That's a super sounding Wurli!

I'm sure my old mate Bobby Pagan would have been over the moon to know that the Troxy had a Wurli again, and a belter at that!

Haven't seen one of these since about 1977/78! Played by National's demo team - Brian Lake and the 'lovely Sonia'. The National brand was originally brought in by Southern Organs, the name later changed to Panasonic, and then finally to Technics (going 'upmarket' each time!) And all three of these a...

Clare, if you've tried extending a MIDI file using software and it's converted it to a WAV, then you've used it incorrectly, or you're using the wrong software. MIDI should stay as MIDI, as without a virtual instrument sound source you can't produce a wav file, even if you wanted to. You need a MIDI...

You can probably do this using the on board Song Recorder, but it will be something of a pain. It's something that I've not tried, nor would I bother to try! The easiest solution would be to use a software MIDI editor app. If you're talking simply making it longer by adding an identical verse or two...

Strictly speaking, you could define playing by ear as being able to play the piece without having ever looked at the music, whereas playing from memory is playing the piece having learnt it from the music and then memorising it. But, as has been said, if you play it by ear you do have to remember it...

Yet another 'great' is sadly gone, but we can be thankful for the immense amount of pleasure his music has given to countless millions of people over that 50 year career. He'll have the angels tapping their toes to the beat in no time!

RIP Hansi

To be honest, most digitals with weighted keys are absolutely fine with dynamic range. A Lowrey digital piano? I'm guessing that might be an older one or maybe a budget EZP model, as Lowrey digital pianos are made by Kawai, and Kawai's action on their current digitals is one of the very best, even o...

Organ, in a heartbeat! I've worked with keyboards since before there were keyboards (first of my prototypes aired in 1979 - months before Yamaha's PSR-10 came out - and the boss said "No-one will want to play keyboards, stick to working with organs!") and I love what they've become. They'v...

I'm getting my dream organ - but not in the way I would have wished for. Over the Easter holidays I lost a very dear friend to cancer. It was apparently widespread but there were no obvious symptoms until the very end. So no-one knew he had it, and from going into hospital for some tests to his pass...

Tonewheel organs are usually classed as electric , though electromagnetic (or electrostatic in the case of the Compton Electrone) would be more accurate. And Wurlitzer and Everett made electric reed organs. In the 80s, there was a trend towards calling home organs 'multi-keyboards', and we all know ...

I was with Nixy on Wednesday evening and had a chat about it. He said 'Don't blink, you'll miss it'. The 'warm up man', perhaps primed by the panel, or at least the man who controls the panel(!), was saying things to the audience like 'Oh no, another bl***y organ' and 'It gets worse, there's two bl*...

Ken, the solution has been given to you - registration memories. You should use these! If you aren't, you're missing out on the most powerful function on the piano. But, even if you don't want to use them on a regular basis, you should create just one registration bank, commonly called a 'blank bank...

The CTK7000's been discontinued for a few years now, the current 61 key model is the CTK7200. Also on Amazon, but £349. Very competent keyboard, but I find that with mine - a CTK7000 - I have to tweak a lot of the voices to get them right. Niggly little things like the vibrato speed being way too sl...

Looks like a good, cheap and cheerful solution but do be aware that not all mp3 compressors are equal. Some introduce unwanted artefacts when producing their mp3 files. No way to know about this one without hearing the results but the low price does worry me a little. Can we have some audio clips fr...

Yes, it's quite true that players with perfect pitch do often have problems when using transposers. Especially so when moving more than a semitone or two away from the written key. It can be overcome, with some focused practice, starting with a familiar piece, just one semitone up or down and gradua...

FWIW, top one is an M100A - with the additional voiced percussions at the left hand end. The video is a J100 - there were times when I felt like doing this, like just having finished a two hour concert on one!!

BBC news wesbite has just announced that Demis Roussos has died aged 69. He was affectionately dubbed 'The Singing Kaftan' by Terry Wogan, and his voice was unmistakable. He sold some 60 million albums during his career. I used to play a few of his songs like Forever and Ever , My Friend the Wind an...

Some interesting sounds here. It would be nice to hear things that weren't multitracked though. Big Band sounds are a bit on the thin side to my ears and as for the theatre organ, since when did a Wurlitzer have drawbars and a leslie (albeit one that's been set to run slow!)? But the Cathedral Trump...

Well, the Finnish company have clearly bought the rights to the name and we would assume, the designs of some of the old products. However anyone expecting to see a Gem or Elka organ is probably going to be very disappointed. As they're talking 'classic products' I'd suspect that we'll see some Lem ...

I'm a day late, but many congratulations! We've only got to do another 29 years to catch up with you.

Hi Mike

Just to add my tuppence worth to what's been said already! Many thanks for all the hard work you do on the site, even though you've not been feeling 100%.

I wish you all the best for Christmas and hope that you have a cracking 2015!

Andy

http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab92/tiercedepicardiecouk/ca935589-a1ae-445b-9aa5-1c06009b5e4f_zps81844351.jpg A few people have asked me to record something Chrismassy on the Kawai SR6, and as the neighbours were out yesterday, I thought I'd give it a go! https://app.box.com/s/wji5163l41gkfs7ms...

I make this for the family every year.

https://app.box.com/s/ruv8u965segddm67u89g

There are a few mixers designed specifically for this. Here's one that would fit the bill perfectly. http://www.canford.co.uk/Products/57-4921_RDL-EZ-MX4L-MIXER-4x-stereo-in-1x-stereo-out-AC-adapter And if you check the specs of some of the 8 to 12 channel mixers, some of them will have a trim pot o...

Golden rule is to keep all the chords as close as possible, resulting in minimum movement from the left hand. However, there will always be times when you need to play chords in different inversions, just for comfort and convenience. And when you start to use AI mode for slash chords and more exotic...

Just learned that Acker Bilk has passed away aged 85, after a lengthy illness. His sound was unique with its deep, fast vibrato (well, almost unique, as Monty Sunshine's sound was very similar) that probably made many a 'fuddy duddy' classical clarinet teacher shudder when a student said that they w...

Mystery solved, thanks to Tom over at the Yamaha Keyboard Players forum!

It's the intro to 'From Here to Eternity' by Englebert Humperdinck.

....The whole music industry is cheating.... And not just multi-tracking, either - not that multi-tracking is cheating, as we've already said. It's just wrongly perceived as such. We have the long established process of artistes, bands and orchestras recording several takes of a piece, then sitting...

Hi all This is a piece that was used, I'm sure, for a holiday commercial on TV a few years back. It's got that South Sea Island 'Exotica' feel to it, along the lines of Martin Denny (for those who remember him or know his music). Anyone know the title of the tune? https://app.box.com/s/oy8tt7vmt35fl...

As someone who does a lot of multitracking, I'm pleased to see someone else say that it's 1) an art in itself and 2) NOT cheating! I was once very anti multitracking, when I had just started playing - about 45 years ago - but then I got to appreciate just how clever and artistic people like Klaus Wu...

Hi Fiona I don't have any photos as such, but somewhere around I have a small Southern Organs brochure from about 1970. Type-written, with a few photos. I'm sure Vince will remember it, he might well have written it! If you don't already have it, I'll dig it out, scan it and send it to you. It has a...

Sound like the kind of thing the Main Dealer will try on. I once had a £500 bill for an interim service on a Ford Fiesta. I wasn't having that so I stood at the counter and politely (but perhaps slightly loudly!) discussed every item. 15 minutes minimum labour charge for tightening the battery termi...

Hi Fiona I'm sorry to hear of your loss. I first met Brian at Southern Organs back in 1970 or 1971, it would have been at the Southwick branch. I was only about 13 at the time, mad about electronic organs, though I couldn't play that much at first. Whenever Brian was there, he always had time for me...

You set up a Registration Sequence to do this. First, programme your settings into the Registration Memories and save the bank as usual. Nor sure where it is on the 609, but one of the Functions is Regist Sequence. On this screen you can decide which pedal will do the switching (centre one is the us...

Sorry to hear that you're not your usual self and I hope that things will soon pick up.

Those of us who you've kindly made moderators will do our level best to keep the rest of them in order during any absences!