Sampling an old electronic organ

rathfarnhamlad

Hi there everyone.

I currently have a 1976 Galanti X-350 electronic organ which I acquired earlier this year. I have done a fair amount of work on the electronics (e.g. replacing e-caps & such) however the contact springs have become unreliable & intermittent within the past month or so.

I like some of the sounds on this organ, however the key contacts are of very poor quality & inherently flawed in their design. I have sought opinions from a couple of mechanical engineers about modifying/improving the contacts & the consensus that I am getting seems to be that doing so is either more trouble than it's worth or not possible anyway.

So it looks like the organ is destined to be parted out soon. I already have a buyer for the SAJ210 frequency divider IC so no complaints in that department. However, I would like to record the sounds via the headphone output & possibly use them in a software-based sound engine.

Does anyone on here have experience in doing this before? I'm interested in hearing the best way to go about it...

bnt

I multisampled some synth presets some years ago and still have the samples. Here's what I remember:

• It's important to be meticulous and consistent with your approach (e.g. start file names with MIDI note numbers) and get the best sound quality.
• I tended to sample 4 notes per octave, using each 3 times on playback (tuned -1 / 0 / +1 semitones). You may be able to get away with less. Sampling every note is overkill.
• I presume the organ keyboard is not velocity-sensitive, so no need to sample more than once per note.
• Sample in mono, without any effects: turn off all chorus, rotary effects etc. You can add them back later if needed using plugins. but you might want to keep separate recordings of the effected sound for reference.
• The headphone out will probably be fine in to a PC's Line In (not Mic In) with a suitable cable, and you can do the actual recording in to a free copy of Audacity. 16 bits is plenty for most instruments if you have good levels and you can use Audacity's maximise effect to bring all the levels up to 0dB.
• For sustaining notes, as long as you sample a decent length of sustained sound, you can set up loop points in Audacity that the sample player can read. and use to hold notes for longer than you sampled.
• As for playing them back, most DAWs have some kind of sampler plugin. Ableton, Apple Logic etc. On a Mac you can get MainStage for €30.

rathfarnhamlad

@bnt Thanks for the pointers there.

I have Audacity installed on my PC so I will use that for recording.

I am sampling in mono (only one audio channel on this organ anyway).

I am recording each stop individually. I will do two sets, one straight signal & the other with vibrato. The reason for doing this is because the vibrato is quite distinct & really makes the sound.

I am also getting some practice in creating loops.

Contact are in such a poor state that about half of them no longer work at all. So I am working around that by lifting up the key desk & connecting the note contact to the common busbar with a needle-nosed pliers!

Time-consuming stuff alright but hopefully I'll get it all wrapped up before another fault surfaces...

Thank you for your input & sharing your expertise, much appreciated!

Gaspode

This guy does a lot of that sort of stuff, worth going through his videos for info and tips. This video may be a starting point, but some of his others may be closer to what you're after.

https://youtu.be/N6wprMToxSg