Tour of my Dexibell Classico L3

[@glasss1978]

Hi, I have the Dexibell keyboard as well and looking for a midi pedalboard to practice classical organ pieces at home (I'm mainly into Baroque). Some people advise against the Nord 27 ("Wrong width and depth for proper toe and heel-technique. Suitable for leftfoot only walking jazzbass"). What's your opinion as an organist? How different is this compared to a proper pedalboard? I know it's not concave and radiating, and I don't really care about that (we have lots of straight flat pedalboards in churches in Europe), but what about the width and proportions of the pedals themselves?

[@BritishAutophone]

It took quite a while to adjust to the feel of the Nord. Especially since the pedals are straight and am used to concave and radiating, but have gotten quite used to it. The naturals are just long enough for you to do heel, toe technique. However, my heels from my organ shoes would always get caught on the ends of the pedals, but have gotten out of that problem since. These pedals do require smaller movements as they seem to be a little closer together as I tend to hit 2 notes at the same time moving from one natural to another. They also have less resistance to what I am used to. Doing glissando from sharp to sharp is a little difficult as the sharp keys seem a little stiff (and smaller), but all in all a good pedalboard for practice purposes and hymn-playing. I certainly cannot do the pedal run on Buxtehude’s prelude, fugue, and chaconne 100% on this pedalboard! I chose this pedalboard because it is the only one I have found to work because it is powered with an external power cord. I originally bought a Hammond pedalboard, but found that it did not work because those pedalboards are powered through the Hammond organ only. I suggest if you go with something else, try to find one that has a power cord/AC adaptor. Maybe a Viscount? Hope this helps, -Grayson

[@glasss1978]

@@BritishAutophone thanks so much Grayson, it's really helpful. What would you say for the Dorian toccata by Bach? Any chance on this? And when you go to play in the church after practising on the Nord, is it difficult to adjust to those proper pedals or you can play without difficulty? On the one hand I say to myself I should not practice on something improper to avoid wrong reflexes, on the other hand I'm thinking there are such a great variety and differences among pedalboards in churches, so to train your brain to play on different boards and learn to adapt quickly may be an advantage.

[@glasss1978]

@dolofonos thanks. Size and portability was a major thing for me as I rent and move frequently. The Nord is small, doesn't require a bench and is only 15kg. I bought it in the end and I couldn't be more happy about it... It suits me perfectly and adequate for practicing, heel-toe, everything can be done on it. That said, I have EU 39 feet, for bigger feet the pedals may be too short. Also, yes, I wish they made it with 30 pedals, I miss it occasionally but overall it's really great.

[@MacMaky1981]

Hello sir, how can i save some of my favorite tones in the registration memory?

[@BritishAutophone]

Set your desired stops then press and hold the desired piston until it blinks which confirms that the memory is stored.

[@MacMaky1981]

@@BritishAutophone thank you sir!

[@FMKmusica]

Did you test the Johannus ONE?

[@andrewwagner2526]

What are your favorite stops

[@josebraulioramirezguerrero9650]

Yo queria comprar uno en mexico pero ya no hay a la venta

[@andrewwagner2526]

I am thinking of getting this

[@zachlafleur6651]

Grayson, with this instrument, even though it is only one manual that can be split into two, you have fifteen more keys than on an AGO manual, but with the Nord pedal board, you have five less pedals than if that was an AGO pedalboard. As a practice instrument, it still has to be an adjustment for you when you go to play music that you have practiced on it and to play it on the St. Matthew's Wicks Organ, but other than that, it definitely is a step up from the keyboards that most of us hobbyist musicians use. If you still have that Yamaha keyboard, and it has regular MIDI in and out ports on it and the Dexibell also has these, you can interconnect them and have another full manual to play on as well, but if not, such as if either (or both), instruments have the more recently developed USB B connectors (USB to host instead of USB to device), then that definitely won't work for doing this. As for having 76 keys, that is better than 61, but not as good as all 88, but for organ, it definitely is better, for piano or harpsichord, not really, unless you have octave switching up and down to cover the high and low notes of music written for those instruments. Transpose function can also do this, but only if it is up to and down to 12 notes of the full octave (other than most organs which allow transposition of plus or minus 6 notes (mainly for cantors and choir singers of different voices than they can comfortably sing to with the key of the music). Why are pedal boards sold with less than 32 pedals? It is because of the fact that most organists rarely (if ever), use the top seven notes on pedal. So, you have at 27 pedals, the second best amount even though it isn't concave radiating like the AGO standard. As you probably already know, pedal boards are usually either 25, 2 0, or even as few as 13 pedals depending on the organ that they are fitted to. That is why Hammond Consoles had 25, and Hammond Spinets had 13, because of the intention of the type of music that was to be played on them, as well as the top seven not usually being used (hence the Hammond 25), but with your Nord you have a couple of those notes, but not all seven. Definitely interesting and sounds great, but eventually you will move up to an organ with at least two manuals and thirty two pedals (space and money permitting, of course), but for now, experimenting with interconnecting would achieve that effect much sooner and be the least expensive way to go. I believe that Dexibell is an Italian make, just as Viscount is and they have a Viscount Organ at Nationals Park that I heard a lot of on this past couple of World Series games. They have had the Viscount since 2017, before that it was an Allen (another very popular and great sounding digital organ) that is American made, and very popular in churches and other places that don't have real pipe organs in them. In fact, even the Pope uses Allen Organs when he celebrates Mass away from Vatican City (and even to augment the Tamburini Pipe Organ at St. Peter's because the biggest church in the world is too big for that organ to fill it with sound).

[@glasss1978]

Zach, do you think the Nord 27 is good enough for a classical organist to practice on? All I hear is it's for jazz and not suitable for classical pieces. :( I need to find a midi board that is relatively small (and doesn't break the bank) and thought of this but reading the opinions now I'm not sure.

[@zachlafleur6651]

@@glasss1978 If you won't ever use the top five notes in your pedal line of the music, then yes, it would be sufficient, but if you will have to play these (and not want to have to switch them onto a manual), then no, it wouldn't be enough pedals for classical music on organ. The reasons (besides cost savings, of course), for less than thirty two pedal notes are in that Hammond found out that most church organists don't ever usually use the top seven notes on pedal, so that is why they made their console organs with twenty five pedals, and their spinet organs with usually only thirteen (one chromatic octave plus one note). Nord did two more to make their pedal boards more useful than one with twenty five, but there are also some with twenty as well (but for classical music, I would go for the full thirty two and only the twenty seven if I couldn't find a full AGO board that would connect and work with an organ such as Grayson Cordova's Dexibell Classico L3. Then, there are those BDO thirty pedal boards that are not concave radiating and flat instead, but that is something that is more common in Britain and Europe but not here in North America, so I wouldn't be disappointed of not finding one of these that would be close to ideal for your practice organ. It is all in the music that you play on the instrument as to how many pedals that you will need, as well as keys per manual. Go for the most that you can afford, as well as what will connect well with the organ (or keyboard), setup that you have and the transition won't be as difficult for organ when you play the music on it, while practicing beforehand with less keys and pedals.

[@glasss1978]

@@zachlafleur6651 I live in the UK and from Europe originally so flat straight is really OK with me. I could live without the top 5 pedals at the moment too. It's more like the measurements that worries me. Someone said it doesn't have the right width? Don't know what it means. The pedals are slimmer or the distance between them different from a real pedalboard?

[@zachlafleur6651]

@@glasss1978 Then, since you live in the UK, you could use a flat radiating pedal board that is common over there. The measurements on the Nord 27 have got to be narrower than even a BGO thirty note pedal board? Since Grayson at Hymns and More has this Nord 27 I would ask him how wide or narrow it is and is the width between pedals the same as AGO or BGO and find out if this is true or false (if he knows, that is).

[@glasss1978]

@@zachlafleur6651 That would be really helpful if you could find out, many thanks!!! Again, I can live with the missing top 5 but wouldn't want to practice on a disproportionate board.