What is this? (Box on top of an electric organ)

[andrewferguson]

Whilst having a browse of Gumtree this morning, I noticed a listing for an Elka electric organ. What piqued my curiosity, however, was the box sitting on top. It's clearly something related to the organ, as it has a picture of piano keys on it, but it also has several LEDs and what looks like a plug-in cartridge. Additionally, it seems to have a "sheet" of music, which also appears to "plug in" to the box, with LEDs on this music sheet.

Is this some sort of training / teaching system?

I'm not going to link to the Gumtree listing as I don't want to break the rules, but the organ is an Elka E19. The pictures I've attached to this post are from the listing.

[McMurdo]

I would say it's a teaching aid, the keys light up as the song plays. Some organs had them built in, though I can't remember which.

[duncanlowe]

Don't know what it is, but believe its called an Elkasong. From what I can make out it's an accessory to the organ that you plug in a cartridge with a particular song. The electronic music stand I can't find much reference to.

EDIT: Elkasong appears to be the general name for Elka instruments. It's an Elkasong Accessory unit. Judging by one thing I found, it was used by a very proficient organist so unlikely to be a teaching aid.

[andrewferguson]

Aha, thank you Duncan, the key phrase "Elkasong Accessory unit" has turned up a few more results. Several of them appear to be professional-looking black-plastic or metal units, which appear to be closer to drum machines than the unit in this Gumtree listing I found.

However with the search term "Elkasong Accessory unit" I was able to find a result on ebay that had close-up pictures which I have attached below. (I haven't linked to the listing because of the forum rules, but that's no real loss as the seller clearly doesn't know anything about it either and just lists it as completely untested and sold as-is).

Now, with these images, can anyone give a clue as to what this unit was actually used for?

Edit: I've also spotted an image of one of the cartridges that plugs into the organ on Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F..._cartridge.jpg By zooming in you can just about read the text of the eight different songs that it contains.

[SeanStevens]

Using 8 track tapes.... My Dad had a drum machine that looked similar. Each track had a different drum recorded on it - so you could vary the drum pattern. There were also several 8 track tapes of differing beats.

You could vary the speed of playback too.

SEAN

[andrewferguson]

Originally Posted by SeanStevens

Using 8 track tapes.... My Dad had a drum machine that looked similar. Each track had a different drum recorded on it - so you could vary the drum pattern. There were also several 8 track tapes of differing beats.

Interesting idea, but it doesn't use 8 track tapes - there are definitely pins between the cartridge and the main unit.

[GMB]

Most likely the cartridge is just EPROM memory, rather like laser printers used to have.

So just a simple matter of getting one, reverse engineering the data, building a replacement, designing the data for it and programming it.

[locknut]

There's been a very similar looking organ at a local auction for a few weeks with no takers, I noticed today that it had moved outside into the rain, pending smashing up for the skip.

Rather sad end, it was in working order... and it's not the first I've seen end up in the skip.

[Joe_Lorenz]

Indeed a very sad ending!

Well, if you see someone moving a Hammond C3 outside in the rain please let us know!

Regards, Joe

[andrewferguson]

Originally Posted by locknut

There's been a very similar looking organ at a local auction for a few weeks with no takers, I noticed today that it had moved outside into the rain, pending smashing up for the skip.

Rather sad end, it was in working order... and it's not the first I've seen end up in the skip.

That is indeed a sad end. I don't suppose it came with any of the cartridges that could quietly be.... acquired once it is in the skip?

The one that caused me to start off this thread isn't even working (the lower keyboard apparently cuts in and out). I have half a mind to send a quick message to the seller asking that if there's no interest and it's going to be skipped, would they be able to send just the box and it's cartridge to me. I could then do a disassembly (and perhaps dump the ROM). Unless there's anyone here in the Tyne and Wear area that wants a project?

If you look back in my post history you'll see I tried to give away an electric organ a could of years back... no takers, unsurprisingly, although I did manage to send the keyboard to a member here, and someone off Freecycle took the pedal board to repair their organ.

[Lucien Nunes]

It looks like an accompaniment generator. The EPROM would contain the chords and possibly drum machine patterns for the song, which the unit would play while you play along with the melody. The custom music on the stand looks like a lead sheet i.e. only the melody line and chord symbols, with its bars printed in standardised positions, to coincide with LEDs in the stand that indicate which bar of the accompaniment the machine is playing. On the left it looks like there are buttons to select which key it will play the accompaniment in, so that you are not compelled to play in the key of the printed music. On the right it appears to display the chords it is generating.

As such it would fall somewhere between teaching aid, prop for the lazy player and pure gadget. The electronic organ world in this era was full of gadgets that promised to enable you to play like a pro overnight. Unsurprisingly, they fell short of that goal. Really skilled organists could sometimes repurpose the gadgets to add extra functionality over the full use they were already making of the normal organ resources. If this one does control the percussion generator then it probably gives more satisfaction than the typical simplistic one-bar repetitive rhythms integral with most organs.

I am a member of a facebook group for electronic organ collectors and people formerly in the organ trade. I will ask about it there.

[D.Finney]

I remember seeing something similar in a music shop in Leeds C.1987 except it was a piano and would play automatically when (presumably) pre programmed cards were inserted into a slot. Modern take on the pianola.

[lesmw0sec]

I recall messing around with one of those 'smart' organs. You could select a rhythm & style and the organ would supply the chords and a base line to whatever one-finger tune you attempted. It was quite interesting to hear the base line tyring to make sense of my obvious mistakes!

[Lucien Nunes]

That is a more conventional type of accompaniment device, playing along with your tune, rather than you playing along with it as in the case of the Elkasong.

There were many variations on the theme. E.g. my Wurli 950TA has two gadgets that play notes for you. There's the accomp function itself that takes over the lower manual and converts the keys into single-finger chord selectors for a walking or oompah bass in your choice of six or seven keys, either major, minor or 7th. Curiously the LSI chip that generates the chords also has a select pin for minor 7ths but there is no transistor or diode row in the key decode matrix to control it. Then there is 'Chord Magic' that works like an intelligent inter-manual coupler. You can either play a normal chorded accompaniment with your left hand or use the accomp function, and it will detect the chord type and key and play a similar chord in an appropriate inversion under any melody line that you play on the solo manual. This one is vaguely useful but the other gadgets are junk, as is the functionality level of the drum machine, even on this top-of-the-range instrument that sold for a five figure price ticket in the late 70's. The "Böhmat" rhythm unit within or added to the Dr. Böhm organs of that era knocks its socks off.

Where the Elkasong differs is that it more or less plays the instrument for you like a Disklavier or player piano, minus the part you are supposed to play from the lead sheet if you can keep up with the fairy lights twinkling through the music. How naff is that?

[Radio Wrangler]

Seriously naff. Relegates the player to the role of an automaton.

David

[locknut]

Originally Posted by Joe_Lorenz

Indeed a very sad ending!

Well, if you see someone moving a Hammond C3 outside in the rain please let us know!

If it's large, heavy and has keyboards, it usually ends up in the skip regardless. It seems such a shame.

I'll keep an eye out for the Hammond when it turns up

[locknut]

Originally Posted by andrewferguson

That is indeed a sad end. I don't suppose it came with any of the cartridges that could quietly be.... acquired once it is in the skip?

Sadly, just a bare organ with no extra bits.

Anything can be acquired once destined for the skip. The auctioneers have to pay for the skips, so they are happy for customers to help themselves. You could even go beserk and buy organs out of the auction, they usually can't even get a pound for them.

I've had a few good skip finds, it's really odd - sometimes find better stuff in there than the auction. There were two nearly identical Beovision 9000?s and a Ferguson colour portable sat out there before Christmas. Unfortunately, the weather had got at them a bit, and I only have so much room - the portable came home with me and worked perfectly once dried out. They didn't even bother to auction those, just dumped them outside.