Mechanical Action Consoles

With the huge selection and variety of consoles being used for Hauptwerk conversions, I was wondering if anyone has used a mechanical action console like a tracker organ in which the coupled manuals show the upper keys falling when lower ones are depressed ?

Sounds like a good way to give a tracker organ purist a heart attack!

I once asked a tracker organ manufacturer from Texas if we could add MIDI to one of his organs and the answer was a firm NO!

Thomas

I once asked a tracker organ manufacturer from Texas if we could add MIDI to one of his organs and the answer was a firm NO!

I once read a paper describing the MIDIfication of a tracker action organ. The encoder was connected to pressure sensors tubed into each channel in the pallet/slider windchest. Pretty neat way of doing it without affecting the touch at all. The sensors were of this type: (generic picture)



You could probably adjust the 'speak point' by watching the pressure change...


---john.

Yea-- I think you just had a bum builder. They probably just didn't know of good sensors / scanner boards. Think of this, design your console with mini tracker runs of 3-4' up. Pull down on a "pallet". Mounted just above the pallet is a reed switch. Alternatively you could mount a reed switch in front of where the pallet opens, so when the pallet descends, the front tip of it would trigger the reed switch (mount a small magnet on the pallet.). Boom. It could definitely be done. Just have to have the will and the $$.

I'll also add that you'd still need air to create some kind of pressure for the pallets or you'd have to settle for some kind of adjustment with magnets and springs. I'm sure magnets/springs could be used to quite good effect, but then you run the risk of just making things more complicated than they need to be and you should just go for tracker touch keyboards. I can't help but think that if you were willing to commit to some type of tracker system, your money would be much better spent on high quality, long levered keys from UHT or OSI.