The Dexibell classical sounds are amazing, especially the Trumpet and Violin solos. From the organ pipes to the orchestra, it sounds great. This is a classical organ with key size and feel to match. 3 divisions: Pedal (uses bass coupler unless you plug in a midi pedalboard), Man I and Man II. You can couple or split the manuals--even set the split point where you want. Presets are thumb pistons which are easy to change while playing. Very portable. 2 things keep this from being great. 1) The lack of an LCD screen causes you to have to do cryptic button presses to change features like touch. Even the instrument sounds require a cheat sheet. Playing backing tracks from the USB, you have to memorize a number from 1-99 for each song rather than pick names on the LCD like other digitals do. 2) The way the sustain works on the orchestra (pedal and Man I) could be better. The Man II orchestra cannot be sustained, so if you are layering a flute to play melody on top of piano, for example, the flute will be choppy when you lift your fingers. Also, the pedal orchestra will play the lowest key held down regardles of damper. If you are playing arpeggios and need to move your hand as you go, the pedal orchestra will follow you even if you hold the damper--no option to hold the lowest bass note with damper. It's a shame that you can't layer some of these sounds because of the limitations; Dexibell's T2L modeling sounds fantastic.

Tim

NC

For a digital, very realistic sounds for the classical instruments and the pipe organ sounds. Keys have a good solid feel to them (not like those cheap Fatar keyboards on many other instruments). It has 16 stops and 5 built-in organ sounds (plus 2 user loadable although Dexibell only has one available for download at the moment--a harmonium). Separate foot controllers can be purchased for expression, general crescendo, and damper (the damper does not operate on the pipe sounds but on piano and orchestra sounds). The layout is certainly with the organist in mind using tile stops, 3 divisions (2 manual and one pedal), and thumb pistons for memory presets. It will accept a midi pedal board, but without it, it uses a "bass coupler" on the lowest not on manual I. You can split the 2 manual divisions and even customize the split point or couple both together. The portability is fantastic. You can use a USB to record or to have MP3 backing tracks while you play. The keys are velocity sensitive on the non-organ sounds that not only volume but the tone also changes like a real instrument would when played harder. The trumpet and violin solo instruments are especially realistic sounding which says a lot. Key spacing is identical to an organ so you don't have to adjust your playing. Speakers can get quite loud but also has unbalanced output for stage. My only beef is that when changing settings or other operations like saving/restoring presets to a file on the USB or adjusting the touch, you need the manual so you know which buttons to hit--I just made a laminated cheat sheet that I keep with me. Other than that, I have no cons for what it is. Johannus organ company even uses it for thier "One" organ--they just load their own sounds and re-market it. Even besides the pipe sounds, the orchestral instruments alone are fantastic. This not a drawbar or "Hammond-like" organ, Dexibell has another model for that. This emulates a pipe organ.

Tim

NC