Virgil's organs (Black Beauty and the Allen Touring Organ)

[Austin766]

I was on Youtube (again, what else is new) and I was watching videos of Virgil Fox, in this case I was watching videos of Fox playing Black Beauty, and the Allen Touring Organ. I saw comments by some people on one of the videos of the Allen that Black Beauty was far better than the Allen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f1B1JnkBZw&NR=1 The Allen Touring Organ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNpJJLNI6xg Black Beauty
So, without getting into the whole Allen vs. Rodgers (on the whole) thing, I would say that the Touring organ sounded better than Black Beauty. Does anyone else have a take on this subject?

[Clarion]

Re: Virgil's organs (Black Beauty and the Allen Touring Organ)

Everyone has to make a living; and this is one of the ways Virgil did it. Both instruments sound abysmal. [:(]

[NYCFarmboy]

Re: Virgil's organs (Black Beauty and the Allen Touring Organ)

As I understand it (and it sounded like it from both those recordings), VF liked to have the organ speakers "turned all the way up" to make your ears bleed...not sure if he was losing his hearing but I think both organs would sound MUCH nicer had they not been so "juiced up".

[sadatoni]

Re: Virgil's organs (Black Beauty and the Allen Touring Organ)

From what I saw of the various videos, I'd say the touring organ sounded MUCH better. Black Beauty was somewhat muddy in sound.

[Kéraulophone]

Re: Virgil's organs (Black Beauty and the Allen Touring Organ) and Royal V



Well gents,</p>

Here's some info I came across yesterday:</p>

PIPORG-L Archives -- March 2009, week 1 (#4)</p>

And the acoustic space it was in:</p>

http://www.yamasakiinc.com/?navigati...d=94&amp;refreshed</p>

[VaPipeorgantuner]

I was on Youtube (again, what else is new) and I was watching videos of Virgil Fox, in this case I was watching videos of Fox playing Black Beauty, and the Allen Touring Organ. I saw comments by some people on one of the videos of the Allen that Black Beauty was far better than the Allen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f1B1JnkBZw&amp;NR=1 The Allen Touring Organ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNpJJLNI6xg Black Beauty
So, without getting into the whole Allen vs. Rodgers (on the whole) thing, I would say that the Touring organ sounded better than Black Beauty. Does anyone else have a take on this subject?

I heard both the Black Beauty AND the Allen touring Organ in the exact same venue "back in the day" and my personal opinion is that the "Black Beauty" was far better than the Allen touring organ. I also heard Virgil play the "Royal V" touring organ (also by Rodgers, and also in the exact same venue) which was also superior to the Allen to my ears. People that otherwise prefer Allen would like the Allen Touring organ, and people that prefer Rodgers would better like the Black Beauty and the Royal V organs. The Rodgers organs were both analogue organs, and the Allen was probably a MOS-1 or MOS-2 based organ with custom stop list.

Rick in VA

[OrgansR4Me]

I think we all agree that there is an "Allen" sound and a "Rodgers" sound. It is as natural as the equivalent differences in the Pipe organ. The one advantage is that in this day and age, just as the pipe organ is "tuned and voiced" to surroundings and owner, the electronic organ can now be voiced on location with customer taste in mind.
So in effect no two organs have to be exactly alike today either. And that's a good thing.