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Setting up organ practice gear?

MichaelR · 2019-01-20 23:18:04

Hello, My wife is an organist and wants to set up practice gear at home. We can't really afford a full-on electronic organ, but we have found a source of inexpensive pedalboards with MIDI output: http://www.pedamidikit.org/ . I wrte to them. they can ship the kits to Ireland and the assembly is cheap enough though this…

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21-01-2019 12:18am

#1

MichaelR

Registered Users Posts: 801 ✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2007

Posts: 539

Hello,

My wife is an organist and wants to set up practice gear at home. We can't really afford a full-on electronic organ, but we have found a source of inexpensive pedalboards with MIDI output: http://www.pedamidikit.org/ . I wrte to them. they can ship the kits to Ireland and the assembly is cheap enough though this does have an "IKEA organ" feeling. (IKEA should totally sell self-assembly organs).

The question, however, is how to make this work. She has a Yamaha P105, a rather nice portable electronic piano. But it does not have MIDI input, only USB output. She also has an old Clavinova 220 that does have MIDI input, but is at the wrong height for organ and its own pedals interfere with placement of the pedalboard.

So what should we do to get something working without spending a lot? The aim is to have workable organ sound, mostly into headphones. Very high synth quality is not essential as this is a practice setup. But my knowledge really is not sufficient; I am an IT specialist, not an electronic (or otherwise) musician.

I can think of the following options:

- Buy some cheap keyboard with MIDI input. Organ work does not need more than 61 keys, nor touch sensitivity. But what inexpensive models are available that would *have* MIDI input, and not just USB output?

- Set the computer up to take MIDI input from the pedalboard (maybe the supplier can provide USB, otherwise via converter) and USB input from the P105 keyboard and run a software real time synthesizer. But I really don't know how to set that up to avoid significant lag. A computer is available but it's pretty slow in its Win10 setup. I could of course dual-boot Linux but this is starting to look very complicated.

- get a box like this https://www.thomann.de/ie/miditech_usb_midi_host.htm to merge USB and MIDI into one MIDI signal , then feed it into the Clavinova to use the Clavinova as a synthesizer? Will this even work?

- - get a box like this https://www.thomann.de/ie/miditech_usb_midi_host.htm to merge USB and MIDI into one MIDI signal , also get a box like this https://www.thomann.de/ie/miditech_pianobox_293431.htm and feed the signal into it?

- Buy some kind of dedicated box that has USB host and implements General MIDI synthesizing. But I could not find such a box. I found this https://www.thomann.de/ie/miditech_pianobox_pro.htm but despite a promise of "USB MIDI I/O" it does not seem to have a USB HOST connection. EDIT: found this box https://www.thomann.de/ie/miditech_pianobox_mini.htm with USB host and MIDI in; but will it use both at the same time?

So what do I do here?

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