Rest of the orchestra didn't show, so fine, I'll play it myself.

January 16, 2016 7:47 AM

Youtube user 826aska plays an impressive Star Wars medley on her electric organ, adding her own creative twist. (slyt)
posted by polywomp (30 comments total)

how does the machine know when to change voices? is it programmed to recognise a certain note sequence? or timed? or am i imagining things?
posted by andrewcooke at 7:53 AM on January 16, 2016

I love that she's using what looks like tiny Apple earbuds to listen to all this bombastic lush sound. Holst and Wagner never had it so good.
posted by Nelson at 7:56 AM on January 16, 2016

Maybe the foot petals? There appear to be quite a few of them.
posted by polywomp at 7:57 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Check out her other videos, there are a number of pretty fantastic pieces...
posted by HuronBob at 8:00 AM on January 16, 2016

the left foot seems to be playing bass. but maybe the right is switching voices?

(this looks too easy. there should be a video where she juggles too /s)
posted by andrewcooke at 8:00 AM on January 16, 2016

The OP video segued me right into the same girl playing the Totoro theme. She's pretty incredible.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:16 AM on January 16, 2016

The Imperial March (starting up around 2:45) looks like it's a lot of fun to play.
posted by figurant at 8:26 AM on January 16, 2016

And Back to the Future? And two different arrangements of the Lupin III theme? I need to stop so I don't watch these all day.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:27 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

I also wondered how the instrumentation was changed as she played. I think the right pedal is the volume control. Does anyone know the brand or model of the keyboard?
posted by DarkForest at 8:28 AM on January 16, 2016

Impressive. Most impressive.
posted by mhoye at 8:31 AM on January 16, 2016 [7 favorites]

It does look like she has a lot of the voice changes pre-programmed. If you look, when the voices change, the lights where an organ stop knob would normally be change. I don't know much about entirely electric organs, but I'd have to guess those lights are also buttons and it is possibly pre-programmed.

The pedal board is used to play the lower notes and the pedal her right foot rests on the entire time is volume. The term "pedal tones" applies to brass instruments but comes from the notes played with the pedals of a pipe organ. To change voices on a pipe organ, the stops are pulled in and pushed out. Watch Olivier Latry play Widor. At 4:04 and again at 4:10, you can see the stop knobs move and the voices change. While you can manually move the stop knobs one at a time, his hands are a bit busy, so he has the switch of the bunch of them tied to a foot switch, which you can see him reach for.

Organs are also where the phrase "pulling out all of the stops" comes from. More information on organ stops on wikipedia. Another Widor piece by Larry where you can see him play the pedal board with both feet (and my personal favorite Widor piece).
posted by Brian Puccio at 8:32 AM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]

Superb! Hopefully someone sent this to John Williams...
posted by jim in austin at 8:36 AM on January 16, 2016

If you look, when the voices change, the lights where an organ stop knob would normally be change.

Yes, and the drum synth is clearly preprogrammed as well. (Not implying that takes anything away from her talent, just a comment about the tech.)
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:39 AM on January 16, 2016

Sounded great. Very impressed with her abilities.

Just one question. What was the third button from the left on the top row for? I got the rest.
posted by AugustWest at 9:27 AM on January 16, 2016

It's a Yamaha Electone STAGEA. It looks like changing voices according to a timed sequence is definitely a feature. You can also cycle through a custom list of voices with the small footswitch on the right side of the pedal. And the footswitch on the left side can be used to either cycle through the rhythm sections (which can also be sequenced), trigger a glide effect, or trigger a rotary speaker effect.
posted by umrain at 9:43 AM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

Nicely done! My guess is that the ear buds are not for listening to the audio from the keyboard, but rather for hearing a click track, which would be synced to the pre-recorded percussion parts and provides a reference point for the software that changes the sounds in a predetermined sequence.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 9:51 AM on January 16, 2016 [4 favorites]

Oh it's a budding Lady-in-the-Box! These demos were always my favorite at the local festival and actually they rotate a lot of players and it's awesome. More.
posted by damo at 10:00 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Love those Yamaha Electones. Yamaha stopped selling them in the US a while back. You might also enjoy ameri1122's channel.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:06 AM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

It looks like, specifically, she's using a Yamaha Electone ELS-01C. Yamaha sure makes a lot of different keyboards.
posted by neckro23 at 10:06 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is the place to go if you must have one. All I do is look.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:25 AM on January 16, 2016

685000 ¥ = $5854 US
If you've been in a Steinway showroom lately, you won't be too surprised.
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:36 AM on January 16, 2016

The earphone she's wearing probably gives her a click track or something so she can stay synchronized with the pre-programmed voice changes. Which is not at all cheating. She probably recorded herself playing it without voice changes, programmed the changes, and then uses the click track (or maybe even just the recording of herself, although that seems like would be harder) to stay together with her previous performance.
posted by straight at 11:38 AM on January 16, 2016

She's amazingly talented, and that's a very clever gadget she's playing, but I don't think I'd call it an organ. This is Star Wars on an organ.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:46 PM on January 16, 2016

I think this guy wins.
posted by lagomorphius at 4:22 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Haha, these are all amazing! Eddington is magnificent, but to be fair to 826aska, not everyone gets to play the Sanfilippo Wurlitzer (with real percussion?!?!). I mean, really.
posted by switcheroo at 5:35 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

I haven't had this much fun since Superman Visited Trinity Wall Street.
posted by cleroy at 7:25 PM on January 16, 2016

In Europe the big electronic organ is the Wersi (a plethora of models). Klaus Wunderlich was the artist famous for making it sing. Here's his Star Wars leading off a medley from 1984. Dig the video processing!

Going back to the late 1940's when the Hammond was king Ethel Smith rocked the house with her Latin-tinged nightclub act. She was such a hit that MGM put her in some Esther Williams films and Walt Disney included her in the Blame It On The Samba section of Melody Time. Legend has it that I used to live in her and Ralph Bellamy's old apartment at The Parc Vendome.
posted by cleroy at 7:49 PM on January 16, 2016

Another version by another talented YouTube user (atokun111kyusyu) who also does several other popular themes, some in costume. Her Back to the Future dressed as Godzilla is a favorite of mine.
posted by Quasimike at 8:22 PM on January 16, 2016

The start of the new movie sounded off to me. I didn't remember it sounding so eerie. After a minute it hit me that I was missing the 20th Century Fox fanfare that always preceded the slight hush like the orchestra was drawing a big breath before starting the actual Star War theme. But, since they sold to Disney, that was gone so it was just eerie silence until "Star Wars" splashed up on the screen.

Even this lovely medley doesn't sound right to me without it.
posted by VTX at 5:38 AM on January 17, 2016

I cannot resist bumping this thread again.
posted by lagomorphius at 9:57 AM on January 31, 2016