magnus organs

[blasticpubble]

'ello all

This little thread is about the magesty of magnus organs. I love hearing their warmth in psych rock. I believe this is the "air organ" played on On Avery Island.

I do not know the exact mechanism of how these work, but basically there is a fan inside that blows the air that feeds the reeds. Unfortunatley, I've never known one to play in concert pitch.

I just thought I'd share a recording technique I used to capture the magnus sound in the context of other correctly tuned instruments. Back when I was in high school (I thought I was a genius that I pulled this off, especially considering how stoned I must have been at the time) I had a song that I wanted to play the magnus on, so I recorded a concert C on to the 4 track tape I was recording the song on. Then I sped up or slowed down the tape until the C played on the magnus was in tune with the reference note played on the tape (which was a concert C when played at normal speed). Then I knew I would be in tune with the song, so I played the same parts as I would have normally on a correctly pitched keyboard. Once the part was successfully recorded, I returned the playback speed to normal and I had an in-tune magnus organ overdub.

I got rid of my two magnuses when my 4 track went into disrepair and I didn't know how to make use of them with digital equipment.

Of course you could just tune every other instrument to the magnus, but what's the fun in that?

Does anyone know if these instruments could be somehow "tuned" to play in concert pitch by adjusting the rate at which the fan spins? A friend I record with has a magnus but his 4 track doesn't have varispeed capability. (We wouldn't have the skill to alter the organ's fan anyway, I'm just curious.)

I'm curious if the varispeed technique I used when I was a stoned teenager was the same way that the air organ on On Avery Island was recorded.

[auxiliaryoctopus]

I love air-organs!!!

I have two (the famous "Wheezy" that I found on the roadside, and another). Both of mine are in concert pitch, surprisingly, or close to it. I would suggest just tuning to the organ, if yours are out-of-tune.

You could probably take one to an accordion repair-person to tune it, since they work the same way (free-reeds), but it would be very expensive. The speed of the fan actually doesn't have anything to do with the pitch that the reeds generate, but rather the volume. The more deluxe models often have a "volume" pedal that changes the fan-speed with no effect on the pitch.

You can hear my air-organ on these recordings:
Homeville Circle Link (http://www.myspace.com/thehomevillecircle)

I varied the pitch on the first recording, but all the instruments are actually pitch-shifted down a half-step to make it easier for me to sing.

[charrrddddd]

i recently inherited one of these from my grandparents and it's not in concert pitch either. that's a good idea with the varispeed on the fourtrack.

i'm pretty sure that the speed that the fan spins determines the volume of the instrument, not the pitch. Although I know nothing of the process, I would assume it's tuned by adjusting the reed lengths, or something of that sort. I would also assume that the process is similar to that of tuning an accordion, though i'm not sure how that is done either.

edit: looks like auxillaryoctopus beat me to the punch here, so this is redundant now. ooops.

[Edited on 11-16-0606 by charrrddddd]

[blasticpubble]

yeah, i feel kind of dumb now, about thinking the fan affected the pitch, because when you turn it off while holding down keys, it just slowly fades away.

[soniclovenoize]

HINT HINT:

The tuning has to do with the temperature in the room! I read some mathmatical equasion about it somewhere on the 'net... google it.

My air organ actually stayed in tune, seriously! It's the one featured on countless Curiously Strong Peppermints tracks. It's pretty much dead now, though (half the keys stick) and now it's a toy for my 2-year old daughter to pretend to play "panano" and sing, which is the cutest thing ever!