Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

[Guest]

How many of you organist use the Reverb on your home instruments? When i had my Baldwin, i had no reverb, only the external tone cabinet which in reality had its own natural
sound. To me it seemed like the wood in the cabinet gave its own "natural" reverb. Now then
my Rodgers digital organ has an adjustable "Reverb" system in which i to this point have kept
way down to probibibly just above minimum. I suppose you can can call me a purest, since
i do like natural sound, and not artificial. i try to analyze the sound of wind blown pipes, and
what they would sound like in this small "dead" room. In other words, i am trying to have the
Rodgers sound natural like that of wind Blown pipes in a small room.
Granted, when i crank up the reverb to max, it really sounds better, like that of the acustics
of a large church or cathederal. I think i know what some of you are going to respond with,
like i'm a little fruitty. I know, if its the "genuine" sound i want, THEN go purchase a defunct
church that has a pipe instrument, and get a divorce, because thats where i would be headed
since my wife remarks, that i am never satisfied anyway....Oh Well.



DIAPASON

[soundboarddude]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

Not having reverb is <u>excellent</u> for practicing. You can CLEARLY hear your mistakes. If you were in a larger room, the notes can get muffled in with everything *even if you are playing more detached*.

However, you are already cheating by getting an electronic organ as opposed to real pipes. So if it sounds nice, go for it.

It's always nice to make the organ sound the best, even in a room with no reverb. Granted it may be a little strange to look around in your living room with plush carpeting and soft couches and hearing 4 seconds of reverb!

I think it's nice and would use an average amount it if I had it. Not big cathedral sound, but not dead living room sound. Just a nice bit of reverb will do.

:)

[Guest]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics


You know what soundboarddue, Last evening i played a few of the BACH "Fugues,'' and i
did use the reverb cranked up, and really they did not sound too bad. The pedal notes of
the fugues stood out nicely as well as the manual registrations. I have heard "worse" reverb
systems other then "Rodgers" which really i would never be satisfied with.
The one thing that i cannot get straight on this particuler instrument, and that being that it
is not a throughbred "Rodgers,'' like kind of a half breed. Built in Italy. Hummm.........
with the "RODGERS" name. Like for instance those augmented pipe/digital organs, they are
not throughbred pipe organs either, thy are halfbreeds, even th'o they do have a few ranks
of windblown pipes. In my estimation you do not go mixing pipes with digital sounds, and
if one listens closely, and have a "keen" ear, the difference will stand out very clearly.
Oh yes, i hope that one day before i depart this world, that i will own a "genuine" pipe organ,
of maybe 4or 5 rks. built into a small cabinet, and completely self contained, which will
probibly be a tracker. There are many different ones available through the "Organ Clearing
house" of the O.H.S. some at very attractive prices. As i have said numerous times, the
smallest pipe organ has a better sound then ANY digital of ANY MAKE!


DIAPASON

[Bombarde32]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

If your ears can handle it ... go for the reverb. I can't stand having a small room sound like Notre Dame or St. Paul's cathedral. The Allen rep for our area turned on their live-ist accoustic in their dead as a doornail showroom and started going to town on full organ. yech! It just didn't work for me because my ears and eyes weren't matching up (though once I closed my eyes and stopped thinking about it, it sounded wonderful ... go fig). But if it doesn't bother you ... crank it up and enjoy the music.

[radagast]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

>As i have said numerous times, the
smallest pipe organ has a better sound then ANY digital of ANY MAKE!

I couldn't DISagree more. Not every pipe organ is a good pipe organ. Look at the organ reform movement Albert Schweitzer championed. Furthermore, a well designed and voiced digital organ is going to have a far superior tutti than ANY small pipe organ, period.

[NYCFarmboy]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

You can add digital reverb to a pipe organ or to any toaster...

on a real organ it requires micing the organ, using a reverb mixer, and amplifying that signal thru some speakers.

I had it set up n my Reuter home pipe organ for a while and it sounded marvelous,....... BUT.... in the end I didn't like the way all the mics/speakers looked around the pipe organ so I took it all down.


As to practice: I recommend some reverb. I learned to play on my Reuter with no natural reverberation so my playing is very VERY legato...too much so in fact..... and thats hard to unlearn. A little bit of reverb would help.

[soundboarddude]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

On a real organ, it might actually be neat... assuming the organ is tucked away and you can only see a nice facade. If you can see all the pipes and whatnot, like NYCFB said, it would just look odd.

Back to using it on Digital/Electronics:

Bombarde32: When that happens, just close your eyes and listen to the music. All I'm saying is this - <u>to an extent</u>, if the organ needs some reverb to not sound dry in a dry room, add it. 8 seconds of reverb in a room with shag carpet is rediculous, but otherwise, just ignore what the room itself sounds like and listen to the organ itself! Like I said, to an extent. Don't make a dry room sound like Notre Dame.

Without reverb, like NYCFB said, you naturally tend to play more legato to make the music sound smoother. And I've noticed that I even speed up just a tad because it sounds better.

It is hard to unlearn, and especially hard to transition back and forth. You wouldn't play a hymn in a cathedral the same way you would play it in your room with shag carpet, simply because in the cathedral, your notes get jumbled up and you have to be more detached. That's obviously extreme, but you see where I'm going with it...

--
radagast: I DISagree with you. Speakers are nice, and properly voiced digital organs can sound VERY good, I agree. But electronics will never be able to duplicate a wind blown pipe. That's a topic for another thread, though...

[radagast]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

>radagast: I DISagree with you. Speakers are nice, and properly voiced digital organs can sound VERY good, I agree. But electronics will never be able to duplicate a wind blown pipe. That's a topic for another thread, though...

I didn't say that digital organs can sound exactly like pipe organs. I said sometimes they can have a better (more pleasing) sound.

Actually your statement should read "But electronics will never be able to duplicate a great pipe organ."

Not every pipe organ sounds good. That is a fact. I heard one small one that sounded like a calliope. There are some terrible sounding pipe organs out there. A well done digital will sound better than a poor sounding pipe organ. To say differently shows bias, not logic.

Electronics and sound systems are getting better and better. So saying "never" isn't likely to be true.

[Guest]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

Diapason, is your reverb unit built in to the console or drawer, or is it a separate unit added on to the organ? I saw a 2002 Rodgers Trillium 957 3m organ in concert with the Rodgers PR-300S MIDI system & also using a Roland MX 200 added on. The reverb on some pieces was specifically to demo the reverb and it sounded pretty convincing. So I'm not sure if that's standard on the Rodgers or is the Roland add-on.

[M1994]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

The Italy halfbreed Rodgers I play has it built in, just a knob under the bottom of the keyboards.

[soundboarddude]

Re: Reverb use on Digital/Electronics

I said sometimes they can have a better (more pleasing) sound.

Fair enough.