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Many years ago when I left the U.K, I had no option but to leave behind a much treasured item, that gave me great pleasure every day of the week. Every time I felt down and low it would always put a smile back on my face, but somehow I had convinced myself I could live without it.
The item in question was a three manual thirteen rank Compton theatre pipe organ, complete with jelly mould light box surround, not something you can just pick up and move.
After about five years I realized I needed my daily fix, as I would find myself constantly tapping my fingers on the desktop while sitting at my computer playing an imaginary keyboard without realizing I was doing it.
As luck would have it while visiting a local charity shop someone had donated a technics organ, I knew it was not what I had been used to playing, far from it but as they say beggars can't be choosers, it's better than nothing. So I purchased it.
A week later after they delivered it I decided to plug it in, to my disappointment all the buttons lit up but no sound would come out. After opening the back I was confronted with the site of over forty large circuit boards, my heart just sunk as I didn't know where to start, the problem could be anywhere.
Whilst frantically searching the net for any form of help to solve the problem, I stumbled upon something I never knew existed. Digital software that can control an organ from a computer using midi (Hauptwerk). Not only does this mean you can now build your own custom console you can also choose the exact instrument that you wish to play, from instruments all over the world. You are now not stuck with playing the same instrument, you can play it as a Compton or a Wurlitzer, the choice is yours. So this is the road I decided to go down.
Within 24 hours I had gutted the Technics, as I planned to use the cabinet to house the new organ, as it turned out this was not the best of moves, as I was about to find out. I should have started with a blank canvas.
The first thing I was going to need was a pedalboard, using the cabinet meant that a full size pedalboard would not fit between the outer sides of the cabinet, nor were there any commercially available boards that would fit within this space, so the only answer was to build one from scratch (O.M.G !)
Over the years I have tinkered and played around with these instruments, owning one and having a little understanding on how they were built and work, but I am no organ builder or carpenter so this was going to be fun. I purchased the best materials I could find to do the job, as I only wished to do this once,
I took my time building this and after about two months I had a fully working pedalboard that fitted the cabinet, but it would have been so much easier to purchase a ready made one online.
The next job on the list was to build the keyboard stack (or the manuels as they are technically known as) the problem again was the cabinet, as this restricted the height and depth that could be used. Normally on a theatre organ the keys overhang slightly the keyboard below, so it is possible to stretch your fingers to play the notes on two keyboards simultaneously, this was going to be a problem. Due to the very tight budget I was working to, it was impossible for me to purchase true organ keyboards, as these have a tapered front to the keys allowing for more travel, as underneath between the keyboards sits a vertical bar that holds the thumb pistons ( preset buttons ). As I could only afford some cheap crappy standard midi keyboards from China, this just added to the problem.
Eventually I managed to calculate the exact height and depth so they were all equal, without the top keyboard being higher than the top of the cabinet.
The next stage to this I had no idea was going to be so complicated, wiring the preset buttons !
Due to the nature of these instruments there are no physical stops or tabs for controlling the sounds only a computer screen. So every time you wish to change the sound you have to stop, grab the mouse and click on the stops on the screen, not ideal. Instead using the preset buttons this allows you to program them in any combination that you wish, and recall the sound at a press of a button, so the more the merrier. The only problem is that each one needs four cables per switch. Two wires for the contact and two to illuminate the button so you know which button is pressed.
After I had finished producing four of these I was left with something that resembled a telephone exchange, with cables coming out from all sides. As I was making these wiring looms I had to produce some type of colour coding for the connection to the main system.
When I started this project I had set myself a high bar, as I wanted the finished instrument to look that it has been produced in a factory, not a garden shed. This proved easier said than done as I never got to finish the cabinet. After I connected the whole lot together and sorted out the programming I had myself a fully functioning digital theatre organ and it sounded great.
All was well for about two years untill the day the computer crashed. The problem with system is that it uses a crazy amount of memory to make it function. Not anything you would ever find in a off the shelf computer.
So this is where I am at this moment trying to get a new computer together, and hopefully will have it up and running again by the end of the year.
The item in question was a three manual thirteen rank Compton theatre pipe organ, complete with jelly mould light box surround, not something you can just pick up and move.
After about five years I realized I needed my daily fix, as I would find myself constantly tapping my fingers on the desktop while sitting at my computer playing an imaginary keyboard without realizing I was doing it.
As luck would have it while visiting a local charity shop someone had donated a technics organ, I knew it was not what I had been used to playing, far from it but as they say beggars can't be choosers, it's better than nothing. So I purchased it.
A week later after they delivered it I decided to plug it in, to my disappointment all the buttons lit up but no sound would come out. After opening the back I was confronted with the site of over forty large circuit boards, my heart just sunk as I didn't know where to start, the problem could be anywhere.
Whilst frantically searching the net for any form of help to solve the problem, I stumbled upon something I never knew existed. Digital software that can control an organ from a computer using midi (Hauptwerk). Not only does this mean you can now build your own custom console you can also choose the exact instrument that you wish to play, from instruments all over the world. You are now not stuck with playing the same instrument, you can play it as a Compton or a Wurlitzer, the choice is yours. So this is the road I decided to go down.
Within 24 hours I had gutted the Technics, as I planned to use the cabinet to house the new organ, as it turned out this was not the best of moves, as I was about to find out. I should have started with a blank canvas.
The first thing I was going to need was a pedalboard, using the cabinet meant that a full size pedalboard would not fit between the outer sides of the cabinet, nor were there any commercially available boards that would fit within this space, so the only answer was to build one from scratch (O.M.G !)
Over the years I have tinkered and played around with these instruments, owning one and having a little understanding on how they were built and work, but I am no organ builder or carpenter so this was going to be fun. I purchased the best materials I could find to do the job, as I only wished to do this once,
I took my time building this and after about two months I had a fully working pedalboard that fitted the cabinet, but it would have been so much easier to purchase a ready made one online.
The next job on the list was to build the keyboard stack (or the manuels as they are technically known as) the problem again was the cabinet, as this restricted the height and depth that could be used. Normally on a theatre organ the keys overhang slightly the keyboard below, so it is possible to stretch your fingers to play the notes on two keyboards simultaneously, this was going to be a problem. Due to the very tight budget I was working to, it was impossible for me to purchase true organ keyboards, as these have a tapered front to the keys allowing for more travel, as underneath between the keyboards sits a vertical bar that holds the thumb pistons ( preset buttons ). As I could only afford some cheap crappy standard midi keyboards from China, this just added to the problem.
Eventually I managed to calculate the exact height and depth so they were all equal, without the top keyboard being higher than the top of the cabinet.
The next stage to this I had no idea was going to be so complicated, wiring the preset buttons !
Due to the nature of these instruments there are no physical stops or tabs for controlling the sounds only a computer screen. So every time you wish to change the sound you have to stop, grab the mouse and click on the stops on the screen, not ideal. Instead using the preset buttons this allows you to program them in any combination that you wish, and recall the sound at a press of a button, so the more the merrier. The only problem is that each one needs four cables per switch. Two wires for the contact and two to illuminate the button so you know which button is pressed.
After I had finished producing four of these I was left with something that resembled a telephone exchange, with cables coming out from all sides. As I was making these wiring looms I had to produce some type of colour coding for the connection to the main system.
When I started this project I had set myself a high bar, as I wanted the finished instrument to look that it has been produced in a factory, not a garden shed. This proved easier said than done as I never got to finish the cabinet. After I connected the whole lot together and sorted out the programming I had myself a fully functioning digital theatre organ and it sounded great.
All was well for about two years untill the day the computer crashed. The problem with system is that it uses a crazy amount of memory to make it function. Not anything you would ever find in a off the shelf computer.
So this is where I am at this moment trying to get a new computer together, and hopefully will have it up and running again by the end of the year.
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