I give up!!   I tried everything called an organ in the collection we get with Dim Pro , TTS-1 etc. 
It must have been a DX7 ?
anyone know how to come close?
 And is it 2 sounds? one for the intro and one for the lik? 

Not sure if this will paste from my cell, but will try. The post at the bottom of that page.

http://www.korgforums.com...27e556173029ebd#643566

Hey Thanks , I've been snooping around  and there's lots of old threads on keyboard forums asking the question, And the answers are that the intro was a Hamond B3 ( then arguments about the settings!)  and the lead was a DX7 or D(X?) 50 everyone seems at odds about the layers so that accordion makes perfect sense,
 
your link seems more athoritive so I think that nailed it in that post.  
 
 
It's funny I justs assumed DX bexuase of the era. 
Our female vocalist ( who hates the song) plays an ancient Roland D5 but it's not even close. 
It's a terrible keyboard anyhow. So I'm thinking of using my laptop as a VST host to improve her sounds. And this song is the first one that needs "organ" patch. She's been pounding out terrible piano sounds so far. D5 must have been 8 bit! 

I don't know what it is, but it's definitely not a Hammond on that main riff. You can do a lot of things with a B3, but detuning oscillators isn't one of them. I'm pretty sure it's a synthesizer. I've heard some Synthmaster organ patches that come close to it.

WHat they say is the opening chords are B3 but correct the main riff is expected to be a DX. But some argue that it could be a Vox! Some say it was layers of different keyboards in the studio and the the DX later came out with a patch ready made.
Follow Mettelus's link and it explains it all pretty good. 
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=643566&sid=ca3ecd9b597cedda927e556173029ebd#643566
 
It cool resurching this stuff as you end up on lots of other forums. There's a forum for everything. Mostly I'm finding stuff on keyboard player forums. One guy said he was breifly the 2nd keyboard player but before Brother in Arms was out. 
There's a lot of talk about 88866008 or 88806688 if you know what I mean..  But the B3 dudes all agree it definatly a hamond on the intro. 
 
One forum recomended a Martinic como VST as the best emulation of the sound and even gave out the settings.. 
http://www.martinic.com/combof/
 
Then there was a second 60 emulator by that company here; 
http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=1004.
 
But this resulted in me spending an hour downloading about 50 VST's and effects from that site. So check out VSTfor free if your looking for a huge collection of freebies.
http://www.vst4free.com/index.php?m=VSTi
 
 I'm on the road this weekend so can't try this out yet but even if I don't come close I now have some exciting new VST's to mess with. I love vintage keyboard sounds. MY first band had a ACETONE keyboard which we played Light my Fire with... holy crap,, this is it I found the picture... isn't she a beauty! 
 

 
 
 

There are two organs from that guy, a Vox Continential and a Farfisa. The Vox is no longer available, because he went to work for Artura and sold them the code, which became the basis of their own Continental. The Farfisa is equally good, and still available as a free download.
 
But if I was attempting to duplicate that sound, I'd probably use one of my general-purpose synthesizers. Zebra could probably do it. Two unison sawtooth oscillators, slightly detuned.

Do you have Z3TA+2? Since I am not a synth guy I figured this would be interesting to try out. There is a Factory Patch in Z3TA+2->Keyboards->Shimmer Organ DSF that is pretty close for the tone. The only mods I made to that are:

1. Increase attack time to about 30% (attack is too harsh)
2. Adjust Filter 1 - Back off Cutoff to 70%, Increase Resonance to 70%
3. Adjust Filter 2 - Back off Cutoff to 90%, Increase Resonance to 60%

   Pretty close with 4 oscillators free to do other things and minimal tweaking (can tweak the living crap out of it if you choose to!).
 
Quick Edit: I inserted a DimPro to layer with the above (same MIDI input channel) and there is a Vox 1 (09 - Organs->Vox 1.prog) that is "semi-close" for the low end on that riff, but I had to adjust Z3ta by several dB for it to poke through. Some others are close as well, but the Hammonds have odd fuzz in them??
 
The missing harmonic component is actually soloed ~1:10 in the original song (is in the verses). It isn't used on the first pass of the melodic part, but enters on the second pass (hence the second keyboard).

Guy Fletcher was the keyboard player on "Walk of Life"... and Guy is one of the most approachable musicians in the industry.
 
A quick search led me to his website "http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk" where the question is asked several times about that sound... which appears to be mostly a modified organ patch from the Yamaha DX1.
 
Here some of the Q&A's.
 
Do you keep all these old patches just in case the day may come you use them again, for any project.
"I don't keep old patches in general as I will prefer to generate new ones but on some synths like the mighty Yamaha DX1 (used on Money, Ride across the River, Your Latest Trick, walk of life etc) the original patches are still there in the synth. I actually fired her up a few weeks ago for the first time in twenty years."
 
"Hi Guy, how are you? I have a important question today! Could you write me the keyboard and type of "synth" used in the song: -walk of life (the riff). Thank you!! ciao Tony"
"Sure, A Yamaha Dx1 and a New England Digital Synclavier."
 
"Hi Guy, I always wondered - how is that floating chorus-like lead sound of walk of life created? Is it double-layer-sound? It sounds subtle to me, but everytime a tribute band comes up with their rendition you know something is missing :-) Thanks! Nic"
 
"That's because it's a very difficult sound to recreate. Luckily I have a sample of the original sound which came from the Yamaha DX1. FM synthesis at its finest. It was a modification of one of the organ presets in the beast. Reminds me, I must dig that synth out sometime and fire her up."
----------------------------------
Those answers don't tell you how to achieve it with a modern VSTi, but at least it takes away the questions on what was used for the original recording.
 
This is the exact link and query to where those quotes all came from..
http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/page/Forum?search=walk+of+life

Wow, thanks When I get a chance I'm going to try a few of these ideas.
I'll be using a 32 bit laptop so I downloaded both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of a few VST's from the vst4free site. I'll also try the zeta+2  which I've not yet used but I'm sure I have it..  

Cactus Music
 I'm on the road this weekend so can't try this out yet but even if I don't come close I now have some exciting new VST's to mess with. I love vintage keyboard sounds. MY first band had a ACETONE keyboard which we played Light my Fire with... holy crap,, this is it I found the picture... isn't she a beauty! 
 

 

A long time ago when I was a young punk trying to look like a roadie I left a burning cigarette on the top edge of one of these and forgot about it.  To make matters worse, it had been lent to my keyboard-playing friend by a somewhat mysterious acquaintance of his whom I'd only heard about, but what I'd heard made him out to be someone you wouldn't want to mess with.
 
Apologizing to the guy's face was one of the worst moments of my life.  To his credit he told me to forget about it and refused my offer to pay to have it recovered.  I'm going to feel bad for the rest of the day...