After observing the MMD a little bit and finding it very interesting, I
try to introduce myself :

My name is Robert Hopp, I am organbuilder since the age of 16 years
when I started apprenticeship in Munich (Bavaria). I worked 5 years in
Church organs, especially in voicing (harmonization) in Germany,
Switzerland and France. In 1979 I started building mechanical organs of
my own design in the Mediterranean part of France. Last year I came
back to Germany where my family lives. I build mechanical organs of all
sizes in an old-looking style, synsitizing old Italian, French and
other Latin and mediterranean styles. I especially like "Commedia
dell'Arte" look, my organs are painted by a French artist living half
his life in Venezia. These organs are very different from what you can
see and hear normally. I use full or at least partial chromatic scales
and homogeneous ranks of pipes, so I can play any type of music, not
only polyphonic and popular. But I work alone or with my father, so it
takes time to make an organ ...

A part from organ-building I  invented and constructed in 1990 to 1992
a MIDI- reading- and perforation- system : "AMADEUS". It took me a lot
of time and energy but to my knowledge it was the first full compatible
multi-standard system. It perforates and reads up to 425 mm (about 17")
width and 128 keys, rolls or thick books, paper or cardboard. It takes
about 5 minutes to AMADEUS to define a new standard (on textfile), we
worked for about 40 different instruments and made already about
350.000.000 holes ! I can say that AMADEUS is driven in.  All
parameters are soft-configured individually, so it is possible for
example to correct departure-times of percussions, late bass-notes, and
so on. It works with a precision of 1/100 mm and is musically
absolutely exact.  The reading system is working with a kind of
scanner, optical fibers and light coming from underneath through the
perforations, and works real-time. It puts out MIDI 1 and it is
possible to re-perforate immediately. We work on the Video-version.
AMADEUS works on DOS, Windows 3.11 and soon on Win 32 bits. It needs
only a slow computer, I have it working on an old 386. The software is
filtering any  bad notes and events on demand, so it is possible even
for beginners to make music with any sequencer.

AMADEUS (as my organs, by the way) is also for sale, it might interest
amateurs and professionals, as well as collectors and museums. If
anybody is interested, please e-mail, but be patient, I did not yet
translate my different flyers and catalogues. I will keep you
informed.

Robert Hopp - Quercus Edition¶
Erlenweg 16¶
D-84183 Niederviehbach¶
Germany¶
Phone : +49 8702 91183¶
Fax : +49 8702 91184