1962 Custom Allen Organ

1962 Custom Allen Organ By request I have uploaded a somewhat rare video and audio of an impromptu demo of various stops for what was at the time of installation the largest Allen organ west of the Mississippi. It had been in constant use since installation, and was used for recitals, congregational singing, and use with an orchestra. It required minimal maintenance, and what maintenance was required was very low tech for the most part (occasional replacement of capacitors, burned out bulbs, etc). No expensive fancy digital computer chips or cards. Please note that this was not a small home organ and required a small room for the electronics. This video was filmed in Sacramento, California.
Photos of transistor organ electronics here: imgbox.com/g/T...
UPDATE January 29, 2014 - The organ has been decommissioned and replaced by a 4 manual Reuter pipe organ. Thanks for all the interest that was generated by this video, but unfortunately no home was found for the Allen. It is my understanding that its components (such as the more modern amplifiers) were sold for parts.

[@DellAndersonProd]

@Zylstra555 Sadly, I fear this organ sleeps the sleep of all great instruments who have been fallen out of favor and become rejected partly due to their need for continued nurturing and sustenance! Parts of it may live on as organ donors, I don't know. The tone generators were tramsisters, capacitors, and resisters, in racks like a small radio station - see the full description for a link to more photos (I hope the link is here somewhere - KZbin keeps rearranging things!)

[@harmoniumbauer]

I am a pipe organ builder and I'm generally pleased when a pipe organ replaces an electronic one. But the loss of this particular instrument makes me very sad. It was a work of art in his own way and it deserved to be preserved.

[@robertomucciorganista]

GRANDE!! Sono del tutto d'accordo!!

[@1622steve]

Stunning! I worked at Allen for 28 years during the "Digital Age". Nothing new sounds better than this instrument! If it weren't for the cost and size of these instruments, Allen could still be building them today. Sadly, today's labor costs have made this technology non-competitive. That, and diminishing standards in general....

[@DellAndersonProd]

In fairness, the new Renaissance and Hauptwerk organs sound amazing to my ear as well. And one has to remember the acoustics of the room add significantly to the experience here.

[@alexvorhaus3330]

It is far larger than the one that I play at my small church, but the Allen Organs from this period, in my opinion were excellent. I come in early just to make sure that all the components are warmed up, but maintenance wise to my knowledge little has been done. It is a joy to play. Sad that this instrument has faded into the annals of history, but it is a treasure to find this.

[@robertomucciorganista]

Mi rammarico PROFONDAMENTE per quanto riportato nell'aggiornamento. Era uno strumento eccellente, meritava una fine decisamente migliore!!! Grazie per questo video che diventa particolarmente prezioso!!

[@japlunkett6789]

The first 48 seconds were ALL I needed to watch. WOW.

[@Marksnotebook]

Our church organ is an Allen 1965 custom built and it sounds great to this very day. I have never heard any better. The organist is almost 80 years of age and she is also the best I have ever heard (except for pros) and she can still ramp it up with the push buttons and make the church echo with pipes or without...fantastic organs of the old days.

[@markrocovich2234]

I watch this video over and over...what character this organ posessed...the throaty growl of the pedal voices was stunning...

[@Richard-vq7ud]

Im sure the pipe organ is great, but i think they didnt realize the treasure they had in this Allen. It sounds better than today's electric organs and it was from 1962.

[@Richard-vq7ud]

I remember sneaking into the auditorium of Victoria College in 1983 and playing the very old Allen. The stops had the sound of rushing wind as you played them. The auditorium had great acoustics and I thought it was the best organ in the world at that time when i was 18. Now both the organ and auditorium are gone. It is such a loss.

[@edwardluth7740]

Absolutely. This was a fantastic organ of its day. We have a 1966 model very similar to this and it sounds great to this day. I hate to see these old gems destroyed.

[@stuartmclaren2402]

It is marvellous for an analogue organ. When Virgil Fox played the Rodgers Touring organ it didn’t sound nearly as good.

[@Richard-vq7ud]

@@stuartmclaren2402 yes it is marvelous. What makes it so magnifiscent is the acoustics. It amazes me how most churches that spend a million dollars on a pipe organ have dead acoustics. They wasted all that money because it sounds aweful.

[@jrzzrj]

Wow!! That old Allen knocked my socks off....Great sound for an oldie but goodie....

[@DellAndersonProd]

Absolutely! Incredible what was accomplished with such simple generic transistors, capacitors, and resistors you could buy at any electronics store. A lot of them (a full room of electronics actually) but no custom unobtainium custom printed circuits. The room helped a lot too, but digital convolution reverb could have substituted for that in a home.

[@lawrencekeesler7369]

An Episcopal church where I was organist/choirmaster purchased a three-manual analog Allen that had seven or eight ranks of generators in a cabinet in the room just outside the chancel. It had a very satisfying sound, including attack and decay that was quite natural. The first digital organs that Allen produced were much less satisfactory to my ear, but it was a new technology that needed to mature. I still enjoy the old transistorized analog organs when I run across them. They have a warmth that is quite pleasant.

[@vleyueiq]

Amazing sound for the early sixties. Innovative design made this possible. Not just the usual twelve master oscillators plus one for the high C, but multiple sets for different stop types or divisions. The end result the sound actually builds up and becomes louder just like the real thing. One thing is for sure. This instrument should be preserved for all time!

[@2Greenhill]

I played a smaller, custom Allen of similar vintage. It was a 2 manual drawknob console. It had a substantial rack of generators and a large number of speakers located high above the balcony in an early 20th century Catholic church. Hard plaster walls and marble floors made that organ sing. It was a revelation of what that analog tone generation technology could do, when given the budget and a proper room.

[@BCSchmerker]

Excellent presentation on the strengths and weaknesses of Allen's 1960's analog technology; the current Quantum, as a Digital Computer Organ product, can succeed at simultaneous ranks where the 1960's analog products failed.

[@AuntieN2]

My heart goes out to whomever wrote this about the pipe organ. We had a pipe organ that the "Tallest Man In The World" (Robert Wadlow) had helped fundraise for back in the 1930's. He was a member of our church and was called the "Gentle Giant". The organ needed repair. Some slick sale's person came in and talked the then new pastor's wife and music director of the church wanted to modernize the church since we were moving into a new facility after a recent fire. The organ was saved for not!

[@Pfeifender]

i also have to admit that this organ does really sound better than electronic Organs built in the 80s for example, also the Reed voice in the 2nd sample does sound nice :) (regarding which technologies were used on this Organ)

[@chupahombrrre]

I used to play in a church with a very similar Allen. It had a terrific sound, far "meatier" than digital instruments. The big drawback was the relatively limited tone color range due to the unification typical of analog organs. But full organ was a mighty sound that shook the place. A key factor was that our organ, as with this one, had a massive bank of speakers. You just can't get that volume of sound from a pair of small boxes and a woofer, the way most new digital organs are installed.

[@edwardluth7740]

Exactly like our old Allen Church organ 1966 and still running. So many speakers flanking both sides of the church and everywhere in the balcony.

[@octavegeigen4]

I do hope this magnificent organ was saved or will be saved!! I can hardly believe its a 1962 Allen going by the sound! Such a wonderful organ deserves to be placed into a good home, given the minor repairs that it needs, and used to the glory of God for another 40 years!

[@txpipes61]

Nope. Unfortunately, then cable was cut to the console, and the tone generator racks were removed and trashed. Not sure what happened to the console. The organ was huge, so it would not been feasible to install in a home, and no church was interested in a 45+ year old organ, especially when so many churches today are removing their organs in favor of "praise bands."

[@paulj0557tonehead]

...as I listen again all I can say is it is real pity that someone allowed this organ to be decommissioned for ANY reason!

[@waihoong11]

Wow... for an analog organ, this sounds amazing!

[@benjaminslayton4335]

It sounds better than most newer digital organs.

[@francoisv.o.6503]

Absolutely! I'm totally smitten by the Allen organ.

[@fordtruxdad]

I played one of these ( though not of this magnitude!) for several years. It had really realistic-sounding diapasons and strings! The flutes and reeds were not quite so great, but for the time in which it was built it was the bomb. Setting the pistons was quite a chore, with little flip switches in hidden drawers.

[@PALMERFISHOOK]

FABULOUS 60'S !! I JUST RECEIVED, RESCUED AN ALLEN ORGAN YESTERDAY! IT IS FABULOUS! SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!

[@WB9DKY]

This Allen Organ sounds awesome!! So sad that it was scrapped. The first Church Organ that I played on was an Allen TC-4 back in 1961 at our new Church in Chicago. Sadly, that organ too was scrapped. It was so nice playing an Allen ... such a wonderful pipe organ sound.

[@peterjohnson7710]

Lou Leciejewski If you really want find a electronic organ company I high would refer Johannus. They are made in Holland and are very will made, you can also have them build you a custom organ that part electronic and part pipe organ. Johannus is also the maker of Monarkey organs.

[@txpipes61]

Allen will also build you a custom combination instrument - digital and pipe. Rodgers has been doing this for years, but now that they are owned by Johannus that may not continue.

[@peterjohnson7710]

Rodgers was owned by Roland until 2015 it now owned by Vandeweerd makers of Johannus, Makin , and Copeman Hart organs

[@txpipes61]

Yes, I should have said that they are owned by the Vanderweerd family, which also owns Johannus, Makin, and Copeman-Hart. I suppose though, in effect, you could say that they are "owned" by Johannus. I expect to see more of the European influence of the Johannus in the new Rodgers organs. From what i have read, it appears that they have a commitment with Roland to use the current tone generation system for five years (or something like that), and after that, they are on their own. Since they have disposed of the Rodgers factory, I would assume we will see new models designed in Europe, utilizing the current (and future) Johannus tone generation system. This was probably a good thing for Rodgers - at least it will continue the viability of the Rodgers as a continuing entity. It is amazing that as of today, Allen is the only major electronic church organ builder left. At one time there were a dozen different companies building church (or church style) instruments.

[@BurkhardTerhart]

Wow! The sound is really amazing!

[@MrEric0576]

I could listen to your playing all day!

[@johnferguson4089]

What a magnificent instrument and such a pity that this organ wasn't saved. These older electronic organs had a warmth of tone that many digitally sampled organs lack.

[@williammcghee863]

Amazing sound for an instrument thst isn't a pipe organ. Actually had more warmth than many digital organs I've heard or listened to.

[@auberycole9189]

Damn! that old allen sounds better than our new rodgers. I liked the growl of that pedal reed.

[@txpipes61]

Aubrey - the reason the 40 year old Allen sounds better than our new Rodgers, is that this Allen Organ used about three times the tone generators that your Rodgers uses (if is it an analog Rodgers). This Allen organ is a custom instrument, and has a small room full of tone generators. The pedal reed has that "growl" because it has 32 oscillators for the pedal reed, plus a 12 note extension set of oscillators for the 32' Contra Bombarde. In addition, it has its own amplifiers for the Reed channels, and a special Bass cabinet designed just for the Pedal division. It is quite an instrument, and in it's day represented some of the finest in electronic organ building.

[@baconbyte4065]

This was a custom built Allen though. Most analog Allens that were not custom built were horrible by comparison to a Rodgers of a similar era. The big custom designs always sound good because thats what they were built to do.

[@txpipes61]

I hate to disagree with you BaconByte, but some of the larger analog Allen organs sounded just as good - or better - than Rodgers and most certainly better than Baldwin organs of the day. The small Allen organs, such as the T-12 and T-15 organs sounded pretty lame. Basically a flute organ - no reeds or stings. The TC-3 and TC-4 instruments were basically Flute organs, with a rank of String generators which produced the Diapason and Reed sounds. Rodgers was producing the same sort of instruments - only their larger instruments had separate ranks of generators for Flute, String, and Reeds, with a separate rank for the String Celeste. The Rodgers 33-B is a good example of a "production" Rodgers that would be comparable to an Allen TC-6. But again, just like with the new digital organs, sound is subjective - what sounds good to one person maybe sounds not so good to another. This was particularly true with the analog organs of the day. The organ in this video is indeed a custom Allen organ which is why it sounds so good. A large Rodgers - and even Saville of the same vintage and tone generator disposition would sound just as good. And of course, one of the biggest parts of the sound is the room - this room has good acoustics, so the organ probably sounds better than it really is. As a former Allen rep, I have dealt with many churches that had analog Allen and Rodgers instruments who repaved them with new digital Allen instruments.

[@baconbyte4065]

Weird they would make such a choice. The new digital Allens are still very stale in tone. They have improved a bit but other companies have produced far better sounding digital organs. However they are more expensive. Even the dreadful little analogs with one rank of generators at least had more character. I for the longest time owned a Rodgers 22-B the little cousin to what you referenced and it to date along with a Rodgers 340 were the two best sound electronic organs I've encountered. Both had much more character than the new production Allens I've played.

[@txpipes61]

Again, sound is subjective. You obviously do not like the newer Allen digital organs - and that is your preference. I am sure that if you could play or hear one that is voiced and installed properly you would be quite surprised. Although I like both the Rodgers and Allen digital organs, I am still a fan of the older analog Allen and Rodgers organs.

[@DellAndersonProd]

Absolutely - I saw the electronics and speakers (and photos are in linked to in the "more info" section for this video). Of course, room acoustics have a lot to do with the reverb aspect, but that can be added using digital modules these days. The underlying tone generators sound pretty amazing for 1962.

[@BenjaminNicholaus]

Digital Allen organs didn't sound as natural as this one did until the mid 1990's. I usually rejoice to see an electronic organ replaced by a pipe organ, but this organ deserved to be preserved.

[@JustfineinChicago]

I had the wonderful experience of playing one of these three manual instruments back in the mid 70s. At that time it was the largest instrument of any kind of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, at a private school in New Market, Virginia. If I am going to play an electronic instrument at all, I prefer Allen. Would love to find of these older three manual instruments for my home.

[@MaxThompsonMusic]

Wow, sounds fantastic! And it's old analog. Wow...

[@CantorNikolaos]

I might have said this before. This is superiour to many newer electronic organs.

[@DellAnderson]

Can it really be 2017? Seems like I just posted this video yesterday yet it still gives me chills to listen. Thanks for your comment.

[@CantorNikolaos]

You're welcome. Don't you wish Allen made organs that sound like this now!

[@arianaashworth3091]

I've heard a lot of people say there are numerous transistor organs around but this is the only video of one I can find (other than a few table top keyboards), the only older ones I've seen in person have been earlier digital organs and don't use actual transistors to generate tone.

[@charlotteclarke4665]

At the beginning it sounds EXACTLY like our Conacher pipe organ right up to about 22 seconds because after there are more stops in use on this so it sounds bigger.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Allen needs to show a little respect, in the following video listed here on KZbin they say there are ten reasons to buy a 'new' Allen. In the process they refer to previous models as 'B&W compared to HI-Def of today. They say the older models make good "museum pieces" and apparently are unworthy to be maintained and played as a serious instrument. Certainly their digital models have come a long way since 1971, but all I can say is they come across as greedy by not making a special point to say there are certain analog Allen organs that deserve a different consideration. Former Allen engineers and staff would appreciate it because they knew something that the new guys have apparently forgotten- that electronic organ science made ample inroads to produce excellent organs long before digital came along. These organs sound excellent, have easy access to common electronic components, and they were built using the finest cabinetry man can produce. So what gives Allen? SAVE THE PRE-71' ALLENS,ALL-TUBE CONN,ELECTROSTATIC WURLITZER AND EVERETT, and of course many Gulbransen,Rodgers,Baldwin,Hammond, Yamaha, etc. Allen should have a small checklist of models of their past which are deemed as timeless endangered masterpieces. And that if a customer can find one they have an excellent choice. But nope! I bet they don't even have a tech department that has tubes anymore. Sad, but more wrong than sad.

[@MarcoBacigalupo]

I agree to all your words! Save the organs that made the story of the electronic instruments. The digital instruments can be good for few years and then they are already out from work, the classical tube instruments give a wonderful characteristic sound after their 50-60 years!

[@txpipes61]

I agree with you to some degree here. The main reason the Allen Organ Company made the switch to the digital gone generation system is that the engineers at Allen said that they had gone as far as they could with the analog tone generation system. To build this organ in the video, it takes hundreds of audio oscillators. The real secret to the analog organs that gives them a sound close to a pipe organ, is that with the oscillators you can "stretch" the tuning like a pipe organ and get the "tuning beats" that gives it the warmth that people love to hear. I love the old Allen analog organs, as well as the bigger Rodgers, and even the bigger Conn organs all had outstanding sound. Conn probably made the best sounding theater organ of the bunch, although the Rodgers Trio is a nice theater instrument. I never played a Baldwin though that I liked the sound of. They just had a sound that was too electronic - even the bigger Baldwin organs. Also, as far as the Allen eingineers and staff appreciating the analog organs, most of those guys are either long retired and even deceased. Another problem with the analog organs is that it is becoming increasingly more difficult finding someone to service them. All of the techs these days are all "digital guys" and only know how to switch boards out - thats about it. They have no knowledge of how to solder capacitors or other discreet components. It is so sad that this marvelous instrument did not find a home. But it doesn't surprise me as to relocate it to another building, or even a home would have been a major undertaking.

[@baconbyte4065]

This Allen is not even as far as one could go with analog organs. Builders like Saville, AOB and Shaw built much more complex analog organs. Some like Saville are still regarded as the best electronic organs ever made.

[@anb740]

As an Allen tech, these organs may sound pretty good, but they are a giant nightmare to maintain and work on. Given the size of this particular organ, there are no doubt hundreds, if not thousands of tuning and keying capacitors alone that will eventually go bad and have to be replaced one at a time (5-10 minutes for each one when soldering them in). As for vacuum tubes, it's almost impossible to find the correct replacements needed, and the ones available are ridiculously expensive and no longer cost effective to replace. We still have quite a few 50-60 year old analogs out in the field, and frankly, I don't much care for working on them. Again....nightmare! (and time consuming) If properly voiced, the newest Allens will clean the clock of any 50-year-old analog. I know....I've installed and voiced them.

[@txpipes61]

BaconByte - yes, it is true that Saville built some very large and complex organs. However, they could do so because the type of oscillator they used was inherently unstable tuning wise. You could tune a Saville, and two days later it would be out of tune again! The oscillators would drift all over the place. I remember - not too fondly either - of a smaller, two manual Saville that I played as music director of a Catholic parish here in Dallas. Now you know how many Masses a typical Catholic church will have on the weekends, not to mention special Masses during the week, Weddings, Funerals, etc. We would have the tech come and tune the organ twice yearly - once in the Spring and once in the Fall. I would try to do "spot tuning" in the times in-between. The organ overall had a nice sound, but it was just a monster to keep it in tune. Most analog Allen instruments could be tuned on a twice yearly basis - just like a pipe organ - and they were pretty good about holding the tuning. The only real problem would be if a tuning capacitor would break down, causing a note to go wildly our out tune. This of course would necessitate soldering a new capacitor (or two) in to correct the errant tuning. Rodgers used an oscillator similar to the Allen oscillator which was fairly stable. I played a really nice analog Rodgers that we only tuned about once a year. I managed to do the "spot tuning" so that it was pretty much in tune all the time. The real advantage to the oscillator system was that you could tune one rank of oscillators (typically the Flute) slightly sharp in order to give it some warmth against the main oscillators (typically the String/Diapason), which gave the organ the warmth that you hear in a pipe organ. The one thing about Saville verses Allen, is that there are very few Saville organs left in churches today. Most of them have been replaced with either a newer digital organ or a pipe organ. With the Allen, there are many, many, Allen analog organs still used in churches worldwide and give excellent service year after year. Since Allen ended production of oscillator instruments completely in 1971 in favor of digital tone generation, some analog Allen organs are 50-60 years old. As an aside, the AOB organ is just about a carbon copy of the Saville, given that AOB was started by a group of former Saville execs. The original Saville was purchased by a gentleman in Wichita, KS who built Saville organs in a makeshift "factory" in Wichita, KS for a number of years. My understanding is that today, the Saville organ is out of production and the company does organ service only. For AOB, I had read somewhere that they were marketing a digital organ that is built by an outside suppler and marketed with the AOB name.

[@mendesnelson]

Try finding a Rodgers organ this age that sounds 1/4th as good!

[@paulj0557tonehead]

It disgusts me that an organ like this would be retired without any forethought to make sure it had a proper home. I love love love!!! the sound of the analog electronic classical organs from this era. They are NOT antiquated, they have earned a spot of equal standing next to the pipe organ. It saddens me that someone who has a pipe organ background could come in and push this Allen aside. If the organist had little say so then why?! I implore pipe organ purists to open your ears to electronic.

[@BenjaminNicholaus]

It was not until Allen Renaissance that Allen regained the musical integrity they gave up when they went Digital. There are some great-sounding MDS organs and a few exceptional ADC and MOS specimens, but the lot of them are not much to talk about. The Renaissance really delivered what Allen digital organ technology was promising in the beginning. If I could have an Allen TC-4 for practice, that would be nice. Those sounded MUCH BETTER than MOS-1, MOS-2 and even ADC models!

[@Organsk8er]

What's amazing (and disappointing to me) is that what Allen is doing NOW doesn't sound a great deal better than this. A friend of mine played a similar model (Custom 8) in a large Lutheran church in Des Plaines, IL...the sounds out of the analog Allen were amazing...3 32's, and all. This is just amazing to me. Considering this is going on 50 years old, like I said, what they're doing now really isn't that much better.

[@KuyaBillRomjue]

Beautiful machine, Nice demonstration.

[@BenjaminNicholaus]

That is a truly incredible Allen. The MDS at my church is a real disappointment, but that is truly amazing!

[@brucemcgee2281]

I can only hope that this organ may still exist somewhere. It was well-balanced for the room where it was installed. The older Allens were built like tanks. I own smaller Allen that sounds very much like the one played, here.

[@CoolNick107]

Cool organ. I am surprised that the church used it for so many years. You can tell it was made during the same time period as my Allen Organ (in the video to the right "New Allen Organ") because they look and sound exactly the same, except yours has a 3rd keyboard. Thanks for posting this video!

[@MarkHusey]

It makes me sad that this instrument couldn't find a home: it's remarkable technology for its day, and clearly a highly artistic installation that deserved to be preserved. I'm surprised Allen didn't try to save it.

[@jordankelly6944]

Almost better than today!

[@lawrencehayes5140]

Unbelievable how many parts it took and how few now. We have a '62 Allen as well but a simple home model.

[@fluteceleste]

incredible sound, especially at that age!

[@TheJakeman789]

That organ sounds way better then newer Allens. I will say he abused the octave couplers a little bit.

[@zachlafleur6651]

Before the Allen Digital Computer Organs, there were these (Allen Analog Computer Organs). Amazing sound for an analog organ that isn't a pipe organ (no wonder why the electronics took up a whole room to house). Like you have said, this was one of their largest custom installations, so the smaller ones wouldn't be able to sound like this, until the digital models were made and perfected over the years. Interestingly, this wasn't a pipe and analog hybrid (if those even existed at that time), and that it wasn't included with the Rodgers that replaced it (from the description, that is an all pipe organ that gains another manual as well, and could have been the first of an analog and pipe hybrid if there was space for all of both instruments in that building).

[@baconbyte4065]

There were no digital components in this organ ergo it is not a computer organ. Its purely an analog instrument.

[@James_Bowie]

@@baconbyte4065 However, long before digital computers there were analog computers. In fact they were used in the development of the Apollo space program.

[@baconbyte4065]

@@James_Bowie these analog organs are still not computers in any sense of the word.

[@ryangiraldi5722]

“Hot Boss” I’m cracking up 😂

[@markrocovich2234]

Its actually spelled Haut Bois..

[@anb740]

We call it the “Hot Boy” at work. Along with the 1’ Syphilis and the 16’ Bourbon. LOL

[@Richard-vq7ud]

It is magnificent. The acoustics bring it to life. I have seen several you tubes with an amazing pipe organ inside fully carpeted church which kills it. I would be better to rid the church of all carpet, padded seats, etc, and purchase an electric organ. This video is a great example of how great an electric organ can sound in live acoustics.

[@2bless8]

So what kind of floor would you recommend for the home with a full Allen organ in it? Would wood or tile work well?

[@Richard-vq7ud]

@@2bless8 i think tile would be the best, but wood is good too. Anything except carpet. Homes are difficult to resonate because of furniture and curtains and rugs. Good luck!

[@2bless8]

@@Richard-vq7ud Thank you!

[@noahpierson4810]

I wanna know who the organist is! His improv skills are FAB!!!

[@CantorNikolaos]

Man! I wish I could replace that vulgar MDS my church has with this thing! It's no pipe organ, but it sounds better than most of the Allen digital "organs" I have heard! You can tell the organist really had fun playing that thing!

[@davidknight3819]

Damn this old girl sounds better than the new Allens. Shame she couldn't be saved.

[@DellAndersonProd]

Good question. I'm not too sure myself, except that that they are replacing it with a 4 manual pipe organ, which is hard to argue with. It is old, and some electronic parts eventually go bad and need replacing but they are standard parts from what understand.

[@arianaashworth3091]

A lot of materials required to build an actual pipe organ have been restricted or outlawed altogether, so most modern pipe organs aren't built to the same standard that they were built to 150 years ago because of the lesser quality materials used as a replacement.

[@JohnNozum]

I thank you for sharing this video. I'm so glad you got this video before the organ got torn apart. I can't get over how good this organ sounds for being an electronic organ that old (1962). This video is quite interesting, given the historical value. May God's peace be with ya--in the name of Jesus! From John Nozum

[@justgirlythings5418]

+John Nozum Organ tech here. Analogs well these custom Allens organs and other higher end organs like the TC-6 were tonally superior to all early MOS series digitals and MDC and some ADC series models. They have individual oscillators producing almost every tone you hear. It basically is one big breathing machine.

[@FM60260]

@@justgirlythings5418 I can't find any information about any information on any analog Allens larger than the TC-4 other than this one and one that was known to be the first transistorised electronic organ built which was destroyed in a fire.

[@birger315]

Our church had the same organ but from 1963. The speakers were huge, two in front and two in back. It served well until a couple of years ago. It has had problems over the years and finally no one could fix it. It probably went to the dump and the church bought a little Korg keyboard to take its place.

[@DellAnderson]

Don, that's too bad. Truth is, your old organ was probably easier to fix than a much newer one. The difference is that the technician would have to know how to do it and it might take some trouble, but the parts were fairly easy to come by and would have made the right person a nice hobby. The organist in this video told me he could maintain this organ himself with parts from Radio Shack but it seldom needed parts. They did replace the power amplifiers with modern transistor versions. I believe those were rescued and repurposed.

[@GooglFascists]

So what happened is somebody thought that mighty-sounding old Allen wasn't fancy enough for their taste anymore, eh? What does a pipe organ cost these days, a MILLION DOLLARS? Guess nobody realizes we have HALF THE NATION LIVING IN POVERTY NOW, (48% on food stamps), and there are literally millions of American families in dire need of help. But the church thinks a fancier organ, (when they already had this lovely masterpiece), is more important than people. CHARMING.

[@JohnNozum]

I thank you for sharing this. This organ, while older than some Allen models that I've played, appears to be largely a "superset". I have extensive experience on the Allen 600 series and now the 500 series (1970's and 1980's technology). The case design of your organ here is very similar to these two organs that I've played extensively, except yours has another manual. I think yours does have a better sound, too. This is probably analog technology at its finest! I also have a little experience on an Allen 400 series organ. I also got brief experience at an Allen 800 series organ, which is a 3-manual organ and has knob-type stops. Interesting video! From one decent organist to another, John Nozum

[@baconbyte4065]

This probably isn't analog tech at its finest. As amazing as it is other organ builders like AOB and Shaw took electronic organs to an extreme level all while still being more cost effective than a pipe organ.

[@Zylstra555]

OH WOW! That is one heck of an instrument. Thank you so much for sharing. How does it generate it's sound? I saw you mentioned "Tone Generators", however that could be very many things. I am also an organist, I really enjoyed listening.

[@DellAndersonProd]

Up above but (I think) below the speakers was a room full of racks of electronics. Standard resistors, capacitors, and coils. and possibly transistors (not sure about the latter). I believe they used what is called additive and subtractive synthesis to create stop sounds. Flutes are easiest of course, nearly sine waves, but reeds involved more complicated synthesis - all analog mind you, no digital or digital sampling. Allen didn't come out with the 'computer organ' until around the 1970's with the technology borrowed from the space program. And that was initially only 8 bit (IIRC) so left a lot to be desired.

[@Marksnotebook]

I can't reveal where I live on here but I can tell you that this one is truly amazing and can play pipes that sound just like pipes. Its amazing......there are many speakers lined up in the church balconey everywhere and down along the church isles constantly. Check out Central Illinois Lutheran Churches LCMS ...Or call the synod and I'm sure they can direct you to the church in central IL :)

[@legendary6790]

Man I have a 1987 adc5000 that I modified heavily with my dad to incorporate things like a third manual, midi capability for hauptwerk and other things. I always though the stock allen sounds were kinda crappy due to A. the reveration being broken, and B. it being over 30 years old. but listening to this transister organ makes me think that the early digital stuff from the 80s really was a step back. Im glad modern digital organ tech has evolved and sounds as good as it does now. I would use the 100% use hauptwerk all the time, but it is really finaky and crashes a lot. I think I got the short end of the stick in all aspects here.

[@DellAndersonProd]

I agree about the MOS and early ADC. Had a three manual 1990 ADC and it sounded significantly better than the 1970's analog, but not as good as the later digitals. Best part of it was the keyboards which could run MIDI quite cleanly.

[@Organsk8er]

In a lot of ways, I'd rather have this than most newer digital organs by Allen. Especially hearing this, I think they made the switch to digital a little bit too early. Especially the early digital organs sounded very sterile (some still do)...and thin. This is beautifully warm and pleasing, and indeed very realistic!

[@DandyDon1]

@light4darkness For Oscillator circuits, I am sure there is a cross reference for modern silicon types. One thing about analog verses digital. You can always repair the analog, discrete components are easily found where as digital equipment evolves very quickly and changes about every 90 days. Statute of limitations is 7 to 10 years. You are lucky if a manufacturer will keep replacement parts for digital instruments for 7 let alone 10 years.

[@mudgebauer]

Its a shame this organ wasnt kept intact and sold to another church or given to another church rather than destroy it for parts. A very sad loss.

[@EliasCalabretta1]

Absolutely AMAZING. I'm an amateur organist myself and am hoping to be able to play an organ in the new church. Shame not a lot of interest is in an organ :( But absolutely beautiful music. Loved the handel :D

[@SilvioMauri]

This instrument is very nice and complete. I also build custom electronic organs in moving digital and combined with canes. is a real shame I can not help you!

[@DandyDon1]

By the way, love the "slush" in this instrument :)

[@Marksnotebook]

She was playing the very Allen in 1965, too.

[@DellAndersonProd]

My guess is that the parts may or may not be scattered to a parts warehouse or the dump, depending on resale value (if any). For example, the amplifiers. I have no personal knowledge and the organ definitely is no longer in the church (see "More" under description above). On a more positive note, I recently heard David Higgs perform a splendid concert on the replacement (Pipe) organ at this venue (largest pipe organ in the city now), so the organ tradition lives on in slightly different form.

[@elliot_sander]

Man. That Allen could just about knock your teeth out! Truly, I really did think this was a hybrid organ at first. The bright mixtures and full principals on this thing are just amazing. I’ve noticed on almost every other electric I’ve ever played, the reeds sound nasally and fake (HONK!). Not this one however! The divisional speaker placement (antiphonal ect.) helps too I’m sure. I wonder, is the reverb of the room natural? Or is there additional spring reverb in the tone cabinets? Regardless, I will forever stand by my statements that analogue organs sound better than digital ones! This example really proves my point I think. So sad that it was removed and sold off but your congregation was sure lucky to have it for a while!!

[@DellAndersonProd]

@Elliot Sander Not sure, but I don't think there was any spring reverb. There was a pretty good room acoustic due to hard walls as I recall. I really wanted to save this organ, but it was simply too big for my home. Not bigger than a pipe organ of course, but much bigger than an intelligent Hauptwerk or Grand Orgue setup, which if you haven't experienced yet you probably will want to.

[@jochimbenschneider1915]

I’m with you!

[@AuntieN2]

To continue with the Gentle Giant's Organ ... I don't believe there was that much wrong with the organ ... but, it was traded and more money added to the 1970's organ which for some reason needs to be replaced now. If our pipe organ had never been used again ... I think it should have been saved for historic purposes anyway. It was just getting out of fashion for a Methodist Church to have a pipe organ. I just love to hear all the mechanisms click around in those pipes! It goes w/ hymnals!

[@Principal16]

Is this really electronic Allen?!? It's hard to believe because it's from 1962 and it sounds like real organ!!!! :D

[@davidstewart9263]

I am about to get an Allen 632D, similar to this one. Although this technology is up to date, the sound of Allen is amazingly real and with the additional card reader you can get great timbre combinations. I always preferred Allen over Rodgers, though

[@DellAnderson]

Actually the Allen in this video is a much older model (circa early 1960's) and relies on old fashioned electronics, not computer technology. I cannot remember the model, but the number TC-4 rings a bell.

[@txpipes61]

It's probably more in the area of a TC-8 Custom. The "TC" stands for "transistorized console" and the "8" would mean that there were 8 ranks of audio oscillators. That number is a little misleading, as this organ probably has additional ranks of oscillators, such as a 12 note extension for the pedal 16'-32' reed, and a separate rank for the Trompette en Chamade (if it has one), one or two ranks of oscillators for the String and Flute Celeste, as well as a rank of tone generators for the percussions - bells, harp, carillon, etc. It also has a HUGE set of relays for the remote capture system. This is truly a custom instrument - and certainly was a marvel of electronic engineering when it was originally installed. It is a testament to the longevity of the Allen organ in that it served this congregation for over 50 years with minimal maintenance. Do you know if there are any recordings of recitals on tis instrument, or organ/orchestra/choir recordings? I am pleased that the church replaced the Allen with a Reuter pipe organ. I hope that they organ is working out for them. I'm sure they will enjoy it.

[@DellAnderson]

Thanks for that additional info. Did you happen to work on these organs? Very interesting information. As for your question about whether there are any recordings of recitals or organ/orchestra/choir recordings, I do not know whether there are any existing recordings of recitals on this instrument, but I would not be a bit surprised if there were. IIRC, the organist I recorded here made the off-hand comment to the effect he was comfortable being recorded by me because he had been on television or other video shows before. Where to find said recordings and obtain rights to publish them is quite another matter. I assume the first step would be to contact the organist (if there is interest).

[@DellAnderson]

I forgot to mention in my reply that there is a picture of top of the huge setter relay box near the end of the photobucket gallery (s862.photobucket.com/user/DellAnderson/slideshow/1962CustomAllen) for this organ linked to in the video description above, along with quite a few other pictures of the organ console & electronics that I had forgotten about.

[@txpipes61]

I was an Allen representative for many years. I remember going into churches that had the analog Allen organs and trying to talk them into trading them in for a newer digital organ. Usually we were unsuccessful. Folks just would not let go of them! As someone had mentioned in an earlier posting, to build these type of organs today would be cost prohibitive. The labor costs would be phenomenal, not to mention the construction costs. To think that at one time, Allen did build them by hand. They made their own oscillators in their factory, the reason being that they had better quality control over the product. Each oscillator coil was wound by hand (or manually by a machine). The wiring harness was put together by hand, each connection was hand soldered - even the transformers used in the amplifiers and other parts of the organ were made in house by Allen. When they switched over to the digital product, they made all their own PC boards - they had machines that did automatic insertion of the components on the boards, then the boards travelled through a machine that soldered the joins automatically. When Rodgers built their first organ in 1958, Allen had already been in business for over 20 years. Rodgers used many oscillators in their organs in the beginning, but as time went on they began to decrease the number of oscillators used. The problem with Rodgers was that the cost of the oscillators got so expensive that they started cutting corners and reducing the number of tone generators. Anyone who knows about organ design would know that you cannot produce a 74-stop organ with four sets of oscillators! (Which is what they did at one time!). But anyway, I'm not trying to bash Rodgers, as they did build some fine organs in their day. Allen and Rodgers had entirely tonal philosophies.

[@DellAndersonProd]

@BigOrganPipes See the "Show more" information under video. Either it went to the dump or was purchased by someone as a parts donor (for the amplifiers etc), I don't know - I never heard. I've been back and heard the new pipe organ, but it had not been completely voiced yet so I cannot really say whether it is an improvement or not. It was sad for me to see this Allen dismantled, in its day the largest Allen west of the Mississippi.

[@mikedc2020]

Hard to believe that an electronic organ from the '60's sounds that good. But have had one helluva audio system. The Allen's of the 70's and 80's didn't sound this good.

[@tandycampbell]

@techmanty That would be Widor's Tocatta. Organ Symphony No. 5, Movement 5 by Charles-Marie Widor.

[@saxachewon8062]

There are a few custom digital installations out there that will make you ask where the pipes are. This is one of them.

[@DellAnderson]

Truth be told, this is an analog, not digital, organ. But your point is well taken. It is an electronic organ that sounds like the real thing. I believe some of them (not sure about this one) even had some kind of "whynd" generating sound.

[@txpipes61]

Yes, this Allen Organ had the patented Allen "Random Motion Electronic Whind" - it was introduced by Allen in 1960. The idea was to emulate the variations in sound that are caused in pipe organs due to a wind supply that varies. It gave the organ some "motion" so that it was not such a "sterile" sound. The "whind" had it's own set of generators and was adjustable. If you wanted a really "huffy" sound on your Principal stop for example, it could be increased to your particular taste. It was quite effective on the Flute stop, especially the ones that had "chiff" (which BTW, was also adjustable!). There were so many things that you could do with these organs to voice them to the room.

[@DandyDon1]

If only a TC series transistor Allen could sound this good :D

[@benjaminslayton4335]

+DandyDon “Xerox6085” If only a new Allen sounded that good.

[@DandyDon1]

This is why Rodgers excelled in the early days. They sounded much better to many listeners compared to early Allen digital. It wasn't until the MDS generation was produced that Allen started to sound more "pipe" like. In the case of this BIG custom Allen a nice big live room helps the sound. That is also true of any instrument, analog, digital or wind blown pipes. The limited audio bandwidth of KZbin being 126 -165kbps hides quite a bit of an instrument's idiosyncrasies. For reference Compact Discs are 1,411kbps.

[@benjaminslayton4335]

Rodgers is still way ahead of Allen in terms of sound quality. Allen doesn't even come close. Listen to their promotional recordings on their well-polished "AOCVideo" channel. The consoles are very nice, but the sound is still very artificial. It has come a long way since MDS, but it still groans. BTW, my church's MDS sounds horrible. I've heard and played better MOS "organs". If we replaced it with a Mid-80's Rodgers 640 Essex, it would be a HUGE improvement! Plus, you can add a few ranks of pipes to a Rodgers 640. When I say it sounds better than an MDS 26 (a slightly larger "organ"), I'm being generous to the Allen. Allen should be ashamed of the fact that a thing that bad bears their name. If you watch Allen's promotional videos, you will see and hear a lot about component longevity and console build-quality, but very little to nothing about their sound quality, verses that of competing brands.

[@DandyDon1]

Well in a way it's like computer software before working out all of the bugs, a company like Microsoft introduces a new O/S with a whole new complete set of "idiosyncrasies" and "bugs". My associate who was the factory voicer for Rodgers during the 60s-80s, and traveled with Virgil Fox on tour with Rodgers "Black Beauty". I have two church customers with Allen MDS instruments. I service the digital carillon systems for both of them, not the organs. When possible my associate will go with me to play/hear a competitor's instrument. These two instruments sound very nice. One is a MDS-40S, I do not remember what model the other one is. While many digital instruments are a far cry from the sound of wind blown pipes, with maybe the exception of Walker Digital and Marshall-Ogletree, they should be enjoyable to play and have many "nice" sounds. If your MDS is horrible I'd complain to get someone out there to make it much better. There are bad voicers and there are great voicers, hopefully you can find a great one. An example of a Rodgers 885 digital installed in a church near the beach for 30+ years. The music director complained that it did not play loud enough. He turned up every control in the instrument (14 channels) and it was still too soft in volume. I was there at his request to service it and pulled every circuit board, and every connector I could find and cleaned them with with a very good quality electronic spray cleaner. Lo and Behold, when we tried it after this process, the instrument played at least 40% louder, it was also fuller and brighter and the pedal notes shook the room as they should. What I am saying is your Allen MDS may need some maintenance, as there may be something wrong with it which is causing it to sound bad.

[@benjaminslayton4335]

+DandyDon “Xerox6085” You touched on a couple of things. The dealer Case Brothers in Spartanburg, SC) is horrible. They are dishonest and unprofessional. They installed counterfeit speakers at another church. I saw them and snapped a few pictures. They are also terrible voicers. On every Allen they have voiced, the 8' Great flute is louder than the Diapason. Even on newer models, it sounds fake. Unfortunately, they are slick talkers. Committee members who know nothing about organs or music, buy their inferior products. I would venture that is the case for the whole electronic organ industry. I heard a "good" MDS 45DK and it was surprisingly pleasant. The manual reeds sound decent and the choruses blend nicely. Not like the one at my church. Also, the mixtures are bright and silvery. I didn't know it was possible for an MDS to sound that good. It still betrayed itself, however. The pedal reeds sound fake and electronically-generated. When you play them, the organ honks. When you play a large pedal registration, the sound of the whole organ becomes homogeneous and muddy. If you stay light on the pedal, it's not bad. Maybe it could use a couple of SR-5 cabinets and a crossover to take the bass away from the manual channels. The MDS at my church is anything but pleasant to hear or to play. The sound is dull, muddy, and homogeneous. It is nothing even remotely like a pipe organ. The sound it produces reminds me of the sound of an old tube organ. The kind that has marbled plastic stop switches and keys. Not the kind that goes in a church. If I wanted that kind of sound, instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars, I would have spent a few hundred on a used Lowrey Holiday Genie or something of that nature. There are a few remarkably-good Allen organs, but the majority of them that I've had the misfortune of hearing are rubbish. Even in Allen's promotional recordings on KZbin, you see beautiful consoles, but the sound you hear is the blatantly artificial. If Allen had any integrity, if any of the words they say are true, they would make Case Brothers clean-up the messes they've made, starting with Saint George. I'd like that piece of rubbish hauled-off. I'd also like a public apology from Case Brothers.

[@pennyfox2942]

I am looking for a manuel instruction book for an old Baldwin...three manuel Allen organ. I cannot find a model no. the organ says Baldwin. there are two key boards. The old dedication paper just says three manuel Allen Organ. I play piano, some keyboard, a little on an accordion, and have played a pump organ in a country church for many years. as a child, I played mothers spinet organ. I need to get instructions for all the pulls, stops, and toggles, etc...if that is what theyre called.

[@DellAnderson]

Not sure how to help. Sounds like you are talking about two different organs. To my (albeit limited) knowledge, Baldwin & Allen have always been completely different companies although both made organs (Allen by far the better IMHO). Also, 'three manual' means three keyboards so the dedication papers probably refer to a previous organ. Sometimes if you look inside the console (perhaps the back) you might find more model information. Depending on age of the instrument it may or may not be worth fixing. Just don't electrocute yourself!

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Analog electronic tone generation has far more authenticity in respect to overtones in a pure musical sense than anything digital. This is why playing an electronic organ ( a quality designed Individual Oscillator) is far more pleasing to the ear. Of course just as the average violinist does not go out of his way to insist on a Stradivarius, the same holds true for the average church organist. Sadly, just because you play organ it does not mean you have an ear that can discern quality overtones

[@DellAndersonProd]

@Zylstra555 Ah I overlooked answering your second question - truthfully I am not sure why the church no longer wanted the organ, although I suspect it was a combination of two facts: 1) Most organists prefer a real pipe organ (one with pipes) to an electronic one, no matter how nice the electronics are and 2) this electronic organ was getting up in years, and you know what happens when things get old - annoying little breakdowns happen. It isn't that they couldn't fix them, but it is annoying.

[@resultant64]

An old organ but sounds as good as ever... I wonder what a new digital one would sound.. I'm hoping that someday I can buy one organ. They are so rare in India. We use keyboards in church... Sigh :(

[@DandyDon1]

@light4darkness They will soon find out that a pipe organ has the same tuning affliction, if not properly voiced. It too will change tuning if the room's temperature is not properly maintained and brought up to temperature before a service!

[@heepitfull]

I prefer and play a pipe organ, but I remember the Allen analog organ of this period--one in a church (with the separate room for the major electronics) and one at the home of an organ teacher. She bought a large drawstop Allen when they started making digital and was quite disappointed, as were some others who switched to digital. I agree with many of these comments--the older analog Allen was far superior. Something else I have noticed--the present use of veneers for the console in place of real hardwood and the switch from wood core keys to all plastic ones--no quality look or feel. It is inded all about money--electronic salesmen tell a church no or low maintenance vs. a pipe organ, yet after a number of years, come back and say that the finest technology they sold is now out-of-date, so get something better, and so on. Pipe organs do go through design fads, but the pipes don't become obsolete unless they are abused. They can be used in a rebuild and revoiced if needed. It's too bad someone couldn't have used and maintained the Allen on this video.

[@174rank]

heepitfull The church where I play just got a new Allen digital "Quantum" model, and I toured the factory shortly before the purchase. The Low-end "Chapel" series organ have Fatar keyboards, but the others, including run-of-the-mill "Bravura" models, have felted wood keys, and the consoles, while veneered, are solid, butcher block construction. The one we just got at the church sounds fantastic!

[@txpipes61]

All of the major digital builders (and most of the pipe builders too I would add) are using veneer on their consoles. The big difference between Allen and their competitors - especially Rodgers - is that Allen uses hard-wood cores made with the "butcher block" construction as mentioned previously, while the other builders use cheap particle board cores with veneer on top of the core. I have seen some newer pipe consoles that are extremely cheap and flimsy looking in construction.

[@charlotteclarke4665]

It can often cost more to maintain a pipe organ than it does to buy a digital one. I think it works out the same to buy another digital one every 10 years or so as you eliminate the cost of parts like relays as well as general tuning and maintenance.

[@tandycampbell]

@techmanty That would be Widor's Tocatta. Organ Symphony No. 5, Movement 5

[@klbird]

Would have made a great candidate for conversion to a digital Hauptwerk organ. They could have kept the speaker and amplifiers.

[@Griffis520]

I wonder what the song is played in the very beginning of the video.

[@FM60260]

What was the largest production organ built by Allen that used transistors?

[@dmin11]

What is the piece that you play at the very beginning and then secondly just on the strings? Is it an actual piece or just an improvisation?

[@DainGerrUsss]

PLEASE EXPLAIN, WITHOUT CONDESCENDING, WHY THE NEWER DIGITAL ALLENS DO NOT SOUND THAT GOOD? I AM NOT KNOCKING THE NEW ONES, JUST ASKING.

[@baconbyte4065]

They do. They sound much better on a stop by stop basis they have more pipe like characteristics. An Allen today of similar size would sound far better and far more realistic as it can more accurately reproduce the sound of a pipe. It all comes down to audio channels and the tones mixing in the air rather than electronically. Analogs of this size had considerable audio channels and were able to properly fill a room however they were not as pipe like. Giving a digital organ today the same amount of audio channels yields better and more realistic results.

[@txpipes61]

The sound of the organ (and I am referring to Allen specifically here) will depend on several factors. How many speakers are used on the installation, what are the room acoustics like, and the biggest factor - the experience of the person installing and voicing the organ. I have heard some small Allen's that sound like organs twice the size, and conversely, large Allen's that sounded terrible. The overall sound is at the mercy of the installer/voicer. The early Allen digital organs were very limited in the "voicing" of the organs. In fact, Allen did not call it voicing - they called it "contouring." The installer was contouring the sound for the room the organ was being installed in. With the improvement in digital technology, the organs have improved tremendously in the true voicing capability of the organs. They now have the ability to actually change the timbre of the sound, much like a pipe voicer does - attack, decay, speech ictus, etc. It is amazing at what can be done with the new technology available.

[@mudog35]

he gots some hand action going on there...

[@lpme126]

Does anyone know the name of the music played at the beginning? (the first 50 seconds). Thanks.

[@James_Bowie]

It may have been a bit of improvisation.

[@BCSchmerker]

+DellAndersonProd *Talk about a missed opportunity!* As of April 2017 I'm designing an instrument for OMS Japanese Christian Church (Walnut Creek, CA, USA), which has to make do with hopelessly inadequate hardware: A Korg® T1 in Shinoda Hall, a Yamaha® S80 deployable as needed. The instrument this vid I would have wanted to transplant into housings of completely new design: A keydesk along the lines of Allen's current English-style keydesk, but with all drawknobs and full mechanical coupling for the 61-note manuals and 32-note pedalboard, adhering SO strictly to the AGO specifications that all drawknob faces would be lined up and color-coded for class of tone. I could never get used to paddle or rocker tablets. My new design for a Danish Contemporary-style four-manual requires almost four hundred amplifier channels each driving an in-wall or in-ceiling speaker, as I have to work around some difficult architectural limitations: Osaki Sensei had never been asked to provide for an organ in Shinoda Hall, which means I cannot use the Allenorgans® Herald Class™ cabs that would be recommended for an instrument in the L-463 size ballpark. If EAC™ can be scaled up to Dolby® Atmos™ proportions, the instrument will be able to quadruple as sound reinforcement, phased-array public address, and test-bed for instrumental tone for future construction. One of my wishlist objectives is a Sanctuary with three of the organ's manual divisions wrapped around the pulpits and baptistry, a fourth in a gallery behind the A/V/L control desks, and the pedal division in all four corners - a lot easier to provide for pipes at the design stage, ye see.

[@DellAndersonProd]

Yes, this was a missed opportunity. Sorry that I somehow was not notified of your posts. How did the Walnut Creek organ installation go? Drawknobs are more popular with some and therefore more expensive. I am currently designing and building a Hauptwerk VPO console and it may simply have lighted buttons for stop jams, if that! :-(

[@BCSchmerker]

@@DellAndersonProd Still unbuilt, and the pandemic has shelved the project for practical purposes.

[@TheBaritoneCrooner]

Now that the church has replaced the Allen with a big Reuter, is it possible to know the name of the church to see pictures the new instrument?

[@Spudeaux]

Freemont Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, CA.

[@BenjaminNicholaus]

Too often, the opposite is happening. Lovely pipe organs are being trashed to make room for electronic organs. The organ in this video was a magnificent organ, but many aren't, and a lot of smooth-talking electronic organ dealers convince churches to either trash a pipe organ or not get one to begin with. I would give anything to have a real pipe organ.

[@DandyDon1]

The two links in the description are now dead, and have probably been deleted for a while.

[@DellAndersonProd]

Thanks so much for pointing out the missing links to the Allen Organ electronics room photos. I tracked down the problem (PB change of hosting policies) and reposted the photos here: imgbox.com/g/TyRE6JiZT0

[@DandyDon1]

@@DellAndersonProd Thanks!

[@edwardjenkins5421]

If this organ is literally transistors, capacitors and resistors, why can't an organ of similar quality be made with such simple components today?

[@DellAndersonProd]

@Edward Jenkins 1) It is literally transisters, capacitors, and resistors, and 2) In theory, an analog organ could be made with such simple off-the-shelf electronic components today. But the question is why would you? It would be tedious, time consuming, and expensive. The components for this organ filled an entire room above the console and stage, and even when finished, you would not be satisfied. There are much better sounding sampled digital audio electronic pipe organs today that fit in little more than the space of the console and speakers themselves, not to mention home computer based software such as Hauptwerk capable of near pipe verisimilitude. There really is no comparison, good as this organ was for its day.

[@edwardjenkins5421]

@@DellAndersonProd Yeah, but you could probably make very cheap organs like this if you condense the components onto ICs.