Crumar organ

pauli · Post by **pauli** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:50 pm

Hi all,has anyone heard or played the Crumar dual manual organ yet.The article in keyboard mag this month gave it high honors for authentic B3
sound and they also said it has the best Leslie sim they ever heard to date.
Any coments?

jazzmammal · Post by **jazzmammal** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:54 pm

I'm a big B3 guy too and I've wached all those vids about the Mojo, Hammond, Nord etc. As a dedicated clone the Mojo appears to be the best of the bunch but I have not actually played one.

In addition to my Pa1X which is a ton of fun I recently bought the new Kurzweil PC3 76 because as much as I would like a dedicated clone I really need a full synth. It has a killer B3 in it and since you have an old K2500 I thought I would mention that in case you're interested. The PC3 makes the K2500 look like an antique.

For a gigging keyboard where I don't need arranger functions, this Kurz is the best keyboard I've ever had. The PC3 is not marketed as a B3 clone but I'm telling you I've had so many comments about that keyboard it's amazing. Just last night I had a big band rehearsal doing a lot of 70's and 80's stuff with a lot of organ and one of the sax players who just came off tour with Bobby Caldwell came over to me to ask what keyboard it was because the organ sounded so good to him. He said he's recommending it to a friend of his who's looking for a new board. He isn't the only one who's told me that. Sure you can pick it apart if you really want to but overall it's pretty good especially considering all the other outstanding sounds it has. To me it's the best bang for the buck out there.

Bob

pauli · Post by **pauli** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:56 pm

Thanks Bob.

Giner · Post by **Giner** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 4:12 am

Hi Bob,

Which organs do you specially like in the Pa1XPro? Do you have any tweaks you'd like to share?

jazzmammal · Post by **jazzmammal** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 8:21 pm

I really don't like any of them, organ and voices are the two big weaknesses in the Pa1x for what I do. I just did two gigs this past weekend, one with the Korg and one with the Kurzweil. The overall sound quality is way better on the Kurz but since the Korg is specifically used as an arranger with a full band mix it still sounds pretty decent.

For organ in the Korg I use the basic jazz organ layered with the digital drawbars and sometimes just the gospel one that is velocity sensitive, no leslie effect played softly but hit it harder and the leslie is on. That works for rock stuff. I spent a lot of time messing around with Korg's digital drawbars and it's just not happening for me. Part of it is Korg's organ just sounds so fake compared to the Kurz organs. The Pa1X is not even in the same universe as my Kurzweil when it comes to sound quality. Not to say the Pa1X sounds bad, going through a nice PA it sounds pretty good but the Kurz is at another level that's all.

Now, the new Pa3X, that one is a different story. From what I've heard the sound quality including the organs is excellent. I'd love to have one but the price...

Bob

Giner · Post by **Giner** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:14 pm

Thanks for that, Bob. I'm not a lover of the drawbar organs on the 1X either, so it's just as well it's not a critical area for the work we do - you know what they say about senior centers, half of them are asleep and the other half are deaf.

That's a bit unfair, but they aren't as picky as some audiences might be. I find I like to use a mix of two or more organ voices, just for some thickness or body.

Yeah Pa3X, nice, but the price.

worth · Post by **worth** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:50 am

yes the PA1X isnt the strongest in terms of organs but in the mix they sound acceptable. I have fancied looking at another keyboard and i do like the kurz demos i have heard but i keep having to ask myself what am i going to be doing so differently that i should splash out on another keyboard and the answer is .....nothing really. It would ust be a lustful purchase as i can do all i need on my PA1X .

I am stil squeezing juice from it ha ha !!

Giner · Post by **Giner** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 4:42 pm

That's pretty much the way I am about my Pa1XPro, Worth.

I actually bought a Pa3X, had it here in the house for four days and sent it back (the dealer has a 30-day no questions asked return policy). The 3X came with the old OS so I asked the dealer to install the new OS, also, while they were about it, to transfer everything from my 1X. Sure, I could have done it myself but I thought let them do it, just in case. Glad I did, too, as it revealed something about them.

After all the confident yeah no prob assurances BS, they started passing the buck around different depts. (keyboard, tech., then back to keyboard). Anyway, they basically threw their hands in the air - this is Canada's top Korg dealer, by the way.

By this time, I'd lost all confidence in them if any future problems occurred with the keyboard so I took it back. After four days of playing it, I, like yourself couldn't justify the money outlay on a keyboard that, for my uses, wasn't vastly different enough.

Post by **karmathanever** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 12:36 am

Hi Giner

That's interesting. I don't know about the USA, but here, no retailers seem to know anything about Korg arrangers. When I was enquiring about the PA3X at a very large music retailer who actually had the keyboard advertised in their full color catalog, they didn't know what I was talking about and asked me "...what's a Korg PA3X???....". One local retailer asked me to show him how the PA3X works !!! There is no way I would let any retailer touch any Korg that I buy!!! It seems that there is no marketing support for Korg PAs here - they know a bit more about the M3 and Kronos, and know lots and lots about Yamaha and Roland.........

It is a shame you didn't really get the chance to dive in deeply to the PA3X BUT - if you are happy and comfortable with the PA1X then why change.

All the best

Pete