ORLA Organs and Drawbars in the 80s

[musicmaker84]

If it hadn't been for this forum and some older posts, I wouldn't have heard of the ORLA brand. I researched the Ringway and GT model line (the Ringway Orla should have come with the GT series drawbars!), but I don't know much about the the ORLA of the 80s (let's say my main focus is on vintage organs and keyboards from the 80s for now).

It wasn't until some days ago that I dug up posts elsewhere on the net (they are not very common, btw) about the R & RX series.

There are some rare videos of someone playing an R 510.

Now, I was raised on a Yamaha FE-40 which sounded state-of-the-art, no cheese to be found. But in hindsight, I would have loved those drawbars no matter how "cheesy" they might have appeared back then already.

Your gentlemen who were around and in the know in the 80s, what was ORLA's reputation around that time? And, what is your opinion especially regarding the R510's drawbar sounds in comparison to other then popular makes and models?

Was ORLA regarded as inferior to the German and Japanese makes?

[andyg]

Inferior? Perhaps at one point from a sound point of view (that's subjective, of course) and definitely inferior for many years from a build and reliability point of view (hard fact about all Italian organs in the 60s and early 70s).

But by the mid to late 1970s the Italian makers knew what they had to do in both areas and did it. Orla's RX series were good instruments to play, I did some demos and concerts for them in the late 1980s.

The drawbar sounds were usually described as creamy, very mellow and without the bite of a Hammond. Most home players didn't want their drawbars to bite, of course! The nearest comparison would be Gulbransen, that make always had great flutes and drawbars (and was the make we tried to emulate at Kawai) The tremolo/chorus system was a single-rotor emulation and whilst I found it OK, I did keep asking them for a twin rotor emulation.

To me, the orchestral voices were OK for the era, and the string ensemble was typically Italian. Nice but not as smooth as an Eminent or Kawai, and not as warm as a Lowrey. Solo sounds were, again, good on the whole, if nothing extra special.

Rhythms and automatics were quite good - Orla were making organs for Lowrey at this time and i'm sure the orchestrated patterns flowed both ways across the Atlantic! ;)

Reliability? By then, I think there was little to choose between any of the big makers.

[musicmaker84]

Thanks AndyG,

Good to know no one had to feel ashamed back then owning an ORLA. Yes, creamy and mellow pretty much nails what the Youtube recordings sound like. Could it be the WERSI DX range sounded similar in the organ flute department?

Funny thing is, in the 80s I only knew Yamaha, the old Bohm at my grandma's, and the Wersi from some recordings. And, I always loved the sound of the WERSIs, and I did not appreciate the Böhm I practiced on during long summer holidays. A friend learned on a cheesy Italian 70s organ, and another had bought an Italian organ expander. I am not aware of the brands, since it wasn't important back then.