I thought I would post this as I haven’t seen many Yamahas converted to Midi for Hauptwerk. A generous local fellow was looking for someone to use this organ. I was happy to oblige - I just had to pay the cost to move it. The organ played, but it was in poor repair. I wanted to preserve the original sounds and convert it to a midi instrument for Hauptwerk, but was unable to. The organ has 2 61 key manuals (upper and lower), and a 25 key pedalboard. It also has an expression pedal, 57 switches, 21 pistons, and 10 potentiometers.
I removed pretty much everything inside except for the switches, and I cleaned and vacuumed the unit inside and out. The original wiring harness was in fairly good condition, but it would have been far too time consuming to reuse the original wires. I used new ribbon cable instead. I decided to go with the Largonet (Midi Boutique) HWCE2, which appeared to be the most affordable option. I went for the package which included the 8x8 spreader boards.
To get the old switches to work with HWCE2, I matrixed the bussed keyboards. HWCE2 uses an 8x8 matrix, which is spread into 8 connectors on the spreader boards in the kit I bought, and I didn’t realize that the circuits need to be independent for each connector. That means, I had to isolate the switches in groups of 8 so that it would work - which was tricky because the original switches are grouped in groups of 6 or 7, and each group had a common bus bar. Luckily, each key had 4-8 switches per key, so I could split each group of 8 between different layers on the switches.
Finally got everything in working order. I bought some used yorkville monitors, or use the organ with my headphones. This unit was affordable and functional for my needs, and I think it looks quite nice. The only two sample sets I have at the moment besides the one included with Hauptwerk are MDA’s St. Georgenkirche and St. Eucaire. Very different organs, but both very beautiful. I attached some labels so I could use the stop tabs for registration.
At the moment all of the stop tabs at the top work, most of the switches and pistons, as well as the two 61 key keyboards, and the pedalboard. I still have the remaining switches and pistons to solder, as well as the expression pedal. The expression pedal has been the component that has been the trickiest to sort out. It uses a light sensor, which has a logarithmic resistance output. A friend of mine suggested I use an operational amplifier to convert the logarithmic resistance to linear. I’m not a pro electrical circuitry though, so I still have to figure that out! For the moment it works pretty well, so I have been practicing my favourite Bach pieces.
The organ itself.
I didn't have room for the speakers around the organ or on top, so I put them in front of my piano.
A closer picture of the manuals, with the labels for each stop.
This is the Wiring for the HWCE2 circuit board. I attached the circuit boards to the wooden base with metal hardware.
Here is the wiring of the top manual.
I removed pretty much everything inside except for the switches, and I cleaned and vacuumed the unit inside and out. The original wiring harness was in fairly good condition, but it would have been far too time consuming to reuse the original wires. I used new ribbon cable instead. I decided to go with the Largonet (Midi Boutique) HWCE2, which appeared to be the most affordable option. I went for the package which included the 8x8 spreader boards.
To get the old switches to work with HWCE2, I matrixed the bussed keyboards. HWCE2 uses an 8x8 matrix, which is spread into 8 connectors on the spreader boards in the kit I bought, and I didn’t realize that the circuits need to be independent for each connector. That means, I had to isolate the switches in groups of 8 so that it would work - which was tricky because the original switches are grouped in groups of 6 or 7, and each group had a common bus bar. Luckily, each key had 4-8 switches per key, so I could split each group of 8 between different layers on the switches.
Finally got everything in working order. I bought some used yorkville monitors, or use the organ with my headphones. This unit was affordable and functional for my needs, and I think it looks quite nice. The only two sample sets I have at the moment besides the one included with Hauptwerk are MDA’s St. Georgenkirche and St. Eucaire. Very different organs, but both very beautiful. I attached some labels so I could use the stop tabs for registration.
At the moment all of the stop tabs at the top work, most of the switches and pistons, as well as the two 61 key keyboards, and the pedalboard. I still have the remaining switches and pistons to solder, as well as the expression pedal. The expression pedal has been the component that has been the trickiest to sort out. It uses a light sensor, which has a logarithmic resistance output. A friend of mine suggested I use an operational amplifier to convert the logarithmic resistance to linear. I’m not a pro electrical circuitry though, so I still have to figure that out! For the moment it works pretty well, so I have been practicing my favourite Bach pieces.
The organ itself.
I didn't have room for the speakers around the organ or on top, so I put them in front of my piano.
A closer picture of the manuals, with the labels for each stop.
This is the Wiring for the HWCE2 circuit board. I attached the circuit boards to the wooden base with metal hardware.
Here is the wiring of the top manual.