Hollow Sun Vox Continental User manual

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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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The Vox Continental was the first of these (1962) and had drawbars to create
sounds. The first three white ones allowed you to adjust the levels of the 16', 8'
and 4' registers whilst the two maroon drawbars offered a sine wave and a
reedy sawtooth wave. The fourth white drawbar was labelled ‘IV’(known as the
'Rank IV' - dunno why!) and introduced higher harmonics. Below these were
the mains switch and a switch to activate a simple vibrato effect.
Of course, one distinctive feature of the Continental was the inverse keyboard.
This styling served no purpose other than to make the thing look more
distinctive. Another distinctive feature of the instrument was its striking, chrome
'Z-frame' legs - this thing just looked cool compared with the stuffy wooden
organ cabinets of the time!
Vox went on to make a dual manual Continental and other variations on the
theme. Later on, they produced the Jaguar but many claim that this is a poor
substitute for a Continental.
The Vox Continental's most famous user was probably Ray Manzarek of the
Doors but prior to this, it was also used by UK organist Alan Price (The
Animals), the Dave Clarke Five, the Tornados and countless others.
Although lacking the body and depth of a 'proper' tonewheel organ, the
Continental has a strong and distinctive sound nonetheless and still has many
devotees today.
The Kontakt version has been carefully scripted to recreate the front panel of
the original as closely as possible but with some obvious advantages too and
comes with amp simulation, rotary speakers as well as more modern effects
such as chorus and reverb.
This short manual will give you a guide to operation.

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PAGE TABS
At the bottom of each synth are three tabs which select different operating
areas. Click on the tabs as required.
MASTER PAGE
Here, you can set parameters releated to velocity, keyboard range and tuning.
VELOCITY
VELOCITY CURVE Select from a variety of different velocity curves here. By
default, velocity is set to FIXED to emulate the real thing.
VEL > VOL Set velocity sensitivity to taste with this control.
INPUT
RANGE Set the keyboard range for the selected instrument. Click
LEARN and play a low and then a high note on your MIDI
controller to set the range.
TRANSPOSE You can transpose the instrument with this control.
TUNING
COARSE Tune the instrument in semitone steps.
FINE Fine tune the instrument in cents.
PITCHBEND
DOWN Set the interval (in semitones) for downwards pitch bend.
UP Set the interval (in semitones) for upwards pitch bend.

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CONTROL PANEL PAGE
This is the meat and potatoes of all the Conti’s operation, where you can set the
virtual drawbars much like on the real thing. There are two sets of drawbars.
One sets the levels for the sine wave drawbars and the other sets the levels for
the ‘sawtooth’drawbars (*).
The sine wave drawbars give a more ‘churchy’sound while the sawtooth (which
was depicted on the actual instrument with an ‘M’symbol) allows you to create
the classic ‘beatnik’surf’s up organ sound. This is actually an improvement on
the real thing in that it only offered one set of drawbars with master sine and ‘M’
drawbars – this allows you to mix the sine and ‘M’drawbars freely for a wider
range of sounds.
There are no rules – just set the controls, listening as the various octaves are
introduced (or removed) until you arrive at a combination you like … just like the
real thing. The ‘Rank IV’drawbars introduce the familiar transistor organ sound.
If you create something you like, you can save it of course but part of the fun is
making a sound unique to any given situation.
A virtual vibrato switch isn’t provided – you should use your keyboard’s mod
wheel … which has the benefit of being a variable control rather than just an
on/off switch.
(*) Itʼs not actually a sawtooth but a square wave. Just thought Iʼd mention it!

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EFFECTS PAGE
If the CONTROL PANEL is the meat and potatoes for the Vox Conti, the
EFFECTS page is the dessert trolley!
The effects page adds amp and cabinet simulation, a rotary speaker effect plus
chorus and reverb. The controls are as follows:
AMPLIFIER
DRIVE Sets the amount of distortion. It is fully variable and
gradually introduces more distortion as the control is
turned clockwise. Fully counter-clockwise, the distortion
is switched off completely.
OUTPUT Sets the overall output level. Because the DRIVE control
adds gain and hence increases level, use this control to
back the output level off a little to avoid digital distortion
(which isn’t nice!).
CABINET
Drop down menu Select a cabinet type here. Eleven types are available
that emulate several classic cabinets, many pertinent to
the time. The Vox Continental can really come to life with
these as it doesn’t sound so ‘clean’and more like some
of the classic Conti tones we hear on records of old.
ROTARY SPEAKER
DEPTH Sets the depth (and stereo width) of the rotary speaker
effect. Although rotary speaker cabs are usually
associated with Hammond tonewheel organs, people put
their Continentals through them and it does add a lot to
the sound.
SPEED Sets the speed, fast or slow. The rotary effect speeds up
and slows down as on the real thing.

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DAMAGE
AMOUNT This is a curious control!
If a Vox Conti got a bit beaten up being thrown in and out
of vans, etc., when gigging or through electrical failure,
whatever, the top octave of the divide down oscillator
could ‘bleed’into the signal with every semitone ‘singing’
in the background. It was pretty horrible but is simulated
here for a bit of fun as a special effect. Simply turn the
control clockwise to introduce more of the ‘damage’!
CHORUS
AMOUNT Sets the amount of chorus applied. Although the chorus
effect would not be invented for 15 years or so after the
introduction of the Continental, it’s a good sound that
suits the sound well
REVERB
AMOUNT Sets the amount of reverb applied.
With all these effects in combination (and with all the drawbar permutations
available), this modest Vox Conti library can create a massive range of tones,
more than the original in fact!
With everything off, you get the clean sound of the Vox Conti, the equivalent of a
line out jack plugged into a good hi-fi amp. However, adding distortion, a
suitable cabinet and rotary speaker, you can really dirty the thing up such that it
sounds more like a Hammond than the transistor sound we associate with the
Conti. And you can add variable amounts of ‘damage’for a bit of fun!
As always, if you come up with a combination of effects types that you like, you
can save the sound for later recall but as always, the fun is creating a sound for
any given musical situation which is easily achieved and the panels here make
the experience as close to owning the real thing as possible.
My thanks to Barry at Forgotten Keys (http://www.forgottenkeys.co.uk) for his
help with some scripting for the Effects page. Do visit his site for some serious
and inexpensive vintage action!

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The small print…
Once you have bought and downloaded HS products, they are yours to use as
you wish and you have an unlimited license to use the sounds within any
musical production you are involved in. If you have several computers or
samplers, you are free to copy your purchase to use on those. However...
HOLLOW SUN SOUNDS CANNOT BE USED IN ANY COMMERCIAL
PRODUCT (HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE) AND/OR SOUND LIBRARY.
YOU CANNOT GIVE COPIES TO YOUR FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, BAND
MEMBERS, COLLABORATORS, ETC.. THESE PRODUCTS ARE LICENSED
TO YOU FOR YOUR USE AND YOUR USE ALONE. IF A PROJECT
REQUIRES THAT YOUR COLLABORATORS REQUIRE THE SOUNDS,
THEY SHOULD BUY THEM.
YOU CANNOT RE-DISTRIBUTE OR SELL HOLLOW SUN PRODUCTS.
NEITHER CAN YOU CONVERT THEM TO SOME OTHER FORMAT IN
ORDER TO RE-DISTRIBUTE OR SELL THEM.
SORRY, BUT DOING THE WORK TO CONVERT THEM TO (SAY)
SOUNDFONT FORMAT, WHATEVER, DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT
TO RE-DISTRIBUTE/SELL THEM IN THAT FORMAT!!
HOLLOW SUN WILL FOLLOW UP SUCH CONTRAVENTIONS TO THE
FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW TO PROTECT ITS COPYRIGHT.
PLEASE RESPECT MY COPYRIGHT AND THE WORK THAT HAS GONE
INTO THE CREATION AND PRODUCTION OF THESE SOUNDS.
SUPPORTING HOLLOW SUN HONESTLY ENSURES THE FUTURE
DEVELOPMENT OF OTHER PRODUCTS.
THANK YOU.
All company/trade/brand names shown or implied in this guide are the property
of their respective owners.
Copyright HOLLOW SUN ©

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USING THIS WITH THE FREE KONTAKT PLAYER
You CAN use this collection with the free Kontakt Player and it will play and
work perfectly but with the following restrictions:
•There is a time limit. This varies according to the version of the Player
you have.
•You can edit the sounds to your requirements exactly as though you
have a full working copy of Kontakt but you cannot save any edits or
tweaks you make.
•When the Player times out, you can restart it immediately and continue
(although you will, of course, have to reload everything).
To enjoy Hollow Sun’s Vox Continental to its full, it is recommended you buy a
full version of Kontakt. It is compatible with Kontakt 3.5 and higher.