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Some thoughts on using the Harmony / Echo
#1
Some thoughts on using the Harmony / Echo
 
On my AR80 organ I had a feature called M.O.C (Melody On Chord). How it worked was this. Notes you played in your chord with your left hand were 'added' to the melody with the voice chosen for the melody, so when you played single notes you heard multiple notes being played. And of course they were 'in harmony' with the melody. The choices you had were very basic. One note added in; two notes added in; or three notes added in .. and always 'underneath' the melody. The general consensus was not to choose the three, as notes added in were too low and the melody sort of 'growled' at you.

And I remember it being said that this feature was for 'beginners' who couldn't play multiple notes as a 'proper' organist would. The MOC would fill the notes in for you so all you had to do was to play a single note melody line .. and sound like a professional organist! So I put it out of my mind that this could be a feature I would use.

It slowly dawned on me that yes, this could very well be the case if you chose 
one 'voice' for playing the melody. But what if you had (say) a piano playing the melody with no MOC applied; and another voice selected (eg. a choir) that did have the MOC applied. You would then get just the piano playing the melody as single notes; and the choir also singing the melody .. but with harmony notes added in. And by choosing two voices you could have the volumes set at different levels so the piano playing the melody was louder.

What an eye-opener 
that was! No longer was this a feature for a 'beginner' to use, but something amazing to use in an arrangement. With the organ, one could choose what is called a LEAD VOICE, which is Monophonic (ie. it will only play a single note; you can't play multiple notes) .. and Monophonic voices didn't have the MOC applied to them. So you would set the Piano up as a Monophonic voice and play a single note melody with it; and the Choir would be a normal Polyphonic voice with the MOC applied. The possibilities are endless! Piano and Strings?

With our keyboards it's much easier. We can apply the Harmony/Echo to just one of R1, R2 or R3 .. or all three of them. And you can choose whether to have those added notes 'under' or 'over' the melody. And even to have them 
not playing the melody at all.

A real opportunity to be creative here!

 
This whole topic was discussed in my Tierce-de-Picardie Forum before it closed, and I had also put a link up to it in the PSR Tutorial forum before that closed.  Luckily, I was able to SAVE what we had discussed as a WORD document .. which is below.  If you click on the LINK you will be able to read what was said .. and with a BOX LINK you will be taken straight to any audio/video content directly.  You can also download the WORD document if you so wish, but following the audio/video links from the downloaded document is not so direct.  Follow any instructions that appear when you click on an audio/video link.
 
https://app.box.com/s/v29frf8b9gtwbnfr8dd3bhagdufdzp1t

Hugh
It's all about the music!
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#2
@Hugh

Very good and interesting reminder article.
Reminder, because I have made the same experiences.

All of this was easy to get to work optimally with the Tyros1, but I have not been able to get this to work with later models, without having understood the reason.

With this article to help, I can probably get this working again with all my arrangers.


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#3
Hugh. Appreciate you sharing this article !!!
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#4
Ok the korg you can change a sound from monophonic or polyphonic. 
Im sure this can be done on the Tyros4.
General Music WK4, Technics Kn5000, Solton Ms60, Yamaha Psr K1, Tyros 4, Korg Pa50sd and Korg Pa700, Korg Pa5x Paas Mk2 Speaker and Yamaha Genos
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#5
Yes, voices are polyphonic .. but you can change them to monophonic by pressing the MONO button.

   

But there is a technique in playing voices in MONOPHONIC. You must lift your finger off the note before playing the next one or you will hear a 'slide' between one note and the next.
It's all about the music!
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#6
On the tyros i think you can set this in voice set mode.
General Music WK4, Technics Kn5000, Solton Ms60, Yamaha Psr K1, Tyros 4, Korg Pa50sd and Korg Pa700, Korg Pa5x Paas Mk2 Speaker and Yamaha Genos
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#7
Yes, that's right.

   

You go into VOICE SET and then you have the option of setting your voice to POLY (the 'default') or MONO.

   

Switching to MONO has the same effect as pressing the MONO button I mentioned earlier.

   

But of course this mode of playing isn't needed here, as the keyboard will play notes in POLY mode as normal and it's the HARMONY / ECHO choice that decides whether to add extra notes into R1, R2 or R3.  But to get the best effect you must play the melody notes individually. It was the AR80 (old technology) where your only way of preventing all the voices selected from having extra notes added into them was to make one of them MONO.
It's all about the music!
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#8
It’s all about the music!
 
I am amazed that my Tyros 4 (and the other keyboards, for that matter) will ‘fill in’ notes to the melody from the chords I am playing with my left hand, giving me a harmony even though I am only playing the melody with single notes.  Here is another example of how you can get a superb overall sound by using the HARMONY / ECHO.
 
Santa Lucia
 
Below are the chords I am playing for Santa Lucia.
It’s this harmony that will be picked up and added to the melody.
 
/ C - - / G7 - - / - - - / C - - /
/ C - - / G7 - - / - - - / C - - /
/ C - - / G7 - - / - - - / C - - /
/ A7 - - / Dm - - / G7 - - / C - - /
 
/ C7 - - / F - - / F#dim - - / C - - /
/ C - - / G7 - - / - - - / C - - /
/ C7 - - / F - - / F#dim - - / C - - /
/ C - - / G7 - - / - - - / C - - /
 
STYLE: Guitar Serenade, Tempo 95, Vol 100.
RIGHT 1: Concert Guitar, Vol 120.
RIGHT 2: Boys Ooh, Vol 70.
LEFT: Accomp Ooh, HOLD ON, Vol 50.
 
HARMONY / ECHO: COUNTRY DUET, ASSIGN R2, Volume 90.
 
The Harmony Echo is evident when playing the melody towards the end.  The harmony at the beginning is created from the chords played with a Left Hand Voice.
 
Click the below to hear how all this has turned out.
https://app.box.com/s/4kmax7cao780v0tw246di2q438guxzz3
And then or course, another very suitable genre of music to apply this technique to is ‘Church Music’, where you have your choir just waiting to join in!
 
The day though gavest Lord is ended
https://app.box.com/s/la37m6l5vlzlphhst3j3y8rkqouklyf3
STYLE: Ethereal Voices.
RIGHT 1: Soft Choir Ooh.
RIGHT 2: Orch Oboe.
LEFT: Dark Fat Saw, HOLD ON.
 
HARMONY / ECHO: STANDARD DUET, ASSIGN R1.
 
Again, the Harmony Echo is only applied later on in the recording.
 
Hugh
It's all about the music!
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