Organ Recording

Hossinfeffa · Post by **Hossinfeffa** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:16 am

What's the best way to record an organ? I'll be getting one soon probably and never exactly knew how to record one. I think this organ doesn't have an output other than the speaker under it infront. So I'm pretty sure I'd have to mic it somehow. But I also wondered, is there a way you can add a quarter-inch jack output on something like this easily?

Also, this isn't a new organ. It's from 1977 and has an analog drum machine on it.

Post by **Stab Frenzy** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:51 am

Best way to record it then is to mic it up, similar to how you would a guitar cab. Any old dynamic mic will do, I find the Audix i5 is really good for the money, so if you're planning on buying a mic then consider one of them.

You'll get a different sound from pointing the mic at different points of the speaker cone, closer to the centre is brighter, closer to the edge is duller. If you've got a mic and stand set it up so the mic's halfway between the edge and the centre, record a little bit and then move it and record again so you can see how it changes the sound.

It should be possible to modify it to have a jack out but it's probably a bit tricky without the service manual and/or a decent idea of what you're doing. See how you go with it mic'd up to start off with I reckon.

monolith · Post by **monolith** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:50 am

hey,
You may have already checked, but i have an old thomas organ which doesnt specify having an output, but one day i felt around underneath the keyboard and discovered an output there. (as well as a light switch which illluminates the keys!)
you never know...

m

soto · Post by **soto** » Tue May 13, 2008 3:14 am

i agree with Stab Frenzy, i have a yamaha yc-20 combo organ, i recorded it with shure sm70 mic, like when you record a guitar, and the result was great
but maybe if i used another mic off axis to record the room it would have sounded better, i will do that in the near future.

Johnny Lenin · Post by **Johnny Lenin** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:06 am

It depends on the organ, I guess... and the room... and the mic. I had disastrous results mic-ing my Vox, probably because of a combination of shitty mic and bad room acoustics, even though I tried it through a Fender Bassman, Peavey Classic 30, Vox AC15 and AC15VT. I had better luck running the line-out from the amp directly into the mixer and then I found -- and this is a sacrilege, I know -- that I got my best results from running the organ through a Digitech RP250 pedal with the AC30 emulation and EQ'ed with the bass high, the midrange higher and the treble rolled off a bit. Also, I find that combo organs LOVE reverb.

<edit>

Whoops. I just noticed that I ignored the part about the organ not having an output. Please disregard...

BTW, what kind of organ is it?

Hossinfeffa · Post by **Hossinfeffa** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:01 am

Oh, the thread was brought back? Well, good.

The organ I have is a Kimball Shangri-La. I've heard Kimball organs were not the greatest during the late 70's, but I find mine to have a great sound with a very powerful speaker in it.

Upon further inspection (once I got it home) I did find a line out on it, under the keys. But for some reason, when I insert a cord into it, it doesn't have any sound coming out. Through accident, I later discovered it plays sound only if the cord is half inserted. This creates a slight hum, but the sound is still good. A friend of mine said it's because I'm using a modern cable and the cables the organ was built for in the 70's were different in internal wiring. I kind of doubt this, though. I have some cables from the 80's that I haven't tried yet.

etcetera · Post by **etcetera** » Thu May 15, 2008 10:47 pm

Here's a setup that worked well for me on a Hammond T-500. The mics are condensed type, and pointed towards the front and the side of the internal leslie. My favourite trick is to boost the bass end of the mics, as it produces a really good organ sound.