Sinus ORGAN / Registers

[User 29303]

i am actually trying to programm a sinus Organ ,,not using the Organ waves but setting up

a Hex with all layers playing a Sinus Wave,,,for now it sounds cool i will post my patch soon

but i wonder how to setup the register i mean the pitch from one hex layer to another.....

 

 

example:

 

 

Layer 1 tunded 0

layer 2  up 2 semitones

layer 3 up 4 semitones

layer 4 up 8 semitones

layer 5 up 16 semit..

layer 5 up 32 semit...

 

 

or is there a fixed difference between the registers of an Organ ? ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[krullebolle]

There isn't a fixed set of organ registers, but most organs have indeed the following:

 

- 16  semitones up to 2 semitones, 32 semitones being rare.

- a register that's slightly detuned to create a kind of human voice effect (vox)

- a register that adds a fifth.

- a trumpet like register

- a flute like register

 

Effects that are added:

- a zone which you can turn on that plays everything along but an octave higher (usually called an octave coupler)

- vibrato

- reverb

 

 

I was thinking of doing the same as you, following upon my detailed church organ, which doesn't use waveforms, but the best sounding samples for the registers I could find in the px.

 

Here is some guide for a vox organ:

http://cryptomys.de/horo/Connie/

 

info on emulating a B3:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov03/articles/synthsecrets.htm

 

There is alot of info, and you don't have to try to recreate a classic organ sound. But these can help to understand how an organ sound can be created, that doesn't sound thin and hollow, with only sinusses and waveforms.

At the moment i'm delving into synth creations with only waveforms. Because you can recreate so many things with it, and so they did in the 80s.

 

I have an harmonium (also called 'reed organ') here at home. It has a bass coupler (octave below), octave above coupler, it has a vibrato, and 4 registers which enable different reeds. Everything is mechanical. So a 100 years ago they already used these things. And a harmonium is based loosely on a church organ, which also has all these settings for more then 400 years.

So if you think that the now legendary organs from the 60s where something newly invented, no way. They where based upon the old organs and trying to recreate them with electrical components (most did a poor job at that, but this then again resulted in a new sound, which rock and jazz groups loved)

 

There are as many types of organs as cars. All church organs were handmade, with different pipesets and settings. So in a way, for me the only things that keeps an organ apart from a piano is these:

 

- A way to control the volume is created by added or subtracting sound. Not by the velocity of the keybed. Crescendo is made by adding more stops and different sounds. Decrescendo is made by substracting them.

- Yes, they do have volume pedals. On a church organ, these close the coffin where in the pipes are, so the sound is muffled and more silent. A hammond or electronic organ can do it from complete silence to full throttle. Some organs don't have them. Some do. This is a different way of controlling the volume.

- the sound stays. Doesnt fade away in time untill you release the key you play. Some have a keyclick, when you play a key. On a pipe organ this is the click of the moving woodvalve (don't know the right word in English) for allowing the wind to go to the pipe. Some are audible, some not. Some people want keyclick, some not. Hammond didn't wanted it on his organs, but all jazz organists loved it.

 

So in a way, to my opinion you can do alot more with organs in ways of sound then with pianos. But then they evolved further into synths, with which you can do almost everything possibly imaginable and sculpt sounds in every possible way in this day and age.

And what do we do with them? Mainly trying to recreate sounds from the past

 

Wow , this has become a long post.

[Ebonivor]

Krullebolle, it's not a long post- it's a very interesting insight into the workings of organs. Thanks for taking the trouble to explain it in such easy-to-understand detail.