Farfisa Professional

Name: Farfisa Professional
Brand: Farfisa

Discontinued 1975Released 1968

Farfisa's answer to the Hammond: flutes and clarinet-sharps in eight footages each, percussion in eight footages with single or multiple triggering, three sustain voices and four balance sliders. The phase-shifter 'vibrato' is more shimmer than vibrato, and it sounds nothing like a Compact, but the sharps get wild. Sly Stone played one at Woodstock.

Specifications

General

Manufacturer: Farfisa
Status: Discontinued
Released: 1968

Keyboard

Manuals: 1
Keys per manual: 61
Key action: Waterfall
Keybed: 61 reverse-colour keys (grey naturals, white sharps), marked bass and treble either side of the split used by the cancel tabs; unweighted organ keys

Sound

Drawbars: Tab switches
Sound engine: All-silicon-transistor divider organ; vibrato by FET phase shifter after the oscillators
Organ models: Flute and Clarinet/Sharp tabs at 16', 8', 5 1/3', 4', 2 2/3', 2', 1 3/5', 1 1/3'; percussion at the same eight footages; sustain voices Celesta, Harpsichord, Kinura; balance sliders for flute, clarinet/sharp, percussion and sustain
Polyphony: Full polyphony

Connections

Pedal inputs: Expression, Pedalboard

Features

Features: Eight footages per voice, Single or multiple-trigger percussion (three decay lengths), Sustain voices, Per-section vibrato, Split cancel tabs, Metal chassis with hard lid in the case

Heard on

Artists and records that used it, as Farfisa tells it.

Sly Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) – Seen playing one at Woodstock, 1969
Irmin Schmidt (Can) – Used the Professional and Professional Piano regularly
Hugh Banton (Van der Graaf Generator) – Customised with extra effects until the 1972 split

Farfisa Professional

Specifications

General

Keyboard

Sound

Connections

Features

Heard on

More from Farfisa

Combo Compact

Mini Compact

Compact Deluxe