ZR-1

Let me preface this review by saying that I'm a big organ fan, I love them and can never have enough organ sounds. The ZR1 though doesn't get much use from me anymore. To me it just sounds a bit cheesey, more like the kind of organ you'd hear at a funeral parlor as opposed to a real tonewheel, or combo organ. That being said, none of the organs in my collection sound quite funeraly either :) . As far as freeware goes than the ZR1&3 are probably the best freeware organs on the VSTi scene, but neither is going to quite nail that real tonewheel kind of sound, nor does either sound very much like a true combo organ. Also the bass on it just seems kind of muddy, and not at all well as well defined as I'd like, while the high end just sounds a bit cheesey without that metallic harmonic quality you'd expect from a tonewheel organ. The GUIs are functional, but within Sonar always seem to be resetting the graphics in a wierd way which makes me think the plug-in will crash at any given moment (but it hasn't yet). If you're not one to use organs very much in your music, than the ZR1 may fit the bill nicely, but if your inclined to use them frequently going for something like DaOrgan or Combosister (depending on which organ flavor you want, or both) would probably better suit your needs even on a tight budget. I haven't found a place for the ZR1 just yet, but it's still going to stay around on my hardrive just in case.Read Review

** User Interface, easy to use? Can it be confusing?

life itself is confusing ... this thing lightens up my burdons

** What does it sound like?

It sounds like a drawbar organ :-)

** does it offer more than you'd expect?

I expected a drawbar organ

** does it even have a manual?

Dunno ... didn`t need one

** Does it come with presets? How many? Any good?

Yup ... all good

if you are a poor basterd like me use this one ...
if you have enough money ..use the NI B4
poor basterds will make better music anyway (with any sound) because they are not spoiled and they know making good music is doing hard work.

ALL Hail the affordable and free plugins makers !!!
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A nice little piece of freeware. Sounds very clean, nice user interface. Easy to edit and save your custom settings. Good if you're looking for a bright organ or an organ with some growl to it. The only thing I would add is a few more presets to pick from. Works well on the Mac.Read Review

This is the best free organ imo. It has improved so much with the past few updates and now the jerky drawbar movement is gone, and the gui refresh problem is no more!

This is a very warm sounding instrument, somewhat vanilla flavored but not too much. It's pretty well rounded with the mono mode, saturation, rotary, virbrato, etc.

The sound is a little grungier than some other organs, but i think that's a good thing as it makes zr1 sound more meaty, differant. The author has put a lot of work into making this a very serviceable addition to your other specialty instruments, reccomended!Read Review