Playing the Organ

Changing the Organ Sound (Wheel Type, Leakage Level)

Tone Wheel and Leakage Noise are important elements in creating tone wheel organ sounds.

Tone wheel

Tone wheels are the ninety-one metal disks that produce the sound on tone wheel organs. Teeth are cut into the edge of each disk, and sound is generated by rotating the disks past an electrical coil at a fixed speed. The VK-8 digitally simulates the tone wheel mechanism of a tone wheel organ, and thus provides the rapid response and full polyphony that characterize these instruments.

The sounds that are produced by the tone wheels of a tone wheel organ are not precisely pure sine waves, since they are affected by the manufacturing precision of the wheel and by the characteristics of the analog circuitry. However, it is these imperfections in the waveform that give a tone wheel organ its unique character.

Leakage Noise

On tone wheel organs, the sound of the note that was pressed was slightly “contaminated” by audio signals from tone wheels not related to that note. Formerly, this was seen as a problem, but today this idiosyncrasy is considered an important element of the distinctive sound of a vintage organ.

Tone Wheel type

Selects the type of tone wheel.

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1Press the [TONE WHEEL] button to select the type of tone wheel.

Each time you press the [TONE WHEEL] button, the tone wheel will switch between the following settings.

Type

Explanation

 

 

 

 

VINTAGE1

A tone wheel that simulates the tone wheel organs of the

70’s.

 

 

 

VINTAGE2

A tone wheel that simulates the tone wheel organs of the

60’s.

 

 

 

CLEAN

A tone wheel with no leakage noise.

 

 

Leakage Noise

Separately from the leakage noise selected by the Tone Wheel Type, you can add leakage noise independently.

2 Turn the [LEAKAGE] knob.

Turning the knob toward the left will decrease the volume of the leakage noise, and turning it toward the right will increase the volume of the leakage noise.

NOTE

If the “VINTAGE1” or “VINTAGE2” wheel type is selected, there will still be some leakage noise even if the [LEAKAGE] knob is turned all the way to the left.

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Roland VK-8 Changing the Organ Sound Wheel Type, Leakage Level, Tone Wheel type, Leakage Noise, Turn the Leakage knob