Hi Keith,
Russ is a bit tied up just now (sadly,he lost his best friend recently). I have been keeping in contact with him though, and I was due to email him soon anyway to see how he's getting on. I'll mention your above post to him.
Cheers
Nic
OrganFax Community » Electronic Instruments
"Theatre Organ In A Box"
(487 posts)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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Hello NicEL8000
I did get an email from Russ explaining.
Not good when you lose someone close..
Hope you are behaving yourself. I know that`s boring.
I am trying to improve my playing and enjoying the fantom.
One day I might get a video on U Tube.
Take care Reagrds from Keith.Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi Keith,
Me behaving? I should be..... but I'm not really....like you say "behaving is boring" :-)
Yes, poor Russ, very sad indeed - it makes you think how unfair life is.... :-(
I'm really pleased to hear you are enjoying the Fantom - look forward to hearing you on youtube ( no pressure - I know what it's like trying to find the time ) On a personal level, I'd be happy if I could find the time to switch mine on, there seems to be so many things taking up my time just now, I can't seem to get out the bit - very frustrating - so I'm glad you are enjoying yours. The rest of us here will get back to enjoying ours eventually too, I'm sure!
I had the EL90/Fantom out on 2nd June to play at our club, and I'm ashamed to say it took me 10 days to get round to putting it all back together in the house, and I haven't had time to play it since - pretty disgraceful really, as I would like to improve to a level I could do the Fantom justice.
I could boast about the lovely weather we have been having here (for a change), but given that you may be in the middle of monsoons in New Zealand, I'd better not labour the point too much.......?
Regards
Nicola
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hello.
I have recently acquired the Fantom and TOIAB and am very impressed with it. Reg connected it all up to my Technics GN5 and the expression pedal worked from the off! I got a bit tired of knob-twiddling to change sounds, so I had a look through my Technics manuals to see what I could do. I now have the organ controlling the Fantom with its own registration buttons (not the VSC) with the Memory button pressed, and the sounds are corresponding to the single manual theatre organ patches, approx. from Tibias and Piano onwards. This is the same for both keyboards. Is there a way to make the buttons control sounds further up or down the patch list? Thanks to Reg for installing the Fantom and his excellent card.
Best wishes,
PaulPosted 1 year ago # -
Hello everyone,
I am a TOIAB enthusiast who has just joined. I have none of the impressive technical capability of the sort exhibited by Nicola, Tony and Russ. When I buy something I expect it to work at the push of a button, or possibly two buttons at a pinch, and anything further will see my eyes glazing over.
I was interested in Paul's post because I was thinking of getting a Technics GN9, which is currently on e-bay but was put off by one or two remarks I've heard or read about Technics limited compatibility with the Fantom. I used to have a Roland AT15 but didn't really get on with it (my fault I'm sure). I didn't know how to set the 8 presets to get the first 8 TOIAB performances (though I used one of the presets successfully to get the solo manual) and I couldn't get the swell pedal to work, except in a limited and unsatisfactory way. On the other hand, I have a Yamaha HC4, which is just plug and play. The swell pedal works fine and it gets the first 5 presets automatically without me pressing anything except the particular preset button. My kind of instrument!
To access the remaining performances on TOIAB, I also have an ELMAT, which was recommended to me by an enthusiast in Germany who has two. I note that my namesake member from N.Z. also has one. I got mine from the maker John Barlow, although I had to phone Reg to get the correct settings on the Fantom. Sometimes it doesn't work as it should, e.g. when you push the button for a change in registration, although the new number lights up, the previous registration keeps playing, or it gives me a new registration which is different to what it should be, or, very occasionally, although it changes the registration on the upper manual, the accompaniment manual is given a different registration to what it should be. But it works O.K. most of the time and it's still a big improvement on knob twiddling on the Fantom.
I'll get to the point. My original idea was to get an organ with 16 presets so that using those with a bank of 16 of the ELMAT's would give me 32 easily accessible sounds. (The ELMAT will do the entire 64 if you change banks, but it's more switch operating and button pressing, which can be complicated when you're trying to play the organ at the same time!) However, I see from Tony's posts that its possible with some organs to get the entire 64 performances controlled through the organ's presets. That would be ideal. The EL 90 emerged as the favourite after reading everyone's posts.
However, the attraction of the GN9 was that it MIGHT get over another problem - that of the weak accompaniment on some of the performances. At the moment I supplement the TOIAB with the HC4's own lower voices, which isn't a great solution but I get by. But the GN9 boasts individual volume control on upper lower and bass MIDI. This would be ideal in terms of controllability but, does it mean what it appears to say? I wonder whether the GN5 has a similar set up and whether Paul has tried it? Also, do the presets (16 I understand) pick up the first 16 performances and does the swell pedal work all right with TOIAB for the organ generally?
I would stress that I only use the organ as controller for the Fantom, so I'm not really bothered whether the organ is basic like the HC4 or whether it is ultra sophisticated - I want a plug and play which will give effect to the swell pedal and allow me to control at least 16 TOIAB performances through the organ. If I could set the volume levels for upper, lower and pedal through the organ controls without having to do any special settings on the Fantom (as the GN9 - and perhaps 5 - appears to do), this would be a great bonus.
Sorry to ramble but any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Kind regards,
Keith
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hello Keith,
I am sure there must be a way to alter the individual MIDI volume controls. If you do get a GN9 and manuals are included, have a look at volume 3 which deals specifically with MIDI.
In answer to your other questions, the swell pedal on my GN5 works perfectly, somewhat of an anomaly I know given that most people have had trouble getting Technics pedals to work with the Fantom. The 16 presets of the upper and lower keyboards control the single manual patches from patch 145 (tibs + Piano) onwards, so you can have different sounds on each keyboard. These only work when the Memory button is on. I don't know if I can change this to control other patches but I am going to look into it. The patches can also be controlled via the pedals too.
Best wishes,
PaulPosted 1 year ago # -
Hello everyone,
Many thanks, Paul, for your prompt reply. I didn't know about the GN9 until I saw it on e-bay and I thought the specification looked very good for the price being asked - though you really need to read the manual to make sure what everything actually does. The 5 memory buttons on the HC4 simply call up the first 5 settings on the patches, without anything on accompaniment or pedals. So I have to use the HC4s settings for those. I can access some of the other patches fairly quickly by using the ELMAT, which, slightly bizarrely, calls up 1- 80 and 129 - 208. Because of the limited lower manual and pedals, I don't use the patches very much - I used them when I wanted to use the bell sound fro m the patches and that's about all.
I would be very interested to hear the results of your efforts with the Technics. I'll perhaps hold off regarding the GN 9 until I read your further posts. (In the past I've spent a fortune on various top-of-the range organs which turned out not to do what I wanted them to do - so I'm getting a bit more cautious with age!) I wish you the best of luck in getting everything to work. If you hit snags, I think you'll need one of the others to help - it was only when I came across this forum by accident recently that I learned you could adjust the sounds within the Fantom!
Kind regards,
Keith
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hello Keithowens, from one Keith to another.....
I have a Baldwin Theatre organ with only basic Midi.
I have TOIAB and the Elmat box.
My Baldwin does not have any way of saving registrations.
I have found the easiest way is to save the ones I want into user on the fantom.
I then type a card out with them numbered.
Also do this with Patches.
Note; I have had to fit a volume control pedal between the Fantom and my organ input, as the pedal is not midi.
Hope this helps.
Regards from New zealand.Posted 1 year ago # -
Hello Keith,
Thanks for your comments. I have not tried tinkering with the Fantom. Having searched for years to find a reasonable theatre organ sound, now that I've actually found something that exceeds my most optimistic expectations, I'm afraid of fouling it up by tinkering. I'm now thinking of buying a spare second-hand Fantom and experimenting with that and my old card which has been replaved by an update. Can't do too much damage that way. Just have to find someone to insert the additional memory required and to ensure that it's programmed O.K. for the TOIAB and the ELMAT. Incidentally, does your ELMAT exhibit the erratic tendencies that mine does?
Baldwin, is one of the few top quality makes which I haven't owned, although there was a local dealership and I had a demonstration, or two. A great organ but still not a convincing theatre sound! I had given up and was just tinkering about with an old Yamaha MC400 when I came across Reg on the web. Oh happy day!!!
I now have an HC2, which I use as a portable and an HC4 which is set up permanently but could act as a replacement for the HC2 if anything went wrong with it. The swell pedal works with them and the first five programmes or patches can be called up by the organ's registration presets. I think, however, that to get the most out of the Fantom, I'm going to have to buy an organ with a lot of fancy features that I don't really need, in order to get an improved preset and MIDI capability, (although the HC2/4s are not bad). Paul's positive comments about Technics have got me thinking along those lines but waiting to see whether the GN5 continues to live up to its good beginning.
I see from your posts that there is not a lot of choice in New Zealand. Here, e-bay usually has a variety of good quality organs for sale. However, many pre-date MIDI and so are no good unless you want to undertake a project to 'midify' them. Some of the beautiful three-manual American jobs would be worthwhile for anyone with some technical ability, because the actual organs often sell for next to nothing.
Keep in touch. When I eventually get round to experimenting with the Fantom (i.e when I have bought back up for when things go wrong, as they will!!) I will let you know what's happened.
Kind Regards,
Keith
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hello Keith,
I did some tinkering with the Fantom and GN5 last night and discovered that under the patch display is a smaller one which the Technics appears to be controlling. This seems to change with different patches. Sometimes I get the 16 patches I referred to earlier, and sometimes I get the Ritz Wurlitzer patches. As to what is going on there I have no idea! At least now I have got a good variety of registrations to choose from, I just wish I could choose my own without resorting to creating a bank of favourites in the User section, something I am reluctant to do for fear of accidentally wiping the card. I think I'll just take the safe option and wait until the events processor arrives.
I was interested in the comments made about older organs. Up until late 2005/early 2006, I had a Conn 643. It was my pride and joy for 16 years, but unfortunately the reeds went on it, and no bugger would come out to repair it because the parts were as rare as rocking-horse manure and therefore cost prohibitive. With only the Tibias still working, the organ was sadly broken up. It would have been great if somehow it could have been MIDI-ed.
Best wishes,
PaulPosted 1 year ago #
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