LOL! I took the time to read almost all the posts on this site. This is obviously an Allen Organ fan page. At first glance it appears to be an 'objective' site about church organs for anyone to post that is as long as you drink the Allen kool aid. Otherwise you get banned with:
While your comments are posted in full, in the future unsupported claims will not be posted. I wouldn't be surprised if the "organ-editor" for this site and the consistent poster, yes-man, Dewy James are the same person. When reading some of the posts and followup comments, I felt like I was reading a skit for Saturday Night Live as they were overly saccharine and ignorant.
No one outside of Allen Organ or their philosophy is safe on this site as Thomas found out as did a Viscount Organ rep. Each new post is about how inferior every other technology, design, or market approach is. A common (disapproving) theme is how so many other organ companies are really assemblers as they rely on other component manufactures or vendors to complete their organs. Shame on them for this business model! The site then makes a few-pah of listing several vendors used by a well respected organ firm and 2 of these vendors; OSI and Klann have been in business decades longer than Allen. Another firm is ridiculed for using a 3rd party vendor, Lexicon, for acoustical enhancement but on their information tab "Choosing an Organ in the 21st Century" they state:
The best digital organs use a process called convolution (sampled acoustics) that goes beyond old-fashioned digital reverb to produce the convincing acoustical ambiance of a cathedral or any reverberant environment of your choice. Even if your church has carpet and padded pews, your digital organ should sound like it’s playing in wonderful acoustics.
So if Walker and Phoenix use the Lexicon product (which is convolution reverb) and Hauptwerk incorporates "sampled acoustics" within the samples or separate group of samples (surround sound variant), then doesn't that qualify them (us) as the "best digital organs"?
I have it on good authority that Allen is infuriated when a Hauptwerk incorporated VPO gets put into church service. After all we have no business competing in their market especially now that Rodgers (once accredited as being their only true competition) can be lumped in with the other 'inferior' European brands.
Danny B.