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Getting My Organ Under Control


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I use a Roland VR-700 as my combo organ, usually played through a Speakeasy AMA preamp, and amplified by a QSC K10 powered monitor. I've also used a Hammond SK1 and have this same problem:

 

Since I'm playing rock, my typical registrations are either 888000000, the "upside down smile," or balls-out 888888888. When I get into the middle C range or below, the bass end gets oppressively boomy ... all I hear is WOOOOOOM, and it drives me nuts.

 

The AMA has bass and treble controls on it, and I usually keep the bass all the way down, and attempted to compensate for it by rolling off the low end using a mixer. I've also tried backing my 16', 8', and 4' registrations off to around 6, but when used alone, that just makes the WOOOOOM lower in volume, and tonally it changes when using other drawbars (say, 666888888 on a full rock scream).

 

Admittedly, organ is a weak spot for me, and I'm working hard to get better with my technique and tone, but I simply can't find a way past this issue. I don't want to leave the preamp out because (A) I've heard others use it without the bass frequencies being so oppressive, (B) it really adds an amazing tone to the organ in upper registers, and © it doesn't do this to my DP, synths, or other gear. I've tried different speakers, but that's not the issue, and I even used a Hammond SK1 and encountered the same problem.

 

Is it a gear/user issue?

 

Or could it be ear fatigue mitigating perception of higher frequencies, thus I hear the low end more?

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You may need to think about your chord voicings. If youre going to dip below Middle C (I bet your bassist loves that), thats when you ) thats when you roll back some of the 1st two drawbars, but it sounds like you have tried that already. Try not to voice the chords the way you might on a piano (with octave bass notes).with organ, less is truly more.

 

Hitting "Play" does NOT constitute live performance. -Me.
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Having trouble with your organ? Check out the thread about good shagging tunes.
:rimshot:

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Gotta work the drawbars, that's why they're there, but 888000000 is not for me, it gets muddy and lost with a full band, that's a small combo reg IMO, but my left hand is almost always on the bars and changing for the room, song, everything.

 

Also you should consider a small mixer for the powered monitor, it will sound better and you can EQ.

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Jason,

Not sure about the Roland or SK, but on my Electro I use splits to avoid this. If you want to comp with chords, the lower half of a 61 key is not that useful.

 

For the Electro, I treat the left side of the split as a lower manual and assign it drawbar settings and octave shift to facilitate chord comping. Maybe this will work for you?

 

Regards,

Joe

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A few things...despite other sounds being fine in my Kronos, I've had to tweak all of the organ patches, often adjusting bass EQ. Even still, with my K10, in a live setting, I find it better to run on the "ext sub" setting.

 

I'm not real familiar with the clones you're using, but in the cx3 engine, there's an eq in the rotary sim section that usually has the sound all out of whack in the presets...including boosted bass EQ

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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Kanker suggests I try to make some adjustments to the rotary sim; it could be the virtual bass bin.

 

It totally slipped my mind that the rotary sim is part of the signal chain. :P

 

I don't know what's in a VR-700, but Roland's VK rotary sim (in the VK-7 and Fantoms) is probably the muddiest Leslie sim I've ever come across. In my Fantom, I've had to turn the woofer level in that sim way down in order to get it to speak at all onstage.

 

In the manual, Roland proudly states that they boost the bass in that sim. And they're not kidding. I'd go there first.

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Now that you mention it I do notice my Nord S2-76 and hammond Sk1 are boomy on the bottom end, but haven't noticed that with the A100 or Mojo (who don't get out as often on account of the obvious other limitations)
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Not to take this too far OT, but I've come down to a process when it comes to creating a new organ patch in my Kronos. Step 1: get a preset as close to barenones as possible. On the kronos, that means remove all IFX, set all MFX sends to zero, go into the amp/speaker sim and set EQ flat. Step 2: set basic organ and leslie modeling parameters to what I think they should be for the sound. This is bright/mellow, dirty/clean, leakage, click, etc on the organ, and preamp type, drive, speaker sim, and slow/fast speed and acceleration on the leslie. Step 3: work the drawbars and leslie as I would in the song and make fine tweaks to the above parameters as well as eq, mic position, etc. Finally, if I can't quite nail the sound, and/or there are other outboard effects on the original, invoke IFX and MFX. I would guess this basic process would translate to most clones.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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