Chaps,

One for the organ buffs. I am looking to recreate some Floyd organ patches but I know very little about the Farfisa that Rick used. I'm ok with the Hammond stuff - drawbaws etc - but am not quite sure where to start. I can hear it in pieces like 'Echoes' and various places in DSOTM and it has quite a harsh sound that is almost like Mellotron strings (indeed if you listen closely to PF/DG live shows, a mellotron string patch underpins some of the parts).

So ... how does a Farfisa work? Is it drawbars by another name?

Anyone have registrations / which buttons are pressed in for that classic Rickk Wright sound?

Did it have a Leslie or something else? ( I know that an echo unit was used )

Any help gratefuly accepted

--------------------
Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

My Farfisa Compact (circa 1968?) has an oscillator for each of the twelve notes, with divide-down circuitry for the octaves. The voice options are on rocker switches that switch different filters into the sound, which is initially quite harsh and biting, especially in the high octaves. For "effects" there is a great-sounding spring reverb suspended underneath the keyboard, a two-speed, two-depth electronic vibrato, and a knee lever that opens up the filter in the "tone booster" section.
I haven't examined the unfiltered outputs on a scope so I'm not sure what the waveforms look like.
I like the way the sound dips slightly the more notes you hold down, sort of auto-compression, musically very useful!

I'm not a PF aficionado but obviously you'll need a volume pedal and an echo device in the chain. I get nice sounds using it with an old Boss DD2.

hth

--------------------
Adam Inglis
A Disco Ate My BABY!

if only he was here.

which of course he is not.

--------------------
.. is this thing on?

Hi Dave!

Here are a couple of links relating to Rick’s Farfisa sound that may help. Fingers crossed anyway

"Where Vox and others start with a square wave (50% pulse wave) and filter it a little for the brighter voices and filter it down a lot to get flute or sine wave voices, Farfisa's MULTI-TONE BOOSTER starts with its unique 67% pulse wave filtered down into a sine wave, and as you move the knee lever or add the ALL BOOSTER switch, a heavily HIGH-pass filtered pulse wave is added to the sine wave. On an oscilloscope, it looks like a narrow spike is stabbing down into the top of the sine wave, slightly off to its right side. This gives the Compacts their different sort of bright sound which can get brighter and more raucous than most other brands."

http://www.combo-organ.com/Farfisa/Compact/index.htm


“Wright included a Binson Echorec device for echo as part of his combo and managed to produce many unusual sounds out of it, by experimenting with the Echorec and the organ's tone and pan settings. ”

http://sparebricks.fika.org/sbzine28/features.html



My first keyboard was a single-manual Vox Jaguar organ (cost me £50)


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Quote Martin Walker:

---

My first keyboard was a single-manual Vox Jaguar organ (cost me £50)

---

Spooky! My first keyboard (other than a fan-driven chord organ!) was a Thomas copy of a Vox Jaguar - and it cost me 50 pounds. It did some amazing things when you pushed it through a couple of chorus and phaser pedals... I got so frustrated by its limitations, but for a long time it was my 'Hammond'.

--------------------
An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote The Elf:

---

Quote Martin Walker:

---

My first keyboard was a single-manual Vox Jaguar organ (cost me £50)

---

Spooky! My first keyboard (other than a fan-driven chord organ!) was a Thomas copy of a Vox Jaguar - and it cost me 50 pounds. It did some amazing things when you pushed it through a couple of chorus and phaser pedals... I got so frustrated by its limitations, but for a long time it was my 'Hammond'.

---

OK spooky-er-er. My first keyboard (other than a fan organ where I attempted to play Yes songs) was a £50 Vox continental with fag burns all across the red top. Club style.

Sounded nice though my 'Leslie' (baffle on a turntable, speaker hanging over it, 16,33, 45 and 78 speeds). For a long time, it was my 'Hammond .



Stephen

--------------------
New Henry Fool album (Featuring Phil Manzenera and Jarrod Gosling) out now. https://www.burningshed.com/store/henryfool/

Thanks for that Martin. Interesting stuff about the sound generation, which should help narrow it down a bit. I also need to dig into the alternate keymaps in my Kurzweil and try those in the KB3 engine (see - I have been doing _some_ research for myself!)



Interestingly, the Dave Gilmour dvd has the Farfisa picked out quite clearly so it is easy to see which rocker switches are engaged which should help a lot also.

I think any decent keyboard player with an ounce of either (or both of) taste or ability misses Rick ...

--------------------
Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

I've got a couple of Farfisa and Jaguar samples in my Kurzweil collection. If you're interested, drop me a PM and I'll get them to you.

--------------------
An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Cheers Elfy. I might just do that. I just need Kurzweil to finally release the PC3K so that I can load them in!!



--------------------
Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Plenty of spooky stuff going on here

Dave - glad I could return the favour and help you for a change


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic