I probably have the longest build time for an organ. I decided to build an electronic organ in 1979 and started to draw up plans for the console using the book "The Art of Organ Building" by George Ashdown Audsley as a guide. I designed and etched my own circuit boards based on circuits from books and magazine articles. I designed the organ as a hybrid of Top Octave Generator circuits and individual oscillators.
The building of the console commenced in 1979 and progressed rapidly. (The reason I know the year is because I took time out to build a harpsichord and the date on it is 1980.) I ordered the 3 keyboards with single contacts from Pratt, Read & Co. The pedal board with no contacts, the toe studs and swell pedals were ordered from Organ Supply Industries. I added 4 magnetic reed switches to each pedal. I turned all 86 drawknobs on a lathe. I also made the rocker tabs. Within a year I had the case completed. So now I had a great looking case with no insides.
Naturally interest waned with the daunting task of making hundreds of boards and thousands of wires to be soldered. Over the years I would work here and there on the project. It became a running joke in the family when I would complete the organ.
30 years later... I came across Hauptwerk in the fall of 2010. After downloading the free version and playing with the software for a short time and investigating what it would take to convert, I decided to make the switch to a computer based organ. To start anew, I ripped out all of the PWB's and wiring. Myself imposed deadline of having a playable organ by Christmas 2010 loomed only 5 weeks away.
I converted the keyboards, pedalboard, pistons and toe studs to 8x8 diode matrix versions. (I had a lot of diodes laying around.) After some investigation I found that all these could be controlled with one PWB from Midi Gadgets Boutique, the hwce2x. This board has the added bonus of also being able to control the 3 expression pedals. For the interface between the computer and the hwce2x I used a MOTU Micro Lite.
The week before Christmas I had the keyboards, pedal board, toe studs and pistons working. It only took 30 years but for the first time I was able to play the organ. I had the family over and surprised them by playing a few Christmas carols on the organ. My oldest sister and her husband were so impressed they insisted on having a friend of theirs John, who is an organist come over to play the organ.
Well, if I was going to have a real organist play the organ there were a couple of more items I wanted to add.
The first was to hook up the expression and crescendo pedals. I designed a mechanism to interface with 10k slide pots. Using linkages from the R/C department of the hobby shop. Also, I needed to construct a music stand. The hardest part was trying to match the wood stain from 30 years ago.
I told my sister to have John bring sheet music that he would like to play because I did not have much of a selection. When John, my sister and her husband arrived I noted that John had brought a small folder of music. John confided that because it was a home built organ he was not expecting much when he first visited. He was taken aback when he first saw the console that looked like a real organ. I had an English cathedral organ loaded and after demonstrating a few stops John said that it certainly sounded like a pipe organ.
John then sat down to play. My wife said later that the organ sounds ok when I play but it sounded great when John played. After a few numbers John was a little surprised when I told him that we could load a different organ. I showed him the list of instruments to chose from and he immediately pick out a French cathedral organ. After loading the organ and playing just a few notes John regretted not having brought some French pieces to play. He then said that on his next visit he would bring a larger selection of music!
Since then I have added a light stand made from an IKEA picture frame LED light and also pedal board lighting adapted from IKEA's under counter LED strip lights.
I have modified all of the draw knobs so they fit the Syndyne Solenoid Draw Knobs. Future plans are to hook up the Syndyne SDK’s and Rocker Tabs. They will be controlled by 2 Midi Gadgets Boutique mdec128br boards.
Here are some photo’s of the console. If interested I’ll post some more detailed photos.
Thanks to the Hauptwerk community for continued inspiration.
Jim E
The building of the console commenced in 1979 and progressed rapidly. (The reason I know the year is because I took time out to build a harpsichord and the date on it is 1980.) I ordered the 3 keyboards with single contacts from Pratt, Read & Co. The pedal board with no contacts, the toe studs and swell pedals were ordered from Organ Supply Industries. I added 4 magnetic reed switches to each pedal. I turned all 86 drawknobs on a lathe. I also made the rocker tabs. Within a year I had the case completed. So now I had a great looking case with no insides.
Naturally interest waned with the daunting task of making hundreds of boards and thousands of wires to be soldered. Over the years I would work here and there on the project. It became a running joke in the family when I would complete the organ.
30 years later... I came across Hauptwerk in the fall of 2010. After downloading the free version and playing with the software for a short time and investigating what it would take to convert, I decided to make the switch to a computer based organ. To start anew, I ripped out all of the PWB's and wiring. Myself imposed deadline of having a playable organ by Christmas 2010 loomed only 5 weeks away.
I converted the keyboards, pedalboard, pistons and toe studs to 8x8 diode matrix versions. (I had a lot of diodes laying around.) After some investigation I found that all these could be controlled with one PWB from Midi Gadgets Boutique, the hwce2x. This board has the added bonus of also being able to control the 3 expression pedals. For the interface between the computer and the hwce2x I used a MOTU Micro Lite.
The week before Christmas I had the keyboards, pedal board, toe studs and pistons working. It only took 30 years but for the first time I was able to play the organ. I had the family over and surprised them by playing a few Christmas carols on the organ. My oldest sister and her husband were so impressed they insisted on having a friend of theirs John, who is an organist come over to play the organ.
Well, if I was going to have a real organist play the organ there were a couple of more items I wanted to add.
The first was to hook up the expression and crescendo pedals. I designed a mechanism to interface with 10k slide pots. Using linkages from the R/C department of the hobby shop. Also, I needed to construct a music stand. The hardest part was trying to match the wood stain from 30 years ago.
I told my sister to have John bring sheet music that he would like to play because I did not have much of a selection. When John, my sister and her husband arrived I noted that John had brought a small folder of music. John confided that because it was a home built organ he was not expecting much when he first visited. He was taken aback when he first saw the console that looked like a real organ. I had an English cathedral organ loaded and after demonstrating a few stops John said that it certainly sounded like a pipe organ.
John then sat down to play. My wife said later that the organ sounds ok when I play but it sounded great when John played. After a few numbers John was a little surprised when I told him that we could load a different organ. I showed him the list of instruments to chose from and he immediately pick out a French cathedral organ. After loading the organ and playing just a few notes John regretted not having brought some French pieces to play. He then said that on his next visit he would bring a larger selection of music!
Since then I have added a light stand made from an IKEA picture frame LED light and also pedal board lighting adapted from IKEA's under counter LED strip lights.
I have modified all of the draw knobs so they fit the Syndyne Solenoid Draw Knobs. Future plans are to hook up the Syndyne SDK’s and Rocker Tabs. They will be controlled by 2 Midi Gadgets Boutique mdec128br boards.
Here are some photo’s of the console. If interested I’ll post some more detailed photos.
Thanks to the Hauptwerk community for continued inspiration.
Jim E
Last edited by JimE on Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.