Mike Oldfield medley on Philicorda

A medley from Tubular Bells 1 and 2 and Ommadawn by Mike Oldfield, played by me on the Philicorda (sent though a Korg MS2000's Ensemble effect).

Sound quality is bad due to being recorded by the camera's microphone. In reality, the sound is not as sharp, has more low and overall sounds more smoothly and lush than in this video. The glissando sounds like killing the phili' in the video, in reality it sounds very healthy though :-). For some reason the camera's microphone really exaggerates the key sound.

I mess up big time only once, so that's quite alright... ;-)

I'm sorry for standing in front of the camera from time to time.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mike
• oldfield
• philips
• philicorda
• organ
• tubular
• bells
• ommadawn
• medley
• korg
• MS
• 2000
• MS2000
• synthesizer
• analog

[sadim31]

i found an organ just like this one and i can play piano, but i have no clue what all the buttons (on the left) are for, could someone explain please? tnx alot ^^

[Nicolasherdwick]

Think of it as a pipe organ. First three: longest, medium, short pipes. You can choose one or multiple at the same time.

Other toggle switches: voices. Think of it as different sounds. Again, you can choose one or multiple at the same time. In general: more to the left is a more dark voice, more to the right brighter. Voice 3 has an extra oscillator mixed in.

Rightmost toggle switches: enable/disable reverb and tremelo. IIRC.

All from memory; I sold the organ some years ago.

[Nicolasherdwick]

To expand: with the pipe lengths, you choose the basic sound of the organ. Longer pipes add more bass, shorter more highs. From these basic pipes sounds, you filter with the voices buttons to get the final result.

Examples: long pipes with voice 1 give a very bassy sound. Short pipes with voice 1 give very little at all. All 3 pipe lengths with voice 1 give a bassy sound with a hint of higher frequencies. All 3 pipes with voice 1 and voice 5 give a bassy sound with a high one on top.Trial&er

[Nicolasherdwick]

"tremelo" should be "vibrato".

Finally the rotary buttons:

1 and 2 add reverb (echo like sound) and vibrato (a vibrating pitch change, a bit like a Leslie speaker).

Volume is volume. For the remainder I forgot which does what exactly, but anyway you have the following functions:

-mixing in an external source

-choosing full keyboard, auto chords on the left, different sound on the left.

-maybe also balance between auto chords and normal sound.

Anyway, just try them out and see.

[Nicolasherdwick]

To finish it all off: you can also add a volume pedal (swell pedal) to it.

I might be slightly mistaken on the rotary buttons, but I think I nailed the rest. Correct me/complete me where necessary. This way, these posts can act as a reference for all corda users.

As far as the connectors go: Triangle is swell pedal, triangle inside oblong is line output, square with extended right-hand side is headphones, Circle with line coming from it is tape or record player input (for mixing in...).

[Nicolasherdwick]

Thanks for all the nice words everyone! Great to read one of my favourite Youtube musicians liked my contribution!

[Desmaad]

The first part of Tubular Bells sounds extra creepy on this organ!

[sadim31]

awesome :D helped me alot :D

[QuirinusLaurelin]

Pretty smooth sound! I borrowed an old philicorda from a friend. I want to try it out for my new record... since I am no keyboard player it will be not so easy.

[gcalvanetten]

Currently trying to get my hands on one of these... and this video was a big reason why!

The Tubular Bells melodies are of very nostalgic value to me, sends me right back to the backseat of the car on a 18-hour trip for our annual holiday, my dad often played mike oldfield on those trips.

Love the vid, keep it up! :)

- G

[FlametopFred]

I like it. That's pretty good for the limitations of the instrument. Funky little keyboard. Cheers.