Mike Knudsen said yesterday:

    "Anyone who wants to hear really good band organ renditions of Karl
    King marches should visit a COAA Rally and look for "Trudy," David
    Wasson's scratch-built organ.  David has arranged (and recorded on
    CD) at least sixteen marches by King and, of course, lots of other
    marches."

I agree with Mike's assessment.

I had the pleasure of attending a COAA "seminar" at Dave's home in
Erie, Pennsylvania, a couple of years ago.  We saw his shop, computer,
punch, etc., and he did a rather extensive explanation of his methods.

Dave is, technically, an amateur who arranges at home for his own plea-
sure.  Rather than working from piano scores, he typically works from
brass marching band, or concert band, parts or scores.  This allows him
to start with a much more complex set of notes, and he further elabo-
rates the sections.

    Knudsen: "The catch, of course, is you would need a clone of Trudy
    to play the arrangements, as-is.  Since Trudy is fully chromatic in
    her 12-note bass and other divisions, considerable hacking would be
    needed to fit the music onto a Wurlitzer organ."

Yes.  By "hacking" I expect Mike Knudsen actually meant chopping out
notes until it falls into place, rather than using some slight of hand,
as is sometimes done in the computer world.  Even then you could not
play many of Dave's arrangements, because the valve action on Trudy is
very much faster than on Tonawanda machinery.  Dave is a fanatic about
precision in both timing and tuning.  He also has worked to get a mix
of voices which can blend rather than try to drown each other out.

Trudy is actually a machine which can have _four_ (I think) separate
chromatic voices each simultaneously playing multiple notes.  Oh, plus
a percussion section, which Dave uses gently and precisely.  He has,
for example, separate ride and crash cymbal actions.  While Dave
started with a set of Wurlitzer plans, his organ has evolved to some-
thing which is actually more like a Mortier dance organ, with only
slightly fewer pipes and no façade.

Wallace Venable