MULTI FX: It’s for organ, too! - Sand, software and sound

Every now and again, a question pops up on a forum that is worth reposting here. A member of the YamahaSynth.com MODX forum inquired about distortion effects for drawbar organ.

Yamaha has introduced new DSP effects with every generation of synth and arranger. Unless you don’t have a life (and I resemble that remark), you’re probably not steeped in the history of Yamaha effect algorithms (AKA “effect types”.) Some of the amp simulations (e.g., AMP SIM 1) have been around a loooooong time.

When it comes to distortion or overdrive, I start with the effects added with the Motif XF version 1.5 update:

    US COMBO
    JAZZ COMBO
    US HIGH GAIN
    BRITISH LEAD
    MULTI FX
    SMALL STEREO
    BRITISH COMBO
    BRITISH LEGEND

Of course, you’ll find these effects on Montage and MODX, too. BTW, These same effect types (algorithms) are available on Genos, Tyros 5 and a few other Yamaha arrangers. On arrangers, they are called “Real Distortion.” The arranger presets are voiced differently to fit the needs of arranger styles.

The “All 9 Bars!” Performance insert effects perform distortion and rotary speaker emulation. The effect routing is:

    Insert B --> Insert A

where Insert B is MULTI FX and Insert A is Rotary Speaker 1.

MULTI FX is effectively a chain of guitar pedal effects and is quite versatile. The effect parameters for “All 9 Bars!” are:

    1  Comp. Sustain   2.0
    2  Wah SW          Off
    3  Wah Pedal       0
    4  Dist SW         Clean
    5  Dist Drive      1.8
    6  Dist EQ         Hi Boost
    7  Dist Tone       1.5
    8  Dist Presence   5.0
    9  Output Level    100
   10  --
   11  Speaker Type    Twin
   12  LFO Speed       7.738Hz
   13  Phaser SW       Off
   14  Delay SW        Echo 1 St
   15  Delay Ctrl      40
   16  Delay Time      48

The Compressor Sustain stage is always on. Here, the Wah and Phaser are turned off. So, after the compressor, the rest of the chain applies distortion, amp simulation (Twin) and delay. Arranger people might want to try the MULTI FX with these parameter settings in order to spice up the rather polite drawbar organ voices. Then, crank the parameters!

There’s plenty to tweak here. I recommend reading Phil’s blog covering the new effects in Motif XF version 1.5:

https://yamahasynth.com/blog/exploringmotifxf15guitareffects

If MULTI FX doesn’t get the sound that your looking for, then maybe one of the other “Real Distortion” effects will get the job done.