Old Organ "Effects" Hmmm...

[timd]

So I'm sure everyone has seen/heard those organ effects that were given names that somewhat resembled instruments...woodwind, sax, clarinet, etc. Has anyone thought about finding a way to isolate those effects if possible and make a stomp out of them? Or would it be possible to bypass the amp on an organ and box up the boards/switches and make a big effect somehow finding an input? It would be kind of like one of those Maestro units. Thoughts?

[armdnrdy]

You might want to look through here:

http://www.combo-organ.com/Schematics/

Check out the Vox guitar organ!
Pretty wild!

The GEM mini schematic depicts effect filters that might be useful.

[R.G.]

It was kind of a different world. The organs generated waveforms to start with that had lots of harmonics, then used filters to remove the harmonics so it sounded reminscent of the reed/oboe/sax/tuba/glockenspiel/etc. instead of taking a string tone and then trying to convert it. The organ approach - with the notable exception of Hammond and a few high end ones - was to use filtering to shape the harmonics down to something like the desired instrument.

So the "effect" was just some R-C and L-C filtering, perhaps complex filtering, but conceptually simple filtering nonetheless.

There were some true effects there, though. Vibrato, tremolo, reverb, and repeat percussion came from electronic organs. Thomas Organ (the USA Vox guys) also came up with at least one effect I've pulled out for guitar use: Vibra-matic; the note starts without tremolo, and the tremolo fades in over the time the note is active, so short notes have no tremolo, and long ones have tremolo fade in. See http://geofex.com/FX_images/vibmatic.pdf, from 2001.

I highly recommend "Electronic Musical Instruments" by Richard Dorff. It's a detailed - detailed! - description of a lot of things that are very useful to effects people. It's way out of print, but you can probably find a used one very cheaply.

[armdnrdy]

Vibra-matic

That's definitely a nice addition to the EA tremolo circuit!
In all of my wanderings through Geofex, I don't believe I've ever noticed this one.

Next time I have a week of free time, I might have to traverse the site from top to bottom.
Who knows...I might learn something! 

[R.G.]

In all of my wanderings through Geofex, I don't believe I've ever noticed this one.

It's well hidden - on that first page that says "New at GEO".   

[armdnrdy]

It's well hidden - on that first page that says "New at GEO".    

Oh....I see it now! After I scrolled to the bottom of the page where the text starts diminishing in size!

[R.G.]

I figured people would be willing to hunt harder for something that's 12 years old.   

[pinkjimiphoton]

the filters used to create those stops may work if you fuzz your guitar enough before trying to use them.
that will give you more harmonics, and that compressed sausage will have better chance of surviving thru the passive filters being used..
but i bet it would work ok. like anything else, i guess it's all in what you expect to get out of it.

[timd]

I had envisioned somehow tapping into an existing organ  and monkeying around from there.

[italianguy63]

You didn't.  "Tapping an organ, and monkeying around?!"