The Program Section is where all the Electro's presets are stored, and where you can affect global settings.

Programs are arranged in 6 banks (A-F) with 8 program locations each. A Program is a combination of the sound you've selected plus its effects settings. With the latest major OS (version 3.0), you can save both a piano and an organ preset. Create a piano preset, then an organ, choose which one you want to recall by default, then press the red STORE button.

The Master Level knob effects the global volume, as opposed to the Output Level (more below), which controls the relative volume of each program.

The SHIFT button gains you access to secondary functions. You can access the default MIDI channels, change Local settings, tune & transpose the Electro, lock the user memory, and select your sustain pedal's polarity. You can also configure other features, such as setting the sustain pedal input to activate the rotary speaker simulation, or select its acceleration speed.

There is also an Octave Shift control - a useful feature with the 61-key Electro.

The Organ Section provides a model of the classic B3 sound. No samples here - the Electro's organ is a carefully-contructed model of the electromechanical interactions of the internal parts of a B3. This creates an unparalleled accuracy, and is considered by many to be the best clonewheel in the world.

Percussion, Vibrato, and Chorus controls emulate the same controls from the old organs. A Dual Manual mode splits the keyboard into Upper & Lower manuals, and you can create different settings for each.

"So where are the drawbars!?"

The Clavia "drawbuttons" present an alternative to the classic drawbar mechanisms. The bright red LEDs are visible in any lighting condition, presets are "remembered" so the "grabbing" effect of real drawbars is eliminated, and the "in/out" buttons have secondary functions. Press the SHIFT button, and the first 8 "in" buttons call up instant presets, and the 9th button creates random brawbar settings. All 9 buttons on the "out" row can be saved as presets, which you can recall from any Program.

The Piano Section is where you find six faithful samples of classic electromechanical pianos.

The default set is an Electric Grand, Acoustic Grand, two Rhodes™, Wurlitzer, and Clavinet. Alternate samples for most are available for free from the downloads page. Unlike many keyboards, the Electro's samples are full samples. Instead of truncating the sample then creating an artificial decay, the Electro's samples are complete, so the decay is as natural as possible.

All source instruments for the Electro's piano section were carefully selected and sampled, creating a smooth transition between ranges.

The Presence area is where you can mold the sound of the samples. With the Clavinet, pickup settings can be changed, and on all other pianos the knobs work as a kind of parametric EQ.