This is my review on the Viscount Legend One stage keyboard, announced in January of 2025 at the NAMM show.  The Legend One comes in 61 and 73 key versions; I purchased the 73 key, but this review DOES also apply to the 61 key version; the only difference between these 2 models is the keybed & key action, which I will talk about in the review.

So what IS the Viscount Legend One? It’s a brand new stage keyboard that combines Viscount’s top of the line tonewheel engine in their Legend Soul organ with all the other usual stage keyboard needs like acoustic & electric pianos, synths, strings and other sounds.  I think these keyboards will be VERY worthy competitors for organ centric stage keyboards like the Nord Electro 6D & the Yamaha YC-61. When I heard about this product, I was immediately really excited about it, so I looked into availability in my country right away, and the good people at Classic Organ Works were able to get one to me before their minimal initial stock ran out (which was pretty much right away), so I just want to give them a shout out and say thank you.  Classic Organ Works, along with their sister company Classic MIDI Works have been designing electrical components for classical organs for over 30 years, and they are also a Viscount distributor. 

Who Is Viscount?

Viscount has been making instruments since the mid 20^th century, first accordions and then organs; they currently make full size electronic church organs, as well as the “Legend” series of high quality Hammond organ “clonewheels” that have been VERY well received, including the Legend Classic, Legend, Legend Live, Legend Solo and their Legend Soul. 

Now while those models are just organs, Viscount also has a “Legend 70’s” piano series with acoustic & electric piano sounds as well as some other sounds.  

What IS A “Stage Keyboard”?

As the name implies, a “stage keyboard” is intended to be  . . . used on stage.  So what makes a keyboard a “stage keyboard”?   The first thing that comes to mind is probably . . . “high quality sounds” and while that’s definitely part of it; lots of products have great sounds that definitely AREN’T intended to be used on stage.  So what really makes a keyboard a “stage keyboard”  (in addition to sound quality) comes down to a few other important things:

1. A user interface that allows users to make changes quickly & easily, and also that allows the user to easily see what their current settings are by just glancing at the panel.  So this basically means having a LOT of direct access buttons, controls and indicators that minimize the amount of “menu deep diving” into nested menus using a menu screen to see or change settings
2. Proper connectivity for the intended use; the most common and important example of this is proper left and right line outputs, which provide the best connection to external audio equipment like amps, PA systems & mixers.  And for certain uses, you might want a stage keyboard to have 5 pin MIDI in and(or) OUT ports, for either using your keyboard to control another keyboard, or for having another keyboard access the sounds on your keyboard
3. Portability – if you’re moving your keyboard around a lot, the more portable the better; but keep in mind, everyone’s “line” of what they are willing to carry around might be a bit different; for example, if I’m playing 3 or 4 songs in a blues jam at a bar, I’m only going to bring 1 keyboard and it needs to be a light one that’s easy to set up quickly; if I’m playing a full 3 sets, I might be willing to bring a 2 tier stand and 2 keyboards

So with that out of the way, let’s get into the review.

Check For Updates!

Only a few short weeks after I got my Legend One, Viscount released an updated operating system AND a sound update. And this update actually addressed multiple issues I mention in this review, so make sure you check out my video on this update!

Key Action

Ok so as I mentioned in the introduction, the only difference between the 61 and 73 key versions of the Viscount Legend One is the keybed & key action. And that’s actually something I wanted to address, and one of the reasons I wanted to get this review out as soon as I could, because there has been (and still is at the time of releasing this video in February of 2025) a lot of misinformation online about the keybed specs, not only on some retailer websites, but even on Viscount’s website AND documentation (even in their owners manual), so I wanted to clear up an important detail right away, before you base a buying decision on what you’ve seen online. 

And that is: the 73 key version of the Viscount Legend One is NOT A WATERFALL KEYBED; the keys are piano shaped, with a lip over the front edge.  It does definitely feel to be semi-weighted though, which is awesome.

So what about the 61 key version??? Now I haven’t seen a 61 key model in person, but I do know from some Youtube videos on the 61 key that clearly show the keybed, that it IS a waterfall keybed . . .

But as far as whether it is non-weighted or semi-weighted?  The consensus online DOES seem to be that it IS non-weighted, but given that I haven’t actually tried one in person, and since the online specs do seem to be all over the map, I can’t guarantee that.  There are numerous instances online where you will see BOTH the 61 and 73 key listed as “semi-weighted waterfall”, or where you see the 61 key as non-weighted waterfall and the 73 key as semi-weighted waterfall; before I ordered my keyboard, I even contacted Viscount directly asking about all of this, and they even told me that they ARE BOTH waterfall keybeds, but the 61 is non-weighted and the 73 is semi-weighted . . . so I just wanted to make sure that I clarified that the 73 key Legend One is NOT waterfall. And, I should also mention, that I was relieved to see that the keys ARE a true full-size octave width of 164 mm, unlike the Yamaha YC-61 which has narrower keys.

So How IS The Key Action On The 73 Key Model?

Well given that when I first ordered mine, I wasn’t sure from the contradictory specs as to whether I was getting waterfall or piano shaped keys, and when I started to realize that they are likely to be piano shaped, I have to admit I was a bit worried about how they would feel for playing organ. Well, once I unboxed it and tried it out, I was SUPER relieved that it is really comfortable and easy to play organ on this keybed after all.  This action actually reminds me a lot of the action on the Numa Compact 2X, only it definitely feels more premium and more solidly built.  The Numa also has semi-weighted piano shaped keys, but the action was a great compromise for piano and organ, and things like palm smears and percussive organ techniques were surprisingly smooth and easy, and the semi-weighted feel did make expressive piano playing more familiar than it is on a non weighted keybed.  That’s exactly how I would describe the action on the Viscount, except it’s even better for both organ AND piano playing than the Numa.

The Numa uses Fatar’s TP9 action, and while I may be mistaken . . . I’m pretty sure the Legend One 73 is using the Fatar TP8 action, which from my research appears to be a higher quality action than the TP9 (and definitely feels that way – very similar, but. . . better); and while I don’t have my Numa anymore to check, I think the keys on the Legend One 73 MIGHT be just a bit longer, which if I’m correct, really helps minimize extra weight as you play into the keys; and on the Legend One, I don’t notice any issues with keys being harder to press as you play into them.

So the verdict on the key action on the Viscount Legend One 73? Surprisingly good in my opinion; it’s a great compromise for playing both organ comfortably, and piano expressively. As far as the action on the 61 key version goes? I can’t offer an opinion on that until I get a chance to try one first hand, but my guess is I would love the waterfall keys for playing organ (I’m pretty sure the 61 key uses the Fatar TP-8O action which is my favorite organ action ever), but if it is indeed NON weighted, then I’m not sure how I would feel about it for playing piano pieces.

NOTE: In the 1.01 operating system update, Viscount added the option for organ sounds to be triggered MUCH sooner in the key travel (don’t have to push down as far to trigger a sound – more like a real organ)

User Interface

So as I mentioned in the intro, one of the most important features of a stage keyboard is the user interface; can you see your current settings, just by glancing at the panel, and can you quickly and easily change important settings without having to deep dive into a menu system.  So how is the user interface on the Legend One? Overall it is really good, and I am super happy with it; there are a few things that will take me some time to get used to though, but that’s not a BAD thing; that comes more from me being SO used to Yamaha user interfaces that the approach taken by another manufacturer is still just new to me.

So before I get started, a couple of things to note about this user interface:

• any RED knob allows you to push down and a relevant list will appear on screen for you to make a choice from
• any button with text in a white box below the button allows to you trigger that text by holding the EXIT/SHIFT button down while you press it
• any button with text in brackets below the button can be long pressed to trigger that
• the big silver “ENTER” button just to the right of the screen can be pressed down (like an “ENTER” key) to make a selection, or it can be rotated to scroll through whatever options are currently on screen

OK so starting from the left side, we have a pitch bend and modulation wheel, then we have some overall controls spread out through this section, including master volume, master EQ, reverb & octave shift/transpose controls, then the rest of this side of the user interface is dealing with effects (which include a master fx that can apply to any single sound, sound 1 AND sound 2, or all 4 sounds). And then there are 2 insert fx options; each of those can only apply to ONE of the 4 sounds; I’ll be talking about the effects in more detail later in the review, but I do need to mention how much I LIKE this part of the user interface – so many keyboards nowadays have HUNDREDS of effects and you have to deep dive into a menu to get at them. I love how Viscount has made it so you can just use knobs to choose from a more manageable effects list with the effect types clearly labelled right on the panel – and if you push down on that knob you can drill down on that effects category and then use the menu to choose a preset version if you want.

Then in the organ section there are the usual controls for rotary speaker speed & drive, vibrato & chorus, controls for the pedals section, plus some extra organ controls for key click and crosstalk. Other than those effects controls, the others are pretty self explanatory so I’m not going to bother demoing those in detail.

Then in the middle, we have 3 sets of drawbars; SET A for the whole keyboard/upper manual/sound 1 or 2, a PEDALS set, and SET B for the lower manual/sound 1 or 2. Now there are a couple of cool (and kind of unique) things I need to mention here. Firstly, in addition to using these as normal organ drawbars, you can also use them to make modifications on the fly to sound 1 and(or) sound 2! If you look at the bottom of the drawbars, you’ll see things listed like cutoff, filter resonance, etc – if I hold down SHIFT and then press the ON button above a set of drawbars, you can assign those drawbars to sound 1 or 2, and then use them to make adjustments to the sound on the fly which is super cool. Note the the “Control 1” and “Control 2” drawbars will adjust something that will vary depending on the currently chosen sound.

And the other thing to keep in mind is that for any presets that you load (best example being organ drawbar settings), if the drawbar light is ON, then the settings from the preset will be ignored in favour of the current position of the physical drawbars. And whether that drawbar is on or not is saved within each preset (so in my mind, you will PROBABLY want to save ALL your presets with that light OFF. If you scroll through all the presets that are built into the Viscount Legend One, you’ll see that only 1-1 “B3 Soul” has that light turned on; so if I move to another preset, slide all my drawbars up and then move back to 1-1, I won’t get any sound, because the preset is using the current physical drawbar position.

This brings me to the topic of how Viscount deals with the “jump” vs. “catch” feature you see on alot of the competition; on my Yamaha YC-61 or Hammond SK Pro, when you load a preset, you would get whatever the preset drawbar settings are regardless of their current physical position. Then, if you had it set to “jump” as soon as you move any drawbar, the preset value will “jump” to your physical position; if you had it set to “catch” then nothing changes until you get the drawbar matching the setting from the preset, THEN it will “move”. On the Legend One (assuming the drawbar light is off), when you load a preset it will ignore the current drawbar positions as it should, but then as soon as you move a drawbar THAT drawbar will “jump” the setting to the drawbar’s physical position – I haven’t been able to find a “catch” featiure yet; if I am correct and this is not an option on the Viscount, I would REALLY like to see that added in a future update.

IMPORTANT! Viscount added a “catch” feature (for organ and/OR sound drawbars!!!) in their 1.01 operating system update!

Ok, now on to the right side of the user interface, which includes the menu screen, and deals with your presets (which Viscount calls “Programs”), individual sound settings, layers and splits, and choosing your sounds, adjusting relative volumes between your sounds, as well as your overall keyboard settings. And, in keeping with the usual layout on a real Hammond organ, you’ll find your organ percussion controls on the right side.

Program Menu & Setting Up Sounds

So as far as how to setup sounds, sound settings, splits and layers I’m just going to use program 1-1 as a starting point; I will talk about how the programs work a bit later in the review. So when you turn on your Legend One, program 1-1 is the default program that loads, and it will have just the organ enabled as the current sound (and note, as I mentioned earlier, this is the ONLY built in program that will use the current physical drawbar setting instead of a preset setting, because this program has the drawbars turned ON). So if you look on the screen, you will see the organ is listed (and you will see the red organ light is on). You’ll also see the pedal section indicated in the menu, and that the pedals section light (over on the left side of the keyboard) is ON, but this has no effect on anything as you play – if you look at the screen carefully at the little indicator beside the “PEDALS”; that’s indicating they’re active (if you have a pedal unit connected) but they are NOT being triggered by the keyboard keys. So you can ignore that, or press the PEDALS button and just turn them off entirely (and you’ll see them disappear from the screen). Similarly, if you look at the indicator by the organ, you’ll see a white oval; that means that sounds is over the entire range of the keyboard. You’ll also notice you see the program’s drawbar settings displayed which is super useful.

Splits & Octave Shifting

So if we press ON in the Sound 1 section, we’ll activate that as well, which is an American Grand piano. And it also has that oval, so now both the organ and Sound 1 are across the whole board. One issue here though, is that as soon as you activate a second sound, you lose the display of the organ drawbars as saved in the preset; and so far, I haven’t figured out how you can see the drawbar settings again without turning Sound 1(2) back off. Choosing sounds is pretty straight forward, just turn the dial to get the category you want, and then press down to get a list within that category. So to split these 2 sounds instead of layering them, press the DUAL/SPLIT button – then you will see “upper” and “lower” indicator lights appear by both the organ and sound 1 sections; you can choose where you want each sound by holding down the SHIFT button and pressing that section’s “ON/PART” key to cycle between upper, lower or both; so you can do that for each sound and then set a split point by holding down the DUAL/SPLIT key while hitting a key on the keyboard to set the split point, which will then get indicated on the screen. So I’m going to put the piano in the upper section and the organ in the lower.

So that was easy enough, but you’ll probably want to do some octave shifting when you do splits like this – the piano range is fine where it is, but I’d like to bump up the organ’s range an octave or two. Now this is easy to do, but it is a bit odd compared to other keyboards I’m used to. If you want to octave shift the organ section, you have to use the panel buttons to do that, which is fine, except this will shift the octave of the whole keyboard (including sounds 1 and 2). If however, you want to shift the octave of sound 1 or 2, you can do THAT by pressing MENU–>SOUNDS–>SOUND 1(2) and then use the left and right arrows to scroll to OCTAVE SHIFT and adjust that sound there. So if in a split, all you want to octave shift is sound 1 or 2? Don’t do it using the panel buttons, just go into this menu to adjust it. And if you are octave shifting the organ (which you HAVE to do using the panel buttons), then you can go into Sound 1 or 2’s menu, and compensate for that by shifting their octave back down.

Menu System & Sound Specific Settings

So on that note, you should take a bit of time to familiarize yourself with the menu system. Alot of keyboards have separate menus for “program/preset/sound settings” vs. “overall settings/utilities”; on the Viscount Legend One, there is just one menu. If you press the MENU button and use either the arrows or the wheel to go through the list, you’ll see the first few entries are specific to your current program and sounds – you can drill down into the organ to edit settings for the tone engine, percussion, vibrato and chorus and rotary, and for sound 1 and 2 you can adjust all sorts of settings, including the reverb send, octave shift, key velocity etc. Note that as I mentioned earlier, some of these options are also editable on the fly using the drawbars if you have them on and assigned to sound 1 or 2.

Then in the menu, there are sections for the pedal settings, key parts (which basically deal with splits – you can set up splits etc within this menu instead of using the buttons if you want), external zones (which is beyond the scope of this review – I’ll have a video on my YouTube channel later on about that), a controllers section for customizing the pitch bend, mod wheel, and foot pedals, then there is an effects section (which is another way to work with your effects instead of using the panel controls), and then a reverb section (once again another way to work with reverb as opposed to using the panel controls), and then the last 2 menu items are what you usually find in a separate area on other keyboards – a GENERAL SETTINGS menu and a UTILITY menu for more overall settings and functions.

So, the verdict on the Viscount Legend One user interface? It’s not the BEST I’ve seen, but it is still a pretty good user interface; you can see almost all of your settings at a glance, and it’s super quick & easy to adjust settings on the fly. A couple of super helpful improvements I would suggest would be a slightly bigger screen (in particular so you can see a program’s organ drawbar settings ALL THE TIME, including when there is more than one sound active), and to implement a “catch” feature for when you adjust your drawbars with a preset program.

IMPORTANT! In the 1.01 operating system update, Viscount added a catch feature for drawbars, AND added a “home” feature (go back to program 1-1 by pressing both <> at the same time)

Sounds

Ok so the sounds on the Viscount Legend One? To sum it up, in my (novice) opinion, the organ engine is off the charts amazing, and the piano, electric piano and “other sounds” are all really good, but the organ engine is without a doubt (as you would expect from Viscount) the highlight.

Organ Engine

Viscount’s “tonewheel modelling technology” organ engines have always been considered some of the best clonewheel sounds out there, but the modelling engine used in their “Legend Soul” line with 91 notes of polyphony (just for the tonewheels) is considered to be the best, and that is the engine being used in the Legend One. It not only has the usual organ features like rotary speaker emulation, chorus, vibrato & percussion, but this engine ALSO offers extras that I’m not even qualified to talk much about, such as keyclick, crosstalk, hum level, preamp, key compression, swell mode, and for the rotary speaker, user selection of model, mic setup, memphis style, stop position, drum and horn balance, rotor speeds, rise and fall time, direct level, output level and EQ. Wow! For Hammond organ models, the Legend One includes a B3 (1938), C3 (1955), B3 (1967), BC (1936), B3 (1956), A100 (1961), and for pipe organs a baroque pipe, romantic pipe & symph pipe, and for those 1960’s transistor organ fans a Farfisa & a Vox.

And, you not only have a separate set of drawbars for a lower manual, but also a set of pedal drawbars. The pedals section includes both tonewheel modeled sounds (like the organ engine does) but also includes some high definition sampled sounds. As far as using those, you can include the pedal section or the lower manual section in a keyboard split, or you can connect an actual pedal unit to the Legend One, and you can also use a MIDI keyboard connected to the MIDI in to play the lower manual. And something cool with the pedals, is you can not only choose from some organ pedal types like tonewheel, barocque, etc but you can also choose from different types of keyboard bass (including a Rhodes bass) as well as bass guitar types.

And, as far as the rotary speaker is concerned, you can use the internal rotary emulation (which IS REALLY good), or you can connect an actual rotary speaker directly to the keyboard.

Here is a quick demo of the organ, including some of the built in presets:

OK so I know I am still a Hammond organ beginner, but I have to say; that organ engine is amazing and if it’s not the best overall that I’VE ever used, it’s pretty close. In my opinion, it blows away organ engines from Studiologic and the Yamaha CK series, it’s definitely better than the Yamaha YC organ engine, and is right up there with (if not better than) the Hammond engine in their SK Pro.

Other Sounds

OK so in addition to the organ engine & pedals section, there are 2 more sounds you can have going on at a time on the Viscount Legend One; there are 119 sounds you can choose from, including pianos, electric pianos, synths, pads, strings, choirs, brass, guitars & others; so basically, all the bread and butter sounds a stage musician is likely to need. These sounds are generated using Viscount’s “HDS” or “High Definition Sampling”, and have up to 240 notes of polyphony available. Now I should note, I did mention Viscount’s Legend 70’s piano series; the Legend One does share some of the sampling engine technology with the Legend 70’s, but the Legend One does NOT include the Legend 70’s “Physical Modelling” technology which is used for that product’s electric pianos and clavs. So, the electric pianos and clavs on the Legend One will be sampled sounds instead, but not to worry; the HDS sampling on the Legend One sounds pretty good to me.

Here’s a quick video on some of the common “other” sounds:

So what did you think of the other sounds? I found them all to be pretty awesome, and super usable; I do really like the pianos (especially the Japanese grand; Yamaha fan here 😉 – while they may not be quite as “fancy” or “detailed” as some of the samples you get from Roland or Yamaha, sometimes high quality, high definition but slightly less complex samples will sound much better especially live, being able to cut through a mix better.

Just a personal opinion here, but I think in an overall sense, I would rank the Yamaha YC series extra sounds as just a bit better than the Legend One, but I think the Legend One’s extra sounds are noticeably better than those on the Hammond SK Pro.

IMPORTANT! In the 1.03 Sound Update, Viscount DRAMATICALLY improved the piano sound’s dynamic range! This is a BIG improvement and narrows the gap significantly between the piano sounds on the Legend One and the Yamaha YC series; they are now a lot MORE “fancy” and “detailed” than they were on the original release

So overall, I’m REALLY happy with the other sounds on the Viscount Legend One. But what I’m even more impressed with? The built in programs are VERY well thought out, and really open up far more sound options, especially for people like me that are still new at customizing sounds themselves with effects. At my first pass through the sounds for preparing this review, I was GOING to suggest to Viscount that “it would be SUPER cool if you could add just 1 or 2 more Rhodes and Wurlitzer variations to the sound bank; the 2 Rhodes and 1 Wurlitzer that are there now are great, but a couple more variations would be super nice”. And I still thank that is the case BUT . . . when I played through all the included PROGRAMS (as opposed to just the raw sounds)? Viscount did a FANTASTIC job of providing a bunch of really cool variations on their built in sounds with really cool effects pre-applied. I was originally anticipating have to work on modifying pianos and electric pianos more to my liking for various song needs, but then I found programs for pretty much every need I have, so great job on those Viscount; makes my life easy when I could actually get through a gig with mostly just existing presets.

So overall, I’m REALLY happy with this sound set – there are tons of great piano & electric piano programs ready to go, and for my occasional obscure sound needs with my band? Happy to see some usable horns and even a musette.

Effects

The Viscount Legend One comes with 3 effects channels; two are insert effects and then there is one master effect. Insert effects can only be assigned to ONE of the sounds you have active (you can apply 2 insert effects to the same sound if you want). The master effect can be assigned to any single sound, sound 1 AND sound 2, or all 4 sounds. There are 14 effects types, and there are 108 effects presets pre-built for you from those effects types which (for effects newbies like myself) is super helpful AND useful. The effect types include: Tremolo, Vibrato, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Wah, Amp, Delay & then a few others.

So as I mentioned in the user interface section of this review, I LOVE how Viscount clearly labels the effects categories right on the front panel using a knob to select categories, and then you can press the knob to drill down into presets for that category. So to set up an effect, press one of the effects channel buttons (Master, IFX1 or IFX2). Then if you hold down SHIFT and press the FX ON(SOURCE) button, you can cycle through the available options for what sounds you want your effect to apply to. Then to choose an effect, use the knob to choose your category, then press down and you can turn the knob to choose from any available presets within that category. Or, if you would rather set it up yourself instead of using a preset, you can just choose the category and then use the amount and rate knobs to adjust it to your liking. And also note there is a TAP button – this can be a useful way to set a rate for something like modulation so that it is in time with your song (you can tap the bpm and the rate will match it). Once your effects are set up, you use the EFFECTS ON button to enable or disable them.

In addition to the effects section, there are also 13 types of reverb; you can choose from these by long pressing the REVERB ON button and then you can adjust the dry/wet level using that knob.

And don’t forget the effects that are adjustable within sound 1 & 2 sound setups that I mentioned earlier: things like reverb send, octave shift, cutoff, resonance, attack, decay, release, brilliance, detune etc, and that these can also be controlled on the fly by using the drawbars (and the effects are labelled under each drawbar). And not really an effect, but you also have handy low, mid and high knobs to adjust the master EQ for the keyboard.

So the verdict on the effects section on the Viscount Legend One? I LOVE it; I love how it isn’t overwhelming, with hundreds of effects, and I love how the main effects types are clearly labelled and just selectable with a dedicated knob right on the panel; and for effects newbies like me? Lots of great presets are built in.

Registrations (Programs)

Presets or registrations are called “Programs” on the Viscount Legend One. And there is an additional feature called “Memory” which is kind of like a “mini-program WITHIN a program” but I will get to those in a bit. There are 396 programs available (which is a TON); they are divided into 99 “banks” of 4 programs each, and the programs are numbered as the bank number followed by the program position within the bank; so for example the 4 programs within bank 12 would be 12-1,12-2, 12-3 & 12-4; then bank 13 starts with 13-1, 13-2 etc. Navigating through banks can be done in multiple ways; you can turn the knob to move up and down one program at a time, you can use the arrow keys like a “page up/page down” key – if you are on program 1-1 and press the right arrow you move to 2-1; if you are on 3-2 and press that arrow you move to 4-2. And you can also use the “program/memory” buttons labelled A, B, C, D to move between programs 1 and 4 within the current bank.

The Viscount Legend One comes with 55 built in preset banks (so 220 programs) already set up for you with really good sound combinations, and variations on sounds with some really cool effects pre-applied. As I mentioned in the sound section, Viscount did a really good job with this – as I continue to investigate the preset programs, I continue to find more useful setups that meet my needs (it will probably be a while before I need to spend any time bothering with trying to create my own effects combinations). And when I do start doing that, I will most likely start with an existing program and make a copy of it to an available slot and then edit it further. And, I love how MANY program slots are available; 220 built in programs is awesome, but that leaves me with 176 available program slots for my own custom setups, which is way more than I will ever need. My Yamaha YC-61 was an awesome keyboard, but it only came with 16 available slots, which I used up pretty quickly.

So saving a program is super easy; just long press the MENU(STORE) button and it will prompt you to enter a name, and then ask you to choose a program slot as your destination (so you could save over the existing one, or choose an empty program). Now one thing to be conscious of when you save a program is whether the drawbars are turned ON or not; remember that if they are, then whenever you select this program, the current physical position of the drawbars will be in use (you PROBABLY want to save all your programs with the drawbars turned OFF so you can actually save a preset drawbar position in your program).

Memory

So the Viscount Legend One has a really unique (and very cool) feature built into their registration (or “program”) system, called “Memory”. For each program, you can assign 4 “memories” to the A, B, C & D buttons with variations on your program. This gives you a really quick and easy way to switch SOME of your settings back and forth as opposed to saving all of that in another program. Now it’s important to note here, that you cannot choose different organ models or sounds and save those within a memory, you can only save different settings. You CAN do things like turn the organ/sound 1 or sound 2 on or off, you can have a different drawbar setting for the existing organ, or you can have different relative volumes between your sounds. For a complete list of what you can and cannot include in a memory, take a look at page 40 of the user manual.

I found a use for this RIGHT away that I will use a fair bit with my band. I have alot of songs where I have a split set up (so piano or electric piano on one side and organ on the other), but then for a couple of songs I need to add an extra voice like a saxophone for a short solo, and then go back to what I was playing; the Memory feature is PERFECT for this – all I do is save a memory where one of my original voices is turned off, and the saxophone is turned on, and I can quickly play the solo, and then return to my main setup again with one push of a button.

To save a memory:

• IMPORTANT: take note of any of your current settings that you are about to change!
• press the MEMORY button so it is lit
• make whatever changes you want the memory to activate
• long press one of the A,B,C,D memory buttons until it says it has been saved
• press MEMORY again to deactivate the memory
• return whatever settings you changed back to the original setting
• Make sure you save the program!
  • long press the MENU(STORE) button and follow the prompts to save your program with the new memory

To call up a memory:

• press the MEMORY button so it is lit
• press A,B,C or D to call up that memory
• when you want to return to your original setting, just press the A,B,C,D button again

Connectivity

OK, so for connectivity, one thing to note right off the bat is that like many higher end stage keyboards, the Legend One has a normal power plug instead of the cheaper (and far less sturdy) “wall wart” power adapters.

The 1/4″ stereo headphone port is conveniently located on the bottom left FRONT of the keyboard (I don’t know why so many manufacturers keep putting headphone ports on the back . . . saves a bit of $ I guess . . .).

Starting from the left side on the back, we have:

• Rotary speaker port
• 1/8″ stereo analog in for connecting a device to stream audio IN to the Legend One (so I connect my iPad’s headphone out to this port for streaming in backing tracks)

• 1/4″ left and right balanced auxiliary OUT ports and a 1/4″ pedals out port
  • these ports will bypass the master EQ, main effects section, and reverb so that you can send unaffected signals out; for example you could connect the pedals port to a powered subwoofer to enhance the low end
• L/R 1/4″ balanced mono line out ports for connecting to external audio equipment, and if you just use the left port, you will get a merged LR mono signal (so you can use this if your PA system or amp only has one available port)
• 1/4″ rotary switch port for connecting a switch pedal to control the rotary speed of the built in rotary emulation, OR the rotary speed of an external rotary speaker that’s connected to the rotary port
• 1/4″ foot switch port for connecting an assignable switch pedal
• 1/4″ damper pedal port for connecting a sustain pedal; this port is compatible with half pedaling (if you have a pedal that does that); you can define the port in the menu system as switch (if you don’t have a pedal compatible with half pedaling) or half damper (if you have a compatible pedal)
  • NOTE: if you define your pedal as a switch, THEN you are able to choose a polarity in the menu system, but you cannot do that if you’ve defined your pedal as half damper; this is actually an issue for me; my Yamaha FC3A pedal (which has no polarity switch) is compatible with half pedaling, but the polarity is reversed with the default Legend One polarity setting, so I am unable to use the FC3A with the Legend One unless I only use it as a switch pedal with no half pedaling – I hope Viscount addresses this issue in future updates
  • IMPORTANT! Operating system update 1.0.1 added a polarity switch option for half damper pedals, so this is NO LONGER an issue! My Yamaha FC3A works fine now!
• 2 x 1/4″ expression pedal ports; one is labelled “Foot Control” and is assignable; the other is labelled “Exp” and is used for controlling volume – note that you can setup sounds so that they are or are NOT affected by the volume pedal (I have a couple of programs set up where I can reduce the organ volume with the pedal while maintaining piano volume in a split)
• 5 pin MIDI pedal port for connecting a MIDI pedal unit if you want to connect traditional organ pedals; I believe Viscount makes these, as do some 3rd party vendors
• 5 pin MIDI in and MIDI out ports for triggering sounds on another device or keyboard using the Legend One’s keys, or for triggering sounds on the Legend One using another keyboard (most common application for this would be to attach a MIDI controller to use as a lower manual organ setup)
• USB to host port for transmitting MIDI data to apps on a pc, tablet or phone, which ALSO transmits audio, BUT: it only transmits audio in ONE direction (INTO the keyboard). I have NEVER seen THIS before; any other keyboard that has an audio interface built into the USB port will send audio in BOTH directions.
  • So what does this mean? It means you only get HALF the benefit of a built in audio interface; and that is if you are using the Legend One’s keybed to trigger sounds on a MIDI app on a device? The sounds generated by that app will come straight back into the Legend one (and out of the Legend One’s outputs) without any lag which is really cool. And, you can also use this connection to stream audio into the keyboard as an alternative to the 1/8″ analog in port.
  • The feature you’re missing though, is the ability to send high quality audio FROM the Legend One TO a device to record audio in a DAW, or for making high quality piano videos by connecting the keyboard directly to your phone; to do those things, you WILL need to connect your L&R audio outputs to an external audio interface like a Focusrite Scarlett (which then converts that audio to digital audio to send to your device)
• and finally, there is a USB type A port that can actually be configured in the menu system for two things:
  • installing firmware updates & saving or loading backups of your data using a flash drive (NOTE: there is no “format” utility built in to the Legend One, so make sure you format your flash drive to FAT or FAT32 on your computer)
  • as a USB charging port for a device; this is a pretty cool feature; if you use a tablet or phone for backing tracks for example, you could use this port to charge your device while using the device’s headphone port to stream the tracks into the analog in

So this is a pretty good set of connectivity; it’s nice having distinct pedal ports for sustain, rotary control and volume, but still having additional assignable switch and pedal ports, and for Hammond organ enthusiasts, rotary speaker and MIDI pedal unit ports are awesome to have, as is the fact that the same rotary switch pedal port will not only control the built in rotary speed, but also the rotary speed of an actual connected Leslie speaker. 5 pin MIDI in and out ports (especially on a keyboard like this with 4 available sounds and the ability to connect an external keyboard) add a ton of functionality. And there is also some useful versatility added with the additional outputs that bypass the effects.

Some people might wonder on a product this expensive; why no BlueTooth? Well to be honest, for a stage keyboard? I would personally never trust a wireless BlueTooth connection onstage myself, I would always want a wired connection for that, so I don’t feel that is a loss. That being said though, it would still be pretty convenient to have this feature for practicing at home.

Build Quality

This isn’t a topic I address in all my reviews, but it NEEDS MENTIONING here. The Legend One’s build quality out of the box is nothing short of amazing, especially for the price. It has really nice wooden end caps, and the body appears to be all metal, with a brushed finish that I’m assuming will minimize scratches. The knobs and switches all feel to be premium quality and super sturdy – now I’ve never owned a Viscount before, so I can’t speak to how well it will hold up over time, but I’m pretty encouraged by just how over the top solidly built it appears to be.

What’s Missing / Could Be Improved?

So what’s missing on the Viscount Legend One 73 keys? Not much! The sounds are amazing, the key action is definitely one of the best (if not THE best) I’ve ever tried for being able to play both organ and piano well, the user interface is good, at 25 lbs it’s reasonably portable for a 73 key semi-weighted board, the connectivity has almost everything you could possibly want in a stage keyboard and the build quality is FANTASTIC.

What Would I Add Or Change?

• I like the user interface a lot, but I would LOVE to see a slightly bigger screen so you can ALWAYS see organ drawbar settings in your current program (instead of losing that ability the second you add another sound channel), and I would REALLY like to see a “catch” option added for when you move drawbars so that it doesn’t affect your current setting until the physical drawbar meets up with the current program value
  • NOTE: This was fixed in operating system 1.0.1; there is now a “Catch” option for drawbars (for organ AND sounds if you want)
• I’d like to see the audio interface built into the USB port improved so that it transmits audio in BOTH directions, instead of just INTO the keyboard so that video and audio recordings on devices can be made without needing an external audio interface box
• I’d like to see the ability to flip polarity added for half-damper compatible sustain pedals as well as switch pedals so that I can use my Yamaha FC3A pedal
  • NOTE: This was fixed in operating system 1.0.1; there is now a polarity switch option for half damper pedals!
• I did notice holes in the top that appear to be for a music rest, but no music rest was included; not a huge issue for a stage keyboard, but if the holes are there, why not include a music rest?

The Competition

Viscount Legend One (61 Key: $1800 USD/73 Key: $2000 USD) vs. Nord Electro 6D (61 Key: $2700 USD/73 Key: $3000 USD)

So one of the biggest competitors for the Viscount Legend One is definitely the Nord Electro 6D.  Both the 61 and 73 key versions of the Electro 6D sell for quite a bit more than their Legend One counterparts.  You’re probably already familiar with Nord, but just in case you’re not, they are one of the most highly regarded manufacturers of stage keyboards out there.  They have a great, very sturdy build quality, great quality sounds, and are one of the most commonly seen keyboards on stages, from your local bar right up to big professional touring acts.  The Electro 6D is aimed at the exact same customer as the Viscount Legend One; someone looking for a stage keyboard with multiple sounds, but with a heavy focus on Hammond organ sounds. 

Now I haven’t reviewed a Nord Electro yet, so I don’t know a ton about them (other than having tested them out MANY times in music stores) so I can’t offer an in depth comparison, but I can offer a few observations.  Like the Legend One 61 key, the Electro 61 key also has a waterfall key action (which I BELIEVE is ALSO the TP/8O action from Fatar used in many Hammond “clonewheel” keyboards), and is one of my absolute favorite actions ever. This waterfall action is also used in the 73 key Electro, and both models are semi-weighted. As I mentioned earlier in the review, the Legend One 73 key IS semi-weighted, but is NOT waterfall, and the 61 key IS waterfall and is (supposedly) NON weighted. Given all this, I can’t really compare the key actions on all 4 of these, unless I have all 4 in front of me – that being said, given that I love the TP-8O action, and I’m super happy with the TP-8 piano action on the Legend One 73? I’m pretty confident in saying all 4 of the keyboards have fabulous key actions.

As far as the user interface goes, I have mentioned in prior reviews that the Nord user interface can be a bit confusing and NON intuitive (I often have difficulty with them in stores), BUT . . . to be fair, it took me some time to get used to the Legend One’s interface, so I’m sure I would get used to the Nord’s as well. As far as a sound comparison goes, I can’t guarantee this since I haven’t tested them side by side . . . but I’m pretty confident that the organ engine on the Viscount is a step up on Nord’s; as far as the rest of the sounds, I would really need the opportunity to do a side by side, but suffice it to say, I think the sounds on both of these keyboards are going to be awesome.

So which would I choose? Well, I did decide to give up my Yamaha YC-61 and buy a Viscount Legend One mostly because of the narrow keys on the Yamaha, and I was actually planning on looking into a Nord Electro until the Legend One was announced, and given the premiere organ engine and SIGNIFICANTLY lower cost? The choice for me was easy, and . . . so far so good 🙂

Viscount Legend One (61 Key: $1800 USD/73 Key: $2000 USD) vs. Hammond SK Pro (61 Key: $2500 USD/73 Key: $3000 USD)

The Hammond SK Pro is Hammond’s long awaited update to the SK-1 which came out in 2011.  The SK Pro is also aimed at the same market as the Legend One and the Nord Electro, and is priced in between those 2 at about $2500USD.   The SK Pro also has lots of sounds in addition to the main organ engine; I reviewed the SK Pro on my channel, here is the link if you want to check that out.   

So as far as sounds go, I would have to say the the SK Pro and the Legend One are definitely the two “heavyweights” as far as Hammond organ clonewheels are concerned. I’m sure there are experts out there that will prefer the Hammond, and others the Viscount; as far as I’m concerned, my novice opinion is that they are both amazing and both a step above the rest of the competition; personally I think I prefer the Viscount especially the rotary simulation, but again . . . I’m a novice and this is all personal preference anyways. As far as the other sounds go, overall I definitely give the edge to the Viscount Legend One; there are some good pianos and really good electric pianos on the SK Pro, but it kind of stops there for me. The pianos and electric pianos are in the same league or better on the Legend One, but then extra sounds like horns are far better on the Viscount than the Hammond, and Viscount also included (once again, in my opinion) better and more useful preset programs with well thought out effects.

With regard to the user interface and build quality, I think Viscount wins both of those hands down over the SK Pro. But as far as key action? As with the Nord comparison, I would really need to get all 4 keyboards in front of me – the SK Pro 61 and 73 also (like the Nord and the Legend One 61) use the Fatar TP/8O keybed which is my favorite ever, but also like the Nord, the SK Pro 61 and 73 are both semi-weighted, and the Legend One 61 is (supposedly) non-weighted. Once again, I think all 4 of these keyboards have a fantastic key action.

So overall, I have to give the edge to the Viscount Legend One, based on an equivalent high end organ engine, better other sounds, better user interface, better build quality, and a cheaper price.

Viscount Legend One 61 Keys ($1800 USD) vs. Yamaha YC-61 ($2000 USD)

So I actually bought a Yamaha YC-61 a few months back, and I DO REALLY LIKE alot about that keyboard as I indicated in my review. But, I have also purchased a Viscount Legend One and will be listing my YC-61 for sale so . . . that should tell you which one I prefer. There are lots of things to compare, but the big reason for my change of heart was the narrow key width on the YC-61; as I mentioned in my review, it has a narrower 159mm “synth” full size octave width instead of my preferred “true full size” 164 mm octave width. I know alot of people don’t mind, notice or care about this difference, but I definitely do, and I play better on the larger octave width so it was important for me to get back to that. As far as how the action feels compared to the Legend One 61 key, once again I can’t say until I play one, but even if it is unweighted? I can almost guarantee you I will still prefer the Legend One’s keybed based on the full size Fatar TP/8O action.

But without the octave width difference, how do they compare? I would give the edge in organ engine definitely to the Legend One, the edge in other sounds to the Yamaha, both user interfaces are great but Yamaha’s is better (the backlit drawbars are a fantastic feature), and initial build quality I would say is a wash; they both feel REALLY solid. I should qualify that a bit though; I’ve owned many Yamaha keyboards and their build quality has always been great and they have always stood the test of time; this is my first Viscount keyboard, so time will tell if the initial sturdiness holds up.

So with all this in mind, and a price that is less than the YC-61? My actions have already answered this; the keybed and higher end organ engine made this an easy decision for me – Viscount all the way (and I’m a big Yamaha fan . . .)

Viscount Legend One: The Verdict

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

In short? I love this keyboard! I honestly think that I might have finally found “my keyboard” for use with my band, and I highly doubt that I will ever switch to anything else. I have tried out multiple other stage keyboard options, many of which I did really like, but with each one, there was always SOMETHING that I wished was different; most recently my Yamaha YC-61 – if that keyboard had true full size keys, I probably never would have considered replacing it, because I did really like everything else about that keyboard.

When I ordered my Legend One, I was pretty confident that the organ engine would be amazing (and it is), and that the other sounds would be great (and they are), and even just watching the user interface in YouTube videos made me feel it was going to be pretty good (and it is), but the one big worry I had was the key action; and I was super relieved (and I’m super happy with it); it’s the best action I’ve tried on a keyboard for being able to play organ techniques like smears, but still be able to play piano expressively. Most songs I play don’t demand SUPER good piano actions (I’m most often just pounding on chords), but there are some practice pieces that I play that immediately tell me how good a non fully weighted key action will be for piano; and those pieces are challenging to play through on keybeds like the Yamaha YC-61 or Yamaha CK-61, and a bit less challenging on the Hammond SK Pro, Nord Electro or Numa Compact 2X, but MUCH easier on the Viscount Legend One 73’s Fatar TP/8 piano action. To be honest, moving back and forth between my fully weighted and graded Yamaha DGX-670 and the Legend One is nowhere near as big of an adjustment as it is on the other keyboards I mentioned. And for playing organ, while I would still prefer a semi-weighted Fatar TP-8O waterfall action, the action on the 73 is close enough for me that it’s worth the compromise for better action on piano pieces.

NOTE: Operating system 1.0.1 adds an option to trigger organ sounds sooner (with less key travel – more like an organ)

And, just to foreshadow a potential future video or series of videos; I actually have a Fatar TP-8O semi-weighted waterfall organ keybed that I am planning on using in a DIY MIDI controller project; so if that ends up happening, I’ll be able to connect it to my Legend One 73, and use it for organ playing – so as far as keybed options? I’ll have the best of both worlds. Stay tuned to my YouTube channel for more info on that project 🙂

When Would I NOT Recommend The Viscount Legend One?

• if you’re looking for a stage keyboard that is more “piano” focused and you’re not super concerned about organ functionality, then I would recommend the Yamaha CK-88 which is about the same price as the Viscount Legend One 73, it has spectacular piano and electric piano sounds, does have a basic organ engine, but most importantly has a fully weighted and graded GHS hammer action keybed which would be better for piano playing
• if you are looking for a stage keyboard with the Viscount Legend One’s functionality but don’t want to spend that much? Then I’d highly recommend the Yamaha CK-61, which is the same as the CK-88, except it has 61 synth action keys that are not bad for both organ and piano playing

So that’s pretty much it for this review; as always, I have links in the description below to products I’ve mentioned here so you can check out current prices in your area, as well as some links to other relevant reviews of mine, and also some links to online piano training that worked for me that I highly recommend.  

So thanks again for stopping by, and happy stage keyboard shopping!   

Thanks so much, and happy organ playing! (and organ shopping 😉 )

Links To Check Out Current Pricing:

(please note that as an affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Viscount Legend One (61 keys)

Viscount Legend One (73 keys)

Yamaha YC-61

Nord Electro 6D

Yamaha CK-61

Yamaha CK-88

---

Piano Training I Recommend

I’ve taken a number of online piano courses; the ones I’m listing here are my favorites and I can highly recommend any of these if you are looking for some online training to get started on learning piano, or to take your current skills to the next level.

Video Version Of This Review