Roland V-Combo VR-700 Workshop page 6

Here's how to select—and listen to—the V-Combo tonewheel models:
Press the FUNCTION button beneath the display—"Fnc" appears
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onscreen.
Press the - and/or + buttons until "OrG" appears in the display and the
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first eight ENSEMBLE buttons begin to flash.
Press the ENSEMBLE PIANO button to display the screen on which
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you can select tonewheel models by number.
Press the - and/or + buttons to select a tonewheel model. You can
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choose Tonewheel Model
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1—The Vintage 1 tonewheel model recreates the sound of a
classic 1970s tonewheel organ in pristine condition.
•
2—The Vintage 2 tonewheel model recreates the sound of a
classic 1960s tonewheel organ that's got a bit of character as a
result of water-and-tear. There's some dirt in its virtual contacts,
and more harmonic leakage.
•
3—The Solid model adds more low-end to the Vintage 1 model.
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4—The Clean model simulates the sound of a brand-new,
factory-fresh modern harmonic-bar organ.
Press EXIT twice to leave Function mode.
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Because the tonewheel model's just one of many settings in an organ
sound—and depending on how experienced you are at listening to organ
sounds—the change made by switching models may not cause a really
obvious change in the sound to you. Even so, it's the absolutely critical
foundation upon which every V-Combo organ sound is built.
Favorite 1-1 uses
Tonewheel Model 3.
The V-Combo Harmonic Bars
Every pitched sound in nature is made up of multiple pitches, or "frequencies, "
playing together. In musical notes, that's typically the note you hear, or
the "fundamental, " accompanied by other, much-lower-volume pitches
that you don't notice as separate notes—rather, they merely change the
fundamental's tone. These quieter notes are members of the fundamental
note's harmonic series. Some are harmonics of the fundamental; some are
octaves. Together, they constitute the note's "overtones. "
In a traditional tonewheel organ, nine harmonic bars, or "drawbars, " control
the overtones of each note. Each drawbar sets the volume of a specific
harmonic or octave pitch. Pulling a drawbar all the way out sets its pitch to
the maximum volume; pushing it all the way in turns it off. The art in using
drawbars is in learning how to quickly position them to get the sounds
you want on-the-fly, shaping your organ sounds as you play, for maximum
expression and to make them something uniquely your own.
The V-Combo's harmonic bars behave just like those on a traditional organ.
As you move them, the sound responds to your changes just as a traditional
organ does.
About Harmonic-Bar Names and More About Their Pitches
Tonewheel organs were themselves a simulation of still-older organs that
used pipes. As a result, harmonic bars are named for the pipes that had been
previously used to generate each of their pitches. Each pipe on those still-
older organs was a different length.
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