Adapting Eddie's Amp Trick 

It's good to have you back! Soundpacks, music and more: patreon.com/hainbach

you could totally use that kind of trick with the pedals used with sewing machines, they are pedals controlling the motor speed by controlling the voltage

this, not unlike a slowed down accordeon, feels incredibly maritime and melancholic to me for a reason. lovely.

I got a cheap fan organ years ago, and a trick I used to do was to hold all the keys at once and then turn it on. It produced a creepy crescendo, like an choir of ghosts. Definitely worth a try!

A speed controller on a fan organ. I always thought of that when I was younger. Can't wait to see how it works out.

organ: slow jackhammer noises Hainbach: *enthusiastic thumbs up*

That held chord at the end took me places.

It's like opening an especially lush filter! Beautiful sounds ❤

I found a Farafasa fan organ from the 50s sitting in a flooded drive. After seeing it there for day after day I finally stopped and picked it up. It was so full of mud and dirt. I really didn’t think it would work and only wanted to sacrifice the Keys. Discovering that the only thing inside being a blower I decided to clean it up and try it. This thing sounds beautiful. It took me 2days to clean all the mud out of it. Surprisingly the water and mud didn’t cause any major damage and it looks so good just sitting below my MS20. I was wanting to put a pickup in it and use it with the 20s ESP. It’s channels like yours that inspires me to resonate at my fullest potential. Thanks for the great content.

As a guitarist who’s heavily influenced by Eddie Van Halen, amongst many others, and done all sorts of stuff in search of their own take on that “Brown Sound” I am loving every little bit of this. Now go the extra mile - pick up a 5150, the Eddie Van Halen amp, and plug this into that!! That amp works some sort of midrange magic to anything you run into it, and I even use it for part of my bass guitar tones

The Internet exists for videos like this. I really love this idea and the thought behind it. My first keyboard was a toy piano when I was 4, and my second was a fan-powered table top organ with about two octaves, but it wasn't cool like yours. Your Harmona is extremely cool-sounding and this is a really cool hack.

That’s a great solution for the lack of dynamics on a fan organ that I personally solved by ditching my fan organ for a much larger and older pump organ, but this is very cool and it does sound beautifully melancholic.

Not with a variac, but when the motor broke in my Hammond organ and I needed it for a gig that night, I tore a DC motor and speed controller out of an electric golf bag cart thing I got from the rubbish. It didn't stay in tune very well, but the wild expressiveness was a lot of fun

Oh wow That's an absolutely beautiful sound

Sounds super similar to the harmonium used on Radiohead’s Motion Picture Soundtrack. Sounds gorgeous!

That was so calming, thank you!

Brings me back to my first compositions in 68-69 with a Magnus electric organ. As for the trick of blocking keys to play hands-free chords, we used folded Paris métro tickets - A tip shared both with Sergio Macédo (in our two head band BэM) and Tim Blake of Hawkwind and Crystal Machine fame: we all lived in the East of Paris at this happy times.

Excellent! I love your musical mind. You've so much creative thinking that inspires me to also find new ways to hear the world. Thank you, Hainbach.

That sounds amazing. The perfect ambient music machine.

Ooh damn I like that. I have a Selmer Companion 49 fan organ so I'll have to buy a regulator to breath some life into it. By which I mean, breath less life into it 🤔💨

Very nice fan organ! the man i bought one from had a foot pedal from an old sewing machine, for the trick you did. thanks for the video.

Variac's are great. Not only can they help with servicing caps, they make good dumbbells !

That sounds so beautiful!

I love this! Coming from a guitar background I have used this technique with other things before but never would’ve thought to use it on something like this! It’s beautiful!

I love the creaking

I actually have one of these. It has an amp plug-in and small internal microphone that picks up the sound of the reeds. I can then use pedal effects to warp the sound. It's pretty fun!

Love this videos about synthesizers made in GDR 😀

What a cool instument!!

Oh wow! That worked beautifully. The held notes droning in the background really opened up my soul. You have conquered the impossible and turned a plain old fan organ into a beautiful Synth. That third sound was really nice. It had a bit of a vibrato to it.

Hainbach: Hears a weird sound Hainbach's hand: Instinctive thumbs up

Oh cooool! Your last video about the electric harmonium* inspired me to try a similar idea, but in the mechanical realm instead of the electrical: I cut a big hole into a fan harmonium's wind chest, and covered it with an airtight flap. Gradually opening the flap kills the air pressure inside the instrument and filters the sound. I found that opening/closing the flap is much more responsive and expressive than adjusting the fan power, which takes a longer time to have an effect. I'm wanting to find a way to make this flap mechanism even more playable. Maybe a cable system, like a remote hi-hat pedal? Or a lever that you can play with your thumb while your fingers are on the keys. *specifically, that bit about notes fading out slowly when you flip the power switch.

You could make really accurate-sounding Minecraft music with this

havent seen something like this in almost 30 years thank you! my grandfather had a weird organ collection and these organs tucked into cases was right in his alley.

what a brilliant idea !

This might be the most melancholic instrument I've ever heard, even without the variac trick. Somehow, the atmosphere it creates also reminds me of the game "Disco Elysium". I think if you ever played that game (with music by British Sea Power) for a while, you know what I mean...

You have the PERFECT accent to go with that voice. So comfy, and Teutonic enough to inspire confidence in you, somehow? IDK it's just wonderful to listen to. Like that organ!

""good to have you back"love Sylvia Massy's video as well.💙

Assigning the variac to a a foot pedal would really work.

Beautiful technique my friend! Love your explorations in sound! 👏

Oh my word, that is a beautiful keyboard!

Best episode so far. So interesting.

I never should've guessed a "variac" can be this useful for making such beautiful sounds with mains powered instruments! 😮 👍

This is so cool…like an harmonium

sooooooooo cool... nicely done HAINBACH!

wOOOW.....that sounds super-luscious!

sehr geiler Sound 🥰. Danke!!

Das is´ja mal großartig..! 👍

that low f# is chef's kiss

Eurorack enthusiasts: let me tell you about VC Hainbach: let's go full EVH and get a Variac!

That sounds beautiful 🖖

you know at this point every new video you make just makes me want to see a plugin version of whats featured in the video because it all sounds so just perfect

Beautiful sounds 🤎 As a teenager I was a huge fan of Van Halen sound but never heard of this "brown sound" story. Really interesting !

Breathtaking sound!

I want one!!

Wow. Stunning

Depending on what type of motor that organ uses, this trick may or may not be a bit risky. A lot of small motors used in devices like that are synchronous induction motors, their speed is primarily controlled by the frequency of the AC source. When you first start the motor, they produce very little torque and only become efficient once they reach optimal speed. By only decreasing the voltage and not the frequency, you are forcing the motor to operate in its inefficient region, which will cause the motor to have very little torque and generate more heat. It can also cause the speed to be unstable and potentially cause the motor to stall, which can overheat the motor and permanently damage it. The Variac isn't really an ideal induction motor speed control for that reason. A VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) would be a more appropriate method to alter motor speed. While it appears to work okay with this device, keep in mind that there is a chance of damage if you continue to use it that way, and other devices might not tolerate the reduced voltage as well.

Such an awesome sci-fi-nils-frahm vibe emanating 🙏🏻

It almost sounds like a pipe organ, didn't know these had such potential!

I was pretty surprised by the mention of Zwota and Klingenthal. It's a 10 minute drive from where I'm at, in Markneukirchen. They're all towns deep in the Musikwinkel of the Vogtland in Saxony. Really strange seeing this stuff from my direct area on your channel!

I loved seeing you stick the bits of card in the keys haha, I do this with my old indian harmonium because its drone doesnt work haha

Oh wow, that sounds awesome!

It's weird how Hainbach has better audio quality outside than most people have in quiet rooms.

Thats my hood. Hainbach was here and I’ve missed it

The whole “In through the outdoor” album from Led Zeppelin gives the impression that it was made with Brown Sounds.

Awesome, awesome sounds! Thank you so much for sharing :)

Excellent. As always

Fantastic! Thanks!

I always thought it was ween that had developed the brown sound.🤔 Very nice.

There's a dark 80s vibe to this, for sure.

Probably the biggest voltage controlled oscillator around!

Beautiful! Love your vids.

And now you’ve got an ADSR for your fan organ.

Guter Stoff für's Ohr.

Oh wow, it's so sombre yet full of so much texture and interest! I could see this being suited really well to make soundtracks for slow artistic films... What a cool find :D

This reminds me of my beautiful acoustic reed organ. Can only but recomend one if you hae the space. They have a beautiful character to them

I am an accordionist and use the « in between » register all the time. It’s possible to get note bends and all kind of weird harmonics from the reed when the air pressure is stronger.

Wow, what a great idea! I was so enthused by it that I tried plugging my laptop power supply into a Variac, and now my beats sound much warmer and browner! Only problem is that the laptop battery seems to run out, even though the power supply is plugged in! Weird. ;)

You are amazing!

mega mega nice 🙂

Not all 'electronics' take kindly to reducing the voltage, their circuits will just stop working below a threshold voltage, and may even pass more current which could destroy it btw, if you got a variable frequency drive (vfd), you would be able to control the speed of the fan without reducing the voltage, some vfd's will go higher than 50/60hz

00:21 This is the start of a weird movie! ..."Grandfather used be musician, worked in the theater, collected instruments" this sounds like Hainbach. The younger current Hainbach is actually buying from himself, the previous Hainbach from his last life but doesn't know it. Flashbacks happen as he gets reacquainted with this old fan organ. More coincidences as Hainbach slowly comes to realise he has been a musician through the ages. Some kind of Moon, Highlander, Angel Heart movie but totally different. It needs some work.

yes EVH used some kind of variac to lower the voltage powering his marshall amps. the inevitable result was that after some time one of the transformers would burn out.

Hainbach, maybe you could have someone help you build the voltage regulator into a pedal, with the voltage dialed in to the sweet spot. Kinda like an expression pedal.

Wow! That organ would be perfect for some apocalyptic shit

2:45 remembers me of Out of This World (game) soundtrack

7:30 ooooh 😄

Oh man, about 15 years ago we inherited an old Farfisa Pianorgan from my wifes family. I am so gonna have to try this on that...

Certainly brings out the character of the instrument.

I always though/read it as 'Very-yack' (like in Pontiac, maniac, insomniac, cardiac, aphrodisiac), and only now I see the AC at the end may have a meaning of its own.

yeah thats super cool, well done homie

smooth !

I use a Variac on my soviet TOM 1501 to get the proper 220VAC to power it, but does very interesting things when run at much lower voltages.

❤ genial

I recently picked up an Italian fan organ locally for next to nothing. As soon as I heard it I thought I need to work on a controller for the fan, maybe a replacement (or additional) DC fan which I can more easily control, perhaps CV controlled.

Some pretty somber timbres

My reed organ does this if I leave the heating on in the winter and dry it out a little too much. It comes right again in the summer months.

I wonder if there's a way to automate the voltage amp with an LFO or something to change the voltage smoothly.

I've had harmona 85 in the past, they are quite common here in Poland, the legacy of the communist era, because they were produced in Weltmeister factory in east Germany. According (haha) to my experience with fan organ, this one is good craft compared to the many cheap and awful sounding plastic chord organs. My harmona had even a factory fitted fan controller (potentiometer on the front) but the range was much smaller. It changed mainly the volume, and slightly the attack.

This sounds perfect for old school dungeon synth and it's not even a synth

Gonna get myself harmonium now, cuz it sounds very similar to accordion