What Are The Other Organ Patches on My CTK-711EX

[Mark76]

Organ 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to be exact.

Also, thanks for having me
 

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Mark

 

I was not able to find a Tone List for the CTK-711EX, but I did find this spec sheet in the archives.  It tells me what I needed to know:

 

https://archive.casio.com/products/archive/Digital_Pianos_%26_Keyboards/Portable_Keyboards/CTK-711EX/

 

The basic tone (voice) set of the CTK-711EX is the 128 voice General MIDI (GM) tone set, which is specified by the Standard MIDI Spec, in order to ensure tone compatibility amongst various MIDI devices:

 

https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/item/gm-level-1-sound-set

 

You will note that the GM tone list includes 5 organ tones.  In addition to the "required" 128 tones, Casio provided 64 additional tones that are mostly just 'variations" of some of the basic 128 GM tones, to add some variety.  Without an exact Tone List to go by, I have to assume that these "other" organ tones you are asking about are just merely "variations" to the 5 basic GM organ tones.

 

Roland pioneered the idea of variation tones with their Sound Canvass tone modules and keyboards, and carried it to its ultimate with the SC-88 Pro, which boasted a total of 1117 tones, all of which above the base 128 were (supposedly) some closely related variation of the base 128.  Tones within "banks" of 128 were arranged in such a manner that if you played a MIDI file made for a newer model were played to an older model, which did not have all the tones of the newer model, tone requests would "fall thru" (pass thru) the banks until they "hit" a tone that sounded most like the originally intended tone, so that that MIDI file would sound reasonably like the model it was actually made for.

 

You can use (play) these "variation" tones by merely selecting them from the keyboard's front panel with the tone selection buttons, but if you were to use them in a MIDI file, each tone selecting Program Change message that is to select a "variation" tone would need to be preceded by a Bank Select message to indicate that this selection is to come from "variation" Bank 1, instead of base Bank 0.  Any tone selecting Program Change message not preceded by a Bank Select message is assumed to be selected from base Bank 0.

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Posted in error. Please disregard.

 

 

[Mark76]

Basic tones being: Drawbar, Percussion, Rock, Church and Reed, right?

I have the manual (or, rather, I have a downloaded scan of the manual) but it doesn't list the tones anywhere.

I'm kind of hoping one of them is UK 60s combo and there's an Italian 60s combo in there as well

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59 minutes ago, Mark76 said:

Basic tones being: Drawbar, Percussion, Rock, Church and Reed, right?

 

Yes!  Those are the 5 GM organ tones, but if your variation organ tones are just labeled Organ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, there is no way of telling what they really are.  They can be just about anything, as variation tones are not governed by the GM tone conventions, at all.  You will just have to audition them, and decided on your own which tones are suitable for which use.  No guarantees.  Good luck!

 

One other thought:  IF the CTK-711 allows you to "layer" 2 tones, you can "layer" 2 organ tones and come up with a totally different sound, especially if you can add some reverb and/or chorus to them.  Experiment with the 711's effects, whether you can "layer" or not!  For example, in Supertramp's "The Logical Song", Roger Hodgson split his Wurly's output, and sent one to the soundboard dry and the other through a guitar chorus pedal.  This can be very easily emulated on a keyboard, if it allows you to "layer", although to get the live concert hall effect, you need to add a little reverb ot each "feed" (layer).

 

And . . . finally - if you are really serious about this, and the 711 just will not give you what you want, much less than a new or different keyboard, you may want to consider connecting the 711 to your computer via a USB-MIDI Adaptor and use it to play VST instruments on your computer.  That would open up a completely new world for you, but I have to admit that I say this 'tongue in cheek", as I am completely old school - personally I want to keep everthing I do completely self contained in a single box (keyboard).  I have just never felt comfortable depending upon a computer umbilical cord.

 

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