3/19 Mighty MidiTzer 260 Special
Dan Rowland Residence
Akron, Ohio

This month's featured organ is the 3/19 Mighty MidiTzer Style 260 Special Virtual Theatre Pipe Organ that is installed at the Dan Rowland Residence in Akron, Ohio. It is the Fifty-fifth instrument to be featured at Walnut Hill.

Dan Rowland, who spends his summers in Ohio and winter in Saint Pete, Florida, is a long standing member of the Walnut Hill Organ Club and is listed on the Wall of Fame in our MidiTzer section. He is also a member of several Yahoo TPO groups and is active in ATOS and WRTOS.

Dan's Mighty MidiTzer did not start life as a 260 Special. It's beginnings were the more humble but capable MidiTzer Style 216 modelled after its WurliTzer counterpart, with two manuals, pedalboard, and twin swell shoes controlling ten ranks of pipes. Dan's rig used one shoe for both chambers.

David built a new console to replace the original using many of the parts from the old unit. The top desk was modified to house three manuals by adding wood in stratigic -laces and crafting a new horseshoe lid and music rack.

In the shot above, we are looking down at the keydesk with the drawer for the computer keyboard pulled out. Note that the gold ornaments had not been added when this picture was taken during the Ohio Organ Crawl of August, 2007.

The driving force behind Dan's VTPO is this custom made Windows XP Pro Intel based computer installed below the keydesk. Dan constructed the machine with some help from the local techs who sold him the parts and his sons, Dave and Dan, Jr. This is the second rig used as a VTPO, replacing the one which ran his Style 216, also a custom rig built by his own hand.

Along with the renovation of the console in order to convert it from the original two-manual installation into the current three-manual VTPO came the addition of two Mackie MR8 audio monitors, six Tapco/Mackie MR5 studio monitors, a Dayton C1500K 15-inch powered subwoofer, and Gigastudio3 loading on a GISF compliant M-Audio Delta1010LT PCI soundcard.

Nestled on the outskirts of town, the Dan Rowland Residence is a sprawling ranch house surrounded by lush woods and garden-filled lawns of rich green.

The landscaping blends into the trees to render the house almost invisible from the street. Dan did most of the work to turn his property into a botanical paradise.

The rear side of the house opens onto a wooden deck off the back porch with a stairway leading down to an above-ground heated swimming pool surrounded by another wooden deck.

When one walks into this cozy home, a welcoming atmosphere awaits. All through the place are gentle reminders to tell those who visit that they can slow down and relax here.

Dan has many hobbies, one of which is clay roses. These delicate flowers depicted below, however, are made from common bread dough used as the clay medium. The flowers are formed and dried, then sprayed with a sealer and painted to look like the real thing.