Rodgers 535

[Guest]

The 535 was delivered and installed last week, after the long wait.
I am sorry to say that there is DISSAPOINTMENT INVOLVED! Oh yes it take them about
four hours to install and VOICE the instrument, But! to my ears it dosen't have the sound
that i heard on the "Sound Sample".
I am setting up the combination pistons at present, and i am now wondering if i should
have left well enough alone, and told them to leave it just as it was when it came out of
the "Church" or possibly from the "Builder" as whatever the case.
There are times which i beleive an instrument can be "messed up" playing around with
voicing, AM I CORRECT OR WRONG on this statement!
I am trying to convince myself, that i became accustomed to the Baldwin "Analog" sound
as i always had an "Analog" instrument.
I do play an 1987 or '89 vintage "Allen" organ (Drawknob) "digital'', at the church in which
i am the organist, that has a sound that is still different from the "newer" digitals.
Well, back to the 535, if i am not pleased within the next week, then i am going to request
that they come back and get it back to the original "Rodgers" voicing, just as it was meant
to be! Oh well, like i have said before, there is only one true sound, and that is "WIND
Blown" pipes, and none other! i have played both, and they can try as thy may, BUT there
is no COMPARISON! Electronics are just that!

[M1994]

Re: Rodgers 535

sorry to hear that. I would definitely think it might have to do with the voicing. At church I play a Rodgers C-440, that must've been voiced by a monkey. The swell is louder than the great, even if you have a chorus and mixture on the great, and only an 8 and 4 foot flute on the swell. That's only the beginning of it. but yes, I would attempt to mess with the voicing more....and it might just be the mid-90s digital organ sound...my first organ teacher plays an allen MDS-38, and it has a strange sound to it....although I do like it, so that could be it. I'd play with the voicing....oh, and on that C-440, adjusting the chiff, reverb, and tuning knobs, helped a LOT. If the reverb is turned up too much on this organ, the sound overlaps and it sounds like absolute awfulness. I've got it satisfactory enough for me not to go nuts now.

[NYCFarmboy]

Re: Rodgers 535

Hmm..sorry to hear..
some things to consider:

my 2 cents .....worth probably less than that though:

Sound samples are often recorded from the MIDI out so the sample you are hearing would be a perfect representation of what the organ is capable of without having to be amplified. (someone who knows more about that than me can get into that. I have a Rodgers 530 Digital and know it sounds MUCH better with headphones than just the built in speakers.

So you may want to try playing it with some high quality headphones and see how it sounds. Yes that may be unacceptable to you but thats what I have to do anyhow as I live some of the time in a New York City apartment so to not disturb my neighbors I have to use headhpones anyhow. I keep my reverb on full/max, I love how it sounds. In my own opinion playing my own 530 with the headphones on and reverb on max I can imagine I'm playing in a gothic cathedral somewhere in Europe, I absolutely love the sound but I guess everyone has their own tastes. You are lucky in that the 535 is a tunable model.. my 530 is not adjustable..the sounds I have are the sounds I have. I "THINK" you may just need to have someone else adjust the tuning but I'm sure an expert on that will give that advice, I know nothing about that.

Adjusting sounds is a very very very complicated and time consuming thing, and I would imagine that you must be there when it is done to make sure it is to your liking. And even then once you start messing with how a particular stop sounds you may ruin how it was designed to sound with OTHER stops but thats just a guess.

Another thing on accoustics in your home, if the room is dead i.e. with carpeting and lots of furniture with cloth upholstry etc well the organ is just never going to sound as good as if it were in a cathedral somewhere.

I read once that a good pipe organ is 95% successful based only on the accoustics of the church... i.e. you can stick the organ from Notre Dame in a carpeted room with dead accoustics and it is going to sound really bad.

The same is true for electronics, you can stick a electronic organ in a room with fabulous accousitics and the sounds will be amazing.... this point was brought home to me this past summer while in Brasil, in Sao Paulo I came across a ancient Hammond organ (with only one working speaker..((not a leslie)))in a church with stunning accoustics (the interior of the church was mostly ceramic tile floors and walls)... yes it still sounded like a Hammond, but it was the most beautiful Hammond sound one could imagine on earth...to hear a really bad recording of that click here: http://www.rodgers550.com/c2.html That recording was made with a little itty bitty digital handheld camera the size of a deck of cards so the quality is not so great but it still gives you an idea.

I actually have a pipe organ in my house in Indiana..the accoustics are dry/dead. The sound is nice enough but it sounds no where near as nice as it did when it was in the church... in particular the reeds are just awful but that is only I think because reeds need LOTS of reverbation to sound good. Yes the pipes are magnificant though and when I play the real pipe organ even in the dead accoustics you still FEEL the organ playing as much as hear it so without a doubt pipes are much nicer, but boy do they take up space!

Another option you have is a MIDI interface module which will allow you to add literally hundreds of digital stops to your 535. I'm told the latest Rodgers MIDI module has sounds that are really breathtaking, so it would definately be an option.

[M1994]

Re: Rodgers 535

http://www.rodgersinstruments.com/mp3s/MX200_1.mp3

Hear it for yourself....I think it's absolutely amazing....and I was playing the Letourneau under 3 hours ago. For non-pipes...it rocks.

EDIT - Speaking of MIDI modules and Rodgers, if my church can't get a new organ, I'm thinking of just convincing them to order an MX-200 and MAYBE get our C-440 upgraded too (according to Rodgers website, it's possible on any digital 1984 and up?) Now, can I actually have the organ's stop tabs control the MX-200? Or will I have to do everything on that?