reed organ

[lg]

i just scored a cheap yamaha student model electric reed organ. sounds wonderful, but as might be imagined, is pretty quiet. i'd like to know how best to amplify this thing- contact mic into apogee duet into logic is my first thought, but i'm absolutely open to suggestions. anyone?

[drumsound]

Does it have a 1/4" out? You might try a nice clean amp then.

[Aquaman]

Did you push down on the pedal on the side of the support column? That increases the airflow from the compressor.

[lg]

maybe i should clarify. the unit works fine, but as an acoustic instrument, isn't the loudest beast on the block. the pedal is working (after digging around inside the box to reconnect the lever ) but no, there is no 1/4" out: the way i understand the electro-mechanics of the thing, the electrical side of it is only to operate the compressor- the sound is all acoustic- no pickups, hence no output. i found this vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt9HQLhc ... re=related

and it looks like this guy's done what i'd like to do, but sadly doesn't include details on what he added to the organ. actually looks like a kit... rather than go that far yet, i think i might just experiment with contact mic'ing it and see where that takes me.

[Smitty]

i have two of these bad boys... a Gretsch and a Noble. both sound awesome when that's the sound you need, but they're kind of a pain in the ass to mic up.

both of mine suffer from noisy-ass compressors, and getting a strong sound from the reeds without too much whirring has proven a challenge. one of them is also hard because the notes are loudest relative to where the keys are, which makes close-micing a challnge.

next time i do it, i think i'll use a spaced pair or xy, and some creative notch-filtering.

are you trying to use this thing live, or is this for recording?

[lg]

ideally both, but my first priority is to use it live, hence the thought of contact mic'ing (but given what you've said about volume being relative to note spacing, this might not be the best option). at least the compressor on mine is not so bad noise-wise.

it's a beautiful sound- gets me all tom waits inside.

[Smitty]

also, as a contact mic is going to work with vibrations, then attaching it to something with a compressor (even a quiet one) could produce some unwanted effects. i know mine vibrate a decent amount.

maybe one (or two) of those mics that are made for saxophones? something with a really tight frequency range and cardioid pattern?

i've seen that guy from the Decemberists rock a hurdy-gurdy out live, so there's gotta be a way to do it.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

If you go the contact mic route you could always try housing the compressor outside of the organ & connect it via some kind of tubing.

[Smitty]

hell, if you're going that route, might as well just pick up one of these bad boys...



and you've solved your volume problem right there. course, you might need to replace the reeds a bit more often...

[Scodiddly]

hell, if you're going that route, might as well just pick up one of these bad boys...



and you've solved your volume problem right there. course, you might need to replace the reeds a bit more often...

Yeah, that'll work, but everything ends up an octave or two higher than with stock.

[lg]

a real plus is how that big green compressor is going to look on stage. oh yeah...

[djimbe]

I don't know this particular yamaha reed organ, but I've worked with a buncha others over the years. The biggest key to making a reed organ sound half decent that I've found? Make sure the thing is air tight.

Like, for example, yer basic Magnus chord organ. Those things have a fan inside that provides the wind. The fan sucks air through a port on the bottom of the organ and it pressurizes the organ case. When you depress a key, the wind escapes through the reed pocket making the noise. The problem is the organ case. The bottom of the organ case is a simple piece of carboard or wood that's screwed into the case. ANY air escaping from anywhere OTHER than a reed pocket diminishes volume and raises the incidental wind noise these things make. Remove that bottom panel and reinstall it with a bit of silicone caulk to provide a seal. And make sure your case doesn't have a crack in it. And make sure the intake for the fan isn't dirty or covered with cat hair or something.

These kinds of organs will probably always be noisey beasts, but you can make them better with some repair techniques. I like using an omni mic above one for recording, but that's gonna be a problem in a live setting. One of my reed organs has mics in it, the output of which go to an amplifier in the organ, then out a set of speakers. It still has wind noise, but not as much as a pure accoustic organ. Adding that to an existing organ could be easy, or a righteous pain in the butt...

[lg]

cool djimbe, thanks for the advice. the instrument in question has a supremely butt-ugly case that i was thinking about replacing with a custom acrylic enclosure- this would have the added benefit of being able to be made relatively airtight, i would think. mics inside the case going to an amp (or a couple of those ART MP's i have sitting around and then straight into the board) might just do the trick, no?

[djimbe]

cool djimbe, thanks for the advice. the instrument in question has a supremely butt-ugly case that i was thinking about replacing with a custom acrylic enclosure- this would have the added benefit of being able to be made relatively airtight, i would think. mics inside the case going to an amp (or a couple of those ART MP's i have sitting around and then straight into the board) might just do the trick, no?

As I say, i don't know the instrument, but the new case sounds like a great idea. And acrylic! A Vistalite organ...cool! I think there was an acrylic Mellotron at one time.

Anyway, I don't know much about the mics. My organ like that is a Silvertone. There are two mics inside all covered with foam to keep down some of the wind. They're hi Z mics and feed a cute little tube amp that drives a pair of 6" speakers. It's a high noise floor, though the amp is real quiet. Blow across a mic sometime...that's the background sound you'll hear.

I don't know of the differences in sound and performance of organs that suck vs. organs that blow. That sounds dirty... Some reed organs (like my big Weaver parlor pump organ) work on a vacuum. The air is drawn across the reed rather than blown. I think the Silvertone is a vacuum instrument too. I know the Magnus organs blow. How yours works could have a big impact on your success with mics...

[thieves]

the piano player in my band has one of these old WWII estey field organs:



it's a lot louder than my magnus, and since there isn't a motor, it's a lot easier to mic.