Dexibell Classico L3 Digital Organ

The only reasons I gave 4 starts instead of 5: 1) it really should have an LCD screen--even a small one liner. Changing settings and instruments gets a bit cryptic and you have to remember assignments or carry a cheat sheet. 2) The chord enhancer, although sounds great, will not save in the presets--this is kinda crazy to me and I forget to change it sometimes. On the good side: The sounds are amazing especially trumpet and violin/viola as they are the hardest to get close to a realistic sound. Even the organ stops I find more realistic sounding than any big console digital (Rodgers/Johannus/Allen/Viscount, etc) I have heard. The keys are spot on for size as organ keys and are very solid--dosn't feel like any Fatar keyboard I've played, so I think Dexibell makes their own. Johannus uses this hardware from Dexibell and loads their own sounds for their "One" but I prefer Dexibell the sounds--but to each their own.Basic layout: There are 3 divisions: pedal, manual I, and manual II. The pedal automatically invokes a "bass coupler" to play the lowest note on manual I. The 2 manuals can be played separately (split) or coupled together across all keys. When coupled, there is still only 61 pipes in each rank on a 76 key so it jumps back down and plays a different octave as you go past the limit. Also, just like the big organs, the pedal is only 32 pipes but you just don't get any sound when you go past the highest note (G4).Memory presets: 12 (4 x 3 banks) are all capture presets. With a few button presses you can save or restore all presets into files (up to 12) on the USB (not included).Recordings: Saved recordings are placed on the USB but it seems only the last one can be replayed (see work around below). All recordings are .wav only so they take up quite a bit of space.Play-along songs: These are numbered up to 99 songs that can be played (wav, mp3, or aif) by loading them using a computer onto USB. You can just copy the recordings to the songs folder to access them as well. Also, play along options include bluetooth pairing, audio in jack, and via USB to computer.UPGRADE! Mine came with version 1.05 of the OS. I upgraded it to 4.07 which adds features instruments. Also, download the full manual. The booklet that comes with it is very basic.Optional organ types: Although there are 2 user loadable organ types, there is only one available from Dexibell: a harmonium (reed organ). It sounds similar to an accordion since both use reeds to produce sound.X Mure app can be downloaded to a phone/tablet for free with in app purchases for some sounds. It basically offers a beat-box type play-along as far as I can tell. I could not get the thing to work as it was incredibly non-intuitive. DAWs on my tablet (Garage Band and n-Track 9) worked fine for me. Logic Pro on the Mac also works PnP.There are some limitations.There can only be 2 layered sounds. Even the Manual I which has 3 different catagories (orchestra, piano/harpsichord, and organ) can only have 2 of those 3.The MIDI playback from a DAW or sequencer cannot change individual settings or patches but only recall memory presets. Keys and controllers such as sustain work fine as they should. Also each layer on each manual/pedal are on separate channels. The manual lists them out. I did not use the MIDI DIN plugs on the back since I use USB to the computer and I do not use an external pedal board. Maybe I'll get one of those 32 note AGO pedal boards from Viscount, but that is about half the cost of this organ and not portable at all.The damper pedal is programmable as to what it holds--except for organ sounds since organs do not have damper pedals. I find it very useful to sustain the orchestra sounds on manual I when splitting the keyboard. I can play chords with no break in the left hand while I solo on an instrument in the right.The orchestra sounds on manual II are only solo instruments and will only play the highest note pressed. The orchestra sounds on manual I will play all keys pressed--however they are completely different sounds.The light that comes with it doesn't really light up the whole keyboard very well, but the 5v USB power port is great for charging my music rest light.USB: used for storage and must be FAT32 format which supports up to 4TB flash (although Microsoft imposed a false limit of 32GB when formatting it). I tested it with a 64GB flash formatted with FAT32 on my mac and it worked fine. The USB is used for: saving recordings, play-along songs, saved presets, loading extra organ sounds, and upgrading the OS.Velocity sensitive keys work great (not used for organ of course) with 4 levels of sensitivity.All in all, I think this organ is very useful especially the fantastic sounds and the portability.