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INTRODUCTION
Thank you for purchasing the Hollow Sun Vox Continental. It features samples
from one of the most desirable keyboards of the 60s and 70s and which is still
popular today .
ABOUT THE CONTINENTAL
The Vox Continental is probably the most famous of the 'new breed' of
transistor organs that emerged in the early '60s.
Previously, organs were built around tone-wheel technology. This undoubtedly
created a fantastic (classic) organ sound but made the instruments heavy and
unwieldy (and expensive). With the advent of transistors, it was possible to
create lightweight, portable organs.... in theory. In practice, the majority
sounded thin and weak by comparison. However, that sound in itself appealled
to the new 'surf' and 'beatnik' music which was evolving at the time. The
portability also appealled to groups. The Vox Continental was unusual in that it
actually sounded quite good.... not cheap and cheesy like so many of its rivals.
These organs used 'divide down' technology (like the later string synths) where
there is a master top octave oscillator and all subsequent octaves are achieved
simply by dividing the frequency in half and then half again and so on. It
allowed these transistor organs to be manufactured very cost effectively.
Although possibly better known for their amplifiers (the legendary AC30, for
example), Vox actually started life as a manufacturer of 'traditional' home and
church organs. With the emerging new micro' technology of transistors, they
saw the possibility to use this technology in their products.
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