1973

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qks4eVnNNeQ

Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJXIfPLhmXE

Enjoy

Bill

We have come a long way .....and it will keep changing drastically in years to come......thanx for the links very interesting.

1981

W Series (Pure analogue sound generation)

Fascination 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wll4cTIcphc

1982

CX1 Rhythm Group (Wersi’s 1st programmable rhythm unit that replaced the previous WM2 unit, still pure analogue though)

International Evergreens https://app.box.com/s/7olj0qh6pxn2aciey6exp32mimflu8ki

Bonus:

A bit of Fun with an interesting dress sense https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoRjztbpqYY

1985

DX Series (Wersi’s 1st digital organ)

Digital Sound Sensation https://app.box.com/s/9lzps9hodd1kycfm00w1

1986

A departure from the standard organ keyboard

Wersi MK1 Synth with CX5 Drum Machine (Can also be played by full size drum pads and sticks) https://app.box.com/s/1zkibp8iu51niilz7f466c1c2w7dy7hk

Abacus, what I never understood is how organs are demonstrated ---- it is always organ sounds, and the organ can do so much more.

I attended every organ concert here in Orlando Florida, Wersi was my favorite organ. The big band instrumented were used 60% of the time. I took my Dad to a Wersi concert in Jersey, Inonie and Cooper (Spelling?) played a as a duo – fantastic. Mostly big band. Because of what I heard I bought a Delta 500 and a Wersi keyboard.

I know that our keyboards are an extension of the organ, and we can play it all. But why were organs demonstrated with mostly with organ sounds?
John C.

Its swings and roundabouts really, in that if they play too much organ sounds people moan, and if they play too much orchestral etc. sounds they also moan as they prefer more organ. (This is not new as it has been going on for decades)

The second point is that up until digital organs and keyboards became available in the middle 80s, the old analogue instruments could not really do orchestral etc. although artists did have a good stab. (Listen to some of the 80s analogue recordings in previous posts)

In the end, you just have to get out there and hope enough like it to buy it. (Which people did and is where brand loyalty started as each manufacture had their own way of doing things)

Bill

1988

CD Series (Wersi’s 1st 16 bit digital organ) with the Spectra being one of the favourites of Wersi owners, fans and artists even to this day. (It was ground breaking in its day along with the Yamaha HX 1, and if they could have built both into one instrument, wow)

Digital Sound Sensation 2 https://app.box.com/s/zbrlzz95x3aho79049q3urdfbyhy9xvk NOTE: if you close the green bar you can download the files

Interesting to see/hear the progression through time..thanks for this series..

1990/1

Here is a curved ball, Wersi released a Piano using the Livestyle sound engine (Not the first piano they ever produced) that replaced all the sounds with just Piano sounds for greater authenticity, (Less voices meant more sample memory available for each, as memory was still expensive in those days) it won many awards and was featured in many bands including the famous James Last Orchestra.

Demo by Cicero https://app.box.com/s/rpws37n385hms0n0p2f7vavkb3cf9jg4 NOTE: all instruments and musicians are real except the Wersi Grand Piano

Bill, I have that CD. Always enjoyed it. Think I'll pull it out and give it a spin today. I mean find the playlist I have it saved in! Thanks for the reminder...

Just a question Bill and Curt,...

How much of those lovely old Wersi sounds are in todays OAX models?

do you think if wersi & ketron, etc, were distributed in many more places for more to see play, buy, and compare with other brands they would sell many more units worldwide,.....what is holding these companies back from bigger world wide acceptance and awareness to players.....personally I would love to just walk into a music store and play, buy, or order one of these units eg: wersi Pegasus, Ketron SD90 etc, instead of just watching a youtube videos of them, or taking a chance to buy one and then have to return it if not fitting your needs because you could not audition it..the one time I drove all the way to who the hell knows where Pennsylvania to a wersi store and was totally disappointing when I pulled up and it had closed and turned into a Liquor store WTF?

I don't have an exact count, but there are a fair number of drawbar samples from Helios (under names like KW Drawbar, etc.) for Klaus W. type sounds. There are also samples from the CD (Spectra) series for both drawbars and a few strings if I recall. The attached list is a little dated. With the recent updates to OAX 2.0, they renamed some of the sounds and also replaced some of them with newer samples.

1989 - 1995

CD/Livestyle/Golden Gate Series (Wersi’s 1st genuine sampling series (Performer/Phoenix/Pegasus range)

Although mainly featured in the Performer/Pegasus range the Livestyle system first showcased in the CD line and the Golden Gate update effectively added the Performer/Pegasus to the CD line, the downside was that the factory voices where very Euro sounding so the UK/US players edited a lot of them for their own use. (The Pegasus/Performer line released in 1992 was also the first to have a touch screen)
The Pegasus/Performer line was also the last Wersi series that had a sound engine designed by Wersi itself, all the instrument series that came after used 3rd party suppliers for the sound engines.

Golden Gate Affair https://app.box.com/s/3dro5aaaxvbncxhr0wjeb7415iqb2tiu

1997/8

Another drift here

Blue Chip (A company formed by ex Wersi engineers) bought out a drawbar module called the OX 7 which went down well with musicians (Not a Hammond emulator as such but more of its own dedicated sound) and was also incorporated into the last versions of the CD line as well as being the mainstay in OAS (Just software controlled) and a purely software version being added to OAX, so here is a demo.

Return to Forever by Curt Prina https://app.box.com/s/ash386n2yfq5eqo9zsde9ddpdire4mj6 NOTE: all instruments and musicians are real except the OX 7 Drawbar Module.

2000 - 2016

OAS

OAS started off in its basic form in 2000 and used the Creamware Scope sound engine for its main sounds, a Yamaha XG card for the Drums & accompaniment with a plug in OX 7 hardware board for its drawbars, after a year or so, support for Akai samples was added along with an option to purchase the NI B4 Hammond VST, in addition all versions came with Steinberg Cubasis as standard to allow the use of other VSTs.

Demo (OAS 4) https://app.box.com/s/yb8651a4qk8x74gqvtpx2rgf9nid6n0i

The next big development came with OAS 4.1 which dispensed with the Yamaha XG card and added a 2nd DSP card with a more powerful computer, thus all sounds (Including drums & accompaniment) except OX 7 were produced by the Creamware Scope sound engine.

OAS 5 was another big step as it introduced a brand new OS which could take better advantage of the new hardware; thus more sounds and features became available and this was effectively the coming of age for OAS instruments.

OAS 6 added extra features and sounds but was not exactly a must have.

OAS 7 was another major change that added lots of new sounds and features, but did require a hardware upgrade as well; in addition the previous Creamware Scope sound engine was dispensed with and replaced with a version of the sound engine used in Steinberg’s Hypersonic VST, (For compatibility all the old sounds were converted into the new format so that uses old pre-sets could still be used) it also had a fully integrated VST Host.

Details of the OAS changes up to V7 can be found in this PDF document here https://app.box.com/s/8c6keigylnl8oeqthrll

There were 47 revisions to OAS 7 finishing at OAS 7.1-R47 released in 2014, all of which added new features, sounds, styles and options + bug fixes, (With too many to list here) but a big update came in 2007 when the old OAS arranger system was replaced with the OAA (Open Art Arranger) style system, which also included Chord control and Remote Octave options, (For comparison purposes the programmers guide for the OAS style arranger was around 6 pages, whereas the OAA had its own 58 page manual) it was so different that it required a completely new style format to be created. (Naturally they included the ability to play old format styles so that uses could still use their existing styles)
One of the big plays was the ability to play and edit Tyros 2 styles natively, (The OAA had more features available than the Tyros 2 at the time) but unlike other manufactures that substituted sounds when they converted a T2 style, Wersi created their own voices to mimic the T2 style voices (Including Mega voices) so that when the style was played, it sounded like the style was made for the OAS instrument rather than sounding like a converted style, or that someone had just stuck a T2 on top of the instrument, which as it has a completely different sound engine meant its sound characteristics were quite different and it was difficult for a lot of users to merge the 2 sound systems so that they sounded as one. (Some went for both anyway, having both a T2 (And later models) on top of the instrument as well as using the T2 styles on-board)
The OAA like OAS got continual updates over time adding new features.

Demo of the 2007 models: Music for Everyone by Mark Whale https://app.box.com/s/ljupx7jrabpmu2rw1oos


The big downside of the OAA was that apart from half a dozen or so new styles, all the old factory styles were left in place requiring the user to edit them or create new ones with the new features themselves, (Not the easiest of tasks) however in 2011 Music Store that now owned Wersi since 2010, introduced Styles 2011 (Which used the new features and replaced the old factory styles) as one of the new options for existing users to purchase.

OAS Instruments were finally retired in 2016 after 16 years of production and development and were replaced by the OAX range which launched in 2014.

Can’t wait to see the OAX demo’s..

OAX is a huge leep forward..
Still the Wersi own style is not on arranger level, but imported yamaha stles make up for that..

My bugest problem is with the way Wersi treats VST’s...
Accessible VST’s are loaded at systemstart...
To make them readilly available..
But this makes importing each single VST sound a hard days work..
Also VST effects are still not supported..

They should have made it work like on any DAW.. sure loading takes a few secconds..
But who cares, the Organ is for home use mostly...

Don’t feel offended by the critisme Bill, wersi has it way better then the competition from Bohm
And is atleast on par with all TOTL arrangers..
If they ever make one, i will be taunted to buy the oax Piano..

Bill, Some excellent content here - You OK if I copy over to WersiClubUSA site? I think folks might enjoy it and some may never find this site.

Let me know either way.

Thanks,

John - that would have been Ric Iannone and Dave Cooper, and they were quite the team.

I would agree. Shame it's tough to "touch-n-feel" one before you write the big check.
Let me add that I spent MANY hours in the building you mention before it was a Liquor store.

Knew that location well back in the day.

Curt,
why not pass a link to SZ as well, then you lead them to find this site.

Fair answer and we will do that...

HI Curt

Feel free to post on the Wersiclub USA website, I just ask that you also post a link to the synthzone website as well, (There are more than just forums to it) which is quite a large undertaking for Nigel (The Admin) to look after.

Bill

2014 - On

Sonic (OAX)

We now come right up to date with the latest range from Wersi of which a brochure can be seen here http://wersimusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WERSI_2018_Catalog.pdf

These instruments have bought a complete new flexibility to organ operation and like the previous OAS instruments are continually being updated, they also incorporate the latest VST3 Host for both sounds & effects, thus allowing you to load any VST you want.

Details of the updates so far (Including release dates) in PDF format can be seen here https://app.box.com/s/laym376m96773xluhars8dagwz9e4dpv

Here is the original factory demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpqjnivaHpo

2016 demos by Brett Wales using a later version of the software https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8oknChSKwk&list=PLMwBzNxzkPm-I7jO52nhUbDO8_QZP2KZM

2017 Concert by Claudia Hirschfeld https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUcAdC2Bpao

A selection of highly recommended demos can also be found here https://www.wersi-hochrhein.com/sounddemo.html including both video and audio; European & UK/US styles ; with the demos by Jaap van der Plas (NL) being particularly a must see as details are provided on screen of what is actually being used, including any VSTs which also feature in the demos.
NOTE: Jaap is continually adding new videos to his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ_QO0l4rV9zfPacRKCIAJw so it is worth keeping an eye on it (Or subscribing to it) as he explores OAX further. (As well as new software updates as they come out)

There are many other demos of OAX available from beginners to professionals, (Too many to mention here) so just type Wersi Sonic OAX into YouTube etc. for more. NOTE: You may also get the odd OAS demo in the search if they have not been tagged correctly by the uploader.

Finally if you want a want to see how OAX operates pop over to the Wersiclub USA YouTube channel as Curt slowly progresses through his acclimatisation to his OAX 700, (Including updates along the way) right from delivery https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ODkoko73W2R3sym7AzYPA/videos?flow=grid&view=0&sort=da
Anyway I hope you enjoyed this little journey through Wersi history via demos, and while this chapter is closing who knows what new features and sounds will be added in the future, so it’s not over yet.

Bill

Thanks Bill and definitely will link back.