Bambi without a clue seeks great pipe organ sounds with Yamaha S90- synth modules, software virtual instruments?

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Posted on August 3, 2009 at 14:57:08

Bambi B
Audiophile

Posts: 2942
Location: Los Angeles
Joined: March 24, 2005

PAINITNG: "Design for a Satie Museum"

Mates,

I've been using a Yamaha S90 synthesizer for five years, in a very simple way as a practice instrument, single stereo tracks through an M-Audio 2496 soundcard and Cakewalk Home Studio 2 in a Dell Pentium 750 to HD and CD-R. In effect, I'm using about 1% of the S90's capabilities.

The thing is, there are a lot of native organ sounds with the S90, but the concentration is on Hammonds, Electronica, and General Space Blob. While the piano sound I use is plausible, the pipe organ sounds "Church, Reedy, Fluty, Sunday", seem to be the asthmatic offspring of the harmonica, accordion, and bagpipes sounds Those hearing my recordings seem to always comment on the poor organ sounds rather than the music!

How can I get a variety of really good organ sounds out of the S90: synth module, software "virtual instruments"? Can synth modules use any kind of sample, are MIDI sounds - "generic"? While I'm at it, I'd like to get better Classical orchestral instrument sounds as well, especially harp and strings: violin, viola, cello, etc.

My alternative is to collect the stuff- laptop, possibly a MOTU Firewire 828, and microphones (possibly Apex 460 tube) necessary to record acoustically where I practice on a pipe organ, but this means a lot of $X,XXX and carrying, setup each time, etc. I may do this eventually anyway, but I'd like to have a good practice/ scoring setup at home using the S90.

Also, what would be a good way to learn how to use the S90 more fully? The S90 manual is nearly impenetrably complex and illogically organised. Lessons? Book? Video?

Thanks!

Cheers,

Bambi B