The new V-Combo VR-700 is a multi-function keyboard that offers powerful real-time performance and versatility. At the center of the V-Combo is Roland’s acclaimed Virtual Tone Wheel Technology, which faithfully recreates the sound and playability of classic tone wheel organs. If you are primarily a synth or piano player, you may not be familiar with what a tone wheel organ is and how it works. All you may know is that a classic tone wheel organ is a large instrument, usually with two keyboards (known as manuals) and white and grey bars poking out of the organ's console that you can pull or push. In this Insider article, we’ll cover the basics of how a tone wheel organ creates its unique sound and how that sound is controlled by the player. Knowing a little about how a tone wheel organ works will help you see why the new V-Combo VR-700 is an amazing sounding instrument and one that all live gigging players should add to their rigs or have on hand when in the studio.

Tone Wheel Technology 101

The classic tone wheel organ was developed over 70 years ago and its sound is still an important staple in all styles of music. Classic tone wheel organs use a series of mechanical tone wheels to generate sine waves that are the organ’s basic sound element. The tone wheels are literally spinning discs that rotate in front of something similar to a guitar pickup. Each tone wheel creates a sound close to that of a vibrating tuning fork. Different low to high frequencies of the sine wave are produced depending on the size of the tone wheel, its distance from the pickup and the speed that the tone wheel is spinning. The original, classic tone wheel organs use many tone wheels to generate different intervals of these frequencies. These intervals are grouped into nine sets and controlled by the tone wheel organ’s essential drawbar controls.

Tone Wheel Organ Drawbars

The different parts of the nine frequency groups we mentioned are mixed by sliding in and out the drawbars mounted above the organ’s keyboard. Drawbars are very similar to the faders on a mixing console. When you pull out a drawbar, you make the volume louder for its portion of the “harmonic element” of the waveform. When you push the draw bar in, the part of the waveform assigned to that drawbar is heard less.
Each of the drawbars has a range of “zero” when pushed all the way in, and “eight” when completely pulled out. This means that each drawbar can be set at any one of nine different positions. Each drawbar is segmented so it can be set to eight different positions. These are marked on the drawbar and can be read by the player.

Depending on how each of the nine drawbars are adjusted as a group creates the tone wheel organ’s different timbres. These groupings of all nine drawbars are called a registration.

Playing a tone wheel organ requires more than just playing the notes on the keyboard. Tone wheel players change the tone of the organ sound in real time by changing the drawbar settings for almost infinite possibilities of tone. Then there’s using the organ’s vibrato, chorus and percussion sounds, and changing the speed of a rotating speaker cabinet that is often used to amplify a tone wheel organ, for different kinds of effects. Also common with classic tone wheel organs, is the ability for players to create overdrive effects by pushing the output of the rotating speaker. This adds distortion or “growl,” as it is known, to the sound. The V-Combo VR-700 lets you recreate all of these classic tone wheel organ effects with the same character and sound as the original classics.

One other important aspect of a tone wheel organ are the keys themselves. There are many signature playing styles that are identified with the tone wheel organ, made possible by their “waterfall” keys. The waterfall keys, which are also found on the VR-700, let players replicate playing techniques, such as palm glissandos, rapid repetition of a single note, tremolo between two notes and very percussive comping.

Conclusion

The tone wheel organ is a very organic instrument whose tone is shaped by the combination of its drawbar registrations, effects and playing style on the waterfall keyboard. There are many modern, digital versions of the tone wheel organ. Instruments that claim that they recreate a tone wheel organ, while lacking essential drawbars and waterfall keys, are not holding to the classic tone wheel organ legacy and as a result do a disservice to the player. The V-Combo VR-700 includes all the classic elements of a tone wheel organ so players do not have to compromise sound or playing experience.

 

Classic tone wheel organs can be very big, bulky, and expensive instruments. Add the addition of a rotary speaker cabinet and pedalboard and you have a roadie's worst nightmare. The VR-700 is neither big or bulky, nor expensive, and it is full of additional features to make it a must-have keyboard. The V-Combo, in addition to its Virtual Tone Wheel Organ Technology with real drawbars, includes world class piano sounds, and essential ensemble sounds (EP, strings, brass, synth leads, and more) to meet the demands of any kind of playing style and setting. Plus, the V-Combo adds USB backing-track functionality and built-in rhythms to round out the feature set.

We hope Part 1 of this Insider article has helped you understand more about tone wheel organ playing and Roland’s own Virtual Tone Wheel Organ Technology. Check out Part 2 in our discussion of tone wheel organs where we will discuss adding a second keyboard, such as a Fantom-G7, and a pedalboard, such as the Roland PK-7a, for the complete tone wheel organ experience.