transistor organs nor ‘bread&butter patches’

A workaround for Farfisa can be using a tonewheel type (preferably the cleaner Jazz type):
– Rotary-effect switched off
– Leakage to 0
– added MFX “Bit Crash” for ‘transistorising’ (‘cheesing’) the sound
– Organ-Gain, Tone etc for eq-ing the sound