Im a believer - the monkeys

[joedy]

hi there
I have a Yamaha MX88. Im trying to get the sound on Im a believer. Does anyone know which sound it is please.

 

[happyrat1]

The Monkees used a Farfisa transistor organ I believe.

I think you could get close with a calliope patch.

 

[happyrat1]

 

[happyrat1]

In this one they are actually playing their instruments.

 

[happyrat1]

The Monkees, The Wrecking Crew (Studio Musicians) and Leon Russell

Remember the big hoopla about 1966 – 67 that the Monkees didn’t play their own instruments? Boy, I do. And it raged for years. The Rock and Roll snobs were really ugly about it. The Mon…

carlahoag.wordpress.com

 

[anotherscott]

In the video in post 3 above, Peter Tork is playing a Vox organ... but that's just a prop. I believe the organ used in the recording was a Hammond. For the live performance in post #4 (of a different song), they're using a different sound, though it happens that it is also a Hammond organ sound, though from what little I can see of the gear. it wasn't necessarily a Hammond organ, it could have been some other keyboard emulating a Hammond organ. There may be some irony here in that it may be that the "real" Hammond organ used on the Believer recording is less immediately identifiable as a Hammond than is whatever keyboard is being used in the live performance to emulate a real Hammond organ. ;-)

Now to the question at hand, of whether you can get something close to that particular organ sound out of the MX88, I don't know. But heck, the MX88 only has 42 sounds in it, and that opening part is only a few seconds long, so it would only take you a few minutes to play the part with all 42 organ sounds and see if you find one that sounds right to you.