Amazing Couple of Days

So two really exciting things happened to me in the past couple of days. Bear in mind that this will sound pretty boring to a gear junky, but this is the story of me getting my first gear, so it's very exciting for me.

A couple days ago two of my roommates walked in with an old electric organ they found on the road. It is a Thomas Playmate, which isn't super fancy. It looks and sounds amazingly cheesy and has very few voices/features. Also, only one octave on the pedals. It looks pretty much just like this one but more beat up:

But the great thing is that some of the stops are kinda broken, so when I flick them on and off, they make a crackle sound. If I hold the stops half-way down they keep the crackle going during the notes I play, and it sounds super great. I'm going to use it for sound effects. I'm sure if I experiment with it and process the sound, good things will come out of it.

The next day I found a stereo on the ground. The speakers work great, and I plan on using them as monitors. This might seem like a terrible idea, but keep in mind that so far all the music I've made has been with headphones. So this is a huge step up, and it's completely free. And I'll be able to compare them to my headphones and be aware of the bias they have.

But the really exciting part is that, in order to connect to the speakers, I made my own cables. I bought the plugs and the wire, and I wrapped the wire myself. Again, this might not seem like a big deal, but I'm very chuffed that it worked on my first try.

So yes. I'm happy. Just wanted to share. I will supply pictures soon if anyone's interested.

sweet man. is there an output on the organ or do you have to mic it or what?

  On 4/12/2010 at 3:37 AM, sneaksta303 said:

sweet man. is there an output on the organ or do you have to mic it or what?

There is a big ass speaker that I can mic, but there's also a quarter inch headphones jack that I'm going to use as a line out. I need to get a quarter inch to xlr though, so I'm going to do that tomorrow. I already got a mixer with pre-amps, because the headphones jack is really quiet.

When I was testing my homemade wires, I was using this line out, but it's really weird. If the plug is rotated the wrong way it doesn't work. (I have no idea what difference it would make, but whatever). So I thought my cables didn't work, but really I need needed to rotate the plug. It was a big bug-testing fail.

I also found a nice radio on the street today, that I'm going to try to sample from.

Pretty cool overall and congrats on your good fortune\industrious spirit.

However, this:

  On 4/12/2010 at 3:22 AM, Root5 said:

The next day I found a stereo on the ground. The speakers work great, and I plan on using them as monitors.

This... is pretty dumb.

  On 4/12/2010 at 3:52 AM, Lube Saibot said:

  On 4/12/2010 at 3:22 AM, Root5 said:

The next day I found a stereo on the ground. The speakers work great, and I plan on using them as monitors.

 

This... is pretty dumb.

It's nice having an option besides my senheiser HD215s. And it's much cheaper than buying new monitors.

sounds good mate, look forward to hearing some tunes

not everyone can afford proper monitors; I have no speakers either (got a big stereo but no room to set it up near PC) I would like a set of mini speakers just to give the ol ears a rest now and then...

ya, nice find. I saw someone was giving away a big old electric organ on craigslist, but I couldn't be bothered to look into. I really don't have the space for it right now though...

where do you live where's there's all sorts of electrical equipment laying about on the ground?

  On 4/12/2010 at 1:13 PM, BCM said:

where do you live where's there's all sorts of electrical equipment laying about on the ground?

University of Toronto campus.

cool, i used to contemplate robbing farnborough college of technology when i was there... they had loads of store cupboards with old mixers, reel to reel recorders and monitors an shit all just gathering dust..... never did it though

Okay, so the speakers I found are distorting the sound at medium volume (not when I play music quietly). I do not think it is anything wrong with the speakers, because they work perfectly when plugged into a stereo. So I think it is probably my home-made cables that are making the distortion. I kinda like the distortion, so I think I might use these cables as effects. But it would be nice if I could get my speakers to make a clean sound as well.

Anyone know what would happen if I bought a male to male 1/4 inch cable, cut it in half, and used it as two speaker cables? Would this produce less distortions?

PS: I picked up a yamaha dx27 off of craigslist. A couple keys don't work very well, and there's a dent in the frame, but it sounds awesome. I now have two synths!

  On 4/13/2010 at 7:47 PM, Root5 said:

Okay, so the speakers I found are distorting the sound at medium volume (not when I play music quietly). I do not think it is anything wrong with the speakers, because they work perfectly when plugged into a stereo. So I think it is probably my home-made cables that are making the distortion. I kinda like the distortion, so I think I might use these cables as effects. But it would be nice if I could get my speakers to make a clean sound as well.

 

Anyone know what would happen if I bought a male to male 1/4 inch cable, cut it in half, and used it as two speaker cables? Would this produce less distortions?

 

PS: I picked up a yamaha dx27 off of craigslist. A couple keys don't work very well, and there's a dent in the frame, but it sounds awesome. I now have two synths!

Dude, wtf, just buy a couple of cables already, it's hardly an expense, they're like 3 bucks a pop or something. I mean this isn't even economy anymore it's just lack of common sense.

Congrats on the dx27, it will serve you well. Check that first preset out and have a blast (unless it's been tampered with i guess).

Yeah, the presets are pretty tampered with. But I found pdf of how to make my own patches, so I think I'll be just doing that.

Can you buy cables that have a quarter inch male end on one end, and just two bare wires on the other? How would buying those wires be any different from buying a long wire that has two male end 1/4 plugs, and cutting it in half?

Or alternatively you could buy some cheap speakers with normal trs\xlr ins that you don't need to keep exposed wires around for.

I've honestly never opened a cable before myself, but rending a mono cable in twain for stereo output just doesn't sound very... possible.

Drunk Post: I have total beer goggles for my dx27. Soo beautiful. I was playing it for a long time. whilst drunk. So good. Best first synth ever.

Well I guess the organ was first synth. Best second synth ever.

hey lube, who pissed in yo cornflakes? give the boy a break . . he's just starting out . . and he's excited. recipe for success in my mind!

Root AFAIK your cable idea is fine, give it a shot I say! If you're making cables you probably know to make sure your tips and rings are matched between your two speakers so you're not inverting the phase on one speaker. Good luck!

edit: i would use stereo 1/4" plugs though, the ground wires are not meant to carry audio signals. i haven't tried it, you might get lucky!

  On 4/18/2010 at 9:58 PM, A/D said:

hey lube, who pissed in yo cornflakes? give the boy a break . . he's just starting out . . and he's excited. recipe for success in my mind!

 

Root AFAIK your cable idea is fine, give it a shot I say! If you're making cables you probably know to make sure your tips and rings are matched between your two speakers so you're not inverting the phase on one speaker. Good luck!

 

edit: i would use stereo 1/4" plugs though, the ground wires are not meant to carry audio signals. i haven't tried it, you might get lucky!

This is what the guy in the audio store told me, so I haven't bought the cable yet. But I don't understand. You can use a mono 1/4 cable for a guitar. It has two wires, one sends the audio to the amp, and the other sends the electrons back (ya, I know it doesn't quite work like that, but it's a easy way to think about it). So why can't you send sound from a mixer to a speaker and then the electrons back on the other wire? Why would a stereo cable work better? It doesn't make sense.

EDIT: also, does it make a big difference if the phase is inverted on one speaker? I tried it both ways and it sounded the same. Surely they'd have to be positioned in a very precise way for it to make any audible difference.

I tried it. It works fine. It was a shielded audio cable, so I had to unwrap one wire from the other, but after that it was easy. I still get a bit of distortion, but less than with my home-made cables.

Hey Roots, The reason you should be using stereo cables is that those speakers are made to be used with some sort of amp. You know a stereo head or something. I am in a similar situation as you my friend. I collect old electronics that people just throw away. I have amassed a large collection in the past two years or so. Ive gotten everything from very nice vintage stereo speakers(that i actually use as monitors cus im a broke ass dude) ive gotten some small digital synths. LOTS of toys that i have been circuit bending. Even a synth that makes sound with a light and a translucent record type thing instead of an oscillator!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optigan

What Im saying is you can easily get an amp at the local thrift store, garage sale, trash can for little or no money . It will put out the right watts for the speakers.(stopping the distortion at mid level, unless the speakers are blown) Instrument cables are sending a different "size" signal than what you need.

I think the reason it sounds okay is that I have a mixer with microphone pre-amps. So I plug my audio source into the mixer, with the preamps up, and then have that going out into the stereo speakers. If I turn the volume up to high, it distorts, but it still sounds okay at a medium-low listening volume.

You're saying that if I had another amp, between the mixer and the speakers, it'd sound better?

Like a pre-amp. If, that is, your speakers are home stereo speakers. Maybe they are car speakers? You just need the electric current to be in the right form. So the speakers can work at the proper wattage or ohm or whatever it is. What kind of speakers are they?

They were on a home stereo system I found on the side of the road.

you need one of these^

create a label to complement/compete with futonic and release a girls & robots in the same photograph tribute album as the real most idm thing 2010 (fuck lhc)