Wersi is a German manufacturer of electronic organs, keyboards and pianos (named after the communes of Werlau and

Simmern Simmern (; officially Simmern/Hunsrück) is a town of roughly 7,600 inhabitants (2013) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, the district seat of the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, and the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Simmern-Rheinböllen. In the Rhinelan ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

). They were used by organists such as

Franz Lambert Franz Lambert (born 11 March 1948) is a German composer and organist. He is an avid Hammond organ player; however, he is more noted in later years for playing the Wersi range of electronic organs. During his career he has released over 100 alb ...

and the late

Klaus Wunderlich Klaus Wunderlich (18 June 1931 – 28 October 1997) was a famous German easy listening organist. Biography Wunderlich was born in Chemnitz. He played the Hammond organ model C3 then mid 60s changed to model Hammond H100. Wunderlich also tried ...

. Wersi's current range of instruments is powered by the

Open-Architecture-System Open-Architecture-System (OAS) is the main User interface and synthesizer software of the Wersi keyboard line. OAS improves on prior organ interfaces by allowing the user to add sounds, rhythms, third party programs and future software enhancemen ...

(OAS). This is a

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

that runs on top of a

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

computer, enabling the keyboard to support third-party programs, such as

music notation Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

programs,

software synthesizer A software synthesizer or softsynth is a computer program that generates digital audio, usually for music. Computer software that can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed now allow softsynths to accomplish the sam ...

s, and

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pro ...

History

Wersi is a company that began in Germany. In 1969 two brothers, Wilhelm-Erich und Reinhard Franz (W.E & R. Franz), worked in the basement of their parents' house to produce their first instruments. By the 1970s, the company had established a successful kit development system, that allowed customers to build instruments in their own home. In the 1980s two factories were constructed in the Wersi-hometown of

Halsenbach Halsenbach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Hunsrü ...

, Rhineland-Palatinate. In the 1990s, Wersi developed the digital Grand Piano line as well as digital sample based instruments. In the late 1990s, Wersi developed the OX7 drawbar module. In 2010, Wersi was purchased by the European musical distribution company, Music Store Professional as the official distributor and by the Chinese musical instruments producer, Medeli. The new Pegasus Wing keyboard was launched at the

Musikmesse Frankfurt Musikmesse Frankfurt was an international fair regarding the music industry that took place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 1980 until 2019. In 2012, 68,587 visitors and 1,512 exhibitors from 51 countries were counted. Despite an exhibitor drop ...

in April 2011. This event was the world premier of the new Wersi keyboard line, made in the facilities of Chinese keyboard manufacturer Medeli. Organs are still assembled in Germany, and development has been moved to the Music Store facility in Cologne.{{cite web , author=Wersi Direct Ltd , title=Half-Year Activity Report 2011 , url=http://www.wersidirect.com/WERSI_Direct_Ltd/News_Blog/Entries/2011/5/21_WERSI_Direct_Ltd_-_Half_Year_Activity_Report_-_Press_Release._files/Wersi%20Direct%20May%202011%20Press%20Release.pdf

References

External links

Wersi Netherlands home page

Wersi USA home page

Wersi international home
Electronic organ manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Germany Companies based in Rhineland-Palatinate