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Share news about music Do you have some news about music that you'd like to share with others? Here's the place.

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  #1  
Old 05-04-2008, 03:03 PM
David Jacklin (dj)
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Default Hi, all: I thought I'd

Hi, all:

I thought I'd share this with people here. Clyde, especially, might be interested, as I know you're an organist.

The organ in the picture here was being offered FREE by a fellow about two hours drive from me. I persuaded a friend to take his pickup down there and we came back with it.

It's just a shell: the keyboards and stops etc. are only wired out to bussboards. The intent is that it be wired into a "midi brain" to control a virtual organ, such as Miditzer or Hauptwerk.

Miditzer, the virtual Wurlitzer theatre organ, is the natural one because, while the cabinetry is custom work, all of the hardware, keyboards, even the bench, are genuine Wurlitzer theatre organ parts.

The fellow who created it spent fifteen years working on it! He passed away recently at the age of 93. He passed it to a friend, the fellow I got it from, who is an organ tech. He decided to pass it on because he simply has too many projects.

The music making aspect: in his garage/workshop, this man has more organs than most people would ever even SEE in a lifetime. The Wurly shell he gave me was the smallest one. He has built a full, multi-rank pipe organ into his garage, with a beautiful full sound; it includes custom built swell louvres and more. He is also active with a nearby theatre organ society who have restored and maintain the largest theatre pipe organ in Canada. Music from every finger of this man!

My challenge now is to turn this into a music making device. So far, I've managed to get the console lights working.

Here's the organ in my living room (where my wife insisted it must go, as it was too beautiful to leave in the garage. I have a very supportive wife.)


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  #2  
Old 10-13-2008, 05:33 AM
Sherry Crann (sherry)
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Default Howdy David, So I'm cur

Howdy David,

So I'm curious if you've had any time to get the bells and whistles going on this to match the lights?

ttfn,
Sherry
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  #3  
Old 10-13-2008, 06:20 PM
David Jacklin (dj)
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Default Hi, Sherry: No advance thus

Hi, Sherry:

No advance thus far. It's a winter project, I think -- or rather two or three winters.

Actually, I've got as far as laying out what I intend to do, interface-wise. It involves about 1,000 wiring connections, just to connect to the "midi-brain". I'll be using a product called MidiBox.

When finished it will put out midi signals on 7 channels simultaneously (primary output for three manuals and pedals, second touch output on pedals, accompaniment and swell manuals. No second touch on the solo manual, as per genuine Wurlitzer TPO specs.

Second touch on a pipe organ, by the way, is different from aftertouch on a midi keyboard. A deeper press on a key will bring out a totally separate registration, meaning that (if you're much better than I) you could play four or five different voices at once.

I also intend that it should be connectable to any midi instrument or computer, for recording, playback and control.

No sound from it yet, then. The console lights, however, are very pretty to look at.

David
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  #4  
Old 10-15-2008, 07:10 AM
Mark Walsen (markwa)
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Default Hi David, If your MIDI orga

Hi David,

If your MIDI organ crosses the south over the border, the U.S. OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) will insist that you install seat belts on it.

Cheers
-- Mark
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  #5  
Old 10-15-2008, 12:30 PM
David Jacklin (dj)
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Default Hi, Mark: My sister and her

Hi, Mark:

My sister and her husband (who are both small people) say that when they visit they'll just bring hammocks and sleep in it.

Which I suppose means that we'll have to have the building inspector in to look at it.
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  #6  
Old 12-07-2008, 11:36 AM
Tim Fatchen (flyingtadpole)
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Default Hi David. What a find. Here&#

Hi David. What a find. Here's an organ regret of mine, a 1980s Yamaha full 2 manual full pedalboard in full working order in multiple road boxes (for revivals tent services I suspect.) It was in Brisbane, two days drive away, for $100, fully operational (the $100 was a tyre-kicker deterrent). Two days drive from here. But I wasn't brave enough then. I'm reminded of it now because of your toy here (shows how long since I dropped into the forum) and because I'd just freelychosen to come home because of rain and floods from north of Innamincka, South Australia (google maps folks!) via the bitumen: Cunnamulla (Queensland), Bourke & Cobar & Broken Hill(New South Wales). An extra 900km on an already 1300km journey. Sigh. I should've jumped into the car back then too, he would've held the organ for me for a few weeks!

Of course, it wouldn't have fitted in the then car, but still...could've hired a trailer...
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  #7  
Old 12-07-2008, 01:56 PM
David Jacklin (dj)
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Default Hi, Tim: If I ever get to A

Hi, Tim:

If I ever get to Australia, I'll want to drive around for a few thousand miles and just read place names! What fun just to say words like "Innamincka" and "Cunnamulla".

In Canada, of course, we have Kapuskasing, Chibougamou and Tuktoyaktuk. Not to mention Medicine Hat and my personal favourite: Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump (now just called Buffalo Jump). And in Newfoundland, Go Home and Di*do (12th letter of the alphabet, but there may be youngsters reading this) -- I'm not kidding about that last. Or about any of them, actually.

I have ten or a dozen synthesizers, samplers or digital keyboards here, as well as a piano, a Rhodes 73 and three Hammonds, but there is nothing like the power of a big liturgical organ. And you can find some nice consoles for very little money these days: the market for organs isn't what it used to be.

We're playing shuffle with keyboards this week, trying to clear some space for a Christmas tree. The Wurlitzer is sitting in the spot we usually put our tree. There is a Hammond behind the door in the picture above and my son and I will be carrying it upstairs to allow the Wurlitzer to go through the door and sit behind it. First, we have to re-arrange the piano and the two other Hammonds to let things move around.

Not to mention the fact that my theatre company recently moved out of the space we have been in for eleven years and half of the equipment ended up in my house. There's not a lot of space left!

Cheers

David
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