Hammond drawbar controller

[kandelabr]

Hello.

Please note that I never worked with MIDI and I have no clue about it.
Since I am searching for a stage piano with a good hammond organ, I came across this fascinating thing:

http://www.hammond-organ.com/Products/XM2.htm

If I buy this, I can connect it to any MIDI keyboard and I'll have a hammond organ, is that right?

But what if I want to use both this unit's sounds and the keyboard's internal sounds?

thanks

 

[The Y_man]

It's probably easiest to explain MIDI as a "remote control signal".

So it lets you remote control other synths etc (or this Hammond box).

It doesn't affect what's happening at the keyboard in nay way - so the internal sounds will sttill come out as normal - the MIDI signals are sent regardless.

Caution: some modern keyboards don't have a MIDI IN/OUT - they've gone to a USB port - so you may need some form of adapater through a laptop/PC.

The Y-man

 

[kandelabr]

ok, i get it - but then if i'm on stage and need to switch from piano (keyboard) to organ (midi), i have to do... what?

 

[The Y_man]

ok, i get it - but then if i'm on stage and need to switch from piano (keyboard) to organ (midi), i have to do... what?

You can usually switch the TRANSMIT function of your piano ON /OFF
Alternatively you can change the channel (MIDI can be sent on 16 different channels) the transmission is being done from the piano (i.e. organ might be set to receive on Channel 4. As long as your piano is sending MIDI on Chanel 4, the organ will sound. If you change the piano to channel 5, the organ no longer sounds)

Failing that - you can always pull the MIDI cable in and out mid performance - but not very elegant

The Y-man

 

[hatricklov]

I have an additional idea ... I used to use this on stage in which I had a Roland JV-90 controlling a Roland JV-1080 module.

In my instance, I didn't want to play any sounds from my JV-90 (which can only house one expansion board) and the 1080 holds 4 and I wanted to use one patch of the module that I didn't need very often.

I ran my sound out from my JV-90 to either channel 1 on a small Behringer Eurorack mixer and/or 1 channel on my stage amp. Then, I ran the sound out from my JV-1080 to a Boss volume pedal, THEN to channel 2 on the mixer and/or stage amp. The only way either unit makes a sound is by my JV-90's volume slider or the pedal on the floor for the 1080! FWIW, I then ran an out from my stage amp to the PA so my overall keyboard sound was only one channel on the main board.

One minorly tricky thing you have to pay attention to though ... make darn sure you either 1) configure your 'slave' (the 1080 in my case) to ignore program changes, otherwise if you change patches/voices on your master (JV-90) you pick some random sound on your slave and guess what happens if the slave's volume is still on? ... or 2) you pay VERY close attention to the volume pedal and/or which patch is selected on your slave.

Moreover, this is an easy on-the-fly way to create unique sounds with two different patches without having to build a 'performance'.

Hope this helps!

 

[kandelabr]

d0h! i completely forgot this topic after i had bought my gear

if you want to know, i bought Roland RD-300 GX (it has a really good keyboard and 14 different settings for designing your own piano)
AND
Hammond XB-1 (used)
AND two MIDI cables, so I essentially have a two-manual hammond organ or two-manual piano/synth.

I also bought a mini mixing table to contol the outputs.

I really like it.