Diki, at least two guys that I know and one that I don't (Pete Levin), professional organist all, have switched from 'chopped' B3's to the Nord C1. Pete, on his site, and my two friends whom I talk to frequently, are ecstatic about their new rigs. Although none of us use it, the availability of midi and transpose alone would have been enough to make old hard-line B3 players switch.

I have yet to hear any OWNERS complain about the 'buttons'. The ability to instantly see the actual registration from a recalled program is great. Without motorized drawbars, this is not possible with conventional drawbars. All of us who play organ as our primary instrument, agree that we normally only use 5 or 6 registrations during the course of a gig and if the programs are set up properly (each program + two 'live' buttons controls three upper, three lower, and 1 bass manual and all their attendant settings) one could play an entire gig using one-touch buttons for reg changes and never even change programs. Then you can always change a registration manually, which takes a couple of seconds, once you get the hang of it.

Since this is an arranger board, the whole 'thing' surrounding the C1 probably wouldn't even exist if I, chas, hadn't purchased one (I never ballyhooed it). You may have noticed that the only negatives have come from my two-man fan club, the same two who would be posting "congrats on your new toy" to anyone else (except maybe Ian ). I believe Cass got a slightly different response to his purchase of his XK1 (a fine instrument, BTW). Coincidence? Sure it is. I'm sure my two 'friends' are out organizing a "Musicians for Obama" rally as we speak.

chas