Eminent 310 Unique
| Electronic home organ | |
|---|---|
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| General | |
| Surname | Eminent 310 Unique |
| Manufacturer | Eminent Orgelbouw BV |
| Price (1973) | Home version: 4295, - ƒ Theater version: 4995, - ƒ |
| Sound synthesis | analog, subtractive (string ensemble) and additive (organ) |
| Period | 1972-1983 |
| properties | |
| Polyphonic | fully polyphonic |
| Multitimbral | No |
| Oscillators | 12 |
| filter | Bandpass filter (organ) and bucket chain storage (string ensemble and choir) |
| Keys | 42 keys in the upper manual; 44 keys in the lower manual; 13 bass pedals |
| Effects | Chorus and reverberation |
The Eminent 310 Unique , even Eminent 310U or Eminent 310 is an analog, polyphonic ( polyphonic ) electronic organ that their fame the French composer and producer Jean-Michel Jarre owes who used this instrument among other things, some of his music albums.
history
Eminent Orgelbouw BV was founded in 1923 as a small family-run shop, which initially only sold organs and harmonies , but then experienced a great boom in the 1950s and 1960s and finally in 1968 employed over 400 people and dozens of branches. A year later, in 1969, the company's management decided to develop their own electronic organs . These were sold under the brand names Eminent and Solina.
The Eminent 310 Unique was completed in 1972. As a cost-effective alternative to the expensive organ models from Hammond and their further developments, as well as because of its many setting options, the organ was used by several well-known musicians, especially in the early 1970s. Undoubtedly the most famous use of the organ were the music albums Oxygène (1976), Équinoxe (1978), Chronologie (1993) and Oxygène 7-13 (1997) by the French musician Jean-Michel Jarre .
The "Strings Section", the organ's string register, was published externally in 1974 as the "Solina String Ensemble". Through a partnership with the US company ARP, which had developed the ARP Odyssey and the ARP 2600 synthesizer, among other things , the instrument was marketed as the " ARP Solina String Ensemble ". The Solina was the first polyphonic string keyboard and by far the greatest success of the Eminent Orgelbouw until the late 1970s, when newly developed synthesizers replaced it.
The Eminent Orgelbouw went bankrupt in 1983. The company was re-established in 1994 as Eminent BV in Lelystad and continues to build electronic and sacred organs for churches, theaters and home use.
Many Eminent 310 organs still exist today, especially in the Netherlands . Since these are relatively small, but very heavy as a result, they are often sold on the Internet at very low prices. Eminent BV also offers maintenance and repair services for all Eminent instruments, including those built before the company was founded.
General
The Eminent 310 Unique, with a 42-key upper manual (CF) and a 44-key lower manual (FC) as well as 13 bass pedals, is a typical example of a home organ from the 1970s. The organ has traditional registers on the upper manual (16 'and 4') as well as on the lower manual (8 'and 4') and the bass pedals (16 'and 8'), but a sustain effect can also be switched on makes a drum effect possible when certain instrument registers are activated.
On the right side of the lower manual there are four sliders. These control the timbre ( tone color ), the vibrato , the reverberation , and the treble, volume equalization between the upper and lower keyboard. It so z. B. the possibility of making the upper manual sound much louder than the lower.
On the right side of the upper manual was the "Strings Ensemble", consisting of eight buttons and a slider. By folding down all register switches and activating the 8 'button on the upper manual, a deep, rich string ensemble sound could be generated. The 4 'button could produce a slightly "thinner" sound that was an octave higher than the 8' ensemble. Additional effects can also be switched on and the Strings Ensemble can be used independently or at the same time as the normal organ registers.
To the left of the lower manual is the "Orbitone". Two switches, "On / Off" and "Chorus / Tremolo" are self-explanatory. Basically the "Orbitone" is nothing more than a simple mixer with which the volume and other preset effects or the Strings Ensemble can be controlled, balanced or switched off.
The normal 310 series is not the only Eminent model that has these functions. The company also built a stage version of the organ, the "Eminent 310 Theater". This differs less in technology (the only real difference is the installation of a simple, primitive rhythm machine) than in appearance from the home version. It was built traditionally, i.e. with higher wooden cladding on the sides and front as well as a larger loudspeaker, clearly more colored register levers and a lighting unit on top of the organ, which allows the instrument to be used in darkened rooms. The rhythm machine is equipped with eight predetermined rhythms, all of which can be played simultaneously. In this way, new rhythms can be created through clever combinations.
The 310 Unique and 310 Theater also have an input connection. With this the organ can be controlled remotely, but the String Ensemble and the Orbitone technology cannot then be used. In addition, the organ is equipped with a three-channel output connection, which provides the full range of functions of the organ not only from the built-in speakers, but also via external playback systems or for recording on a tape .
Others
The organ was built from the beginning in three wood tones or colors: white, dark brown and light brown.
Apart from the Solina Strings Ensemble, there are no real VSTs or emulations of the organ in software version or physical replicas.
Web links
- Explanation of the difference between the organ versions (in English)
- Articles on the organ (in English)
- Picture collection (in English)
- Fansite (in English)