Circular Keyboard Finish - organfairy's Jarre-like Circular Keyboard Controller

YouTube Published on Jun 11, 2012 by organfairy

"A while ago I converted some old christmas decoration into a circular keyboard. Now it's the time to finish it and get some light in the keys.
It didn't turn out as impressive as Jean Michel Jarre's circular monstrosity [see this post and this post]. But I still think it came out pretty well.

Unfortunately it doesn't work very well when it comes to generating control voltages because the input impedance of the operational amplifier in the sample-and-hold circuit is too low. But if I change the bipolar LM324 to a JFET based opamp then it should be fine. I just need to get some.

The music is something I made back in 2001 on Yamaha HE-8 organ and Roland JX-8P synthesizer."

Voltage Controlled Oscillator Controlled Switched Capacitor Filter

Published on Jun 1, 2015 organfairy

"When I was drinking from the fountain of knowledge at Herning Institute of Business and Technology I was introduced to the concept of switched capacitor filters. I don't know why it took me 18 years before I made something synthesizer oriented based on that idea. But now I have done so.

The idea is to replace the lag of a resistor and capacitor with a charge moving operation between two capacitors. And it is all controlled by a fast running voltage controlled oscillator. So you could call it a Voltage Controlled Oscillator Controlled Switched Capacitor Filter - VCOCSCF!

The music in this video is played on Elka X-30 and EP-8 organs, Kawai FS-620 keyboard, and Zoom 505 multi effects pedal."

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."

Homemade synthesizer song #1

Published on Mar 28, 2016 organfairy

"I have had a number of requests to do actual music on my homemade synthesizers and sound gadgets instead of just an assembly video and a quick demo.

So, Gentlemen and the occational Lady, now I have done it!

I wrote the music AND build the instruments. If it should be more homemade I should have carved the keys out of wood myself or cast them in plastic (we have a 3D printer where I work so it could be done - but I have used keys from scrapped organs instead).

The rhythm comes from my XOR based drum synthesizer, the bass from the little polyphonic system with sequencer. Both are controlled by the telephone exchange step sequencer. The melody is played on a modular system with a waveshaper I made in 1995, The envelope generator was made in 1996 but has been modified a couple of times since (the first version was not very good because I didn't know much about synthesizers when I made it). The filter was made somewhere in the early 2000s and is light controlled by LEDs and LDRs. The keyboard is only a couple of years old. The solo is played on a simple synthesizer I made out of leftover parts in 1999. It is not completely in tune but that is one thing that has improved over the years: My newest instruments are more precise in tuning. The chords are from a little Oz-inspired mini organ that runs through a stereo phaser. Both are made in the early 2000s.

I hope you don't dislike it too much :-)"

"Hvorfor er lykken så lunefuld" - with Spacesound speaker

YouTube Published on Jul 16, 2012 by organfairy

"This is an old piece of Danish film music from the 1930's. The sheet music I have says that it is composed by Karen Jönsson and the lyrics (which I don't sing) is credited to Carl Viggo Meincke.

For the first time I have used this wacky contraption on a recording. It is a SpaceSound rotating speaker unit taken from an old Elgam organ. I made it during my years of unemployment in the late 1990's. The organ is a heavily modified Elgam Grand Gala - actually the same organ that the speaker comes from - and it is recorded on my Fostex model 80 multitrack tape recorder. The rhythm comes from an Elgam Ringo table organ.

This is an example of how it could have sounded if I had been playing in the 1970's. One thing you often hear is people who are claiming that the instruments were so much better in that period of time. But they tend to forget that 35 years ago all electronic instruments were very expensive so I consider this a realistic example of home organ music from that era - even though I made the recording in 2012."

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."

"If I was" - on Elka Preludio 22L

Published on Jun 2, 2014 organfairy·424 videos

"'If I was' was a hit for Scottish artist Midge Ure in 1985. Here I play it on an Elka Preludio 22L that has been modified from a typical 1970's home organ to a portable instrument - or at least somewhat portable :-)"

Unboxing

Published on Feb 24, 2014 organfairy·411 videos

"I have heard that unboxing is the new Black. So therefore I will unbox two new instruments I got lately (lucky they were both in boxes - otherwise unboxing would have been a bit hard).

The music that goes with this video is my version of the John Legend hit Ordinary People played mostly on the Yamaha HE-8 organ. Some people might say that it is supposed to be more accoustic. But to tell you the truth I didn't know the original version with only singing and piano. The version I knew turned out to be a remix."

"Close to you" - on Yamaha HE-8

YouTube via organfairy
"This song was a big hit for Richard and Karen Carpenter in the early 1970's. Still today this Carpenters song is often played on the sentimental radio shows.
Here I play it on the Yamaha HE-8 organ with a little help from the Korg Rhytm 55 and the Roland JX-8P."

"Chapel of love" - on Viscount RBX-850

YouTube via organfairy
"The Viscount RBX-850 is a little organ with a limited amount of PCM voices. In this song I use the Roland CR-68 drum machine for the rhytm and the Yamaha HE-8 organ and Roland JX-8P synthesizer (outside the picture - controlled by the Yamaha via MIDI) for the chords. The Viscount is used for the bass and the melodi. On top of it is a little Hohner PK40 keyboard that I use for the in-between notes."

Homebuild Synth - Update.

YouTube via organfairy | December 02, 2010 | 2 likes, 0 dislikes

"After last weeks weird video with artificial flowers, pink skirts, and German peace songs I though we needed to get down to earth again!

So I have made a little update to the building project I made last winter. I found that the keyboard on my mini modular synthesizer could need to go a little lower. Therefore I have made a frequency divider and this is what this video is about.

The music is played on the Böhm Station One workstation, Roland E-15 and Yamaha PSR-78 keyboards."

the return of the FairySynth

YouTube Uploaded by organfairy on May 17, 2011

"Last winter I build a small synthesizer in a case that used to house an oil furnace test apparatus. Several people have challenged me to actually play something with the weird contraption.

And now I've done it!

I came up with a relatively simple composition that I could play on the thing and mixed in a noisy toy keyboard dance track in the beginning. The rest is played on Böhm Station One workstation, Roland E-15 and Yamaha PSR-78 keyboards."

"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."

"Disco medley" - on Technics SX-C600

YouTube via organfairy
"For many years this was my favourit kind of music: So it was natural for me to learn how to play these three songs "Grease", "Night Fever", and "You're the one that I want". Some people might argue that the third title is not really a disco song. But I play it in a disco-fied version!"

Happy Halloween!

YouTube via organfairy.

Remember to click on the holiday label below for more Halloween posts. If you have 'em, send 'em in.
"A while ago I experimented with making some mildly scary music. And I decided to make a little video to go with it. The weird colours that some of the pictures have is a result of using a set of coloured filters that I bought many years ago to my old film camera. But I thought they suited the purpose - after all halloween is a quite colourfull and at the same time dark occation.

The music is played on Rhytm Ace drum machine, Yamaha HE-8 organ with CVS-10 expander, Roland JX-8P synthesizer and the little Music Time 300 toy keyboard."

A modern song on the organs

YouTube via organfairy | September 07, 2010

"I haven't written the title of this melody. Because when a band refer to themselves as killers they might do something terrible to people who are mistreating their songs!

Anyway, this is one of my favourit modern songs. And it is also kind of fascinating that I haven't been able to find a waterproof explanation on what in the world the lyrics is about.

Here I play it on the Technics organ while the drum and bass comes from the ELKA X-1000. The Yamaha organ is used for the piano and brass sounds and the Roland JX-8P synthesizer is used for the arpeggios......or whatever it's called."

Elka Preludio 22L inside

Published on Nov 18, 2013 organfairy·397 videos

"I have had this organ since 2003 but for the last four years it has been in storage in a bicycle shed. This is not really an optimal way of storing such an instrument but I simply hadn't space enough in my old apartment. But now I have and therefore I set it up and turned on the power expecting the worst!

To my surprise most of the organ worked fine. An integrated latch in the bass and a transistor in the power amplifier had died. But that doesn't have to be caused by the storage conditions. I think it would have happened anyway.

But since I had the organ opened up anyway I took some pictures and made this video.
The music is recorded back in 2005 in two layers. First I recorded the Elka Preludio and then I added strings and harmonies on the Elka EP-8. The melody was a hit for teenage idol Ralph Carter back in 1975 and later for the Flying Pickets in 1984. There might be others but these are the ones I know."

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."

"Love takes time" - on Elka X-1000

YouTube Published on Jul 23, 2012 by organfairy

"I have known this melody since the early 1980's when it came out. But it is only recently that I found out who sang it. I assumed that it was the Swedish band Secret Service. But I found out that it was a German guy who performed under the stage name Steve Benson. I also found out that his real name was Dieter Bohlen - that guy who later formed the band Modern Talking with Thomas Anders.

This time I am playing live - no MIDI or multitracking - though I did a retake to be able to switch camera angles. But the sound is all from the same recording.

Most of the sounds are the standard presets on the organ. Some of the organ sounds are from a preset disc I got when I bought it. And I also programmed a new arpeggio specifically for this song."

"Noah's Ark" / "L'arca di Noe" - on Yamaha HE-8

YouTube Uploaded by organfairy on Nov 8, 2011

"L'arca di Noe was originally performed by Italian singer Sergio Endrigo in a southern European style. However, it was also a hit for Danish singer Per Parbst in a translation called Noah's Ark in the early 1970's. He recorded it in a more northern style somewhat better suited for organ and drum machine - in fact it was one of the times I heard a Hammond organ when I was 6 or 7.

Here I play it on Yamaha HE-8 organ and Technics SX-C600 organs. The Roland JX-8P is added for the strings and the drum machine is a Korg Rhythm 55."