I’m deep in another one of those “cross-platform” projects in which I share voice programming between Yamaha Genos™ and Yamaha MODX. In this case, I’m recreating some of the PSR/Genos “organ flutes” registrations on MODX.
“Organ flutes” is Yamaha-speak for drawbar organ emulation. Genos and S-series PSR arranger workstations implement two kinds of drawbar (Hammond B3) organ voices: normal sample playback voices and organ flutes voices. The organ flutes have their own drawbar user interface where the user can move virtual footage drawbars, including percussion. Organ flutes voices make use of a rotary speaker DSP effect while sample playback organ voices may have the rotary effect sampled-in instead of using a DSP effect. The chief disadvantage of sampled-in is the inability to smoothly change rotary speaker speeds (i.e., ramp up or ramp down between speeds). The abrupt speed change is very unrealistic. Of course, you can’t change the drawbar setting of a sampled-in voice either.
Everyone loves new organ registrations, so here is my go-to table of Yamaha presets. Vibrato is OFF in all cases.
Preset Drawbars VOL RESP 4' 2 2/3' 2' LENG Rotary effect -------------- ----------- --- ---- --- ------ --- ---- ------------- OrganFlutes 78 6600 000 8 0 8 0 0 6 DUAL ROT BRT USDSmile 87 4323 468 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT ReggaeBars 70 0000 008 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT WarmTheatre 80 0605 000 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT WRM OrganPops 70 8000 000 8 0 8 0 0 8 DUAL ROT BRT RockOrgan 65 5444 644 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT SoulPercussion 70 0000 530 8 0 0 7 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT GospelTruth 87 6000 568 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT PadOrgan 00 8520 000 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT WRM FullOrgan 88 7677 788 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT StringBars 48 0787 532 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT LatinSpin 70 0003 443 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT ShadyBars 68 8600 000 8 0 0 0 0 7 DUAL ROT BRT FunkOrgan 83 5035 788 8 0 0 0 0 7 DUAL ROT BRT BalladOrgan 86 7300 000 8 0 0 0 0 7 DUAL ROT WRM RichBars 63 8457 530 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT TrumpetBars 06 0786 540 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT SoulBars 80 0050 578 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT ClariBars 08 0080 760 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT JazzSquabble 80 0008 888 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT
These are the registrations for Yamaha’s preset organ flutes voices.
The RESP, 4′, 2 2/3′, 2′ and LENG columns control envelope and percussion. The manual describes these parameters in the following way:
- Response (RESP): Affects both the attack and release portion of the sound, increasing or decreasing the response time of the initial swell and release, based on the Footage controls. The higher the value, the slower the swell and release.
- 4′, 2 2/3′, 2′: 4′ is second harmonic percussion level and 2 2/3′ is third harmonic percussion level.
- Length (LENG): Controls the length of the percussion sound.
There is also an Attack switch to apply percussion to the first note or each note. For realism, I apply first note. Always.
The registrations above use the older rotary speaker effect algorithm which had two PSR/Genos presets: DUAL ROTARY BRIGHT and DUAL ROTARY WARM. I recommend trying the “new” rotary speaker algorithm if you got it (Montage, MODX, Genos).
Here are a few bonus registrations, just for grins:
Preset Drawbars VOL RESP 4' 2 2/3' 2' LENG Rotary effect ----------- ----------- --- ---- --- ------ --- ---- ------------- SmithPlus 88 8800 000 8 3 0 4 0 0 DUAL ROT WRM Simmerin 83 0000 378 8 0 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT WRM MellowDee 80 4600 000 8 4 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT BRT Shoutin 66 8848 588 8 4 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT WRM WhistleStop 88 8000 008 8 3 0 0 0 0 DUAL ROT WRM WhiterShade 68 8600 000 8 0 4 0 0 8 DUAL ROT WRM
If you want to ditch the sampled-in voices and use organ flutes instead, many of the Yamaha organ flutes presets are equivalent to a sampled-in voice. You just need to decode the names: WhiterBars → ShadyBars, Curved Bars → USDSmile, GospelOrgan (Legacy) → GospelTruth, etc. Save the registrations as Genos or PSR USER voices and use them in place of the sampled-in voices. Then, enjoy the rotary speaker ramp up and down!
Copyright © 2019 Paul J. Drongowski