Basic structure of electronic organ

Different from traditional musical instruments, the modern electronic organ, as an independent, highly integrated music production center, consists of the following parts: sound source, keyboard, sequencer, and peripheral controllers. It is they that enable electronic pipe organs to produce beautiful, varied and charming sounds and have highly humanistic musical expressions. First, let's start with the sound source section. This is the core of everything an electronic organ does. The reason why she is called the "sound source" is that, as the name suggests, she is the source of the sound of the electronic organ. Inside the electronic organ, she exists in the form of a chip, which synthesizes or reproduces various sounds by calculating simulations or playing back real sound samples. In the sound source part of the electronic organ that we have access to, the following sound synthesis methods are applied:

1. AWM (Advance Wave Memory) advanced waveform memory playback system. Sometimes also called PCM system. This was the earliest timbre synthesis method used by modern electronic musical instrument developers on sample playback electronic music synthesizers and samplers. Her working principle is as follows: collect several sounds emitted by the sound source in the most characteristic range, and then adjust the pitch, generation and decay time, rise rate, and decay rate of the recorded sound, and adjust the Good sounds are assigned to the keyboard according to the sound zone to achieve a realistic restoration of the sound effect before sampling.

Although AWM technology plays back sampled waveforms from real musical instruments, classic synthesizers, electronic sounds, and natural sounds, the AWM system also provides envelopes, modulators, and filters to modify and modify sampled waveforms. Recreate. Therefore, the advantage of the AWM system lies not only in its outstanding ability to restore real sound, but also in its ability to modify the sound.

2. FM (Frequency Modulation) frequency modulation system. This is an older sound synthesis technology than AWM, and it has been widely used in electronic synthesizer technology before the emergence of AWM technology. Its theory comes from the changing application of Fourier's theorem. In the field of acoustics, this theorem can derive a corollary: any complex waveform can be reduced to a superposition of several simple sine waves. FM technology works backwards on this basis: it uses an oscillator using analog technology or digital technology to first generate a simple sine wave waveform, and then uses a modulator to modulate it to produce a complex waveform, which is then filtered, modified, and amplified. , effects are superimposed to get colorful sounds. If we use an oscilloscope to study the waveform contained in a certain tone, demodulate the waveform, and analyze the details of the waveform, we can use FM technology to simulate an almost real sound.

What we are talking about here is only the theory of FM technology, but the application is not that simple. Because FM technology relies on too many components of electroacoustic technology, and the number of FM operators is often limited, the changes in waveforms are too regular and linear. However, the changes in sound in daily life are not very regular, so its advantages are not It's not about producing the sound of real musical instruments, but it's about producing special timbres with a strong electronic flavor.

The inability to perfectly reproduce the sound of real musical instruments does not conceal the excellent side of FM technology. It is this "ancient" technology that in the 1970s, an era of rapid development of electroacoustic technology, created the most legendary, best-selling and most widely circulated electronic synthesizer in the history of electronic music, YAMAHA DX. -7! This technology has produced a large number of extremely excellent timbres. Even until the 21st century, when digital technology is highly developed, these timbres are still popular in the music industry and are widely used.

For example: among the piano tone groups of various models of electronic pipe organs, the electronic piano tone ranked first is one of the many characteristic tones of the DX-7 back then. Press the keyboard to listen. Does it sound familiar? Haha, this electronic piano tone still frequently appears in a large number of familiar music works. It is the No. 6 tone of any electronic instrument tone chart that is compatible with the GM standard!

In the field of electroacoustic technology, there is a strange thing: although FM technology is so old, even today's most advanced digital sampling sound source systems still cannot effectively reproduce the powerful sound processing and control capabilities of this ancient system. The traditional FM system has extremely excellent system stability and extremely high accuracy in selecting the entry point for sound operation. Due to various reasons in modern sampling technology, especially the limited number of sampled sounds, switching timbres in different ranges is prone to sudden changes in timbre characteristics. Because FM technology does not play back sampled waveforms, but relies on its own calculations to generate sounds, it performs perfectly on certain timbres, especially electronic timbres and synthetic wind instruments.

3. VA (Virtual Acoustlc Synthesls) virtual physical model synthesis technology. This technology was first developed by YAMAHA in the 1980s. It is also a new synthesis technology and is used to synthesize solo sounds on electronic organs. The prototype of this technology can be seen on the HS-8 in the 1980s. Later, YAMAHA decided to jointly develop this technology with Stanford University in the United States and applied for a patent and registered trademark. The sound produced by this technology is closer to the sound of real instruments than the timbre produced by conventional synthesis methods.

This technology does not rely on the original waveform signal generated by the oscillator in the AWM and FM systems. It uses computational methods to simulate the vibration frequency of each part of the real instrument when it sounds. Aftershock East Suitable** *Sound reflection phenomenon, physical modeling to produce sound. Therefore, she can produce absolutely realistic effects in imitating timbres, and the timbre in performance is more humane than the AWM system that simply relies on playback of sampled timbres.

VA synthesis technology creates many favorable conditions for electronic organ performance. Keyboard instruments that use AWM synthesis to sound have many limitations in performance due to problems with their own synthesis methods. For example, every time a violin plays the same note, its timbre and pitch will undergo extremely subtle changes, thereby expressing rich emotions. , the AWM system cannot represent these things at all, but the VA system can calculate and simulate such subtle changes based on key touch strength, time, after-touch and system-specific information. You can use this to simulate violin cabinet vibrations, vibrato techniques and other playing techniques to create more beautiful music. However, VA technology also has a flaw in its perfection, that is, there are too few pronunciations. Due to technical limitations, each independent VA sound source can only respond to one sound at the same time. This makes it impossible for us to use it to play chords and harmonic intervals. Hopefully, with the development of technology, better VA systems will be created to provide us with more perfect performance. Having introduced the sound source part, let’s talk about the keyboard. The keyboard is the tool we use to play notes, and it is also the first interface for us to communicate with the electronic organ. From the early electronic pipe organs of those days to today's modern electronic pipe organs, keyboards have also evolved over time. Next, let us review the history of keyboard development.

Early electronic organ keyboards had extremely poor feel. Not only were their mechanical structures not sensitive enough, they also did not have the most basic velocity sensing function today. If this kind of keyboard were given to today's electronic organ players, it would be an unbearable disaster for the players! But that was the year after all, and that kind of keyboard was already the crystallization of the most cutting-edge technology at that time. That kind of keyboard also brought artistic enjoyment to that generation, made them feel the charm of electronic instruments, and also ignited the early electronic organ players. Passion for this instrument.

Counting from the beginning of the 20th century, the life of this keyboard without velocity sensitivity has lasted for 70 years! But things are always evolving, and by the 1980s, the life of this keyboard began to come to an end.

It is no exaggeration to say: the 1980s was the spring of electronic musical instruments! In the 1980s, not only AWM, VA, and FM technologies had begun to be applied or reached a certain level, but a technological revolution also occurred in the keyboard field. The symbol of this revolution was the introduction of pressure-sensitive conductive rubber into the field of electronic keyboard instruments. The characteristic of pressure-sensitive conductive rubber is that as the pressure continues to increase, its resistance will continue to decrease. Install her on the keyboard to replace the original metal piece with constant resistance. She can feel the strength of our keystrokes (to be precise, it should be the speed of pressing the keys, because often when the speed is reached, the intensity of the keys will reach the corresponding level. value.), and was reflected in the volume and timbre. This technology was also applied to the field of electronic organs during this period, which greatly enhanced the performance capabilities of electronic organs and ushered in a new era in the development of electronic organs. From then on, the keyboard began to develop at a hundred times its original speed.

By the end of the 1980s, keyboard counterweights and aftertouch systems were invented. The counterweight system can successfully simulate the string-hitting feeling of a piano keyboard, which makes the electronic organ's key touch feel farewell to dullness and dryness, allowing the player to enjoy it even if they touch the keyboard and hear no sound. Aftertouch is when our fingers apply pressure on the keyboard again after pressing the key, the keyboard will still respond. This function can be used to imitate the vibrato of string instruments, the vibrato of the saxophone and other playing techniques. This brings the expression of emotions of the electronic organ to a new level after the invention of the dynamic keyboard. Let's take a look at peripheral controllers.

The function of this part is to use other parts of the body to make up for the work that cannot be completed by both hands while playing. Peripheral controllers include: knee switches, foot switches, expression volume pedals, pitch bend pedals and external MIDI controllers. When playing the electronic organ, your feet will play the corresponding low-pitched melody. If you want to play the piano part with both hands, it is impossible without a sustain pedal. At this time, both feet are occupied by the bass part, so the knee switch comes into play to complete the work of the sustain pedal. After turning on the sustain function of the knee switch, push the knee switch down, and then press the knee switch with your knee to make the keyboard produce sustain. In addition, the foot switch can change the tone group, the knee switch can control the sound pattern of the automatic accompaniment, and the expression pedal can control the volume. This is the role of the peripheral controller. Let’s talk about the role of a sequencer. Strictly speaking, the sequence recording part on the electronic organ should not be called a "sequencer", but a "music disk recorder" (MDR, the abbreviation of Music Disk Recorder). It functions like an ordinary tape recorder, used to record various information data in music. The role of a "sequencer" is not only to record information, but more importantly, to have powerful editing capabilities for the recorded information. This editing capability is not available in MDR. But MDR is more complicated than a tape recorder. What exactly can he do? Let’s find out together. It can record the timbre of each part, the velocity, duration, aftertouch and other control information of each note. It allows us to record the parts that cannot be played at the same time when playing a multi-part music, and then play them back during the official performance, integrating them with our live performance, making our performance richer. , the recorded music information can also be played back on other playback devices that support the same format, achieving exactly the same effect as when it was produced, providing convenient conditions for the exchange of musical works.

It needs to be emphasized that the electronic organ is an electronic instrument and will not make any sound without electricity.

It relies on sampled audio to simulate a real organ, which means that the timbre of the electronic organ is the same. The alternative of being recorded from a real pipe organ is less appropriate, because without a real pipe organ, where does the sound of an electronic pipe organ come from?

However, in modern performances, electronic musical instruments can already simulate original musical instruments very well, so electronic musical instruments can basically perform well.

Finally, it should be called "Music Disk Recorder" (MDR, the abbreviation of Music Disk Recorder).

It functions like an ordinary tape recorder, used to record various information data in music. The role of a "sequencer" is not only to record information, but more importantly, to have powerful editing capabilities for the recorded information. This editing capability is not available in MDR. But MDR is more complicated than a tape recorder. What exactly can he do? Let's find out together. It can record the timbre of each part, the velocity, duration, aftertouch and other control information of each note. It allows us to record the parts that cannot be played at the same time when playing a multi-part music, and then play them back during the official performance, integrating them with our live performance, making our performance richer. . Principle of pronunciation: When your fingers hit the organ keys, the keys will drive a connecting rod made of oak, which is connected to a connecting rod shaped like a pipe, and the pipe is connected to the piston. Therefore, after pressing the key, the piston will open and send airflow to the nozzle of the piano tube. There are two air bags of the same shape here. The air flow generated from these two air bags will soon enter the wooden tube, which we call the air supply pipe, and the air flow will lead to the bellows. After the air supply pipe sends the airflow into the bellows, when the player presses the key, a small piston will open. At this time, the air will pass to the pipe nozzle, and then the airflow will enter the piano pipe to play music; and the double The performance of key arrangement depends on two stages: pre-production before the performance and on-site "whole body movement".

Double-row key performance:

Double-row key performance can be said to be a "one-man band". In fact, it is the same as single-row keys in imitating real instruments. Timbre, this puts forward very high requirements for double-key players: they must improve their performance level and imitate real instruments to be "miraculously similar" to their own performance direction. In addition, when we use double-row keys for music production, we must not only consider the performance techniques of double-row keys, but also must grasp the harmony and style characteristics of the music. The organ is a free-reed musical instrument. A keyboard instrument spread all over the world. The keyboard arrangement is the same as that of a piano, with generally 39 to 61 keys and a range of 3 to 5 octaves. Sound is produced by vibrating a set of free reeds through air pressure. The air source comes from a pair of blowing bellows operated by two-foot pedals, and the sound quality is similar to that of a pipe organ. There are timbre-changing stops above the keyboard, so you can adjust the timbre at any time. The history of the creation and development of the organ. In 1810, the Paris instrumentalist G.J. Grenier built the earliest reed organ. In the 1840s, the French instrumentalist A.F. Durban improved the instrument itself, mainly by adding sound stops, in an attempt to It was given the expression range of a pipe organ to obtain different timbre changes, and was named the organ. Since then, it has become very popular in families and churches that cannot afford a pipe organ. In Europe, the most complex type of organ is the expression organ with expression stops where the volume can be controlled by the player's knee. Another type of organ that was popular in the 19th century and different from Europe was to change the drum type of the bellows to the suction type. This type of organ is called an American organ and was actually introduced to the United States from France. In the 20th century the organ was replaced by the more effective electric or electronic organ. It was introduced to China from Japan around 1897.

The organ was introduced to China from Japan around 1897. That was after the Opium War, with the introduction of Christianity and the increase of European immigrants immigrating to our country, especially the establishment of missionary schools, which objectively played a role in spreading Western music more widely. For example, they brought church hymns and some musical sketches from European bourgeois social activities, as well as some elementary piano works. In 1872, Christian missionary Di Jiulie published "Hymn Score" at the Meihua Library in Shanghai, which contained more than 360 religious hymn scores, as well as music method enlightenment, explanation of Western music theory, and the use of five-line notation. Its purpose It is for the convenience of missionary work. The tunes contained in this book are all popular religious music in Europe. In 1883, the British missionary Timothy Richard published "A Little Poetry Addition". In order to facilitate the spread of religion, the book used folk tunes familiar to the Chinese people as etudes. The spread of Western music by these missionaries played a certain positive role in the development of music in our country.

After the Revolution of 1911, the harmonium was widely used in schools and social life, and organ textbooks were published specifically for Chinese people to learn and use, such as the "Organ Textbook" compiled by the Japanese Suzuki Yonejiro in 1911 and translated by Xin Han; The "Organ Textbook" edited by Shubai discusses the types, structure, and playing methods of the organ. It also compiles etudes and applied music from the shallower to the deeper to facilitate scholars to practice and perform. In 1907, there was a Japanese who had been a music teacher in a Chinese school for many years. He collected various Peking Opera scores, recorded and organized them in five-line notation, and published the first and second volumes of "Collection of Folk Music of the Qing Dynasty". In 1915, someone used simplified musical notation to record the scores of opera and folk instrumental music, making it suitable for organ playing, and published the "Organ Opera Score", which included "Yu Shun Xun Fengqu", "Hua Liuban", and "Plum Blossom Three Lanes" Folk music and more than ten Peking Opera singing excerpts such as "Tian Shui Pass", "Hongyang Cave", "Wenzhao Pass", "Sanniang Goddess", "Second Entry into the Palace" and "Empty City Strategy". After the May 4th Movement, "Cantonese Opera Organ Score" was published. At that time, the organ was mostly used in primary and secondary education, and the middle and upper class also used it as an entertainment instrument in family and social activities. Therefore, using the organ to play folk music and opera singing became a temporary custom, which shows its wide spread. At this time, several organ factories were established in Beijing to produce organs to meet the needs of society.