Yamaha AR80/AR100

[Hugh-AR]

Yamaha AR80/AR100

Now ... if any of you Members reading this have an AR 80 or AR 100 please click on POSTREPLY and let me know!

Hugh

[Hugh-AR]

I have the AR 80, which I bought from Whitley Bay Organs in 1998. Having an organ like this gives me two options:

1. I can play it 'like an organ', using the 'drawbars', the tremolo .. and play the footpedals; or

2. I can play it 'like a keyboard' as there are plenty of STYLES to choose from (and I can adjust these by adding PARTS of my own). When using Styles I can use the 'automatic bass', or use the footpedals. I usually find the automatic bass more interesting and inspiring as it often 'slides about' quite a bit. I then have all the 'voices' available to use, as you would on a keyboard. But the one extra thing I have on the organ which is not available on a keyboard is having two manuals. So I can have different sounds on the Upper and the Lower, and jump down from one to the other (or even play both manuals at the same time with the one hand).

Here is an example of what I can do with 50's Guitar on the Upper, and Pop Brass on the Lower (Repeated).



I would think that with a keyboard you could 'multi-track' something like this.

But I do have a question about the AR (in fact, my question concerns all keyboards) which I will put in my next post.

Hugh

[Peter S]

I have a wonderful AR100 organ. In fact, I have had three now as it's too good to be without and I kept having to buy another when I sell it!!

[Hugh-AR]

I have an observation about the AR80/AR100 (they are both the same as far as STYLES are concerned) and a question to ask about STYLES on other keyboards.

When I play a chord with a STYLE (with no voices allocated to notes, so you just hear the Style Backing) I had thought that once the chord was recognised (and you could play any inversion of the chord anywhere on the left of the keyboard split) the resulting 'pattern' of the backing would be the same whatever chord you played. So if you played a C chord, the notes of the backing would be based on C; then if you changed to an F chord the notes of the backing would be based on F .. but the backing pattern would be the same.

But I realised that with my AR this is not the case. To illustrate this I have chosen two STYLES, one called Slow Foxtrot, from Ballroom; and the other called Dixieland, from Swing/Jazz. In this Demo I am just playing the Style 'straight', and in each case I am playing four bars of F, followed by four bars of G, then Bb, then C7 .. and back to F. The second STYLE follows on from the first one.



If you listen carefully to the first Style, there appears to be three 'patterns'. When it starts (F chord) there is a sort of 'skip' in the bass, and a 'skip' in the guitar on the off-beat. G sounds the same. Then for Bb, the bass has lost it's 'skip', but the off-beat chord remains the same. Finally, for C, both the bass and the guitar have lost their 'skip', and the off-beat chord has suddenly gone quieter!

On the second Style, F and G are the same. Bb and C are the same, but are completely different to F and G .. apart from the banjo, which seems to carry on regardless. For Bb and C you have a very busy backing of trumpets and a sliding trombone.

All I can say is that I have never noticed this before. I reckon it's Yamaha doing some clever stuff with their backings. If you had the same 'pattern' whatever chord you played the backing would get very boring very quickly. But by changing the pattern when you change the chord you play you get a different overall sound. Listening to the second Style, you wouldn't want that 'busy' pattern for Bb and C to go on right through the whole piece. It would drive you nutty! So a 'quieter' pattern when you play F or G is good.

To be honest, I can hardly believe that you get a different backing on these two STYLES depending on the chord you play! This means that the overall sound of the piece you are playing is dependent on the key you are playing it in!

Just an observation. I was wondering if other keyboards did something similar. Please let me know!

By the way, when I program a backing of my own into a 'Style', the 'pattern' remains the same whatever chord I play .. my pattern.

Hugh

[Hugh-AR]

Chris Jones and his new portable AR 100



Take a look at the 'Players Organfax Directory' under Chris Jones. Chris has a picture of his 'New Yamaha portable AR 100' (pictured above). Yes, it's white! Reading his history, I suspect he has put this together himself and it is not something you can 'buy off the shelf'. Anybody know anything about this organ?

http://www.organfax.co.uk/players/chrisjones/

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page he has listed the few concerts he plays for. You'll have to ring and ask him if he is playing the AR 100. Unfortunately he is not playing anywhere near me (Weston-super-Mare).

Hugh

[Hugh-AR]

A DEMO of the AR80 organ .. found by Den.

ORGAN CORNER #5 | Yamaha AR80 Organ Demonstration



The 'gold lettering' he mentions (on the wood, only). Yamaha had used a batch of gold paint that was susceptible to ultra violet light which caused it to fade. This was one (large) batch of paint only, and Yamaha were mortified! So for several years they offered to replace the faulty wooden panels FOR FREE. This of course meant having completely new 'tops' for the organ. The gold lettering on my AR80 had faded badly so I had my panels replaced (the Yamaha engineer came out to my house to do it) .. and I hadn't even bought my organ from 'new' .. it was second hand! And it didn't cost me a penny!

What is worth pointing out here is that if the organ was made with the faulty paint then it would have already faded. If your panels were done with 'OK' paint (or the panels were replaced by Yamaha) then there is no way it will start to fade at some point in the future. If the paint looks OK then it will be permanently OK.

Another thing worth mentioning about this video (and indeed, all the videos made by ePianos and Tyros Tipsters). It has been recorded using a microphone. There is no way a recording made with microphones can give you the quality of sound you actually get from the organ. I have an AR80 and I can tell you that categorically! If you want to do a 'proper' recording from an AR organ you have to take the output from the LINE OUT under the lower manual, which will then give you a quality STEREO recording. This is what my AR80 sounds like when recoded from the LINE OUT via an AUDIO INTERFACE to Audacity on my laptop.

Whiter Shade of Pale played by Hugh Wallington on a Yamaha AR80 organ.



Jeremiah Clarke - Trumpet Voluntary played by Mark Burbridge on a Yamaha AR80 organ.



J.S. Bach - Toccata and Fugue in Dm played by Mark Burbridge on a Yamaha AR80 organ.



Widor Toccata from Symphony No: 5 for Organ, Op.42 played by Mark Burbridge on a Yamaha AR80 organ.



Hugh

[Hugh-AR]

Another video showing the AR100 this time. Sent to me by AR Group Member John Carter.

NESSUN DORMA./ ANDY ON THE YAMAHA AR100 LIVE PLAY NO OVER DUBING



Hugh