Has anybody done anything with Hammond organ style drawbars? I'm not actually looking for an organ sound, I was just thinking drawbars in a module or integrated into a case would make for an interesting cv/gate source. Hell, maybe a volume fader or a filter controlled by drawbars for something Hammond organ like? Slightly off topic, does anybody know of any cases with effects built in?

Rookie. Learning Guitar. Will one day build a rack.


Yes...but it ain't cheap! Analog Outfitters here in Champaign offered a MIDI controller which ALSO had live drawbars that could be given CC assignments. But given that the company is now out of the MIDI controller business, the few of those that were produced are extremely rare these days.

Doepfer also offered a drawbar controller in a few forms for some time, but these are all discontinued now.

Two more things worth mentioning: the Peavey PC1600 MIDI Faderbox, and the Kawai MM16. In both cases, these are fader bank controllers that can be prodded into functioning like MIDI drawbars. The Peavey is better at this (I seem to remember that this is even a preset on the PC1600) than the Kawai, but both can be subjected to some creative MIDI routing to achieve the desired result.

...and there's others, but these are the ones I'm personally familiar with.


Hadn't realized Analog Outfitters did a midi controller. That thing looks gorgeous. I reckon I'll have to keep that and the doepfer in mind.

Rookie. Learning Guitar. Will one day build a rack.


They DID...but you'll pay through the nose for one. As I recall, the total number of Analog Outfitters' MIDI controllers probably numbers in the "couple of dozen", and all of them were pretty much one of a kind builds. Finding an iteration of Doepfer's controller would likely be an easier task.