Pipe and Electronic Combination Organs

Interfacing electronic organ consoles with pipe organs has become more common than ever. Most pipe organ builders have become aware of the advantages of utilizing solid-state circuitry to process all of the information from the console, and send it to the pipe chambers on small data cables, eliminating the bulky cables and labor requirements.

As an example of the usefulness of this technology, I am currently working on a proposal for a church with a standard pipe console located in the rear of the sanctuary, and pipes in two front chambers, and an electronic organ located in the front of the sanctuary. They would like the ability to play the pipes on the electronic organ because of its more convenient location, but not lose the option of playing from the pipe console. This is quite feasible using current pipe control systems. It will not be a low-budget project, but it will be considerably less expensive and more reliable than before, with a side benefit of added flexibility and options.

The following pix are from First Baptist Church in McCaysville, Georgia. The extremely talented Clarence Burlingame is the organist. (He's also a CPA, in case you're in the market for one.) They have a Rodgers 925 analog organ, which was interfaced in 1991 with their existing 1963 Reuter pipe organ by Walker Technical Company and myself. The Reuter two-manual console was ruined during the flood of 1990, and a new one was quoted at more than the Rodgers organ with ten main speakers and two subwoofers. They have been using my company for all pipe and electronics repairs, tunings, and expansions ever since. Out of my 500 current church customers, these friendly and helpful folks are at the top of my list of favorites!

Here I am, troubleshooting a problem in the interface circuitry installed by Walker Technical Company. It is the "interpreter" between the Rodgers 925 and the 21 ranks of Reuter pipes built in 1963. Both chambers are enclosed with four sets of shades. All pipes, trems, couplers, and shades are controlled by this set of circuit boards.

In this photo, I am replacing the rotted leather disks that control the 16' Bourdon pipes. This board supplies only four pipes.

 

 

 

 

My son, Jonathan, is hanging the delicate bells on this new Zymbelstern that was installed during one visit. It produces a random tinkling pattern that is heard in the background of the organ music.

Jonathan is assembling one of two large antiphonal speakers, built by Walker Technical, that were added to the Rodgers 925, along with a 400 watt, two-channel amplifier. The Great division is on one channel, and the Swell and Choir are on the other.

A close-up of the Digital Interface boards and Pinstrips. The pinstrips are labeled as to the particular rank of pipes or function they control, and the wires from the pipe chambers are attached here. The green boards demultiplex the serial data from the organ console and send it as discrete parallel data to the pipes and control relays via the pinstrip connections.

 

 

 

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