The manual for the PSR in question states Church ORGAN 16' 2'

Every Pipe Organ, going back centuries, uses this as a description for the pipes of those lengths.

The midi numbers say 33 If I remember, (I just glanced at it). I need not look at the stops on the Grand organs of the world.

E. Power Biggs, the Englishman responsible for the revival of classical organ building in the USA, championed organs of the type in use when the pieces were written, but no doubt in some minds Bach's Four Great Toccatas & Fugues were composed first by a resident of some colony and played best on a 'Hammond' Organ, for it sounds the same as the organ in the Basillica Notre Dame, or the one in Notre Dame de Paris, that grand organ with some 7000 pipes is a mere facade of the one's build by Hammond Organ. Zut Alors.

I do have some great Bach done on period organs, but it's odd, there's not an American organ amongst them.

I'm sure when Yamaha says "DrawBar Organ" in the earlier positions, it is due to the fact that they cannot call it a B3. I guess some enterprising soul should buy up Hammonds and install them throughout France and Germany, for if they sound the same, those folks could pretend those pipes work and save a bundle in refurbishment costs.

Now to dig out Mr. E Power Biggs and get the wife off the opera CD's for a few hours.

Frankie,
I thought I posted something here, but it doesn't seem to have shown up. I thought the PSR-620 was equipped with Digital Drawbars, but it doesn't have them.

I also was looking on ebay for the UK, and I found this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/KORG-i3-/150526764445?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item230c18259d

This is the original Korg i3, or Interactive Arranger, the granddaddy of my PA80 and PA800 arranger keyboards. If you can get this, this will be leaps and bounds above your PSR-620. The sounds and backing tracks were really, really good for it's day. In fact, this keyboard really took the concept of 'Arranger' keyboards upscale, to the level of almost pro, and a lot of pros did do composing on them.

If you can afford it, or are near the area, I would take a considerable look at getting this.

If you have some funds laying around and want to invest in a better keyboard, you might look at the Korg PA50. This is the slightly smaller brother to the Korg PA80, and does not have digital drawbars, but is a great keyboard.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Korg-PA50SD-Professi...=item3f05730f8a

All the songs on this page, down to where it says PA800, were created on the PA80, which has the exact same sound set as the PA50, except the drawbars.

http://www.catsmeowcafe.com/musicwork.html

Personally, I would just about kill to get this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/KORG-PA2XPRO-KEYBOAR...=item3cb31b688a

Oh, by the way, can you tell I like Korg?

http://cgi.ebay.com/KORG-PA1X-Workstatio...=item255f64a0a8

The forerunner to the PA800, and smaller version of the PA1X-Pro. A great keyboard, and a good price, since it was over $2,000US.

I had this as my first keyboard

http://cgi.ebay.com/Korg-ix300-Interacti...=item3f0583c68e

The iX300 was the step up from the i3, used the same sounds as the M1 keyboard and was a great sounding keyboard.

Anyway, I'll stop bombarding you with new keyboards. However, I do want to say that any of those keyboards will be a step up from your PSR-620 as far as sound goes, and they're all good keyboards. The PSR-620 was a top keyboard in it's day, but as you can see, for not a whole lot of money, you can move upstream some.

Gary

Does it use 720k diskettes? Mine is state of the ark an has that function. Works well, but it's such a pain to do. Mp3 player replaced it.

gary Im not a keyboard player and only bought the keyboard about 10 years ago for its accompianment.i have held a few chords to give background to my songs but I was hoping this organ would have been in biab but it wasnt.

hehehe! Its great to see 2 "monsters of rock" Mac & John locking horns on this I never thought a small organ would bring about such a debate.Frankie

I'm no rocker. I've played organs for a long time, but prefer keyboards. I did once make a bit of a trip to Montreal to hear my cousin play a huge pipe organ, and spent the weekend there and during Saturday sat beside her while she finished her preparations. She had a priest who played Bach do some pieces and we stood in the nave and listened. It was amazing to see 2 coffins in the place, the bodies in coffins hoisted about 30 feet in the air and a big mirror was over the face, flowers cascading upwards towards the corpses. Someone played that organ almost all day, the families of the deceased came and went, and there were masses at 9 12 3 6 and 9 Every Day. Heck I lived in many small parishes in Quebec and the catholic churches had Mass at 9 and 12 every day in the late '60's and early '70's and .

Like a lot of subjects I didn't take, it's the books. For example I never took philosophy, but I have all the major texts, and a bookshelf full of what I thought mattered, and am prepared to discuss existentialism in literature from the perspective of Albert Camus, in French if you wish. I'm sure I can hold my own with most 3 year Philosophy majors. I cannot however hold my own with my 36 year old son who should have his Phd in a few months, I learned that he had honed his skills to a fine edge, and he can read and understand a 300 page textbook in a few hours. The key is understand, they he start pulling out quotes. The best I can do is read the book in a day and I need to fish for things, I remember them but not verbatim. Oh well.

I have some books here on the major organs of the world, one with a description of stops, and they are now useless because you can get as good or better on the net.

My wife and I are going to London and Paris in the spring, and there are 3 organs I'd like to hear. I have but 3 weeks. Although 3 members of my family were wounded in the 2 World Wars, I've never been to the battlefields, and that's on the agenda. And the Musee D'Orsay, for the impressionists. I insist on Aix-en Provence, (its an art thing).

You won't get much rock from John. Bach, Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Elgar.....and many others fill my day

I'm more of a Jazzer who was raised and educated with the Classical background.


The Rock & R&B experience more or less just happened.


There were these paying gigs...


Then came an era of studio work in which I got to excercise every genre and had to quickly learn to cover a few others as well.


Oh, the sheer larceny of it all.



--Mac

"'m no rocker"
Yeah I knew that John it was tongue in cheek.. also it sounded better than Monsters of pipe/jazz organ playing.Frankie

Frankie, I'm in London (the other one across the pond) for Easter. Westminster Abby for Easter Sunday?

On the Monday we are taking the train to Glasgow and then the adventure of renting a car and driving to Islay.

This music has a permanent place on my piano, if I start to play it the wife unpacks the flute and I have to try and figure out someway to stay off the melody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-_DA1c1EhQ&feature=related

Note in the open position you can see the 2' pipes.....LOL.

and did those feet, in ancient times, .....G O A L.....

LOL

John I have to say this.With all what you have been through and still going through you make all of us who moan about our aches and pains(Ive got some arthritis) wimps.looking at your itinerary it looks as if you and your wife are going to have a great time.Cheers Frankie

John & Mac just in:

Dear Mr Keefe

Thank you for your email regarding the PSR-620.

When using Organ Voices, you may see these figures after the Voice name (Depending on model). In this case the 16+2 indicates which Drawbar was used on an electronic organ (16ft & 2 ft). These names came from the pitch originally used from pipe organs.

We hope this helps

Regards

Yamaha UK Customer Support.

I used a slight variant for that setting this past weekend on a borrowed Nord Electro73 which has a fantastic B3 emulation.

For the kind of music we were doing (straight up 3 chord, sometimes 4 chord rock and reggae), I used lots of

888008008,
888000000,
888008000
and
000008008 on a couple tracks as a little background whistle-pad kind of a thing.

As you can see, I was there for the growl!

There's a 2-track, off-the-board mix I have on CD but haven't listened to it. I'll pick out the non-embarrassing parts and perhaps post some snippets if I get permission from the band leader.

Just found this, you might find it interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqyqqYW91EY&feature=related

Gary

Hi Guys,The reason I posted this up was I was hoping this church organ sound was in biab for a gospel song Ive written.The organ sound I want is on my PSR-620 keyboard the one named 16 +2 but Im not a keyboard player so I probably will get someone in to play the parts.Thanks Frankie

Frankie,
Don't forget, if you find an organ part in BIAB that you like, that's a MIDI, not Real Tracks, you can assign that particular sound to it. That is, of course, unless it's the melody.

This is one of the reasons I suggested some of those keyboards, the sound generation from them, if you're using MIDI, is going to be better than your 620.

Is the sound you want for a backing track, or for the melody track? Even though you're using Real Tracks, you can still use a MIDI track for organ.

Gary

Hi Gary,Im not impressed with the midi sounds Im hearing I dont think its my sound card Ive got the creative soundblaster.The 16 + 2 on my 620 sounds perfect and would be used for mostly backing but also some melody.Ive never used midi in biab only rt so will have to look up how to use it alongside rt's.thanks Frankie

Gary isn't taking into account those great sounding B3 Realtracks as well.

Depending on genre, of course, but some of those can sound purty darned good in the right situation.

Unlike a MIDI representation, these are made by recording an outstanding B3 player on real B3 with Leslie. You simply cannot imply that kind of animation using MIDI - and animation is what the organ is really all about.


--Mac

sorry Mac Ive played those organs and though they might sound great they are not the sound Im looking for like the church sound on my PSR-620.It looks as if Im going to have to get down and try to play it.Frankie

.
You dont have to play it. Hook your BiaB computer to the DGX via USB. Install the driver that came with the DGX on the computer. You can get the driver from Yamaha online. Then BiaB can be made to play the part on the DGX set to "16+2".

Connect the sound output of the DGX to the line input on your sound card. Start the audio recorder in BiaB. Start the song and the DGX will be recorded.

While you are at it, try doubling the DGX 16+2 with its "Lite Organ," #190.

.
>>>...Yikes! Not being that techno minded its might be a long haul but will give it a try Thanks Frankie..>>>

Yes, it is a little complicated. It will take some trial and error to get everything the way you want it. But the learning curve is worth it. These connections are actually pretty basic. Just the beginning of what you will need to learn to get the real value out of MIDI, computer sound and music programs like BiaB.

If you get stuck, the best advice available anywhere is found right here in this forum.

Hi Flatfoot,Just listened to the song valley of love and delight..did you write the tune and lyrics cheers Frankie

.

I wrote it while I was walking the Appalachian Trail. I did not have an instrument with me, so I based it on the familiar Shaker hymn called "Simple Gifts." (Google it)

It says so in the credits.