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MMD > Archives > May 1995 > 1995.05.11 > 01Prev  Next


Attaching a midi to my organ
By Dave Clark

Hi, I while go there was a post that mentioned something to the effect <you can hook a MIDI to anything>. Well I would like to talk to anyone that can help me attach a MIDI to an small organ I am building.

First let me tell you about the organ. It is similiar to a Gaviolia street organ. A street organ is a larger version of a monkey organ. Usually on a cart with wheels (I expect mine to weigh about 300 pounds).

The one I am building is a 28 key keyless organ. It has 35 pipes operating on 6" wind pressure. There are 14 melody pipes, 9 accompaniment pipes and 10 bass pipes (5 notes - 2 pipes per note) but no counter-melody :-(. I have built everything on the organ including the crank, tacker bar and rollers.

The one disadvantage to this project is the lack of readily made "books". This type of organ uses a book instead of a roll. A book is made from thin cardboard and folded every 6 inches or so. I need to take music from band organ rolls transfer them to the book and then punch them out. As you can tell IT'S A LOT OF WORK!

And now for the midi part. I would like to hook a midi to this organ somehow. Not to replace the books but to supplement them. I would like to hear a song played on the organ before I went to all the trouble punching a book. I have all the midi equipment in my computer along with the software but I need the device that coverts the midi signal to a mechanical signal (i.e. a device to open and close a "tracker bar" hole.

Has anyone done something like this? Can someone send me info on businesses that have stuff like this? Any kits available? Building something is not a problem!!

Dave Clark


(Message sent Thu 11 May 1995, 11:21:58 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Attaching, midi, my, organ

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