Organ Line-in

Has anyone used the organ line-in? Our Rodgers organs have a line-input that seems to work very well. We plan to use it this coming weekend for the audio from a couple of Tab Choir clips that will be shown in the adult session of stake conference. Since the organ output is already mixed into the house sound for the 2nd and 3rd overflows, it should be audible for everyone. The bass response from those large organ speakers is amazing, and sound is in stereo (L/R channels are reversed!). Tabernacle choir recordings almost sound like the actual organ is playing in the chapel.

Our stake center already has xlr cables running from the rostrum to the satellite cabinet, so it is trivial to use two of them connect a mixer output to the organ balanced line-in.

We had a post-young-women's camp fireside recently that included a video with a musical soundtrack. We wish we had thought at the time to use the organ for that!

You are fortunate in that you have a decent organ/AV setup like that. It's a good suggestion for those with newer buildings that have that capability.

aaronrsmith wrote:The bass response from those large organ speakers is amazing,...

When I was in Calif. (decades ago) we had a rash of meetinghouse breakins and the organ speakers were the first things they would go after. They are indeed very nice.

Now you've got me wondering if OUR organ has a line-in jack.

Mine has a line in and a midi jack. It's also nicer than the stock stake organ.

I'll have to look at the organ in the new chapel. That one screams "basic".

The line in could also be a handy backup if for some reason the main sound system died and a quick solution was needed to get audio restored until it could be fixed. That happened to us a few times when our Ivie controller died. I set up the speakers we use for YSA dances/activities so we could have audio for sacrament meetings but it was quite an eyesore. If it happens again I'll just use the line in on the organ (making sure to mix things correctly, of course).

Mikerowaved wrote:Now you've got me wondering if OUR organ has a line-in jack.

'Fraid not. It has some sort of card reader, but no audio line-in that I can find.

Mikerowaved wrote: 'Fraid not. It has some sort of card reader, but no audio line-in that I can find.

Did you look under the keyboards?

aaronrsmith wrote: Since the organ output is already mixed into the house sound for the 2nd and 3rd overflows, it should be audible for everyone.

The mixing of the organ feed into the house system is not standard. It varies from building to building based on the acoustics of the space, and the type of system installed.

It is in the standard mixer configuration for the Legacy stake center plan with three overflows. Heritage plans do not have it. I do not know about any other building layouts.

mfmohlma wrote:

Mikerowaved wrote: 'Fraid not. It has some sort of card reader, but no audio line-in that I can find.

Did you look under the keyboards?

I checked the organ in our newest chapel. It's a Johannus, installed about a year ago. It does have line-in (among other things), under the keyboard. But it's mounted flat against the underside of the keyboard where it's hard to see. It's a pair of 1/4" phone plugs.

But since this is a new chapel, it has a nice stereo line in with volume control next to the pulpit. Makes my life easy. Now, if I could get someone to reset the sensitivity of that input to "line". Right now, it's so sensitive that I get full volume if a just crack the volume open.

russellhltn wrote:

mfmohlma wrote:

Mikerowaved wrote: 'Fraid not. It has some sort of card reader, but no audio line-in that I can find.

Did you look under the keyboards?

I checked the organ in our newest chapel. It's a Johannus, installed about a year ago. It does have line-in (among other things), under the keyboard. But it's mounted flat against the underside of the keyboard where it's hard to see. It's a pair of 1/4" phone plugs.

But since this is a new chapel, it has a nice stereo line in with volume control next to the pulpit. Makes my life easy. Now, if I could get someone to reset the sensitivity of that input to "line". Right now, it's so sensitive that I get full volume if a just crack the volume open.

File an FIR request with the FM group. They will likely have to bring out a contractor to modify the configuration of the Audio Processor, so it may take a few weeks, but it shouldn't be as loud as you describe. There's also a change that the jack is faulty.

I'm curious if a line in can be added to an older organ. We have a 30+ year old chapel where the piano is in the far back corner and acoustically cannot be heard by a choir singing. However, the organ speakers are dead center in the back. If we could simply use those same speakers as a piano monitor for the choir our issues would be solved. With the organ and piano sitting right next to each other it would be simple to plug a mic into the organ. We've used a separate speaker for a piano monitor before but it's a pain to run the microphone to the speaker every time the choir sings. I guess I'll propose this to the FM group.

The organ line is line-level, so you would need a pre-amp or small mixer. It is unlikely that an input could be easily retrofitted to an organ not wired for it, and even less likely that FM will entertain the idea at all.

mprusse wrote:I'm curious if a line in can be added to an older organ.

If it doesn't already have one, I doubt if it can be added. But take a look at the underside of the keyboard. You might be pleasantly surprised. It's a location you'd never know about unless you went looking for it.