Adding distortion to organ sound..

[Martin]

Hi everyone! ;)
It's a "strange" subject for the topic.. it seems i'm in trouble of adding distortion on a synth.. but this time is another problem. Here's why ;)

.. this is my problem: i've got an arranger keyboard.. and i can't add distortion to sounds with this keyboard.
We've a concert the 12th of december.. and we're also going to play Deep Purple (adding of course Dream Theater and our pieces ;) )
... Jon Lord played a disto organ.. i always played his songs in the band with just an organ sound.. but WITHOUT distortion (he would probably kill me :P .. sorry Lord of the Hammond! ;) )

I had an idea.. and what about if i put the output jack of my keyboard into a distortion pedal for guitar (just for these songs of course! just to add the needed distortion to the organ sound)... would i damage my keyboard?? Please give me any suggestions! I need them! and of course i don't want to damage my little keyboard!! ;)

Thank you very much for your care! ;)

[Spacehog]

Wouldn't damage the keyboard, you might have to keep the output volume quite low though to avoid overloading the distortion pedal (they're designed for much lower input levels). Shouldn't do any damage, just not sound brilliant. Alternatively get an A/B box and route one side to a guitar amp with distortion, the other to your normal keyboard amp.

Martin

[Martin]

Mmmm so it wouldn't damage my keyboard ;)
but it wouldn't sound that brilliant... i've only to try then! ;) If i like the sound i'll use it! ;) thanx!

Anyone of you know how did Jon Lord add distortion to his Hammond? He hadn't a synth, had him? :P

[Tusker]

Anyone of you know how did Jon Lord add distortion to his Hammond? He hadn't a synth, had him? :P

Lord played a Hammond B3 through a stack of Marshall tube amps, which provided the scream.

Hammond B3 distortions typically come from two sources. the overloading (distortion) of the B3 pre-amp and the overloading of the output amp (leslie, marshall). The overloading of the preamp provides a warm smoky sound. If you overload a leslie you get more of a Keith Emerson sound, more sizzle than a roar. The way you get the roar of jon lord is to do it how he did it. Run it through a marshall stack.

A distortion/ovedrive pedal, digital efx, or running (part of) the signal through a tube amp are all ways to get the bloom.

The tone you get depends on how bright you basic organ tone is and how you do the gain staging. For example, depending on the gain staging you can get a more mellow sound out of a distortion pedal than an amp. Pedals tend to be noisy but you can get some great tones with them.

Most arranger keyboards have a digital efx, you might play with sending some organs through an overdrive EFX or amplifier simulator to see how close you can get to a Jon Lord sound. Some keyboards have organ samples with leslie (swirl) sampled in. That way, you can have your leslie and your distorted bloom too. Thats my typical technique for Jon Lordish things. I prefer to control the tone from one place (my keyboard). I use those kinda tones quite a bit.

Just experiment and you'll find some nice tones.

Cheers,

Jerry

[Martin]

Wow that's great! Thank you Tusker for your patience! ;)