Converting a Conn 652 into a Virtual Theatre Pipe Organ

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A couple of years ago my friend Merv from Queensland asked me if I would come up and install a 3/19 Virtual Theatre Pipe Organ in his Conn 652.

I thought he was joking; he was not; he contacted me in 2011 and I went to Queensland; spent a lovely week up there; nice food, good accommodation.

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The stop tabs are not connected; however, the touch screen and pistons are used instead.

 

Listed below are the ranks supplied.

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Here is Merv's story.

 

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CONN PALLADIUM

A  Midi project to enhance my Conn652

In January 2006, John Brimblecombe, a Conn Organ Technician, told me about a process called MIDI.

He said it was a “musical instrument digital interface” which allowed multiple instruments of varying types to be brought together and played from a master keyboard.

The subject fascinated me and we later talked about applying the MIDI system; allowing me to play my Roland KR177 piano through the Conn652.

We did this and I thought it was terrific, but I was still searching for something more without knowing what was available out there.

I read about Miditzer on the internet and downloaded the 3/19 which gave me heaps of enjoyment and then I added J Organ 3/19 for another variation. 

 It still wasn't the realism that I was after and Owen Jones informed me about digital samples. He said I would really get what I want with samples.

I had been to Canberra several times to see Owen Jones' Virtual Theatre Organ and asked him on one visit if he would install mine for me. He thought I was joking but t I was serious. 

In February 2011 Owen came to Brisbane to work on the transformation to Digital Ranks in my Conn652.

He offered plenty of advice and I took it all. Working well into the night with MIDI units he was not familiar with, every night for a week he eventually had it up and playing through 6 channels.

Rick Whatson did a very quick job for me and made up a Swell Pedal and Crescendo Pedal control board, and Owen applied this to give me Crescendo and volume control.

We encountered a problem of distortion with the present Delta 1010lt audio card and it seemed that HP power supply did not have enough power to run that particular card.

Ian McLean, Don Clark and Owen Jones all discussed this problem at length to find a solution it was decided to install Don Clark's spare ECHO Audiofire 12 sound processor and that solved the problem.

On Owen's advice I ordered an ECHO Audiofire12 from the USA and he installed it and another four channels.

My outfit was previously powered by different amplifiers with Jaycar Party Speakers.

It now has three amplifiers, four Jaycar Party Speakers, four Behringer Truth B2031A speakers, two Jensen 8inch speakers, and the three sets of Conn pipes.

The tabs are not connected to Hauptwerk, however, registrations are changeable by General and Divisional pistons on the three manuals, and a touch screen that has been installed on the front of the horseshoe on a special post designed and fabricated by Kevin Purchase.

The change to my Conn652 (which still works as a Conn) has been amazing with the Connoisseur ranks giving incredible clarity of sound and realism. I now have exactly what I wanted.

My organ is now called a

 

CONN PALLADIUM

 

Any Virtual Theatre Pipe Organ enthusiast who would like to see it and play it will be very welcome; to contact me on my email:  merlin.2@bigpond.com

Merv Lock

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UPDATES:

 In January 2011.

The upgrade commenced. I bought a new computer and Don Clark added the Delta 1010LT sound Card on 2^nd Feb. Also a new 23inch TOUCH SCREEN (Acer 230HT) was added and Hauptwerk Advanced Edition V3.30 was installed; with the assistance of Mike Pfitzner Rick Whatson built a MIDI OX micro processor board to MIDI the swell and crescendo pedals. Kevin Purchase will fabricate a post to hold the touch screen on the front right hand corner of the horseshoe.

I brought Owen Jones up from Canberra to configure the Hauptwerk relay, install the Connoisseur 3/19 ranks and arrange the audio distribution.

There were quite a few late nights , he finished the job about two hours before he departed for the airport to return home.

Owen convinced me that my intended 4 channels were nowhere near enough so I bought two new Jaycar Party Speakers and borrowed a Dick Smith amplifier from Kevin Purchase to set up another two channels. Still have two channels available.

He also advised that full realism comes with all samples and loops loaded and a 64bit OS and at least 6 Gigs of RAM would do the job much better than a 32 bit system.

This is one of the things I will follow up first. He also recommended that the next upgrade should be to Artisan's Micro MIDI, as programming is much easier. Ian McLean advised that I should put another Delta sound card in and add another eight channels for realism. Looks like I am still on the tram and cannot get off. More to come later.

May 16 2011.

Owen was up here for the week and he completed the install with Hauptwerk version Four and the new Echo Audiofire 12.

Four new Behringer 2031A studio monitors were installed and the change to the overall sound was amazing.

We disconnected the piezo tweeters and horns in the party speakers as we found that they were making spurious gurgling sounds - not good.

We managed to load most of the voices with all samples present.

 

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The audio setup is as follows:

Strings and Flutes are fed through the Conn Pipes; the audio dispersion is very good.

 

 

 

Next showing the Echo Audiofire 12 and speakers which handle the larger ranks. Notice the Yamaha sub underneath the two bookshelf speakers.

 

 

 

These JAYCAR 15" party speakers provide the audio for the bigger voices.

Such as; The Post Horn, Brass Trumpet, Tuba Horn and Open Diapason

 

A nice shot of the boss (me) making an inspection.

Displaying the touch screen with Hauptwerk 4.

 

New Racking.

Displaying the new Behringer 2031A studio monitors; providing the audio magic.

 

 

 

 

 

Me relaxing, while Owen is slaving away in the garage over the organ... where is my whip?

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In the past five years I have visited Owen's installation several times with members of the Conn-Sole Theatre Organ Club of Brisbane.
We have seen his project grow from a converted Conn 651 to the magnificent  theatre organ he has built and created himself.

We called his current console "The White Beast" because it has so much "grunt"; it is incredible.
Owen's project has been my inspiration .

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Credits.

3/19 Theatre Organ supplied by Key Media Productions .

 Hauptwerk (Advanced version 4)

 The Audio section has 12 channels driving 30 loudspeakers. (soon)

The Audio System is an  ECHO Audiofire12

Don Clark, Rick Whatson, Ian McLean, Kevin Purchase and many others for their help on this project.

 

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© Owen Jones