Since the 1990s, the Org (the common regional term for the electric keyboard) has emerged as a central instrument in several popular and traditional music styles in Syria. It played a particularly important role in the spread and evolution of rural Syrian Shaabi music, especially Dabke in its various forms, along with its companion genres such as Ataba and Mawwals. The keyboard’s presence was never limited to Syria. Its adoption as a core musical instrument became widespread across the Arab world, as well as in Turkey, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and beyond. Over time, the instrument came to shape new forms of popular music: Dabke in Syria and the Levant, Mahraganat music in Egypt, Raï in Morocco and Algeria, diverse Kurdish and Turkish folk traditions like Horon and Halay, and even Turbo Folk in the former Yugoslav states. This development was tied to a mix of technological and economic factors that made different kinds of Org models more affordable and widely available. It was also driven by manufacturers themselves, who began producing versions tailored to the specific musical traditions of different regions. That phenomenon deserves its own study. In this article, however, I’ll focus on the Org’s central role in Dabke and its related styles in Syria, collectively referred to as Shaabi. Org? Keyboard? Synth? Defining the Org isn’t as straightforward as it sounds, since the term usually refers to a range of instruments with different features and uses. Linguistically, the word comes from French, where it means organ: a keyboard-based instrument. More specifically, it may have been derived from orgue électronique, the electric organ that became popular in the 1960s and ’70s in rock, blues, gospel, and other genres. Because most of these instruments in the Arab world carried keyboard layouts similar to an organ, the word Org gradually became a blanket term for many different machines. In Arabic today, the word Org generally refers to several kinds of synthesizers (Synths) that allow musicians to create and manipulate sounds in real time, whether through traditional analog circuits or digital processing. The term also covers instruments that play back pre-recorded and processed samples, with the ability to layer, modify, and save them as presets that can be recalled at will. In Syrian Shaabi music, however, the word Org points to something even more specific: the arranger keyboard (or workstation). This is a multi-instrument machine whose keyboard can be split to perform different roles depending on where the hands are placed, powered by an onboard computer chip running full rhythm structures. It can generate accompaniments that can be edited into full templates for songs - introductions, bridges, repeats, transitions, endings - while also giving the player access to a huge library of instrument sounds for melody, rhythm, and backing. All of these capabilities turn a single musician into a full band. Songs can be arranged and adjusted ahead of a performance, then flexibly executed live with keys that trigger different musical elements on the spot. The entire setup can plug directly into a sound system without the need for microphones, making the Org an exceptionally versatile tool, one that condenses the work of many musicians into the hands of one, producing a powerful sound with relatively minimal resources. That’s why the Org holds such high technical and economic value: one player and one singer are often enough to power a full event. Adding live instruments like the Oud, Nay, Mijwiz, or percussion depends mostly on artistic vision and budget. Still, the Org’s huge popularity isn’t only about practicality. Its creative and expressive potential played a massive role in cementing its central place in this musical world. These machines allow players to design and modify instrument sounds, saving them under specific names to reuse later, a process known as sound design. This practice lies at the heart of electronic music and synthesizer culture, where creativity extends beyond melodies, rhythms, and structures to the very invention of new sounds through electrical and electronic means. This particular factor was crucial in shaping the Org’s role in Shaabi. A Rough Road For all the innovations the Org brought into Syrian Shaabi, its arrival wasn’t welcomed by everyone. A large segment of critics voiced strong objections: some dismissed it as producing 'distorted' sounds that didn’t represent authentic heritage, others brushed it off as noise rather than music. It was also accused of being simplistic compared to the richness of traditional Arab music, especially since many Org players lacked formal musical training, partly because Syrian Shaabi itself had no written system for scales, maqamat, or structures. But such criticism misses the context in which this music emerged and evolved. Syrian Shaabi wasn’t competing with other musical schools in the region; it was rooted in folk heritage and shaped by the technical and material limitations of its time. Nor was there any Arab reference point for exploring creativity in sound design and programming. For those familiar with the history of electric and electronic music, the parallels are striking: the transformative role of the Org in Syrian Shaabi closely mirrors the revolutionary rise of electronic music and its surrounding culture in the last century. Seen from an outside perspective, the use of the Org in Syrian Shaabi can be rediscovered as a case study in how musical ideas evolve through sound design - something rarely encountered in Arab, and especially classical, music. The Org also holds huge value for cultural and historical research: it has preserved countless melodies, rhythms, and structures from oral tradition, many of which were never recorded anywhere else, carried instead in the memory and performances of players. It’s also worth noting that younger generations in Syria and across the region embraced these musical shifts with ease, fully aware that music, like all art, is in a constant state of change as tools and techniques evolve. Necessity, the Mother of Reinvention Sharp, piercing wind instruments have long been the heartbeat of traditional Dabke music—zurna (also called zamr), mijwiz, shabbaba, yarghoul, and others. They often matter more than the singing itself, especially in their rhythmic function: the blast of these instruments signals the start of the dance. Their role isn’t just to grab attention but also to launch into solo phrases known locally as tasheelaat. Once the tasheelaat begin, the dancers know it’s time to take the lead, waiting for the vocals to end before quickening their steps and bringing the Dabke into full swing. Tasheelaat are built on distinctive melodic structures and ornaments that use a variety of scales, some unfamiliar even to seasoned ears trained in traditional Middle Eastern music. These are long, repetitive passages, sometimes lasting tens of minutes, charged with high energy and woven into the different rhythmic patterns of Dabke. But once loudspeakers and sound systems made their way into the region, problems arose: the sharp tonal layers and high frequencies of these instruments often clashed with the limitations of basic microphones, which struggled to capture them cleanly. Recording them required special care and high-quality equipment. This is precisely where the Org became an excellent substitute. As an electronic device, it bypassed all those technical hurdles by plugging directly into sound systems. Many Org models sold in Arab markets even came loaded with sampled sounds of traditional instruments like the Oud, Nay, Qanun, and Arab strings, and, eventually, even the mijwiz and zurna. Still, the quality of these sampled sounds remained limited by the modest technology of 1990s hardware, and manufacturers had only just begun to explore Arab markets, with little chance to refine their tools as they would in later years. Faced with this technical reality, many Org players turned to features in their machines not originally designed for Shaabi: electronic voices from the synthesizer family. In particular, they experimented with a class of sounds known as lead synths - monophonic tones (capable of playing only one note at a time, like most of the wind instruments above) with sharp, high-pitched timbres. These carried qualities remarkably close to the traditional instruments used for tasheelaat. Org players began using these leads, with their wide range and powerful effects, to replace traditional wind instruments in performing tasheelaat. This move opened the door to new layers of creativity in sound design, locally nicknamed Barmajat Al Aswat, or 'sound programming.' The Tale of Two Orgs Syrian Shaabi music has seen the rise of many Org models, but two machines stand out as the most influential in shaping its history: the Ketron Vega and the Korg Trinity V3. To this day, some of the biggest names in the field continue to rely on one or both of these instruments in their recordings and live performances. The Ketron Vega, an arranger keyboard first released in 1998 and followed by several updated versions, quickly became a staple. It can be spotted, for example, on cassette covers featuring Org player Talal Al Daour and singer Wafiq Habib. The role of the Ketron in laying the foundations of Syrian Shaabi and driving its development from the late ’90s into the 2000s can hardly be overstated. Several key features made this device the perfect testing ground for the evolution of Shaabi in Syria and beyond. It came preloaded with settings tailored for Middle Eastern traditions, including rhythms like Laff, Baladi, and Sa‘idi, alongside a palette of local percussion instruments such as the daf, darbuka, katib, and, most importantly, the tabla. The Ketron Vega gave keyboard players the ability to build custom rhythms tailored to Dabke in its many forms: Dabket al-‘Arab, Walda, Nashla, Khamisiyyeh, and others. Musicians could also construct layered accompaniments suited to these rhythms, splitting the left side of the keyboard to control chord progressions and harmonies that supported the tasheelaat and vocals. These accompaniments could be programmed on the fly by choosing and changing chords in real time, while the larger Dabke structure, and any variations within it, could be prepared in advance as needed. The real creative playground of the Ketron Vega, however, lay in its tasheelaat sounds. While the instrument came with sampled presets of traditional voices like the mijwiz and zurna, producers preferred to lean on solo synthesizer sounds because of their flexibility and range of modification. These could be blended with traditional samples and enhanced with audio effects, opening up whole new possibilities. One common example was the use of the sawtooth lead synth, beefed up with effects like delay, reverb, and chorus to create a massive, high-pitched tone with plenty of punch - perfect for sustaining a tasheela for minutes on end. And since the Vega was designed for Arab markets, it made quarter-tone tuning easy to access, allowing musicians to adapt instantly to the scales of Shaabi music. Players mixed these formations with sampled mijwiz and zurna voices, and even with non-Arab instruments, creating new hybrid sounds that often took on their own names. Many musicians would design and save these custom patches onto floppy disks, which the Vega could read and copy. As disks were traded and circulated, a sound designed for one specific party could suddenly be heard across Syria and the region, carried by its success and popularity. Still, the Vega had its limits. Its sound design relied entirely on pre-recorded samples, lacking the full power of synthesizers to generate tones in real time through analog or digital circuitry. Filling that gap would be the task of the next hero in the story. The Korg Trinity V3 was another keyboard that, at first glance, resembled the Vega. Like the Vega, it relied heavily on sampled instrument sounds, but it offered them in far greater variety and quantity. The Japanese company Korg first released the instrument in 1995, with Middle Eastern editions that included traditional instrument voices suited to Arab music. Still, two particular features made the Trinity especially valuable for Shaabi. First, it allowed musicians to fine-tune the pitch of every individual note in a scale, far beyond the standard quarter-tone adjustments of Arab musical theory. This flexibility was essential for many scales and maqamat used in Shaabi, which often depart from the rules of classical Arab theory. The Trinity’s tuning system made it an excellent fit for replicating the melodies of traditional instruments like the zurna, mijwiz, rababa, and shabbaba. Second, the keyboard could be fitted with an optional digital synth engine, a full program that massively expanded the depth and richness of its sound design. Unlike sample-based playback, these synth voices were generated in real time, giving musicians enormous control over performance and tone, while still allowing for integration with samples. This add-on was released under the name MOSS (Multi-Oscillator Synthesis System). Locally, players nicknamed this expansion the Mouse, and it quickly became a prized feature for its ability to push sound design far beyond what the Vega could offer. It multiplied the range of programming options, making it possible to craft and share entirely new sounds. Over time, it became common practice among professional players to use both machines in tandem: the Vega for rhythms, structures, and accompaniment, and the Trinity V3 for melodies and tasheelaat. This setup became a long-standing reference point for Org players across the region. It’s worth noting that tasheelaat sounds on the Org came to be known collectively as zamer, regardless of their actual source. The term came to mean not just the timbre but also the distinctive melodic lines designed for Dabke tasheelaat or for accompanying Ataba. Designing these zamer voices, and the programmers behind them, became the core of artistic and technical innovation. Perhaps the most important figure in this setup was the celebrated Org player Talal Al Daour, who designed a vast library of sounds that remain in use from the late 1990s to the present day. His work is so extensive and influential that it deserves a detailed study of its own. By the mid-2000s, new instruments from various manufacturers had begun to appear, aiming to meet the technical and artistic needs of Org players in the region. Yet some of the greatest musicians continue to hold on to these two machines, honoring their enormous legacy.