Wurlitzer Orbit III Synthesizer

This is an easy to use keyboard I started circuit bending it and it has been the best bend ive done. People love to hear it live i added tones of extra features and because of it large board its easy to solder to check out my video on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To6SEriEXEk
enjoy, if you wo7uld like specs just ask

Bought mine at a thrift store. Was told it worked well. Got it home and some keys stick and some don't have sound at all. I find it fun to use, but the bad keys are a real distraction.

Have only had a piano in my home until now. The features are quite fun to experiment with.

Would like to find out if the organ is worth keeping and try to get it repaired. I can't afford to put much into it. Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

Just acquired this unique piece from an aunt who did nothing with it but polish and maintain its richness. This organ is just like it came off the show room floor. Don't really know much about it and learning is really fun. The buttons and various sounds never cease to amaze me. Although a manual and lessons books were not found, I do believe it would help make a better package. So far every feature works with no squeaks or static. Don't really know what I have but am interested in finding out. Would like to find all the manuals & lesson books to complete the fun.

Have been playing musical instruments since 9 yrs old. I have three(3) organs total, 2 guitars and a small recording studio in my home.

Flip the "ON" switch and go!
Lots of buttons and permutations.

Way too many features...I haven't figured them all out yet...
Keyboard light.
Cassette player/recorder.
70 synthesizer.
Pedal board.
"Drum machine/effects"
And a ton of Wurlitzer switches...

Just like the one at Grandma's house...circa 1968-1972...

It still freakin' works!

Check out ebay for old ads, manuals, service brochures etceteras.

Totally heavy.
Takes up tons of space.
Wacky, weird...wonderful.

Hey for free, it's a welcome addition to mu "music room".

Easy to use - Switches, knobs etc, all straightforward. You can make a 'patch' without even turning it on! No menus or nothin..

Alot!

Feature summary:

* 3 Keyboards - a monophonic 'synth' keyboard and 2 organ keyboards. Also a set of bass pedals covering one octave which make warm monophonic bass tone.
* An analog rythm machine, you cant make your own patterns, just presets, like the early Roland drum machines.
* Big heavy rotary speakers in the cabinet.
* Tape recorder/player also attached to this!!! So you can record your sessions directly or play back tapes through its speakers. Why not!
* 2 outputs on the underside of the keyboards send a wide stereo signal of the sound - turns off speakers when you plug in a jack.
* Expression pedal can be used for your own volume fading I guess, but I always have it on the minimum setting because its so unbelievably loud!! No main volume control other than this pedal, max volume is louuuuuudd especially if you press a bass pedal, you'll probably cave in your house along with your neighbours!

FX

Plus the usual extras you might expect from a regular organ, reverb (nice noisy spring reverb) chorus, vibrato plus spectratone. Lots of switches affect the different harmonics of the organ, and there are named presets like flute, brass etc (they dont sound like those though!) which can all be turned on at the same time.

Sixties MONOSYNTH?

The polyphony for the 2 organ keyboards is of course max, but the interesting part is the top monosynth - bizzare considering this machine is from (pretty sure) 1968!! It has '2nd touch', which is just aftertouch with no depth--pressing the keys with anything harder than normal pressure activates the LFO which can only be assigned to pitch. Very basic Attack / Sustain volume controls. The only filter type thing is a 'wah-wah' effect which can be turned on or off - just does a quick waoh type filter which sounds pretty funky!


I gave it a lesser rating previously, then I remembered about 5 more features of it.. Sure if the monosynth wasn't as restricted (filter cut-off etc) or you could program drum patterns on it, you might give it 12 out of then, but then again for a sixties *organ*, its pretty crazy what it can do!!

Organ is good... if you're into that sound! I wish it had attack/decay/sustain/release, but thats organs for ya!
The monosynth is pretty fun... I dont know how it generates the main tone, this can be changed with a selection of buttons that can be switched on or off. All can be on at the same time if you wish.. the best is turning the pitch LFO on constant and playing with the RATE and AMOUNT knobs! The general tone of this thing is quite unique to me, unlike conventional square/saw type sound. And of course Analog as can be!!

A curious beast... the speed of the analog drums can be changed with a rotary knob! I like the sound of them, a cool sounding synthy hat and cowbell.

Velocity? Nope. Aftertouch? Second touch.. FX? Sure.

This thing is HEAVY! It would not be fun to tour with, although it would look cool if you could. Its 35 years old, so its bound to go a little fuzzy sometimes... ive heard the sound crackle a bit, but that was only after I was cleaning dust off it.

Do Wurlitzer exist anymore?? I wish!

As an organ, this would be better if it had heavier chorusing or drawbars instead of switches, but its pretty much as good as they get.
As a drum machine, this is silly!! But hilarious.. I suppose they are only supposed to be for timing, but you do get nice retro analog sounds which are good to sample.
As a mono analog synthesiser, this is very limited - you get a unique tone which sounds good no matter what way you set it, but it doesnt have the versatility of the beasts that were made in the seventies & eighties.
As a tape player.. yes, plays tapes! And records! :) You can even adjust the pitch!
As a coffee maker, this thing fails... but I wouldn't be surprised if they originally wanted it to do that too!

Overall this thing is cool, and I must be one of the few people on Earth who has one. If I loved the sound of the organs, I'd give this 10, but the limitations of its use combined with its huge bulk dictates a measly 8 overall for me.