Pointless Noodling on the ELKA x705 SPACE ORGAN

[Nord72]

And I forgot to tell that the outputs (3x jack) can ve routed to a mixer (01v here) and needs to pan it to the center, rotary fx sounds really great with it, the phaser is not so deep, a real small stone phaser is a must have beside this beast ;)

[thommy491]

Was spielst denn du da alles zusammen? Die ELKA X 705 spielt man ganz anders.Mach mal den Shake-Rhythmus mit Orchester-Automatik rein und spiel mit der guitar mal den Red River Rock.Ich hatte auch mal die X705.Musste sie aber weggeben weil sie vom häufigen transport und kälte im Auto stark ramponiert war.Aber gut ist die Orgel schon

[thommy491]

Kannst du mal einen gescheten sound spielen mit voller Begleitung und Orchesterautomatik. zb.einen fetzigen Schlagerrhythmus oder Red River Rock.

Es ist schade dass du die technische Automatik nicht voll ausschöpfst

[paulj0557]

So much to say here, but I noodle with my comments sometimes. SO, great playing! Put it on my 'Organ Tunes even Organ Haters will love!' II playlist.

I play organ and when listening to this video I wonder why I clutter my life with 3 organs in my living room. Guess it's hard to say why, but it's not like an Elka like this is showing up on Craigslist every day. I've got 8 organs total ( including a Farfisa FAST4) that I've invested less than $500 total. Guess it's hard to play theater on Elka??

[Laura041974]

This reminds me of Tangerine Dream and Mike Oldfield but it has an ancient Celtic feel which would work well on a historical fantasy film eg King Arthur/Robin Hood or an Scottish/Irish history documentary. Have you thought of sending a sample recording to your local Tourist board for playing in historic buildings or for use in local history info films? My Mum works in the heritage industry and has been involved in organizing projects like this.

[Laura041974]

I've seen one on ebay starting for £10.00 but it needed work doing. Big old organs seem to go for less than synths but usually have to be collected by buyer due to weight and you need enough room!

[Nord72]

@Laura041974 : I've got it for 100 Euros, but it needs some serious repairments, the rythm and auto-comp section had been removed (why?!) the lower string section stucked on a few sounds and the brass preset synth is very silent and noisy...but the rest of the unit sounds great! solo synth is amazing with the filter section, I think this part and the rest of the drawbar section is well worth the money for it.

I have the service manual and a lots of pictures from the panels/inner sections...

[Laura041974]

@Nord72 Thank you for writing to me about it. I once asked about speakers for my synth and the salesman suggested I get another synth! I told him my SX240 is fairly rare and sounds gorgeous and the only one I'd like more is a Synthex. He said he has a Synthex and doesn't play it!! I asked if he would sell it and he said not for less than £5,000! Your Elka organ cost far less which you appreciate and play with such skill and imagination, this expensive Synthex is useless unless someone plays it!

[Laura041974]

@Nord72 I can't get one of those, there wouldn't be room. I have one synth on the coffee table in the lounge. There's a Farfisa organ in a community hall in my village but I've never played it. I found a site for the Hammond Hire Company which might be able to give you advice about repairs. You make it sound so nice I couldn't have guessed there were things wrong with it.

[DelRockford]

Aw man, I'm totally buying one someday. This looks and sounds so cool!

[Desmaad]

Do you do soundtrack work?

[mee3d]

@Desmaad i used to, some years ago... i have had a few of tracks featured... most notable was the HBO coverage of the 1989 Tour de France but since then my video work takes up my time.

[cliffyfromboro]

Brilliant!!! Listening to this reminded me of Blade Runner!!!

[Hintze1970]

Now this is a cool vintage organ...even has a great name. Nice video, thanks!

[da959]

I've heard alot of "noodling" before and it's never been like this! I love how your tunes have a dark sound to them. This is one awesome instrument too. Nothing digital will ever sound like the real thing! Old technology has a life and sound all it's own.

[mootbooxle]

Incredible stuff!! Nice playing!! You should release this type of stuff. Like old-school Goblin!

[showroommeryll]

you should compose music for vintage erotic movie

[clarius1973]

Very impressive... Here in Italy we built monsters! It can almost replace a huge polysynth

[peterkadar]

Sounds great! Wish I could get an MP3 of this and vibe out in the car... I'm thinking of getting one of these organs myself!

[sssyntax]

Great demo man :)

I have one of these with matching speakers. I love its "mission control" look.

A great instrument that can range from classic organ tones to 80's sounds through to agressive industrial tones.

Very simple to use and that monosynth and spring reverb simply must be heard to be believed. Overall a very lively sounding beast.......heavy too.

If anyone is selling any cards out of one of these please email me as Im after the 2 lowest ones.

Again, great demo of a great instrument.

[inversion66]

It's hard to imagine what Elka and other organ companies were thinking when they made units like this. They were too complex and had too many synth type features for the typical home buyer, yet were in a format that was seen as out of date by most band keyboardists.

[Decimator7]

@inversion66

Today's synths are FAR MORE complex. I honestly prefer an entirely analog beast like the Elka X705 or the Eminent 310 than a 2009's Yamaha Tyros or a Korg PA800.

[judaskowalsky]

Hi. i just bought this machine.

Can you help me out a little.

It has three out's in the back. Do I need 3 jacks to get the sound out of this? Is there a chance to use headphones?

Do you perhaps have the manual?

[Triursaighead]

You don't need to. One cable at the General Output will be enough. You can use headphones, but I don't recommend you to do so - it's hard to get the cable in and out, so you better put in one cable with a female plug on the other side and plug in your headphones there.

[jwvancappellen]

Great video, someone gave this organ to my band for free, and i want to get a hammond like sound out of it. Think this video will point me in a better direction of getting that sound. Thanks!

[VladIDrago]

10:13 respect , COSMOS ;D.

[JMJarvinenStudio]

Hey fellow-X705 owner :) could you do a cover on JMJarre´s Last rumba and Band in the rain ;) ? Both use the sounds from X707/705 I will going to have my X705 in the studio October :D

[subdub21]

I had once that organ. It is a nice organ with good strings (a la solina strings). And it looks very cool and a very 70ies look. But it is very heavy, I think 70 kg

[solartron]

@subdub21: 85kg in the Case - WITHOUT(!) the Stand & Pedals and so on! ;-)

I had one long ago...

[myrmur]

Absolutely great!

Did you use any external effect?

[mee3d]

No... the unit has a nice spring reverb, so that was the only effect on. The audio clips because my video camera isn't great and I was probably playing quite loud! This unit had a couple of quirks so sometimes sections worked as they should and other times they didn't, depending on how hot the unit was - always a surprise to play!

[JMJarvinenStudio]

I just want this organ =P Said to be 2 Elka Rhapsody 610s built-in :) ELKA X-705 / 707.. Just beautiful sounds and also very decorative piece of furniture as well as instrument that caresses eye :)

[JoeLeer]

Its actully sound really good! How well can it do a Vox Continental?

[mee3d]

... not from the drawbars, they sound too Hammond like. There are a couple of presets called "Beat" and "Theatre"... the Beat sounds a little like a Vox but there's no controls to it so you get what you get.

[Triursaighead]

Can anyone tell me what actually is the difference between Elka X-605, X-705 and X-707? Just more presets?

[mee3d]

The Elka x707 is just the 705 but in a wooden stand-up 'home organ' style cabinet (with amp and speaker built in). The 605 looks just like the 705 so I'm not sure what's different... too me it looks identical so therefor the same amount of presets?

[Triursaighead]

Thanks a lot. It is because I want to own one of these. I once set my eyes on a bigger Eminent organ... but these are too heavy to be brought up to my studio on third floor...

I am really interested about getting an organ - it is an instrument which not everyone has. This would be the second unusual instrument in my studio, just after the theremin. ;-)

[organfairy]

The X-605 has a set of drawbars for each manual. But only one set of pianos and strings. A tab assignes it to upper or lower manual but not at the same time. Also the X-605 doesn't have a drum machine or a solo synthesizer. It is basically a Hammond emulator with a build-in string and piano synthesizer.

[Triursaighead]

Oh, thanks a lot. But these X-605 and X-606 are too rare... and I just nade a deal with someone who wants to give away his X-705. Can't wait to get my hands on it!

[THESonicMMM]

Wow! That baby has some serious personality! Just what most modern soft synths lack... cool demo! (Now, turn off that damned reverb!)

[mee3d]

I didn't put this up for any other reason then a record of owning and playing this keyboard. The unit was sold the next morning so this was just a quick "remembrance". If you are looking for a proper demo of the 'sound' of this keyboard then look elsewhere... I was just jamming so to me, it sounded better with some reverb - most of which is the inbuilt spring reverb.

[lundijuno106]

I didn't know combo organs sound so beautifully

[organfairy]

Nice organ. I allmost bought one some years ago and I still ask myself why I didn't do it. But on the other hand I have the successor - the X-30 - and the successors successor - the X-1000. I think that was the reason....