Virtual Organ — Play Online
Click the keys or use your keyboard to play sustained organ chords. Switch between Hammond and Church pipe organ sound, dial in the drawbars, and toggle the Leslie rotary effect — all in your browser with no download.
💻 Keyboard: A S D F G H J K L ; ' Z X C V = white keys | W E T Y U O P [ ] \ = black keys
Screen Recording
Record your performance and download it as a WebM video.
Ready to record screen.
🎹 Chord Presets
✅ How to Use
- Click any key to start the note — it sustains until you release.
- Switch between Hammond (classic rock/jazz organ), Church (pipe organ warmth), and Farfisa (vintage bright electric organ).
- Drag the drawbars up and down to blend harmonic partials and shape your tone.
- Toggle Leslie Slow or Fast for the signature rotating speaker effect.
- Use the Chord Presets to hear full organ chords instantly.
- On desktop, hold multiple keyboard keys simultaneously to play chords.
🎛️ Hammond Drawbar Reference
Each drawbar controls the volume of one harmonic partial. Pulling a drawbar out adds that harmonic to the sound.
| Drawbar | Footage | Harmonic | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16' | Sub-fundamental | Deep bass, sub-octave weight |
| 2 | 8' | Fundamental | Core pitch — the main note |
| 3 | 5⅓' | Quint (3rd harmonic) | Adds a hollow fifth above |
| 4 | 4' | Octave (2nd harmonic) | Brightens, octave above fundamental |
| 5 | 2⅔' | Nazard (6th harmonic) | Nasal, reedy colour |
| 6 | 2' | Super octave | Very bright presence |
| 7 | 1⅗' | Tierce (10th harmonic) | Sharp edge, almost metallic |
| 8 | 1⅓' | Larigot | Thin, cutting upper harmonic |
| 9 | 1' | Sifflöte | Highest, shimmering top |
About the Organ
The pipe organ is one of the oldest and most complex musical instruments in existence, with origins tracing back to ancient Greece. Modern pipe organs can have tens of thousands of individual pipes, each producing a single pitch. The sound is generated by forcing pressurised air through metal or wooden pipes of different lengths — longer pipes produce lower pitches.
The Hammond organ, invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934, was designed as an affordable alternative to pipe organs for churches. Instead of pipes, it used spinning metal tonewheels to generate electromagnetic signals at precise frequencies. The result was a rich, harmonically complex sound that became the defining voice of jazz, gospel, blues, and classic rock — heard on recordings by Jimmy Smith, Jon Lord, and Booker T. Jones.
Unlike a piano, the organ produces a perfectly sustained tone as long as a key is held — there is no decay or fade. Volume and timbre are controlled entirely by the drawbars and expression pedal. This makes the organ a uniquely expressive instrument: the sound exists only when you are actively holding the key.
This virtual organ uses additive synthesis — combining multiple sine wave oscillators, each representing one harmonic partial — to recreate the tonewheel and pipe organ sound in real time via the Web Audio API. No audio samples are required.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Hammond and Church organ sound?
A Hammond organ uses tonewheels (electromagnetic sine wave generators) and drawbars to blend harmonics — it sounds warm, slightly buzzy, and very versatile. A church pipe organ has a different tonal character: each pipe produces a rounder, more complex waveform, and the large resonant space of a cathedral adds natural reverb. The church sound here adds a soft detuning between partials and longer reverb to evoke that acoustic.
What is a Leslie speaker?
A Leslie cabinet is a speaker enclosure where the horn rotates at either a slow (chorale) or fast (tremolo) speed. As the speaker rotates, the Doppler effect creates a distinctive pitch wobble and amplitude modulation — a sound inseparable from the classic Hammond organ. This virtual organ emulates it using a low-frequency oscillator modulating both pitch and volume.
What are drawbars?
Drawbars are sliding controls on a Hammond organ that set the volume of each harmonic partial (overtone). Pulling all drawbars to maximum gives the fullest, loudest tone. Pulling only the 8' (fundamental) gives a clean, simple sine-wave-like sound. Mixing different drawbar levels creates the enormous variety of Hammond timbres.
Can I play chords?
Yes — organ was designed for chords. On desktop, hold multiple keyboard keys simultaneously and the notes sustain together. On mobile, the chord preset buttons play full chords with a single tap. You can hold as many notes as your browser allows simultaneous key events (typically 6–10).
What is additive synthesis?
Additive synthesis builds complex sounds by layering simple sine waves at different frequencies and volumes. Because any periodic sound can be described as a sum of sine waves (Fourier's theorem), additive synthesis can recreate virtually any timbre — including the harmonic structure of a pipe organ or Hammond tonewheel — with no audio samples needed.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes — tap any key to start it sustaining, tap again to release. The keyboard scrolls horizontally on small screens. Use the chord preset buttons for the easiest mobile experience.
📚 References & Notes
- •Synthesis method: additive synthesis — summing sine wave oscillators at harmonic partial frequencies
- •Hammond drawbar footage: 16', 8', 5⅓', 4', 2⅔', 2', 1⅗', 1⅓', 1' — corresponding to harmonics 0.5×, 1×, 1.5×, 2×, 3×, 4×, 5×, 6×, 8× fundamental
- •Leslie effect emulated via LFO modulation of oscillator frequency and gain (Doppler approximation)
- •Reverb: convolution reverb with generated impulse response (2s tail for church, 0.8s for Hammond)
- •Hammond B-3 reference: Hammond Suzuki USA; Fourier series theory: Oppenheim & Schafer, Discrete-Time Signal Processing