Hammond Organ on Pink Floyd's "One of These Days"

[David Anderson]

I used to play this song years ago with a band and approximated the splashy percussive organ sounds with reverb through a Leslie, but it never sounded exactly like the original album recording.

As I've learned more about the various effects they used, it seems to me that the secret of the sound is that it's a Hammond Organ, possibly a C3, but maybe Rick's M100, through a Leslie, but with the Leslie miked and then run through a Binson Echorec, which is also used in many other places on the song.

Has anyone ever replicated this sound by running an organ sound through an Echorec or using one of the Echorec emulator pedals? I'd love to have an Echorec, but they are quite expensive.

[Drawbar Dave]

David, apparently it was actually a piano chord through a fast Leslie as used on Echoes on side two of the album but it was doubled with Hammond percussion on the attack. I cannot remember my sources but will have a look around. I have some footage of Echoes being recorded with the M100 in studio 3 of Abbey Road so have always assumed that organ was used for the whole album of Meddle. I have tried replicating this effect with my Compact Duo and Binson, Hammond and Binson with little success. I think live performance would have been Farfisa and Binson. The closest effect I have used to my Binson T7E is called the Dawner Prince Boonar. I a/b'd one with my Binson and it's the only clone that has the “swell” function which the Binsons has. The swell function is the cathedral reverb effect used on the Farfisa part of Echoes. Jon Carin uses one of post Floyd tours. I made a demo with my Farfisa at the time for the manufacturer which they shared on social media.
Finally in the Meddle years Rick was touring the M100 and the Echorec would sit in the middle with two pairs of leads connected leading me to think that the M100 had an effects loop and was run through the Binson some of the time. Hope this helps.

[Goff]

Any tape delay unit or echo pedal will work as long as your source is closest to the original and you play the right notes.

I used to run my Fender Contempo through a Fender tape echo.



There are pedals that try and emulate the Echorec but they are pricey.

An inexpensive one that sounds good to my ears is the TC ELECTRONICS, FLASHBACK. It gets that Gilmourish Floyd tone IMO.

Rick Wright has used a ton of gear during his time. And it may not be as simple as chaining a few pieces together. Without talking with the engineer who was present at the sessions, so many things could have been done to create the sounds we hear on the final tracks and it may not just be devices but also mixing additions to the original tracks.

I have a Roland RE-150 and the thing about real tape delays or something using a motor spinning is there is a wow and flutter component to the sound. Even if the Echorec is not tape but a drum, it's basically similar to a tape but using a flattened wire wrapped around a drum that passes by magnetic tape heads. And the wow and flutter error of the motor that drives the drum is going to introduce that all to familiar sound.

By today's standards the Echorec is noisy and we will notice the background noise off the bat.

The Flashback gets that flutter and ethereal Floyd tone for about $100.

Strymon makes the El Capistan which is a play on the word capstan. $500.



The Catalinbread Echorec. $240.

There are a few models of Binson Echorec and yes a couple of grand for the more featured ones.




All the above said, running a keyboard organ through a basic modern guitar pedal may get mixed results for the input impedance issues and ymmv.

Rick/Floyd music is so niche for their use of keyboards.

[Drawbar Dave]

Goff, none of the other pedals have the swell function which is unique to the echorec. That is why I suggested the Boonar.

[Goff]

I was going to mention the Boonar and I agree it gets that early Floyd-British delay tone. Lots going on inside that pedal.


$350 for the Boonar.

[Goff]

Goff, none of the other pedals have the swell function which is unique to the echorec. That is why I suggested the Boonar.

Something weird going on with the reply updating time lapses on the forum.
Some posts appear after I send but are listed time-stamped before. :o

Yes Dave, I hear ya. The Boonar is the more Echorec featured and then some.

And thanks for the info on the Floyd session tracks.

Problem with the original Echorec is you can't change the delay speed unless you change the speed of the drum. :-(

Fortunately Boonar (Dawner Prince Elect) figured that out at the design stage.

[Admin]

I'm seeing the posts in this thread listed in chronological order. Most likely your time/time-zone is set incorrectly in your Forum settings.

[Goff]

Thanks will check settings.

[David Anderson]

Thanks for all the replies. What I perceive in that sound is something that sounds like a V21 horn driver, but there is also distortion before the delay effect is applied, which makes it hard to tell if you're hearing a piano or Hammond percussion.

I'm thinking about the digital pedals, but I can also tell from the Echorec 2 schematic that there are some non-linear things going on in the original circuitry, like the grid-biased 12AX7 input stage (no cathode resistor). That nets you high-gain from the stage, but at the cost of some amplitude-related colorations that are hard to mimic without tubes. That kind of circuit's sound can change just with a different 12AX7.

If only the originals hadn't gotten so expensive -- or was there ever a time when they weren't as pricey as they are now?

[Drawbar Dave]

David I wonder if it is just the sustained piano chord through a Leslie that is being perceived as delayed. I have played Echoes with Kurzweil piano patches through my 147 and they sound the same as the record. I didn't use delay, just the sustain pedal.

[David Anderson]

I think Echoes is mainly piano through Leslie, but I hear a delay effect on One of These Days that's not present on Echoes.

I heard Gilmour's return to Pompeii, and they did One of These Days, pretty clearly playing a sample of the old keyboard part, but the thing about the original is that not every keyboard "ping" sounds the same. With digital, it's the same every time.