My Virtual Organ

 The Pipe Organ has always been my instrument of choice. There is no other musical instrument on this earth with the majesty and versatility of the Pipe Organ. I have studied and practiced music for thousands of hours during my lifetime, as I started music at six years of age. Most of this effort has been aimed towards mastering the Pipe Organ; however a good portion has been spent at another of my favorite instruments, the Hammond B3.

Several years ago I had installed a huge three-manual Pipe Organ in my home. In April of 1993, I lost my home in a tragic fire, and of course the organ also. As I was not ready to spend another ten years of hard labor in trying to install another pipe organ into my home, not to mention the thousands of dollars required, I sought to fulfill my love of the organs by going a different direction. I have found the digital music realm to offer many great features, such as being versatile, economical and doesn't require much room. There are many "software synthesizers" available today, with some of them approaching 100% realism. The key to success with these is to run a mighty computer and utilize good quality audio equipment at the output end.

I am now playing the absolutely astounding new MiditZer 360SP Theatre Organ (registered as Opus 72). It is a monster 3-manual Wurlitzer, that performs beyond my wildest imaginations. Hats off to John Henry for his fantastic contribution to Theatre Organ lovers everywhere! If you haven't experienced the Miditzer, you are missing what I believe to be the greatest virtual instrument out there today.

My Virtual Console...

I control my "Soft Synths" via a virtual console. I gutted an old Conn theatre organ replaced the keyboards with three 61-note MIDI Keyboard Controllers and a 32-note Conn AGO Pedal-board that is converted to MIDI. I have recently added a Behringer FCB-1010 Midi Foot Controller. I have the ten Foot Switches programmed to control the General Pistons, and the two Expression Pedals are used for the Swells and Crescendo. I kept the Conn two-speed Leslie Speaker system in the console and drive it with a Pioneer 100 Watt Amplifier. It's great for the Hammond B4. Actually it makes for some great sound when playing the Miditzer 216 Theatre Organ also. I run stereo to the rear of the room from a 300 watt Pioneer amplifier to two 15" three-ways. The Conn Electronic Pipes are driven by the surround channel of the Pioneer amp. There are two more 15" Sub-woofers in the console for the Pedals. Did I say the house moves off it's foundation a bit when I get on it?

Real-time control with an add-on touch screen...

In addition, I have integrated my computer system into my virtual console, in an effort to be able to do everything from a playing position. This brings me to an interesting point! Since I am mostly using "virtual" instruments, all of the Stops, Couplers, Presets and so forth are on my computer screen, which is in front of me as I play. It occurred to me one day, that I could incorporate a "touch screen" and I could just reach up and operate my organ consoles by touch. How real can it get? I found the perfect product to accomplish this. It is made by KEYTEC, Inc. The one I use is the Magic Touch KTMT-1700-USB. I absolutely love it! It is an add-on kit that took about 15-minutes to install. Just hang it on the front of your monitor, plug it in and install the software. The also offer Touch-screen Monitors and most anything to do with touch-screen technology.

You will find them at www.magictouch.com  Check them out, they are great people!

The Monitor with the Magic Touch screen

Close up showing Behringer MIDI Controller

The Great & Accompaniment Keyboards...

I dissected these two keyboards and mounted the controls where pistons are normally on a pipe organ. I have the sliders programmed for the Hammond B4 drawbars. I use the number pads on the cheek blocks for pistons and the rotary controls for other stop changes. I can make changes from the touch screen or the keyboard controls, whichever is most convenient at the moment. Soon I will do the Solo manual the same way.

My Computer...

At the present time I am running an Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz with 2,048 Gigabytes of PC6400 RAM. It has an Intel X3000 Video Card with 256 mb of memory, via a PCI-Ex16 Buss. For storage there are twin 320 Gb Hard Drives. I have equipped it with the Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro sound card in order to take advantage of 24 bit audio capability.