Converting an old analogue organ to midi

[7thGalaxy]

Hello

I'm considering converting an old Johannus 2 manual analogue organ into a MIDI organ to use GrandOrgue. I have a fairly limited budget for this. Does anyone have any advice on budget MIDI encoders which can be used?

In addition, are there any good sites with diagrams and "how tos" on this subject?

Thanks

Tom

[7thGalaxy]

For example: Is there anything that will do the job of this: http://www.midiworks.ca/index.php/pr...uts-paralleled

but for less money?

Thanks

[Dorsetmike]

Not sure if this site is any help, they appear to have a modular approach, separate scan and control boards, is your keyboard output 1 wire per key or is it matrixed? Matrix looks cheaper.

http://www.midi-hardware.com/index.php?R2=USD§ion=products

[L.Palo]

Hi!

As I live in Europe I've always found http://www.midiboutique.com/midiboutique/ to be a good place to start. Their hwce or hwce2 product would possibly be appropriate.

I've a project very similar to yours that I'll undertake at some point in the future... I happened to be able to get an old 2 manual + pedal organ that I'll MIDI'fy complete with stops, pistons etc. But that will be sometime when I'm not so busy... I already have a 3 man + ped setup so it's not that urgent!

Kind regards

Lars P

[Ghekorg7]

Hi 7th Galaxy....Midi boutique is the place to start, yes.

I got too,like Lars, a project like this, trying to midify a very old Lowrey T2 organ (2m/one oct ped). I lost the pedals.... in 1983... has tab-switches for stops 60's style. I'm so busy too and I got an EL900 2m/p which merges 3midi channels to one out and then just an EMU x-midi Midi/USB cable... so it will be a little later my mess around with this ..:-(
But, I need this Lowrey conversion to reproduce Roquemaure Fr.Jullien 1690 organ ! HW1 set fits excactly to this organ, octaves and stops !!

We'll be in touch here... post your progress. See also MostynDavies posts here on his project.... Its very inspiring, also considering the low cost....

Best
Panos

[7thGalaxy]

Thanks!

I'm currently trying to contact Midi boutique about a pricing for this sort of work - I've only just graduated, so the conversion needs to be as cheap as possible (although without compromising too much on quality) By the looks of things I can upgrade it a bit at a time, and keep the rest working so as to keep practising.

I'm not sure which manual to upgrade first - great or pedals? The pedals have the most problems with the sound on the analogue organ, if I have too many stops selected, the pedal sounds are prone to just dropping out. On the other hand the great has more mechanical issues - the D above middle C seems to have a very bad contact, and stutters.

What I'd love is a reasonably comprehensive french organ - so I'm thinking of using Stiersmockers as a base, but really I'm interested in having a variety of organs. Each manual has 12 stop tabs, as does the pedalboard, so I could get a fairly large 2 manual organ in there - or possibly even mix and match a bit from existing organs - but this is a long time in the future!

[JayR]

I have converted two old pipe organ consoles for under $1000 USD. I used MIDI hardware from MIDI Gadgets Boutique. Here are a couple of links to my projects...

http://www.magle.dk/music-forums/781...ct-moller.html

http://www.magle.dk/music-forums/113...onversion.html

Good luck with your project!!!
Jay