just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?

[Guest]

Hello!</p>

I recently purchased a Rodgers Specification 100 organ for practice and minor performances. So far it is great, especially since I bought it in excellent condition. It could've been new.</p>


Does anybody have any comments on this organ? When is a good example to use Flute/Diapason chorus? When isn't it? Any other advice for practicing/performing on this type of organ? </p>

</p>

Thanks. </p>

[jbird604]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?



Good choice. Basically just a two- or three-rank unit organ, but you can do a lot of good practicing on it and it's nice that you found one inmint condition. Rodgers consoles are always comfortable to play and fully AGO in spec.</P>


The flute/diapason chorus switch turns on the built-in Leslie at slow speed and mixes the two channels slightly. That was to break up the sterility of the straight analog sound, and you should use it whenever it sounds good to you. It probably works best when you're playing amore romantic piece, as opposed to baroque or strictly classical. If there is no celeste on that organ this effect also sort of substitutes for that.</P>


Keep up the good work.</P>


John</P>

[Guest]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?

Thanks! There is actually an 8' Gemshorn Celeste....but no couplers or memory pistons.

[jbird604]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?



So, is this the organ we hear on your recording? I'm impressed at the nice ensemble sound. This is a very basic analog, but obviously you are getting a lot out of it. Do I remember that this one has no reeds except a synthetic clarinet? If this is the model I think it is, I serviced one in a small church recently. I really enjoyed playing it.</P>


The Gemshorn celeste was pretty good too, in your recording. Someone obviously did a good job of tuning it, and the balance between the unison and sharp-tune ranks sounds right.</P>


Cheerio.</P>


John</P>
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[Guest]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?

Thanks! Actually, I wasn't even using a true Enemble sound in that I was not using the Leslie at any point in that piece. I'll tell my tuner you said so (about the Celeste)!

[Vercus]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?



Where is this recording you mention? I'd like to hear it!</p>

-Jon</p>

[jbird604]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?



Jon,</P>


He posted it several days ago in a thread called "my organ sounds" IIRC. You might do a search for recent posts by organmaster100z.</P>


Like me, he used the zShare.net hosting site, so you click on his link and it will take you to the file. It will try to show you some ads, but you can decline them. Then it will play the file automatically, after a buffering period.</P>


John</P>
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[Vercus]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?



Hello,</p>

Excellent, just found it. I downloaded to my computer and saved it my organ demos folder. I appreciate that you chose to use a WAV file rather than the nasty compressed MP3. I'm sure several of us (myself included) would be interested in hearing the diapason / flute chorus with the Leslie. If you ever find the time and are willing to make another recording, I'm sure you'd have the thanks of several members hear on the forum. As I listen, I remember why I like Rodgers analog organs.</p>

-Jon</p>

[jbird604]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?



Jon,</P>


Glad you found the audio file that organmaster100z posted. Yes it wasexcellent and showed the capabilities of the Rodgers analog well, even in a small instrument. Eventually I'm going to make a recording on the Rodgers 890 at church, which is also analog, but at the opposite extreme of the analog era. It's one of the last and also one of the largest. I'll be interested in what you and others have to say about the differences from early analog.</P>


RE the use of mp3 . . . Yes, low-bit-rate and poorly-recorded mp3's sound dreadful. But it has been shown in careful listening tests that apparently no human subjectscan tell the difference betweenan original WAV or CD recording and the mp3 provided the bit-rate is at least 256kbps. For that reason, I chose to post my file (and future files) in mp3 encoded at 320kbps,and I believe itcannot be distinguished from a CD. I have listened very critically to both my original and the mp3 using high quality headphonesand I cannot tell which is which.</P>


The big advantage to mp3 is the reduction in size. The recording I made was 64 megabytes as a WAV file, but compressed to only 14 megs as an mp3 at 320. That's about an 80% reduction in upload and download time with no audible difference.</P>


BTW . . . . . when are we going to hear some of your organs? Would be a pleasure.</P>


John</P>
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[Vercus]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?



Hey John,</p>

As soon as I get either of them working..lol. The E needs some kind of amplifier work, and I'm not qualified to do it. I've just gotten a can of De-Oxit, so I'll go over it with that once, so at least I know I've got clean tube sockets. The problem is that it's always quiet, and bias voltage is way low- -9.6V versus the proper -22VDC. Turning the bias pot makes no effect. To attempt to compensate for the low volume situation, I added a line out kit (which further decreased internal speaker volume), bypassed the MEE switch, bypassed the Leslie's tube amp (which is failing like most tube Leslies do) and ran the line out into a carvin tube preamp. In the tube preamp, it has several monitor / effects loops. For the reverb loop, I used an Alesis Midiverb 4 (seems we all use Alesis!) For misc. effects (chorus, delay, etc.) I use a Midiverb II on a seperate loop. The stereo output is then run to a quadraphonic amp driving a huge 3x15 + 2 horn cab on the left, and the Leslie and (sometimes) a Peavey 1x 15 + horn cab on the right. So you can see the sound is quite a bit different then your standard hammond organ. I can adjust the level of each speaker, allowing me to go all straight, or all Leslie, or anything in between. It's complicated, but for me, once I heard Hammond in stereo with digital reverb, there was no going back. Plus, since my 125 doesn't have a horn, it's nice to get some good high frequencies from the straight speakers. It works for me.</p>

As for the M3, the last time I started it, I got a little juice coming through the start switch and into my finger. A different time I got shocked from the swell pedal (no rubber cover on it). So that sums that up. Early field coil design that needs to be rewired. Since all the wiring is the same color (dirt) I'm in no position to rewire it. Besides, I guess I just assumed that nobody would want to hear an M3, what with how every one trashes them around here. I still like mine. The generator runs smooth as silk and ultra quiet, everything works. Not bad for something that old.
</p>

So there's the long story..lol. A lot longer than I expected, but hope someone gets a kick out of it! I still hold the dream of getting a real console and Leslie. Working on that B3 with Jimmy didn't make it feel any better!</p>

-Jon</p>

[Guest]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?

Actually I connected the organ to my computer using an audio cable, the organ headphone jack, and my computer's microphone jack. The headphone jack only works with the main speakers- it was not built to also work with the Leslie (so if I am using headphones- but select the chorus feature, the sound will still come out of the Leslie). Next weekend I am having an Alesis NanoVerb installed on the organ and I will try to put up a recording of what that sounds like!

[Vercus]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?



Organmaster,</p>

Did you change profiles? I see your name and post count are different [:S]</p>

-Jon</p>

[Guest]

Re: just purchased great used organ- any suggestions?

Yes-long story.....I'm officially Organmaster007x now!