Recording MOS Expression...

[OrganistAnthony]

Hello all,

I have purchased the Harrison Expression Pedal Isolators to enable proper expression pedal use when using modern external effects and it seems to be successful. I guess it didn't occur to me that the expression pedal control comes later in the chain of command than the audio source itself.

I am routing the sound of the organ into a USB computer interface where the sound is then routed into DAW Software (Logic Pro) where I add my own desired effects. This is great for playing the organ live through it's speakers. However, I just want to clarify and double check with everyone here to see if it's not possible to have the sound of the organ 'recorded' into the DAW with the expression when the pedal is used as I play live. When I hit the record button the sound is all one volume. Is there anyway around this?

It's not a big deal as I'm not planning to do a lot of recording on this instrument and I can always add expression post recording, but it would be a bonus if any of you have any ideas about this.

[jbird604]

The quick and dirty way to do it is to use Y-adapters to join together the audio signal RCA cable and the "expression" cable. Then attach the other end of the Y-cable to your Harrison isolators and from thence to the recording input. Use one such Y arrangement for each organ channel you wish to record.

The drawback here is that you are bypassing the "expression capacitor" that is contained in the amp itself, so the expression may be more extreme than normal and may affect the low frequencies too much.

Another way to do it, at least you can try it, is to put Y adapters on the signal RCA cables where they go into the amps, running one leg on into the amp (so the audio signal will be affected by the expression capacitor) and the other leg of it to the Harrison isolators and THEN into the recording input.

This might work better than the first method, as it theoretically will preserve natural expression, and will also allow the organ to continue to play through its own speakers (unless you don't want to hear them while you record, in which case you can turn the amp volume knobs all the way down and/or disconnect the speakers from the outputs).