Organ volume very low compared to piano.

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druidstone
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Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by druidstone »

Does anyone have a problem with their organ sounds? I have to put gain to the max. in order to get some kind of audible sound even then i can hardly hear it on stage. but when i change to piano its deafening!

I have restored from factory backup (downloaded from Nord website) but still the same problem.
Last edited by druidstone on 21 Feb 2019, 03:21, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by baekgaard »

Do you have a volume/swell pedal connected, and put at its lowest level? Or accidentally plugged something else into the swell pedal input? Or did you originally save them with the organ swell at its lowest level and now don't have a pedal connected (not sure of the behaviour here)?
Last edited by baekgaard on 21 Feb 2019, 10:29, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by cphollis »

I have this problem as well. I crank up my B3 / Vox / Farf but can barely hear it. Everything else has a healthy volume. No expression or volume pedal attached, just a simple sustain pedal. OS 2.02

My workaround is to crank master volume, then dial back piano/synth.

Any suggestions?
I think I have gear issues ....
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Rusty Mike
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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by Rusty Mike »

As far as I recall, this has been the norm for every Nord I've owned (Electro 2/3/3HP/4D and a Stage 2EX). I have always had to turn up the volume/gain on the organ patches compared to the pianos.

Just something I've gotten accustomed to.
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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by pablomastodon »

agreed here. Many/most of my B3 use involves minimal drawbar settings (e.g. 608000000), and pumping up overdrive make it too crunchy for my taste. Two potential strategies are: 1) back off on ALL other volumes on ALL other programs so that the organ can compete, or 2) use a submixer and send the organs to a different channel from everything else.

bless, pablo
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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by NightSkyStudio »

I find Compression can help even out programs that use softer organ drawbar settings plus piano and/or synth.

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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by Yukimajo »

Does this issue affect the EPs as well? I am interested because I am looking at buying the NE6D (or Vox Continental) primarily for the Organs (I do '60s garage and psych). I will need to do a Rhodes/Vox spit to do any Doors songs, but if the organ is going to be much quieter than the EP this could be a big pain in the rear.
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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by CountFosco »

On my E5, I have a lot of programs set up with EP/B3 splits. Sometimes I've had to change the relative gain between the two engines, but that's no big deal. The gain settings are stored with the programs. It's easy to handle, and definitely not a show stopper.
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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by Rusty Mike »

And while there is a slight volume difference it is not significant. Easily addressed.

This is not a showstopper.
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Re: Organ volume very low compared to piano.

Post by anotherscott »

pablomastodon wrote:agreed here. Many/most of my B3 use involves minimal drawbar settings (e.g. 608000000)
I think that may be a factor here.

Piano gets louder as you play harder, organ does not, so there is no inherently perfect way to balance these two instruments. If organ at 888888888 with significant drive and a loudly struck (velocity 127) piano are both programmed to be at about the same level (i.e. the loudest the Electro can cleanly reproduce), maybe it is not surprising that a significantly-sub-888888888 registration(like 608000000) without much drive would be quieter. (Or are people finding that even 888888888+drive organ patches are lower than pianos?)

Interestingly, tonewheel Hammonds themselves varied in their ability to compensate between volumes of different registrations... see http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/LoudnessRobbing
NightSkyStudio wrote:I find Compression can help even out programs that use softer organ drawbar settings plus piano and/or synth.
...and that same link explains that, in effect, a kind of compression was used to do that registration compensation on a B3. Whether Nord attempts to model that or not, I don't know. But regardless, I can see where employing compression to "even out" organ sounds could be useful in addressing this situation.
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