23-10-2015, 04:43 PM
These were really big in the eighties. They gradually evolved from a few basic flute and horn tabs to various piano formats and even sitar and pan-pipes, with the usual pre-set beats, Rock, Bossa-Nova, Samba and so on.
Bass would be played with the feet.
Back in the sixties, Hammond tone wheel organs were being used in Rock Bands, especially by Santana. The sound is pretty familiar when you hear it. I sometimes try and get close to this sound by mixing percussion and rock organ.
What killed off the organ was the arrival of the synth/keyboard. These were much smaller and you could simply mix on about 5 channels, whereas an organ was meant to be played as an instrument (they were common in pubs at one time).
I have one of these early synths and it's pretty good. By modern standards it will be more limited in memory and recording but it still offers a lot of possibilities, such as about 8 different piano settings, plus Church Organ, Rock Organ, Drawbar organ and so on. Also up to 60 odd beats from Cha-Cha to Heavy Metal. For bass you can just lay it on one channel and select a number of bass options.
Simplest use of an organ was the old pop hit, Rock You Baby which is simply a Lowry Organ used for the backing on a Bossa-Nova with some guitar and so on added.
George Harrison also messed with Lowry Organs.
The very first synth was the Moog used by The Beatles on Abbey Road, especially on the track Because and Maxwells Silver Hammer.
Amazingly you can pick up a Lowry now for fairly small money but the Moog still goes for big sums.
Bass would be played with the feet.
Back in the sixties, Hammond tone wheel organs were being used in Rock Bands, especially by Santana. The sound is pretty familiar when you hear it. I sometimes try and get close to this sound by mixing percussion and rock organ.
What killed off the organ was the arrival of the synth/keyboard. These were much smaller and you could simply mix on about 5 channels, whereas an organ was meant to be played as an instrument (they were common in pubs at one time).
I have one of these early synths and it's pretty good. By modern standards it will be more limited in memory and recording but it still offers a lot of possibilities, such as about 8 different piano settings, plus Church Organ, Rock Organ, Drawbar organ and so on. Also up to 60 odd beats from Cha-Cha to Heavy Metal. For bass you can just lay it on one channel and select a number of bass options.
Simplest use of an organ was the old pop hit, Rock You Baby which is simply a Lowry Organ used for the backing on a Bossa-Nova with some guitar and so on added.
George Harrison also messed with Lowry Organs.
The very first synth was the Moog used by The Beatles on Abbey Road, especially on the track Because and Maxwells Silver Hammer.
Amazingly you can pick up a Lowry now for fairly small money but the Moog still goes for big sums.