[sdiy] One Octave Foot Pedal Project

[WeAreAs1 at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/10/04 1:24:21 PM, harrybissell at prodigy.net writes:

<< You should see some good organist play with both feet...and
really fast !!! >>

Yes, it is impressive, but what people don't realize is that most organists 
are actually using their left hand to play all the fast bass lines.  The feet 
are just adding fatness and accent notes.  Jimmy Smith, Joey DiFrancesco, 
Chester Thompson (old Tower of Power)... those guys use their left hand for all 
that ripping walking bass stuff.  They can indeed do some impressive stuff with 
their feet, but they don't, for the most part, it's their fingers doing the 
walking.  That having been said, E. Power Biggs, the great pipe organ master, 
could play incredible stuff with his feet (listen to his Bach performances 
sometime -- it sounds like two great organists are playing at once).  This is no 
easy feat (ouch) on a pipe organ, since there is usually a very long and 
noticeable delay between the time of hitting the note and actually hearing it come 
from the pipes (especially on lower notes, just like with MIDI guitars, but not 
for the same reason).  You almost have to mentally "turn off" your ears while 
playing a pipe organ -- otherwise the latency will drive you nuts!  Hey, now 
there's a perfect application for a soft synth... a virtual pipe organ.  They 
could claim that the key to sound latency is simply just a part of the realistic 
psychological simulation of the pipe organ experience.

Michael Bacich