MIDI and organs seem like a natural combination.  But you will find that it takes more than you might think to build an organ by connecting MIDI keyboards to a MIDI synthesizer.  That is what I discovered when I started looking for a way to connect the Wurlitzer console I am restoring to a MIDI synthesizer.

Organs, theatre or classical, are choral instruments.  Stop tabs or drawknobs are used to control what sound or sounds are produced when a key is played on the keyboard.  An essential part of playing an organ is using the stops to set a registration.  This creates a chorus of sounds that will be played.  Stop control seems like the natural order of things to an organist but it is apparently a foreign concept to most other musicians including the architects of the MIDI specification.

To build an organ using MIDI signaling you need to add the equivalent of an organ relay.  Electropneumatic organs, which includes all theatre pipe organs, include a large collection of switching equipment to combine the signals from the keyboards and the stops to produce the signals that operate the pipes.  The Miditzer provides such a MIDI relay.  It allows you to connect MIDI keyboards in a way that will provide the thrilling experience of playing a theatre organ.

Many of you have MIDI keyboards that will provide key signals but you don't have an organ console to provide stop signals.  The Miditzer has a graphical user interface that allows you to control the stops with the click of a mouse or a touch screen.  If you don't have a MIDI keyboard you can use your mouse to play the on screen keys.  You can also play and control stops with just your computer keyboard.  The thumb nail screen shot shows the controls that the Miditzer provides.