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Table of Contents
Quality organ sounds are tough to come by in 2024. If you’re a musician who utilizes the organ often, you are going to want the best possible sounds that you can find. This is exactly why I put this list together to show you the best electric organs or keyboards that focus on the organ.
There are a few really solid options, in my opinion, and one thing I want to make sure we do is to break down options at different price points.
Not everyone can afford a Nord or Hammond organ, so it’s important that we address this.
I’m someone who loves organ sounds whether they are natural or simply organ VST plugins. Read my full review here on organ plugins.
Quick Breakdown Of My Top Picks
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What Types Of Music Do People Use Organs For?
Organs are used in basically every genre of music ranging from jazz, pop, gospel, rock, R&B, hip hop, country, and even classical. The reason is that they work as an instrument that can simply lay down beautiful chords while also shredding gnarly leads.
How I Graded Each Organ
Experience: I was fortunate enough to play on numerous amounts of organs and keyboards that emulated organs over the years. I recently recorded an album in which I was able to use a Hammond B-3 organ and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more.
Emulation: How well the keyboards emulate organs is a big grading factor. From the sliders to the way that the action is on the keys.
Sound: The authenticity of the sound is greatly taken into consideration. I really wanted to make sure that these organs do their best at sounding realistic and dynamic.
Price: Price is taken into consideration lightly as I wanted to put down my honest opinions of each organ regardless of how expensive or inexpensive it is.
Best Digital Organs
Hammond SK1-73 – Combo Organ
The SK1-73 is the closest thing I've heard to the real thing. It plays extremely well and is surprisingly warm.
The Hammond SK1-73 was created to basically be the Hammond B3 that you can literally carry. This thing absolutely blew my mind when I got to sit down with it.
If you’re an organ purist, you probably will swear by the real thing. With this being said, this organ emulates a real organ in every possible way, from the sound to the drawbars.
One of thing Hammond really nailed with this keyboard is the real mechanical drawbars. These play exactly how I would expect them to and I was very surprised.
Pros
- 73 note polyphony
- Incredible mechanical drawbars
- 6 different effects
- Sounds like a Hammond B3
- Great sound engine
Cons
- Expensive
- Limited sounds
Yamaha YC61
The YC61 is a sound designers dream. It is equipped with amazing organs as well as beautiful piano sounds. The keys have been created so that they also don't cut your fingers, which is nice.
The Yamaha YC61 is a sound designer’s dream instrument. This is a brand new stage piano and its organ sounds are out of this world in my opinion.
When it comes to touring and using organs, this is going to be the winner. It is so similar to the Nord Electro, but I feel like a breath of fresh air as it is a bit different.
One of the things I really enjoy with the YC61 is the customization abilities. You are able to fully customize the sounds from the ground up in a very intuitive way.
Note: The YC61 allows you to slam some amazing effects that the Nord keyboards simply do not near this price range.
This has been compared a lot to the Nord Electro series keyboards and I have to agree. With this being said, I think there is a good chance that you like it even more.
The keys on the YC61 are rounded making it so you don’t have to worry about cutting your fingers. I’ve played on a Hammond B-3 and I actually cut my fingers up pretty good.
While This is a very expensive option, it definitely is for good reason. I wouldn’t recommend this to beginners as this is more of an advanced players instrument.
Pros
- Incredible organ sounds
- Beautiful piano sounds
- Super gig-friendly
- Virtual Circuit Modeling
- 128 note polyphony
- 9 FX processors
- 80 User presets
- Great drawbars
Cons
- Expensive
Roland V-Combo – Best Organ Under $1000
The Roland V combo is a great option for keyboardists on a budget who need a little bit more than just organ sounds. In terms of organs, I believe they sound great and match-up well vs the competition.
This keyboard is on the lower end for the price on this list. With this being said, there are things to absolutely love about it.
The V-Combo is very lightweight, weighing only 12 lbs and it is basically 3 instruments into one.
Roland has built an acclaimed tonewheel organ engine that comes with 9 drawbars and these actually nail the touch and feel pretty well.
I recently included this option in my article that highlights the best keyboards for worship and church as works perfectly for this.
Touring and gigging is what this keyboard was built for. If you’re a little bit older and you frequently use the organ, this is a great option that is light and simple to use. The sounds are pretty dang good as well.
Pros
- Inexpensive
- 3 onboard rotary effects
- Vintage organ and electric piano sounds
- Rolands virtual tonewheel organ
- 7 different effects
- Extremely lightweight
- iPad editor app(works with tablets for music production)
- Drawbars
- 128 note polyphony
Cons
- Piano sounds are a little weak
Nord Electro 6D
The Nord Electro 6D is one of the most popular options on the market. Nord's are built extremely well, have fantastic organs and are perfect for serious touring musicians.
The Nord Electro 6D is one of the more popular keyboards for organ sounds. For a while, Nords were the industry standard when it came to touring keyboards.
They are still incredible, but they are also very expensive. The use of MIDI controllers and piano VSTs have really hurt the expensive keyboard market in my opinion.
The physical drawbars on the 6D are very realistic and they feel quality. You don’t feel as if you’re going to break these when you’re playing intensely.
While the organ sounds are incredible on the keyboard, the piano sounds are also very nice. This is one of the reasons why it has been so popular for so many years.
Pros
- Greats organs
- Easy to use
- Great for touring
- Amazing piano sounds
- Additional synth sounds for layering
- Split 3 different zones
Cons
- Expensive
Conclusion
There are currently a ton of really good keyboards out there for organ emulation. I tried my best to make this list as informative as I could while showing pros and cons to each.
If you’re a hardcore organ fan, I would suggest the Yamaha YC61 as gives you so much value for the money. If you compare it to the Nords near its price, I believe the YC61 wins.
Chris Senner
16 comments
One thing surprizes me, you say you have 20 yrs experience playing organs iincluding the real thing, Hammond B3. I take for granted that you have used a real Lesley with the B3. It therefore surprises me that you so highly acclaim the YC 61 as a hammond clone when their lesley simulation is barely usable. I have been using Hammond vst’s for over 20 yrs and the lesley sim in my B4 from 2000 sounds far better, not to mention the IK B3x wich you surprisingly don’t include in your vst favourite list. I would have bought the YC already if they could figure out the lesley sim.
Pretty sure they revamped this in the latest patch.
Not sure we can take your criticism seriously when you don’t know how to spell Leslie.
Grammarly typo, thanks for the note Dave.
Joey D plays Viscount organs…fabulous..
Watt about Viscount?
Dan
I’ve only been playing the Hammond Organ for 56 years. All of these described models sound great and are a lot of fun. This is a great article. I can’t tell you they sound as good or not as good as the original. My hearing is not as good as when I was 10 years old and first started. But after this much time, it is still a blast to make great music. It is all about the music, don’t kid yourself.
I played organ for many years. I had a 2 keyboard Lowrey with a built in Leslie, then later a Wurlitzer with 2 full keyboards, a full pedal board, and 2 octave synthesizer. Don’t currently have an organ. I can’t understand how I play both hands on one keyboard??? And what about the bass line that my feet played on the pedals? How do I make this conversion? That is the thing which has held me back from getting a new instrument. I feel like I will have to learn how to play all over again.
You have my sympathy, I’m in the same boat. My Yamaha organ is no longer reparable and will probably have to be discarded. Although organ sounds on keyboards can be quite good, I don’t play well enough on a single keyboard to make it sound the way I’m used to. After playing a certain way on a real organ for so long, it’s hard to change. I hope manufacturers out there will come up with something suitable in the near future. My ideal replacement would be something portable with two manuals and a pedal board that I can take to church and play the way I’m used to at home. At present I use 2 individual keyboards that belong to the church and someone plays a bass guitar in lieu of my not having a pedal board. It’s passable, but not ideal.
Lyn, lookup “bass pedal keyboards” on google as a starting point. You can certainly ask the keyboard seller if the keyboard will accept a pedal keyboard (prolly Midi). Dunno, but that might point you in a direction that works.
I have a Yamaha FX-20 which was born in 1983, 40 years old. It still plays but has been experiencing major hiccups – random cymbal explosions, sudden sliding up the scale, wah-wah craziness, rhythm unit racing at 1000mph, changing voices randomly…. it was a mess. I found a guy, 77 yrs old who came out and completely re-soldered all the wires to the power supply. That helped but it only lasted a month before it began misbehaving again.
I looked at the Yamaha StageA units, which are awesome but OMG are they expensive: $5000+ plus $2500 shipping from Japan (normally, we can’t buy them inside the USA but some eBay folks have them, hard to trust).
Blessings Lyn, reply if you can.
Deb
You have my sympathy, I’m in the same boat. My Yamaha organ is no longer reparable and will probably have to be discarded. Although organ sounds on keyboards can be quite good, I don’t play well enough on a single keyboard to make it sound the way I’m used to. After playing a certain way on a real organ for so long, it’s hard to change. I hope manufacturers out there will come up with something suitable in the near future. My ideal replacement would be something portable with two manuals and a pedal board that I can take to church and play the way I’m used to at home. At present I use 2 individual keyboards that belong to the church and someone plays a bass guitar in lieu of my not having a pedal board. It’s passable, but not ideal.
I have the Hammond Skx xk5 the yahama yC
And Nord stage 3. The Nord is more expensive but it has 4 outputs that I assigned the B3 to channelS 1&2 (going to a 145 ) and the rest of the sounds to channels 3&4 going to my space station. Now that I have the Hammond XK5 it will be going to the Lesile and
The yahama YC (which has great sounding keyboard sounds) to the space station. The SKX is in the studio and the stage 3 I’m using for a practice keyboard in studio.
Also used a B4000 ferro fish which is a good organ simulator but there’s nothing like the XK5 thru my 145. Nord organ isn’t bad thru the 145 and the YC isn’t bad thru my 147. Nothing like a Lesile
And not a single dual manual organ made it into this review? No NORD C2D? No Hammond SK2? No MAG? No Crumar? Pfff.
The 2 manual Hammond Skx Pro is my choice. Same engine as the Xk5 but a lot less expensive ( although not cheap). Suzuki still can’t figure out how to model their acoustic pianos, but the other sounds are satisfactory-to-good. Also a very decent & tweakable synth engine.
Thanks for the notes John!
Totally valid points!
Hey John, I don’t disagree here! Good choice!