Your Draw Bar Setting ?

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Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Brian007 » 19 Mar 2018 09:31

I know a lot of the members here use an organ to play their music, so would you like to share your favorite Drawbar setting with the rest of us here.

Even for us that use a Keyboard it will be interesting to hear the sounds that your Drawbar settings sound like on a keyboard.

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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 19 Mar 2018 15:32

Brian,

The "drawbars" are a fascinating subject. The 'standard' arrangement of the drawbars on an organ is as below.

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But for some reason, best known to themselves, on the AR 80 and 100 organs Yamaha decided to have their own order for the drawbars and changed round the position of the 5-1/3 ' and the 8'. So we have 16', then 8' and then the 5-1/3 '. Now this may not seem significant, but when they give you a 'recommended' Registration for the position of drawbars for a piece, they just give you numbers, which indicate how far each drawbar should be pulled out.

For example, this String Ensemble set-up below would be given on a sheet of music as: 4 0 5 5 4 5 3 3 6

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Clearly, if we set this up on the AR from the numbers given on the sheet of music we would have zero 8' and 5 of 5-1/3 , which would give completely the wrong sound. Also, my AR 80 is missing one of those Drawbars .. the 1-3/5, so I have to be very careful if I set up drawbars according to written numbers. Have to get my brain working!

Now the position of drawbars supposedly gives you the specific 'sound' of an instrument (eg. clarinet, piano, oboe, horn, trumpet etc.), and they used to use the drawbars in this way in the days before they 'digitally sampled' actual instruments and got far better representations for these instruments. If you click this LINK below (do a right-click to open it up in a New Tab) you will see what they used to do. Click on any 'instrument' in the list (eg. String Ensemble) and you will see the drawbar postions for getting this sound (String Ensemble is the example I have given above).

http://keyboardservice.com/Drawbars.asp

For a clear explanation of how the drawbars are used to create the various 'Hammond' sounds, take a look at the Video by Peter Hayward in my next post.

Hugh
It's all about the music ♫ ♪ ♫ Organ: Yamaha AR80 & Keyboard: Tyros 4
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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 19 Mar 2018 16:05

HAMMOND DRAWBARS by Peter Hayward



Now I don't know about you, but when some of the drawbars are moved slightly 'in' or 'out', I can't hear a lot of difference! Also, if I wanted a specific sound, I would find it difficult to move the drawbars to specific numbers while I am playing (ie. 'on the fly'). So when I find a 'distinct' sound I want to use I will SAVE it to a Registration Memory. Then it's a simple matter just to press a Registration Memory button to change to the sound I want. Registration Memories have been discussed here:

Do a right-click to open this up in a New Window
viewtopic.php?f=323&t=6162

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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Brian007 » 19 Mar 2018 19:09

Hi Hugh,

A very interesting subject and different instruments will sound very different with the same Draw Bar Settings
for example on the Korg if I want the Spencer Davis sound as in Gimme Sum Lovin' I use 8-88-4--- and a Slow lesley and Fast lesley

https://app.box.com/s/evkk4b270hs9kzvgpp0dpfwnfyroyt9w

Demo of how to set up the Spencer Davis sound on a Hammond Organ:



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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 19 Mar 2018 23:43

Brian,

Thanks for posting an extract of one of your 'Hammond Drawbar' settings. One can recognise immediately that you have a 'Hammond' sound there, and of course hand in hand with the Hammond sound has to be the use of the Fast/Slow Leslie speaker, which you have used with good effect. The original Hammond organs generated their distinctive sound by creating an electric current from rotating a metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup. In modern organs the sound is replicated from digital samples of the original Hammond Organs. I don't know which is the more important to the 'Hammond' sound .. the tonewheel generator, or the Fast/Slow Leslie speaker that 'threw' the sound round the room.

I have found a medley played through a Leslie speaker on a 1935 Model 'A' Hammond organ (on Wikipedia). This is what the original Hammond sounded like:

Do a right-click to open this up in a new Tab
https://app.box.com/s/wvr054myzyb8vq9pexopgze4knqka14v

When using drawbars, there are 8 'notches' to increase/decrease the volumes of the drawbars selected.

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Some drawbar settings have become well-known and associated with certain musicians. A very popular setting is 888000000 (ie. with the drawbars labelled "16′", "​5 1⁄3′" and "8′" fully pulled out), and has been identified as the "classic" Jimmy Smith sound.

Whiter Shade Of Pale

The recommended Drawbar setup for playing Whiter Shade Of Pale is:

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On my AR organ I only have 6 such notches, and I have tried to analyse exactly how the drawbars are set up on my AR for playing Whiter Shade of Pale.

Lower: m m 8' m m m m 4' m m m m 2-2/3 m m m m 2' m m m m 1-1/3
m m m m 6 (Max) m n' m 4 m m m m m 4 m m m n' m 2 m m m m m 1

Upper: m m 16' m m n m 8' m m m m 5-1/3 m m m m 4'
m m m m 6 (Max) m m m 5 m m m n' m 5 m m m m m 4

But then I also have an 'overall' volume for each manual to get a 'balance' between the two. The Upper is set at 24 (Maximum), and the Lower at 17, so the Upper is much louder than the Lower. And then there is Sustain; and Reverb (Reverb on Max).

Also into this mix I have some 'Organ Voices' on the Upper (ie. not Drawbars): 16' Pipe Organ, and 16' Click Organ.

And then of course this is a tune that you really need to use 'pedals' for, as the bass gradually 'walks down'. My Pedals are set at 16' and 8'. And I have used the Leslie speaker Fast/Slow (of course!).

Whiter Shade Of Pale

Do a right-click to open this up in a New Tab
https://app.box.com/s/ato8ar8dd9au4ncdqyp18sc381zzvrgs

Hugh
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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Brian007 » 20 Mar 2018 08:25

Hi Hugh,

Some really interesting information on those posts of yours , its a subject that can go on forever as you read posts about the lengths people will go to to try and get a good organ sound for a specific tune, ( Whiter Shade of Pale ) being a prime example, when I had the Tyros 5 I bought some extra sampled sound of a Hammond and they were good, but I really think now you just have to experiment to get a sound you like and is suitable for the tune in question.

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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 28 Mar 2018 23:00

Here's a YouTube video I have found showing how to set your own 'bespoke' organ sound up on a Tyros 5.



Hugh
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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 02 Apr 2018 18:48

More on Drawbars in this post, by Eileen. This uses the 'Organ World' feature on the Tyros 5.
A very good DEMO. Well worth looking at.

viewtopic.php?f=177&t=6211&p=40012#p40012

Hugh
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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 29 Apr 2018 12:24

Still on the subject of drawbars (and most keyboards have these too) I have come across a very good YouTube video explaining Drawbars. He is also an excellent player, and gives a very good rendition of the Hammond Organ sounds at the beginning of his video.

The description underneath says:

A starters guide to all home organists and keyboard players who, perhaps, have never used the drawbars on their instrument.



With regard to the Leslie speaker effect (Tremulant), you keyboard players are so lucky to have a 'live' adjustable Tremolo speed so you can change the speed 'on the fly'. On my AR 80 I have the options of FAST, SLOW or OFF. Mind you, I can change the rate of the FAST, which involves going through several screens, but once set up I still only have the three options, with the FAST being the speed I have previously set.

Hugh
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Re: Your Draw Bar Setting ?

Postby VAL7JEAN » 08 Oct 2018 14:41

Billy Duncan had a good setting.
80 8080 808.
Naturally with Leslie
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