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11

Please note that the 

VIBRATO/CHORUS

 button for the 

LOW-

ER

 manual also controls the effect for the bass registers.

The key click produced by the random contact bounces is 
actually an audio artifact. This particular artifact later be-
came a desirable effect amongst musicians. You can adjust 
the click level by adjusting the 

TREBLE

 control of the EQ sec-

tion. 

The original instrument is probably the most famous of all 
the transistor-based combo organs that emerged in the 
early 60’s. Transistor technology made it possible to man-
ufacture much more compact and portable organ instru-
ments. Compared to the mighty sound of tonewheel 
based organs, transistor organs generally sounded reedier 
and weaker, but this one had a distinctive sound character 
which together with the portability and cool design (in-
verse keyboard and chrome “Z-frame” stand) made the in-
strument massively popular at the time. The sound is 
timeless and recreated faithfully in Nord C1 Combo Organ. 

The labels used for the Electric-V drawbars are printed on 
the lower row above the drawbars. Note that only the first 
five, and two last drawbars are used for this model.

For basic drawbar operation, please refer to “The Draw-
bars” on page 9.

The five leftmost drawbars control the level of each partial. 
Each partial has a fixed harmonic interval relating to the 
played note. The illustration below shows the pitch inter-

val of the 5 drawbars when the key of C3 is played. The in-
tervals vary for the 

UPPER

 and 

LOWER

 manual.

The two rightmost drawbars control the sum of all partials 
in the form of a filtered triangle-like signal sounding soft 
and dark, and an un-filtered square signal sounding bright 
and intense.

If these drawbars are both fully “pushed in”, the organ will 
produce no sound.

There is only one type of vibrato available for the Electric-
V, which is activated using the 

ON

 button in the Vibrato 

section. Note that the Electric-V vibrato is common for 
both the upper and lower manual drawbars.

This typical “buzzy” sound of this vintage instrument is one 
of the most distinct and easily recognizable organ sounds 
ever created, yet it is actually possible to get quite a wide 
range of sounds out of the instrument. 

Note that the voices aren’t supposed to replicate the in-
struments they are named after, but rather to describe the 
basic tonal characteristic of the voice; 

FLUTE

 - soft, 

OBOE

 - 

reedy, 

TRUMPET

 - brassy.

The labels used for the Electric-F drawbars are printed on 
the upper row above the drawbars

The drawbars act as on/off switches, or “Register selectors” 
when the Electric-F model is selected. Instead of drawbars, 
the original instrument featured “rocker”-type switches to 

Upper

Lower