We
manufacture a large and ever increasing range of midi control boards that can
be used with either Hauptwerk, SoundFont systems such
as Miditzer and jOrgan, or expander units.
Basically,
these boards are wired to the keyboards, pedalboard and, optionally the stop
switches to provide midi outputs on different channels.
There are
two different approaches to this:
The first
method which is the simplest and cheapest is to use a combined unit. A number of scan boards which are available
in 32 and 64 way versions are fed into a common processor board which provides
a single midi output on a number of different channels which can be specified
by the user.
The most
common system would comprise two 64 way scan boards for the swell and great
(upper and lower) keyboards, and two 32 way scan boards for the pedals and
stops. These are fed into a processor
board which produces a single midi output, using channel 1 for the swell, 2 for
the great, 3 for the pedals and 4 for the stops. The user would then connect a midi cable from
this output to a computer, and with suitable software, a two manual and pedal
organ can be realised.
There are
two processor boards available, the two manual can take up to three 64 way scan
boards and two 32 way, the 3-4 manual can take up to six 64 way and two 32 way
boards. Any scan board can be designated
as keys or stops and any required midi channels can be specified.
COMPONENTS
AVAILABLE
Two manual processor board 98.00
Three/Four manual processor board 124.00
32 way scan board 28.00
64 way scan board 46.00
Power supply (One required per system) 10.00
Combined units work well with small organs, but
all the midi signals coming from the organ have to be channelled to one output
and this can cause delays when playing fast on larger organs especially when
using couplers.
SEPARATE SYSTEMS
With separate systems, each
keyboard/pedalboard/set of stops has its own midi output. These should be combined at the computer with
a multiport midi/usb
interface. Edirol
and M-Audio are two companies that produce suitable units for this purpose. The usb bus works
several hundred times faster than a midi interface. This enables it to handle multiple midi
inputs with no delays or loss of data (subject of course to the controlling
software).
You should NOT
use a midi merge unit or you simply end up with the same limitations as a
combined system and you may also experience loss of data.
Some midi encoders, supplied by other
companies, feed the midi output from one keyboard into a midi input on the next
keyboard encoder and this “daisy chain” is repeated throughout the system,
again the same problem as with the combined unit will occur on larger systems.
COMPONENTS AVAILABLE
32 way scan board/encoder 66.00
64 way scan board/encoder 86.00
Power supply (One required per system) 10.00
SWELL/VOLUME CONTROLS
All computer based systems and most expanders
require volume control information to be fed into them via midi.
All of our systems can do this and for a
straightforward volume control, there is simply a £10 programming charge for
every division that you want to control.
Swell pedals are more complicated, since a
swell pedal potentiometer only has a limited arc of travel and the limits of
this travel vary from one organ to the next.
We therefore provide an additional PCB with a preset on it and this can
be used to ensure that whatever the travel of the swell pedal potentiometer,
the full range of volume is available.
This is provided together with a matching replacement potentiometer for
the swell pedal itself. The cost of this
kit, which includes full wiring and adjusting instructions
is £30.