SX-EA3 is digital electronic Organ by Technics. It is not a keyboard musical instrument like the ones you see in small bands although Technics do make very good keyboards also. Typical of all present day Japanese made organs, SX-EA3 is without exception considered a high-tech organ with features such as 16-track sequencer, sound editor and an accurate reproduction of the original instrument. It has the "traditional" organ configuration of 3 separate keyboards, i.e. upper, lower and pedal.

Unfortunately, Technics have stopped producing organ since late 2003. Technics used to have 8 different organ models/variants to choose from, with the name starting with the letters SX. If arranged in increasing number of features it has, it will look like this - EA1, EA3, EA5, GA1,GA2, GA3, G100/F100. Technics is a division of Matsushita of Japan, the same maker of National and Panasonic products. You may want to refer to my Images page for a glimpse of all the loverly organs ever produced by Technics.

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is really just a set of communication rules that allows electronic musical instruments to interact with each other (e.g. synthesizers, Technics organ, PC sound card, sound modules, etc.) MIDI information tells a device when to start and stop playing a specific note, change sounds, note velocity, etc. The sound itself (e.g. Piano, Drums, Saxophone) is actually generated by the device on its own. This means that a same MIDI instruction but fed into two different device, for example one goes into a Sound blaster sound card and another into a Roland synthesizer, would sound very different.

One of the most basic utilities that were created to manage this interface is of course the sequencer. A sequencer is an application that allows a musician to electronically record his/her performance. A sequencer normally saves the information in a MIDI File Format data file (*.MID files). You have the option of saving it in either Technics sequencer file ( *.SEQ) or *.MID file on a SX-EA3. A computer with a sound card can be turned into a sophisticated sequencer with the appropriate software program. Examples of such software are Cakewalk, Voyetra and Cubase. The Windows Multimedia player is itself a very simple sequencer but it does not have the ability to record MIDI information.

The popularity of MIDI files in the Internet among serious musicians or casual listeners alike is due to its small very file size and the wide hardware compatibility of this format. The best part is that, it is mostly spared the bad publicity associated with *.MP3 files on the Internet.

To get started, all you really need is a PC, a soundcard with wavetable synthesizer (it is available by default on most soundcards anyway) and a MIDI player such as the Windows Multimedia player. Alternatively, go buy a Technics organ.

Try www.musicrobot.com which I personally think it is one of the better MIDI files search engines.

Why I created this Website?

A few days after the organ was delivered to my home in Sept 2001, I began to experiment with the Sequencer functions after having read and understood the thick manual (at least I thought I understood). To my surprise, all the recorded tracks sounded like Piano no matter how I tried to reset the upper sound group. I searched everywhere on the Internet for an answer the whole night but found none. The next day, I did find the answer in the manual. It was found under Sound Setting, page 99 of the manual. I could not relate the link between Sequencer and Sound Setting earlier because it was written under separate chapters. I realized later that it was not just me who had faced this problem. If only someone had published it on the Internet in Sept 2001. Anyway, it was just a start to my many trial and error cycles as I explore this complex instrument.

Up till June 2002, I was happy to just play on the organ along with my own pre-recorded tracks as accompaniment. For more difficult pieces, I would record the accompaniment note by note using the Step Record function. This process could take hours. There are thousands of songs created in MIDI format available freely on the Internet. It occurred to me that many of these files have really good tracks that can be used as accompaniment with my own organ performance, no need to input the note one by one into the sequencer as I have done in the past. The problem is, the MIDI format and Technics organ sequencer files are totally not compatible. I then went on a one month long quest for the solution on the Internet. I have asked many people along the way. No one could help and I put the whole thing aside. Then on one wet August afternoon, I found a method to convert MIDI into Technics organ sequencer format almost by accident (refer to my Technical Tip section). It was too easy; I wondered why it was not written in the operating manual in the first place. (To the good folks at Technics, if you are reading this, how about doing something about it?).

So that was it. I knew I had some valuable tips that I would like to share with the community of Technics organ owners. And that was why Vincent's SX-EA3 Music Corner was created.

Through the Internet, I hope to meet other people who share the same interest and this will make the whole experience of playing on the Technics organ a lot more enjoyable. If there is a demand for it, I would really like to create a section call Swap Corner where we could freely share with each other our recorded organ performances (as Technics Sequencer file) or contribute some tips.

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