Brewsterware

November 18, 2009

How to replace a floppy drive in a yamaha EL90 with a USB drive

Filed under: Organs,Yamaha Electones — Tags: , — Joe Brewer @ 6:55 pm

I’m afraid I dont know how to do this, but I do know that there is a drive available which is a direct replacement. If you’ve found this article it’s likely that you have an older EL series organ that has issues with the floppy drive. Yamaha, in their infinate wisdom, chose to use a non standard 3.5″ drive that costs £100+ for the early EL series (EL60, EL70 and EL90). Why couldnt Yamaha have used a standard 3.5″ PC floppy drive on these organs? Who knows?

Recently this post offered a solution for modifying a standard PC disk drive with a few componants and a bit of soldering, but I dont really want to go this route.

Then I found out about EL-USB, a replacement drive that takes USB sticks. Finding any information about this drive is pretty difficult as most of the sites are in chinese, here is one example: http://www.gangqinwang.com/news.piano?id=4697 . I’ve also seen the drive on ebay.com.hk but unfortunately the auctions that I found had finished.

If anyone has any information on the EL-USB or are after one as well please post a comment.

August 19, 2008

are the organfax forums dead

Filed under: Music,Organs,Rants — Joe Brewer @ 5:22 pm

I’ve tried registering several times with this forum, but to no avail.  They just wont have me.  Registration requires a moderator to review your application before you can post, and my application has been waiting for months with nothing even so much as a whisper.  Has my account been denied?  I’ve no idea, and emails to the webmaster ([email protected]) asking about my account seem to have disappeared into the ether.

This website was once a fantastic thriving community of enthusiasts.  Originally developed by Margaret Falkner – a truly great figure on the UK home organ scene, and a huge inspiration to many people.  Sadly, she passed away several years ago.  Remembered by many – such a shame I cannot add to this post to her memory.

Unfortunately the market of the home electronic organ is in a bad state.  Manufacturers insist on producing organs for the elderly, the incompetent, or people who just don’t want to put in any time or effort to improve their playing.  Take the absolutely dreadful Yamaha AR100 and AR80.  For a start, their cabinets look low quality sticky back plastic covered chipboard – hardly what you would expect for the circa £8000 you would have had to have paid when they came on to the market.  A console that is just so full of automatic accompaniments that it is more difficult to switch them off and just play something simple.  Sound quality that is so horrible.  And to top it all off, a speaker system that is more powerful than a professional instrument such as the EL90.

Manufacturers should be targeting and encouraging younger people to buy these instruments, not people that wont be here in 20 years.  So sad.

January 24, 2008

Johannus Organ update

Filed under: Music,Personal — Joe Brewer @ 3:49 pm

As of yesterday, my front room is empty. The organ was taken to it’s new home near Guildford around midday, and now I have enough room to swing a cat (the type found on boats) in the empty space. Although I’m a bit sad to have seen it go, I know it has gone to a good home, and I’m pleased that I got considerably more for it than I was told I would by the MD of of Makin Organs. Perhaps I should offer to do some marketing for them!

January 3, 2008

Johannus Opus 1400 Classical Organ for sale

Filed under: General,Music,Personal — Joe Brewer @ 4:31 pm

consoleHere is the basic specification of my Johannus Opus 1400 which I am selling:

3 x 5 Octave tracker type action manuals
32 Note RCO Pedalboard
Each manual has a coresponding swell pedal. There is also one crescendo pedal.
MIDI Compatible
Eight external speakers

You can see detailed close up pictures of the instrument here: Johannus Opus 1400

Each manual has 8 programmable piston memories
Pedalboard has 8 programmable piston memories

Whole organ has 24 (Three banks of eight) programmable piston memories – these can include/exclude accessories and can be accessed by foot pistons.

7 preset registration pistons which increase in number of open stops (PP P MF F FF T O) – these registrations can include/exclude reed stops.

Piston for putting pedal stops to the Positif manual.

Stop list:

Pedals
Double Bass 16′
Subbass 16′
Octave 8′
Gedackt 8′
Choralbass 4′
Bassflute 4′
Openflute 2′
Mixture III
Bombarde 32′
Contra Trumpet 16′
Trumpet 8′
Clarion 4′

Positif
Lieblich Gedekt 16′
Bourdon 8′
Octave 4′
Open Flute 4′
Nazard 2 2/3′
Conical Flute 2′
Tierce 1 3/5′
Sifflute 1′
Cymbal II – III
Clarinet 8′

Great
Bourdon 16′
Open Diapason 8′
Gamba 8′
Rohrflute 8′
Octave 4′
Open Flute 4′
Twelfth 2 2/3′
Super Octave 2′
Conical Flute 2′
Cornet IV
Mixture V – VIII
Scharf III – V
Contra Trumpet 16′
Trumpet 8′

Swell
Quintaton 16′
Open Diapason 8′
Viola 8′
Celeste 8′
Stopped Flute 8′
Octave 4′
Rohrflute 4′
Flute Twelfth 2 2/3′
Wladflute 2′
Nazard 1 1/3′
Octave 1′
Sesquialter II
Rauschpfeife IV – VI
Fagotto 16′
Cromorne 8′
Vox Humana 8′

Accessories
Positif to Great
Swell to Great
Swell to Positif
Positif to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
The above six accessories can be activated by foot pistons

Tremulant Positif
Tremulant Great
Tremulant Swell
Chorus

Other controls
Reverb, Volume, Transposition, stop lamp brightness

Anyone wishing to try this instrument should contact me through my blog, or through ebay. Here is the ebay listing: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150202085501

Organ measurements:
Depth without pedalboard – 75cm
Depth with pedal board – 120cm
Width – 139cm
Height – 122cm

Narrowest width of console is 66cm – this is the narrowest width of a door that the organ can go through on it’s side – both sides of the door should be clear so that the organ can be pivoted through.

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