How To Hook up Keyboard in Stereo

[alex78]

I used to be ok with the internal effects, but when I saw a demo of the organ grinder from lounsberry (an OD pedal specially designed for clonewheel organ) I instantly fell in love with it. But it is mono....That is the reason I borrowed and tested the guitar pedal, to see how the signal is affected by a mono pedal before purchasing. The same company has released a stereo pedal as well, the "tall fat and wide" which is also tube drive for organ, but more subtle than the other one. And much more expensive as well....
So Im staying with what I have for now, there's nothing going on anyway due to the restrictions.
Take care, stay healthy!

[Hlaalu]

If it's just the organ that you want to add a pedal for what you could do is to split one OUT of the Electro by using a TS to double TS cable (doesn't matter which OUT, as the Organ engine is always in mono -- unless you activate the Rotary effect), and pass it through the pedal, then into the mixer, in a different input than the other two main outs.

The result is the following OUT 1 and OUT 2 of the Electro into input 1 of the mixer, in stereo, for piano and synth sounds. And OUT 1 of the Electro into the pedal, then into the mixer input 2, in mono, for the organ.

This only works if you don't use the internal Rotary simulator, though, because the rotary sim turn the output in stereo, so you'd be faced with the same problem. If you have a Neo Vent or other external mono-to-stereo Rotary simulators, then it should work -- provided that you place the pedal before the rotary sim of course.

By the way effect pedals are a dangerous (and expensive!) playing field... one becomes addicted, there are just so many potentially interesting! I decided I'd stop buying them after getting the first few -- which probably I didn't need anyway. But they are so cool.

[Mr_-G-]

In theory the Mono button in the NS2 (and other models?) mixes L and R in a 'weighted' manner (at least that was what the Clavia guys mentioned some years ago) so that would be better in terms of phase cancellation than just adding up L+R.
Sound quality is subjective but my feeling is that from best to worse it goes like this: stereo > single channel > mono button > added channels.

For added channels I would avoid using a Y cable and build a simple summing box instead:
https://www.ranecommercial.com/legacy/note109.html

[Hlaalu]

In the case of organ, though, does it make a difference? I would have thought that since the organ is in mono by nature, the output in ch 1 is exactly the same as the output in ch 2. So if you hook up only, say, ch 1, then it does literally make no difference whether you press the mono button or not -- while it would have mattered for an originally stereo signal. Am I right?

[Mr_-G-]

The rotary effect is stereo... try it with and without the mono button.

[Hlaalu]

Well I thought we were assuming to bypass the internal rotary sim, that's why I said that what I suggested above would only work with an external rotary simulator.

[Mr_-G-]

Oh I see, thanks for clarifying it.

[baekgaard]

For added channels I would avoid using a Y cable and build a simple summing box instead:
https://www.ranecommercial.com/legacy/note109.html

It's quite easy to build a Y cable wired up as a summing box... The same schematics can be embedded in the plugs, where you can fit the resistors.

I made one similar (TRS stereo summed to TS mono), and it works well.

So Y cables and summing boxes are not two different things always

Sent from my phone in brevity

[alex78]

The result is the following OUT 1 and OUT 2 of the Electro into input 1 of the mixer, in stereo, for piano and synth sounds. And OUT 1 of the Electro into the pedal, then into the mixer input 2, in mono, for the organ

It seems that this could work but here comes another question: Since there are two different input chanels on the mixer for the same keyboard, when I play piano/synth the R output will go to the R input of chanell 1 and the L chanel will go to both L input of chanel 1 and to the L of chanel 2 as well (through the pedal). There will be difference in ballance between R and L this way, am I wrong? Also when playing organ, half signal will be affected by the pedal and the other half will be routed directly to the mixer through the other output, again not 100% the desired result.

[Hlaalu]

To clear any potential confusion, in the set up that I was been talking about there is no summing involved, so no need for summing boxes.

That said, do you have a rig submixer that allows you to connect two (stereo or mono) keyboard to it, which allows you to mute or solo one channel at a time? If yes -- and if you use an external rotary effect simulator -- then it seems to me you can achieve what you aim for with no losses or compromises in the following way (clearer with a pic -- se below). Sorry for the shitty quality but I literally drew that in a hurry using the touchpad!



In this case you don't even do to do anything on the Electro itself: for organ programs, you simply raise the level of ch 1 in the mixer (or solo it), and for program with piano and synths, you do the same for ch 2. The organ output will be identical on out 1 and out 2 of the Electro (or R and L, not sure what they are called in the Electro), so it doesn't matter whether you set it in mono or not: the organ will always be mono if you don't turn the rotary on.

Of course if you want to use organ AND piano and synth within the same Program, then it can become a problem. I was assuming you'd use different Programs for each sounds.



EDIT: I forgot to draw the Vent, that shall be placed between the pedal and the mixer, and that will be feeding a stereo signal into the mixer.


EDIT 2: They released a couple of years ago a Tall & Fat & Wide, which is the same as the Tall & Fat but stereo. Not the same as the Organ Grinder, but similar enough... expensive though for what it does in my opinion.