playing with my organ

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katz-karnaby Joined: Oct 25, 2006 Posts: 26 Tucson Arizona	Posted on Apr 18 2007 12:25 PM I'll start off by saying I am not a qualified piano or keyboard player but wishing to add some surf organ to a couple of songs. I have a Roland XP-10 keyboard with some organ presets. After recording they just don't sound right. Back in the day were the organ sounds recorded direct or was a speaker miced? Is there very much reverb added? What makes an organ sound "surfy"? And last does anybody have any eq settings to keep it from clashing with the guitar? Thanks. Top
estreet Joined: Mar 17, 2007 Posts: 839 United Kingdom	Posted on Apr 18 2007 01:48 PM I'm not familiar with the XP-10, but up till now I have used a Roland JV1010 for some of our recordings. The sound that fits surf music best is often described as 'cheesey', and is found in organs like the Vox 'Continental' and the Farfisa. This could best be explained as a thin reedy sound, quite unlike the deep, rich tone of a Hammond organ through a Leslie rorating speaker that became a key part of rock music later on. With the Punk boom, the sound of the Vox Coninental was back in vogue and you can hear plenty of it in early Elvis Costello recordings or in bands like the B-52s. You can also hear fine examples of 'Cheesey' organ in the Del Shannon hits: 'Runaway' and 'Hats off to Larry'. The funny thing about recording organs is that nothing much changes their tone other than putting it through an amp and distorting it like Jon Lord did in Deep Purple- but that's not the sound you are after. Really, you need to get it right at source -by finding or programming the right patch on your keyboard - then DI'ing it should be fine. If you are comfortable with synth programming - then this is one of the easiest sounds to get - no filters, no ADSR - just the bare oscillators really. Because of the way an organ sound is constructed like this from oscillators at various 'footages' there are few overtones in the 'cheesey' sound so EQ has a fairly liimited effect on it too. If you have a patch list Look through it for titles like '60's Organ' or 'Vox Organ' rather than anything called 'Rock Organ' or Hammond'. Last week, I was lucky enough to pick up a genuine 1971 Farfisa in a Junk Shop for nearly nothing - I'm looking forward to recording it.... — http://www.myspace.com/thepashuns Youth and enthusiasm are no match for age and treachery. Top
katz-karnaby Joined: Oct 25, 2006 Posts: 26 Tucson Arizona	Posted on Apr 18 2007 03:07 PM Thanks! I have a few settings that might match with that high reedy tone and some fast and slow warble. I guess the rest is in the mixing to get it to fit right with the other instruments. Top

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