Article by: Lee Jones
What I Think about the NEW LOWREY Aria PRO -EX6000
Having only had three days to digest all the information and contents of the manual, i am really quite impressed, and as with any new model Lowrey introduce, this one is packed with even
more features and settings than any previous incarnation has ever had. Let’s face it, the days of producing electronic sounding music from a variety of valves and wiring looms are well gone, and they are more like a very powerful computer these days, capable of almost anything with more songs, more styles, more control and settings.
I say impressed, because as a relative beginner, the extra functionality introduced in this new model is designed to not only help the beginner immensely, yet also enhance the usefulness and quality music playing by expanding the capabilities for the more experienced player.
I have heard many seasoned organ players stating that the 30 full consul radiating bass pedal instead of a
Standard AGO 32 pedal version is not a very welcome addition, while others state that the return to a more traditional full pedal board is always a good move, and yet some are not so impressed at all and would rather have the same spinet pedals as the previous Marquee model. Either way I’m sure Lowrey must have their reasons, and just the pedals I have on my stardust are more than I care to play with at this time.
Probably the biggest improvement for the average new player who is very much still in the process of learning to play, has to be the introduction of the the many new functions.
Here is a quick list of some added functions over it’s predecessor the Marquee, Grand Marquee and my Stardust which was made over a decade now
- Song setups 1500, Marquee has 1000, Grand Marquee 1050, Stardust 600
- 396 styles, Marquee has 320, Grand Marquee 374, stardust has 192
- Total setups 15,250, Marquee 13,210, Grand Marquee 14,030, Stardust has 2,903
- Category setups 616, Marquee 528, Grand Marquee 572, Stardust 130
- 13 speakers same as a Marquee/Grand Marquee, Stardust has 11
- Setup Hold function-change style, rest of setup remains the same,
- 30 note full pedal-board ( Marquee/Stardust has 25-Note Spinet Style),
- Touch screen has 2 additional windows over Marquee re: styles.
- a QWERTY keyboard addition.
- “Orchestrator” harmony function: Orch 1 & 2;
- Solo 1 & 2 can be assigned individually to notes in a chord,
Easy Play and MSC have been around for many years now, and then Lowrey added MCS Plus to enhance easier playing of chords and must have made the journey for any beginner much easier, in fact i would go further and say that with such facilities at hand, i find it hard to understand why any average home player would want to try and learn to play fingered chords any more.
PRO PLAY
Moving onto the cheat modes or as Lowrey prefer it to be called Pro Play. This is a section bundled together and include Fake it! , Auto Fake it! that allow you to play a riff with just one finger, and with the introduction of pressure sensitive keys and the key glide effect your going to sound great
And while I’m sure the majority of PRO Players amongst us would never dream of using these functions ( or at least not admit to it) for the beginner it definitely increases your enjoyment by getting you to sound and play like you know what your doing from day one, and dare i say even sound like a PRO. This is something Lowrey have cleverly done over the years, and probably why they remain as the leader in home hobby organ entertainment.
This i’m sure will be snubbed by many , but my opinion is that anything that can be created to get you closer to sounding a better player has to be a bonus
So what do you think of the NEW Lowrey Aria ?
please leave a reply below
Re the Aria Pro, I honestly can’t see a huge difference between the Marquee/Grand Marquee, except the extra cost it will have, being an updated model. I do believe Lowrey have made the correct decision to produce a home organ, with full pedal board, after many years with spinet pedals. The Aria big plus is this pedal board, which will suit the home organist whom loves the full range pedals, along with the professional and Lowrey artists, it has been a long time coming , so that is the BIG plus with this model, in my opinion. I personally don’t play pedals, and agree with Lee or Joe, not sure who wrote it, but why not use all the new tech stuff Lowrey now put on their instruments . I’ve had numerous Lowrey Organs over the years, each model always increase the features, specially the rhythms/ orchestrations, and honestly, my Stardust then Prestige, had more than enough of these, and I did not use all of them, and don’t expect to use many more on the Marquee, I still have a very soft spot for the high end A series Lowrey made, particularly the Stardust. I was at the huge HOH in Chicago in 2007,when this model was the highlight, I met Lowrey artists Dennis Awe amongst other US artists, also Trevor, Lucy and Tom, from Allens U.K . A great show over three days, sorry I got off the subject ,but that is my conclusion of the update ,
Yes i agree, for anyone who already owns a Marquee, then it probably is not worth the extra expense in upgrading, but for owners of a stardust (like myself) or older models, then it is quite a gigantic leap in both performance technology and functionality.
I must correct my reply above, re the Stardust and Prestige models, they are of course in the SU series, not A series.
The Prestige is not in the SU series…it is an A5000 model.
I welcome the 30 note clavier, makes heel and tow much easier for a jazz player like me. For classical pieces, now you can play these with ease. Just need to unlock the pedal 1 and 2 genius buttons from the style without using an accomp lock to kill the drums. Then you could have 2 genius (sounds is the current nomenclature at Lowrey) and still use the theatre drums.
Now we need new samples for pedal voices (some are great) and for the theatre and classical organ sounds.
Update the sounds display to show where solo and orch voices are assigned without looking at the 4 sound button sections.
A wish list is always just that….
To be precise, in my review, SU series concluded with the Stardust SU 530, then came the Prestige A5000 in that order, of course there were a few smaller models in the production line. I had both organs, and actually preferred the Stardust , but both were lovely instruments. Gary correctly picked up on my hurried posting re model numbers.
All this talk about the new Aria is nice, but I sure wood like to hear it. I can’t seem to find any video on line to see it. If anyone knows where I can view it please let me know.
Harlene
As someone who has made many videos, i know only too well Recording and editing videos is a time consuming thing to do. Then there will only ever be a small percentage of organists that purchase an Aria Pro that also have the inclination or capabilities to produce videos.
But I’m sure videos will start to filter through as the dealers sell more to those individuals who are interested in showing off to others their new toy !
Thank you for replying to my question.
I really would like to see the Aria and I hope
you are right and we will be seeing it soon.
My husband and I have recently purchased a used
Lowrey Royal, that sounds great and was kept in
beautiful condition by it’s former owners.
My husband and I are in our seventy’s and this will probably be our last organ, it is our eighth, but we always like to see the new models.
Looking forward to seeing the Aria.
A one hour video can be found here
http://lowreyorgan.uk/allens-music-centre-presents-the-new-aria-pro/
Allen’s Music Centre in the UK is on U-tube with a video of the new Aria Pro. They always have the best demos of the new instruments.
Thanks Robert, it’s also here
http://lowreyorgan.uk/allens-music-centre-presents-the-new-aria-pro/
I just wished I could afford it as sounds wonderful! What I like most about it, that it has classical pipe organ voices. I have been a Lowrey fan for many years and I love Lowrey Virtual Orchestra instruments!