"The Jean Michel Jarre organ / synth
Elka X-705 organ
m. analog synthesizer
Watkins WEM amplifier PA 100
Allsound Leslie"
Elka X-705 organ, which has incorporated as a special feature a real analog synthesizer. The nature sounds and organ sounds are great. It comes together with the old system, a Allsound Leslie and a WEM 100 PA amp The organ is complete with the bass pedal and a rocker pedal, both original and also there are two chrome-plated legs and a cover, so that it can be transported in a Flighcase."
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via this auction
"Elka X 705 Space Organ huge vintage analogue synthesizer moog filters Jarre
an absolute classic beast --as used by jean Michael jarre in the 70's
so much on this synth it's ridiculous!! two hammond clones ---2 string synths (elka rhapsodies) elka soloist 505, analog drum machine --brass synth etc etc
was working until recently --and just stopped for some reason - prob a dodgy capacitor, unfortunatel I dont really have the space anymore - or time to fix
it sounded incredible!!! you can layer all the sounds together for some super fat synth odysseys
the only part that is still working is the solo synth - the synth that has the moog ladder filters..."
From the looks and sounds of this the Wilgamat is the auto-accompaniment and drum box from the Elka X-705 (possibly the most fantastic keyboard in existence). Given that Wilgamats regularly clear £100, and Elka Rhapsodies & Elka Soloists make £200 each, the X-705 with two Rhapsodies, one Soloist, one Wilgamat, two drawbar organs, a dedicated preset analogue bass synth and a spring reverb represents something of a colossal bargain as they rarely raise over £300. Unfortunately they're also colossally heavy so look for one in your area. Berliners, get your money out - ;)"
"When Jean Michel Jarre made his Magnetic Fields album in 1981 he used the automatic organ Elka X-705 to record the fifth movement. But what if he had recorded the fourth movement with an automatic organ instead.
I don't have an Elka X-705 so I used a Hohner GP-93 instead. The pictures are from the inside of the organ. I had it opened up recently to repair a key that didn't want to stay in place. So I used the opportunity to make this video."
"This is not intended as a 1-to-1 reproduction of Jean Michel Jarre's famous classic. It is more like my shot at it using the instruments that I have. It's funny that just because JMJ used an Eminent U310 and later an Elka X-705 then these exact organ models sells for astronomical prices while most other organs can be bought for peanuts.
So therefore I have used Elka X-30 and Technics SX-C600 to play most of the arrangement. I don't have a MiniPops 7 drum machine so I used a Rhythm Ace. One thing I did to make it more authentic was that I manually added the quijada sound to the rhythm. I synthesized it on my Roland JX-8P because I felt that it was vital for the mood of the melody. The sequence that runs through the first part was programmed on the little Korg Poly 800 and most of the sound effect was made on my Roland SH-2000. Finally I added the sound of my homebuild zimbelstern because I hadn't got a clue on how to make the huithuithuithuithuit sounds of the EMS synthesizer that I assume Jarre used. For once I had the sheet music. I found it at the public library - you know, the house with books made of real paper in it. But it's not easy when the composer doesn't follow his own notes on the recording he made!
I haven's added many effects efter the sounds were recorded. Just some panning, reverb, and echo."
"Great sounding analog drum machine and auto comp unit.
It features three chord voices and two bass voices plus a range of great 70s Roland sounding drum sounds with a fill-in option that I of course forgot to use on this video.
The auto accompaniment section is a two octave bass and chord synth that can be controlled by either an external two-octave keyboard, an Elka organ or foot pedal via a 31-pin cable.
The bass and chord patterns change depending on the rhythm, Salsa, Rock, Bossa Nova...
In total 16 different rhythm presets with fill option, two bass patterns (auto and walking bass), two bass sounds, with a bass sustain option.
The accompaniment consists of three sounds that of course sounds nothing like what they're named after: Piano, Guitar and Brass.
There are individual volumes for the three sections, plus an overall master volume.
This one was modded with separate outputs.
These standalone units are rare, they were incorporated into the Elka X 705 Space Organ, apparently used by Jean Michel Jarre to make the Oxygen record."
Elka Wilgamat - Jamming with Envelope Filter and Space Echo
Published on Mar 14, 2019 Italian Vintage Stuff!
"Ella Wilgamat is an analog Drum/bass/chord machine from the 70s, originally part of the massive "Space Organ" 705X, used by Jean Michel Jarre on Oxygen.
This is just a quick jam with the Digitech Synth Wah-guitar pedal and some spring reverb and echo via the Roland Re-301."
This has a lot of features once it gets going. There's 2 rows of keys and drawbars. There's a string section, also a synthesizer with a filter."
Update via Qwave in the comments: "I own one o these too. I
The Stringsection is 100% technically identical to the ELKA Rhapsody 610 http://till-kopper.de/elka.html. Only some sliders are missing. The monophonic synth is a build in ELKA Solist 505.
Jarre used one of these with some optical extras for the very first China tour to play the "Last Rhumba" live."
"The Synthex was conceived and developed by independent Italian designer Mario Maggi, who then gained the financial backing of the company of Italy, who produced the synthesizer from 1981 to 1985. Elka, a company more noted for its organs, had previously introduced their Rhapsody 490, 610 string machine, the monophonic Solist 505 and the big combo organ/synth X-705. A total of 1850 units were produced. Today is a highly sought-after instrument which recently reached quotations around 8.000 UKP. It was succeeded by the Elka EK-22 (based on the CEM3396 chip which was also featured in e.g. Oberheim's Matrix line of synthesizers) and the Elka EK-44 (based on Yamaha's 4-OP FM).
"The Preludio 22L shares some of it's technoloy with the more famous X-705. And since Jean Michel Jarre used the X-705 for some time in the late 1970's I thought it could be fun to play one of his compositions while I had this old thing fired up. The only part of Equinoxe III that I couldn't play on the Preludio was the string parts because it doesn't have a phase modulator. For the string parts I therefore used the EP-8 instead."
"Elka X 705 1970's organ working 85% (please read) As used by J M Jarre, a wonderful piece of 'over the top' 70's technology. All is working except for the strings (cello and voice) which is half sounding with a a kind of low-fi rhythmic 'jutter'. All else works as it should - organ, synth (with expression filter cutoff, attack, portamento etc) and drum machine and bass pedals..."
YouTube via cordeliarecords. via Analog Suicide where you'll find a write-up. "A guide to combo organs with Blodwyn P. Teabag of The Thurston Lava Tube." "Blodwyn Teabag Thurston Lava Tube combo organ hammond vox continental farfisa compact elka X-705 leicester surf instro "
via this auction "This thing is pretty insane - a double manual organ with drawbars, a bunch of instrument presets, an analog drum machine, and a wonderfully cheesy monophonic synth with 11 presets.
Apparently it was made from 1977-81, and was played by Jean-Michael Jarr.
The synth ("Solo Presets") is working great, as is the drum machine, and the "piano" and "clavi-chord" presets. The synth sounds can be modified if you press the "var" button. I have uploaded some sound samples here."
via Rebel Bass NZ
Update via Ian156 in the comments: "There was a pedal board with it, you could drop the entire "cheesy" synth section down there, for a bass guitar or 'oumpa' bass brass, tuba sort of thing.
The drawbars were in the 'right' Hammond order too. Some of the Japanese organs like Kawais understandably, had them in numerical order. The major 3rd harmonic from the 5 1/3 makes quite a difference. Mellows the registration. To be honest. I've a modern Technics now, but those string/cello choruses (yellow) weren't half bad, event compared to modern digi strings. Ideal "Moon River" and "When you wish upon a star" Mantrovani sort of stuff. In a review of the time, they put the piano in the "not bad" class. There were some howlers about. But some of todays cheaper keyboards arent any better. Its a smashing bit of kit. Look after it. It was a 70s space age version of the 60s Hammond B3 complete with Jerry Anderson style flashing buttons. But its a gem. Try "Whiter shade of pale" on it, if you have the Leslie speaker cabinet working."
"'Dance Little bird' - also known as the Chicken Dance - was a big hit for the Dutch dance band Electronicas in 1981 and it is known by most people in Europe.
What not so many people know is that the year after Electronicas tried to make a follow-up to their previous succes with a melody called 'Dance Little Cat'.
It flopped!
Electronicas played it on accordion and Elka Concorde X-902 - which is basically an X-705 with accordion buttons. I play it on my Technics SX-C600 organ and the cat sound comes from my Roland SH-2000.
