My organ ownership has been significantly more limited than my keyboard ownership, primarily due to organ prices. I started with a little Bontempi effort (£150 from Woolworth), moved on to a Yamaha ME-50 (complete with FB-01 expander and RX-21 drum machine - those were the days) and now find myself with a Yamaha HS-8 with CVS-10 "drawbar" expander and an MDR-3 disk drive (my second, since the first one went into meltdown after 8 years of hard use)!

Although the MIDI spec of the HS-8 leaves a lot to be desired, I love the thing to bits. You can still get some fantastic sounds out of the beast, and I've yet to see another organ that's so completely programmable. For a model now 12 years old it can still produce the goods.

So, if you're an organist, you should feel right at home here. If you own an HS-8, even better!

I have built a tubular steel frame for my HS-8, and removed the standard speaker system for gigging purposes. The whole thing is now held firmly together by just 4 wing nuts, and can be assembled in about 10 minutes. If you own an HS-series model, or an EL-40 or EL-60 (which use the same case design) and want a copy of the plans for this frame, get in touch. I'm hoping to post a picture of the set-up on this site soon.

Glad you asked that. Seeing as the HS-8 has many programmable features, I thought this might be a good place to put any files that I come across. They will all be in Yamaha's ESEQ format - if you don't know what that means, suffice to say that they will be files that you can load into the HS-8 via any MDR-series disk recorder (well, an MDR-2, MDR-3 or MDR-4 at any rate). You should find registration sets, song files, user rhythms and arpeggios and chord and rhythm sequencer data. Phew!

Plus I'll be adding hints and tips that I come across, and invite you to mail me with any hints, tips or files that you wish to share with the rest of the Internet! You will, of course, be fully credited for anything you submit. E-mail me for more details.

I'm also hosting a chat room for MIDI gossip about any of the products supported by MIDI@GOTN. Skip back to my index page for that!

Finally, if you want to be kept up-to-date with any additions here, e-mail me and I'll add your address to my update list. In fact, if you think I might be able to help you with anything at all, don't hesitate to contact me!

More information about Yamaha's HS-8 Multikeyboard

HS-8 accessories and expanders

Coming soon...

Registration sets
User rhythms
Song files

Copyright © 1999 Gilly on the Net
Most recent revision 6 January 1999