Wersi Orion W1T

This device is one of the last analog combo organ/synthesizers. It has a factory retrofitted MIDI OUT and IN interface. It is actually four synthesizers in one (heavy - 110 lbs) roadcase cabinet. The frequency divider analog sections consist of a drawbar section (for each manual and pedal), and a formant filtered fixed stop section (typical of analog electronic organs of the era, on the manuals only). The other two synth sections are a bass synthesizer for the pedals, and a 'piano' section on one of the manuals.

It has over a hundred analog controls but is easy to use.

The keyboard action is good, still after 30 odd years of professional almost daily use. All but the pedal is fully polyphonic.

It has a number of synthesizer swept filter effects - in fact it contains a clone of the famous Moog low pass VCF! Also a analog delay shift register device for chorus and rotary speaker effects. Pretty odd, and they change from day to day (being ancient analog).

The MIDI IN and OUT (only one at once) is really helpful. Has some trouble with MIDI IN with modern high speed computer MIDI cards, but that can be MIDI filtered down to lower data rates it can handle.

It does an excellent imitation of legacy analog synthesizers - because it is one!

The buttons labels Piano, Harpsichord, etc are laughable sounds by today's standards, but they are modestly musically interesting.

The drawbar sounds are timeless. The fixed stops are retro. The bass synth is good.

It works best on Jazz and Classical gigs. If used for rock (and even some jazz) it sounds much better if put through a valve guitar head.
A modern external reverb also helps it alot.

I bought it 15 years ago from another pro who had used it for another 15 years or so. It needs some work from time to time but is relatively easy to fix - I have a full set of schematics and assembly diagrams. That and a degree in Electrical Engineering is all you need to keep it operating. Amazingly, nearly all the IC's used are still available or pin identical functional replacements.

As IC's have been upgraded to more modern ones, it is sounding better and better. I do hesitate to move it too much - it is heavy, and it is old.

The original company that made it, Wersi, went bankrupt. The new Wersi company doesn't want to know about it.

There is an outfit in Lancaster Pa. that still has parts and technicians knowledgable in these devices. Schematics are available from the usual technician sources. Most of the parts used are standard and still available. The technical documentation includes the circuit board artwork and an explanation of the theory of operation, so modules can be reconstructed.

As with any legacy analog gear, you should be skilled in analog electronics if you want to keep it operating, or have friends who are and will maintain it for you.

For a semi-portable classic analog synth this device is hard to beat. It is especially unlikely to be stolen - except by perhaps powerlifting musicians! With the MIDI OUT feature it makes a quite good controller for more modern tone generating equipment. Each keyboard and the pedal come out on their own MIDI channel. The keyboard MIDI can be split, so one can control 5 MIDI channels from the console.

I would buy another one, especially with MIDI, if I could find one - if only as a spare.

This organ has many Preset Voices and effects. It took me more than a year to figure out all tone combinations. I ended up using the drawbars and the Wersivoice Chorus/Vibrato/Leslie simulator only.

The polyphony is unlimited, like it should be with a real organ. As said before, it has many effects of which I only use the Wersivoice. This is easy to use if you have tested all combinations.
With an analogue transistor graveyard there are no expansion boards available, of course. This is an end Seventies pre-Midi analogue machine.

It does not sound like a B3 or A100, but it has a sound of it's own. Depending over what Leslie (Clone) you play it, and what preamp/power amp you use it sounds pretty good in the mix. Take care that you don't use too much treble, it will sound squeeky. It's best if you do not exceed 8 - 10 Khz.

Yes, it's dependable and I go to gigs without real backup

As this was basically an organ that you build yourself and the company went broke, there is no support available. Lucky if you find somebody who can help you to repair things. I bought this monster from the Internet for a fraction of the price, 20 years after the first owner has built it.

If it were lost or stolen, would feel sorry for the thief, as it's a heavy monster. I would try to find a comparable organ via e-bay, or buy a lightweight midi keyboard and use Native B4 in order to save my back.
I play gigs since 1967. I use a Yamaha Digital Piano ypp45 which sits ontop of that and I drive my Midi expander with that (Vintage Protheus II/Kawai K1). It's perfect for my Deep Purple Tribute Band.

I bought this thing used, and no manual was included. These things were sold in parts, you bought the tone generator kit, effect kit, etc and assembled it yourself. The guy i bought it from never bought the presets kit, so i don't know anything about them.

A good idea if you're buying one is to check what parts are included and which aren't. Also ask if you can have the assembly instructions (a booklet for each kit, and 2 for general assembly instructions). They can be really handy if you need to repair the organ, just like i'm doing now. I broke it. I admit it. I was going to build a switch for the reverb, and i think o shorted the out-signal which probably burned a few diodes and transistors... I've located a broken diode and 2 broken tranistors. I think they're broken anyway. Well, well, hopefully I can get it fixed, I'm really attached to this organ.

Figuring out how to work the organ isn't the easiest thing... i can't go into details, ask the the seller, or try to figure it out yourself. Good luck. =)

Another thing, even tho this organ is portable, it weighs in at 140 pounds, which is quite heavy.

Full polyphony, good keyboard action, Guess it depends on who assembled it. No pressure sensitive keys. Two manuals and an external pedalboard and swell pedal.

The organ has three "sound banks", hammond-style organ sounds with drawbars, and a "festregister", which _tries_ to emulate different orchestral intruments. Sounds more like old-time synth lead to me. Can be quite useful with the onboard effects. The last one is piano, cembalo etc. It's awful and useless IMO.

The effects include a wah-wah, which can be controlled with a slider, or used as an auto-wah, or rotor-wah, which wahs up and down by itself at an adjustable speed. It has a leslie simulator, which is ok, not anyway near the CX-3 and other hammond simulators. The wah-wah on the other hand, is really cool, makes me think kraftwerk.
It also has vibrato, chorus, tremolo, springreverb, celeste.

The organ sounds are quite good, harmonic keyclicks are pretty good as well. Not very close to the real thing, but very good considering the price i paid. With a good leslie simulator, or a real leslie (it has an output for a wersi ratory cabinet, don't know if it works with a real leslie tho.) it could sound really good. Maybe.

As I said before, The organ sounds are good enough for me, tho nothing like a real tonewheelorgan. It works well as a cheap alternative though.

On the plus side are allt the effects, which makes this organ a bit more useful. You can get quite good lead sounds, and you can mess around with the effects to get some cool sounds.

It's rather sturdy, being a portable organ, again this might be depending on who built the organ. I messed it up only by opening it up and trying modify it. It's nothing i recommend unless you're really good with those things.

No support here i think. You're best shot is the guy who assembled it, he might remember a few things. This organ was built in 70-80 somthing, so it's been awhile. If you have the assembly booklets (which are in german) It should be easier mending it if it breaks. (I doubt it will unless you're stupid like me)

I've become really attached to this organ (that's why i give it a whopping 10), so I'd _definitely_ buy it again for the price i paid. Might even pay more. One thing you could wich for on this organ, is some kind distortion to go with the organ sounds to play rocknroll with, but i guess you'll just have to run it through a tube amp or somthing. Internal speakers could be handy as well. Anything else you need to know, don't hesitate to ask. It'd be fun to hear from anyone who owns this organ, i suspect they're quite rare. Not many people have the patience to build an organ from scratch.