Evening out organ volume across the keyboard

[stopmakingsense]

Like most brands of keyboards, I find that the Organ is louder when playing higher pitches. I'm always grabbing for the volume knob or drawbars, in the middle of solo's when going for the high notes, so I won't make ears bleed. Plus, I don't want to lose the subtleties, when soloing lower. I usually go direct stereo out of the keyboard into a stereo direct box to FOH, and monitor with 2 amps via the DI's thru

I'm looking for recommendations, to either even out the volumes with EQ before the direct box, or adjust with expression pedal. I'm even wondering if there is a small mixer that could replace my stereo direct box, while providing a multi-band graphic eq and give me stereo thru's/monitor outs to monitor with my amps.

Suggestions?

[stopmakingsense]

I'm going to give the EV5 pedal a try on the Swell port. I just read you can adjust the minimum on that pedal. The old Ensoniq Pedal was too sensitive, so I hadn't given the swell pedal solution a fair try.

[Music*aL]

Yamaha FC-7!!

[analogika]

a) higher frequencies will bite more, depending on your system, yes. You can use the Stage's internal EQ to attenuate the high end a bit. All my organ presets are heavily EQ'ed, with some distortion (a mix of EQ drive and rotary speaker drive).

b) a major part of organ technique is using the drawbars to shape the tone depending upon the context. For a solo, I'll often pull the upper drawbars a bit to give it more bite in the mix, rather than actually increasing the volume.

c) Swell pedal is another essential part of organ technique. No organist leaves the organ on maximum all the time. If they play standing up and don't have a swell pedal (my choice for the Stage is the aforementioned FC-7, as well), they'll jog the drawbars to adjust volume across different parts.

[Valpurgis]

Work the drawbars and expression pedal. Look up some youtube videos with Cory Henry to get some ideas. Or even better; also drive your clone thru a real Leslie which response is quite different than thru a PA or monitor speakers. A Leslie tames much of the aggressive high end off most clones.

[Elias]

...Or even better; also drive your clone thru a real Leslie...

This is tickling my GAS nerves even though I had nothing to do with this question.

[Kaffimusic]

Analogika gave good advice for active and alive organplaying. Follow that and you will get your sound better under control - especially that part with altering drawbars on the fly. And the EQing. Many people tend to raise high frequencies to "better cut through". This is not good in a mix and a dirty organ does not need so much treble.
One more option to have changing intesitiy of your drawbars in a tighter range is to use the compressor. It raises low and ducks high volumes.

[stopmakingsense]

Ditto to everything above. I would also suggest changing your global setting for the rotor/horn mix (biasing more to the rotor) to see how that sounds through your gear. Good luck!

[stopmakingsense]

Lots of useful advice here, thank you. I'm noticing that the FC7 seems to win out on previous threads. I tend to make my moves too fast sometimes. An EV5 will be arriving soon. One reviewer said the EV5 positioning is good for standing players, which I am. I also like the idea of setting a high minimum on the pedal, because I only envision using it to bring the swell volume down about 15% for when I'm on that highest Octave or so. Also wanted to mention that on lucky occasions, I've been able to plug my Stage 3 Compact into a Leslie 122. The Leslie smoothed those high notes off beautifully,

[analogika]

The stock Leslie balance in the sound settings on the Stage 3 is at 50/50 rotor/horn and far too bright and heavy on the horn IMHO.

I had it at 70/30 for a while, trying to get the beautifully balanced sound of the Stage 2 back, but settled for 60/40 eventually.