Speakers?

[Beemer2]

At present with my new Organ 3, I am using an Alesis 100W r.m.s. amp with JBL Control 5 speakers. In addition I also have my Nord Grand mounted speakers sounding. Can anyone suggest a better speaker system for home use of the organ 3?

[cphollis]

Lots of good choices out there …

Say more about budget, the space you’re playing in, and if WAF is an issue. [Wife Approval Factor]

[Beemer2]

It's a 12x8ft bedroom with wood floor no curtains. The sound is good when playing my Nord Grand right down to A0, but when playing my new Organ3 the bass is soft and weak.
It's strange to me as the piano frequency goes lower than the organ's 16ft.

[Rusty Mike]

If this is home use only, you can consider adding a subwoofer to your existing setup. Lots of options out there. Most of them are self-powered and have flexibility in how they connect to existing systems.

[cphollis]

What Rusty Mike said -- your current setup would benefit from a small self-powered subwoofer. You connect your audio out to the sub, and it filters out the the frequencies it wants, passing the remainder on to your monitors. Super easy.

Also, an inexpensive rug on the floor will help, as will curtains, cloth wall hangings, etc.

[vojtech-h]

Adding a SUB to the setup helps a lot, that's a good tip.

I'll add my personal feeling that the low tones of the Nord Hammond sound (e.g. C2D and NS4) are significantly weaker than the same tones of a piano or other non-Nord synth instruments on the same speakers.

Unfortunately, I don't have personal experience and comparison with the original Hammond organ.

[Rusty Mike]

Your original post does not indicate if you’ve played with the sound or EQ settings. You do have the ability to change the woofer/horn bias somewhere within the menu system (I don’t own an Organ 3 so I’m not sure where it would be). Changing the bias to more woofer will help move more sound to the lower end. Also, don’t hesitate to play with the EQ settings to dial in a sound that works for you.

Apologies if you’ve tinkered with these already.

[Beemer2]

I would imagine that the difference in playing low notes on a piano and an organ is the difference between the amount of harmonics: If you play a low organ note on a speaker system that can't reproduce those low notes, you should hear almost nothing - as Hammond registers are close to sine waves (without any harmonics); whereas piano tones have a certain structure of upper harmonics that even sound if the base sound won't be played - and your brain may even add that missing frequency as it knows what's missing. That's what happens with my laptop speakers as well.

Which would again be an argument in favour of a sub.

[cphollis]

Low notes on a piano benefit from psychoacoustics in a way that low notes on a organ do not. A low piano note typically has a sharp attack full of harmonics with a well-established decay pattern. Your brain shapes all of that into the perception of a louder low note. The same happens with a snappy synth bass.

On an organ, you don't get that benefit, so more real volume is needed.

Those speakers you're using are nice enough for most piano work, but aren't large enough to easily reproduce the lower steady notes. I used an inexpensive Behringer model which worked great. Just a little oomph makes a big difference.