"Good luck, Astronauts" - on Wersi Comet

video upload by organfairy

"It's funny how music for science fiction movies has changed over the years: Back in the 1950's the movie 'Forbidden Planet' was noted for it's out-of-this-world music that was played on non-musical electronic instruments - instruments designed more for laboratory and experimental use.
Later in the 1960's science fiction music was more about rhythmic beeps and weird tingling sounds - the beeps probably inspired by the radio signal that the Soviet satelite Sputnik send down to earth while it circled the globe outside the atmosphere.
Later science fiction music was more about lush classical arrangements with some electronic sound effects added.

This piece of music is from the late 1960's and it falls in the beep-and-tingling category. It is written by the Danish organ player Peter Erling but I don't know exactly when it was recorded as there are no indications on the album and both the record company and Erling himself has been dead for decades. I transcibed the music myself and I found some close-enough Sputnik effects on my old Wersi Comet organ."

Organ demo 19/20: Elgam Ringo and Hohner bass pedals

video upload by organfairy

"Some people might argue that the Elgam Ringo is not exactly an organ, but it was sold as such, though back in 1978 everything that was polyphonic and had a divider based tone generator was generally considered an organ. (I will probably get mutilated by a mob of angry Polymoog owners now.)

It doesn't have a bass section, which I find quite odd given that it has a drum machine. I would rather have had a bass section. Therefore I am using it together with the mysterious Hohner bass pedals - mysterious because I seem to be the only person in the universe who has this set: Nobody seems to know anything about it.

Because this organ is very basic - five rhythms and four voices - I have made this demo shorter than the others, so there are only 5 songs against the usual 6-8.

The songs are:
Pennies from heaven (John Burke / Arthur Johnston)
Den rige og den fattige (Gustav Winckler / Bent Werther)
Mormors kolonihavehus (Erik Clausen / Leif Sylvester Petersen)
Tanze mit mir in den Morgen (Kurt Hertha / Kurt Göetz)
Wolgalied (Franz Lehar)"

Organ demo 17/20: Wersi Comet with Wersimatic CX1 drum machine and MFX5 Magic Fingers unit.

video upload by organfairy

"Sorry about the long title, but the problem in saying that you play a Wersi organ is that they all came in several versions. Most of them were sold as kits that you assembled yourself and often people upgraded them with new circuitry that Wersi released over the production run.
The Comet was initially released with another drum machine called Wersimatic IV and no 'Magic Fingers', which is a unit that adds arpeggio, automatic chords, and a (primitive) sequencer to the organ. I demonstrated that in an earlier video • Wersi Comet Magic Fingers MFX 5 demo [below]

In this demo I play eight songs using a reasonable amount of the features in the Comet. I am not using multitrack so everything is played 'straight'. I did make quite a few edits along the way, as I am not capable of playing eleven minutes without goofing up something. But it is possible to play the entire demo as it is, because I have added drum fill-ins that are long enough to make it possible to change the settings between songs - the Comet doesn't have user presets, so if there isn't one of the 20 'Wersi Registrier System' fixed presets that suits the song, you have to press a lot of buttons to change the sound.

The songs I play are:
Abracadabra (Steve Miller)
Här kommer Pippi Långstrump (Astrid Lindgren / Jan Johansson)
Τα Παιδιά του Πειραιά / Never on a Sunday (Μάνος Χατζιδάκις)
Chattanooga Choo Choo (Harry Warren / Mack Gordon)
Gungorna och karusellen / Gyngerne og karrusellen (Karl Gerhard / Dix Dennie / Herbert Steen)
Kald det Kærlighed (Lars Lilholt)
Krummes sang (Michael Hardinger / Rasmus Schwenger)
Flower-Power-Kleid / Flower power tøj (Hans Christian Bruhn / Georg Buschor)"

Wersi Comet Magic Fingers MFX 5 demo

video upload by organfairy

"Since my Wersi Comet started to come back to life again there are three questions I have been asked surprisingly often in the comments: "Does your Comet have a 'Magic Fingers' MFX5 module, does it work, and what does it actually do?"

The first part was easy to answer: Yes, it does have an MFX5. However, until recently it seemed like it wasn't working and I nearly gave up on trying to repair it. But then I noticed a wire that had detached from one of the plugs on the backside of the MFX5 circuit boards in a hard to see and even harder to reach place. 

After reattaching it the magic started - once I found a cryptic German user manual online.
And so to answer the third part of the question I have now made this video where I go through the things it can do:

Arpeggiator 0:00
     Song: "Da' Ya' Think I'm Sexy" (Rod Stewart/Carmine Appice/Duane Hitchings) 2:30
Marimba effect 3:50
     Song: "Blue Spanish eyes" (Kämpfert/Singleton/Snyder) 4:35
Automatic Organ Chords 6:13
     Song: "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Frederick Loewe/ Alan Jay Lerner) 6:55
Sequencer 9:00
     Song: "Tjo Och Tjim Och Inget Annat" (Ulf Peder Olrog) 11:05

The only things I don't demonstrate is step-recording of a sequence - which is basically entering the notes one by one followed by a tap on a pedal, and saving/loading from a cassette. I cannot do that because the cassette interface plug is connected to the drum machine and I don't have the instructions on how to connect the MFX5 module to a cassette recorder. The person who build the organ just left the connections on the circuit boards unconnected."

"Andeby" - on Roland SH-2000, Technics SX-C600, and drums

video upload by organfairy

"'Andeby' (the Danish name for 'Duckburg') is a modern lullaby by Tommy Seebach. The title comes from the first line that goes something like "the moon shines over Duckburg" and it's basically a father who wishes for his child that she will dream of fairies, princesses, and her friends from Duckburg.

I play it on my well known combo of the Technics organ and the little Roland synthesizer, and there was also a weird drummer lurking in the dark."

Transistor synthesizer 7: Putting it all together and finish the build

video upload by organfairy

"I play the finished instrument at 3:55

So now the time has come to make use of the six synthesizer sections I have made in the past six videos and make one playable instrument out of them.
I did make some small changes to some of the sections to make them work better together and finally I made a symmetric power supply that I, just to keep the theme of this build, also based on transistors.

The music is a little romantic/relaxing/boring piece I made on my Technics SX-C600 organ and Roland SH-2000 synthesizer."

WERSI WERSIMATIC II

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"It's still here and we love it - so here we go again with new music :
The Wersimatic II - the previous generation of the Wersimatic 24 auto-accompaniment machine and probably familiar to fans of the Elgam Carousel, Böhm Solist 78, Elka Wilgamat and Godwin Drummaker 45 units.

The Wersimatic II has 4 sections on board:
Bass line tone generator
Drum machine with individual mute options
Various chord sounds
Various Arpeggiator sounds (same sounds as chords but with busier patterns)

The bass sounds great - very nice and analog.
Drum sounds are very analog - this is sound generation in its infancy - the hi-hats scare me :)
The chord and arpeggiator sounds were processed through the Digitech Synth Wah - a relatively cheap envelope follower pedal that’s a great bang for the buck.

The sounds and controls are across the board identical to the Wersimatic 24 unit as far as we can tell but the difference being the Wersimatic II was never made as a stand-alone unit - it was part of a large, double manual organ called Wersi Helios.
This particular one is unique : it has been transplanted from that organ into a smaller box with a twelve buttons acting as chord control instead of the two bottom octaves of the organ.

Special thanks to Organfairy for the rare schematics that were necessary to complete the repair : dude you f-ing rock

Vintage Audio Institute is a gear vendor and recording studio in the hills of Florence"

Additional Wersimatic II posts

"Jungle Gardenia" - on Elka X-1000

video upload by organfairy

"One of the lesser known instrumentals by Mike Oldfield. It was the B-side of his 'Crime of Passion' single from 1984 but I don't think it was on any albums except as a bonus track on later releases.

Here I play it on my Elka X-1000 organ."

Exploring the Wersimatic II

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Another take with the Wersimatic II, the older sister / brother of the Wersimatic 24 auto-accompaniment machine and distant cousin to the Elgam Carousel, Böhm Solist 78, Elka Wilgamat and Godwin Drummaker 45.

The sounds and controls are across the board identical to the Wersimatic 24 unit as far as we can tell.
The Wersimatic II was never made as a stand-alone unit but was part of a large, double manual organ called Wersi Helios in the mid 70s.
This particular one has been transplanted from an organ into a smaller box with a twelve buttons acting as chord control instead of the bottom keys of the organ.

Special thanks to Organfairy for the rare schematics : dude you f-ing rock

The Wersimatic II has sections on board:
Bass
Drum machine
Various chord sounds"

Additional Wersimatic II posts

VAI 35 : Wersimatic II / Farfisa Syntorchestra

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Another take with the Wersimatic II, the younger sister / brother of the Wersimatic 24 auto accompaniment machine. The sounds and controls are across the board identical as far as we can tell.

It was never made as a standalone unit but part of a large, double manual organ called Wersi Helios in the mid 70s.

This particular one has been transplanted from an organ into a smaller box with a twelve buttons acting as chord control instead of the bottom keys of the organ.

Special thanks to Organfairy for the rare schematics : dude you f-ing rock

The Wersimatic II has sections on board:
Bass
Drum machine
Various chord sounds

Melody played on the Farfisa Syntorchestra String machine and Mono synth."

VAI 34 Wersimatic II / Farfisa Syntorchestra

video upload by Vintage Audio Institute Italia

"Analog auto-accompaniment machine produced by the German organ manufacturer Wersi sometime in the mid-70s. Originally part of a big, dual manual organ called Helios, this auto-comp section was probably removed from the organ and squeezed into a Teak cabinet, crammed with circuit boards, all beautifully snug inside - a very good job by whoever built it.

You control the harmony and key with the black 12 buttons on the front replacing the one octave that was probably at the bottom 12 keys of the organ.

The Wersimatic II has sections on board: Bass
Drum machine
Various chord sounds

Melody played on the Farfisa Syntorchestra String machine and Mono synth.

Big thanks to Organfairy who helped us find the right schematics to repair it.

Vintage Audio Institute Italia is a gear vendor and recording studio in the hills of Florence."

You can find additional posts featuring the Wersimatic II here, and additional Vintage Audio Institute Italia posts here.

"Hvad gør vi nu lille nu" - on Roland SH-2000

Published on Mar 18, 2019 organfairy

"I realize that I am walking on paper-thin ice here. "Hvad gør vi nu lille du" (~ What now, little one) is a song by one of the two most popular bands in Denmark ever: Gasolin' (with an apostrophe) whose popularity in their heyday was similar to that of the Beatles. This means that attempting to make an instrumental cover of one of their songs is bound to get me a lot of negative comments - maybe even death threats. So if I suddenly in the near future stop posting videos it is probably because I have been brutally murdered.....

Anyway

I play it one note at a time on my monophonic Roland SH-2000 while the rhythm comes from a Roland Rhythm Arranger."

Old Danish Christmas Songs Played on the Roland SH-2000

Published on Dec 24, 2018 organfairy

1. Old Danish Christmas song #1 played on Roland SH-2000

"Børn og voksne i kærlig krans" is a well known (at least by people of a certain age) Danish Christmas song. It comes from an old theatrical play called "Nøddebo Præstegård" and was written by J.P.E. Hartmann in 1862.

I got it out of an old piano book and purists will probably demand that I play it on piano. However, I don't play piano very well and I actually don't have a piano.

But I have for quite a while been wanting to try and make music on synthesizer the way they did back in the days where synthesizers were always monophonic: One note at a time building up harmonies with a multitrack recorder.

So I split the piano arrangement into bass, string 1, string 2, and melody, and played the whole pile on my old monophonic Roland SH-2000 synthesizer. I added some reverberation in post production. But apart from that everything is made on the Roland synth.

2. Old Danish Christmas song #2 played on Roland SH-2000

"'Kimer i Klokker' (~Bells are chiming) is an old Danish Christmas song. Just like the one last week I play this solely on Roland SH-2000 analog synthesizer using only the VIBRAPHONE preset - because this was what came closest to a bell. However, I do use an extra gadget: I thought the vibraphone didn't have enough bass. So I used my old Boss OC-2 octave pedal to give the bottom voice some more........well, bottom.

And with this video I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas!"

Bass unit revisited

Published on Oct 22, 2018 organfairy

"I made this bass unit back in the late 1990s but I thought it was about time to revisit it and see if there was something I could do better with the knowledge I have now.

The music is something I put together on my Elka X-1000 organ."

A relaxed music item played on Yamaha SY-1 and Elka EP-8

Published on Aug 13, 2018 organfairy

"No further description necessary....."

The last DJX video

Published on Aug 6, 2018 organfairy

"at least for now. I will probably make more later, but not for the next year or so. I need to get back to the organs :-)"

Yamaha DJX-II trying to speak

Published on Jul 9, 2018 organfairy

"BeskrivelseThere are many human voice bits in the library of the DJX-II. I got the idea that I could try and make a song with words out of them. But unfortunately I could only construct the sentence 'the real bass'. So this is what the voice is saying in this video."

Elka DMP-18 repair

Published on May 21, 2018 organfairy

"I bought this pedal controller some years ago in a music shop that had a closing sale. The button for preset #5 was broken but I couldn't find the right switch in any of my usual electronics supply stores. But then one day when I was shopping for something else online I found one that looked right. So I ordered it. Now I can get this pedal controller working completely again.

The music is 'The whisper' by David Essex which I play on my Roland JV-35 synthesizer."

Repairing and cleaning a BOSS DR-660

Published on Apr 23, 2018 organfairy

"The demo starts at 3:25.

In my repair and cleaning series about the pile of musical items I bought at a second hand shop I have now come to the drum machine: The BOSS DR-660. There wasn't any serious problems to take care off. Just a dead RAM battery and the unit was even so informative that it automatically told me that this was the problem.

The music - apart from the demo - is 'Children of Paradise' which was originally a disappointing single for Boney M and marked the beginning of their decline in the early 1980s. I play it on my Elka X-1000."

BOSS DR-202 cleaning and repair

Published on Mar 26, 2018 organfairy

"The sound demo starts at 5:00

I mentioned, in the description for the DJX cleaning video, that I bought a second instrument from the same seller. This is it: BOSS DR-202 drum machine/groovebox.
It had a problem with the power plug and the power supply was also faulty (I don't show the repair process for the power supply in this video). And as usual it needed a good cleaning.

The music is 'This is your song' by Telex. I play it on Roland JX-8P synthesizer, Yamaha HE-8 organ and SY-1 synthesizer. The rhythm comes from a Korg Rhythm 55 drum machine."

Wave folder

Published on Mar 5, 2018 organfairy

"Jump to 4:34 to avoid the annoying artificial saxophones.

Lately I have been trying to make things I haven't made before - something else than sequencers, VCOs, VCFs, VCAs, etc.
I have never tried making a wave folder before. As a matter of fact until recently I didn't know what a wave folder is. But I found a good explanation somewhere - the one with the folded paper - and decided that this could be interesting.

The music is something I made on Technics SX-C600 and Yamaha HE-8 organs, and the Roland CR-68 drum machine made the rhythm."