Connecting Allen AE-50 to Allen MDS-10

[stuartl28803]

I bought an Allen MDS-10 organ and already had the old Allen AE-50 sound module. I cannot seem to find where the gray (audio cables) connect from the AE-50 to the inside of the organ - - anyone with a suggestion? Thanks! Stuart

[circa1949]

There's a "mixer" board in any almost post-1983 Allen digital organ, that will have RCA sockets for external components. (in the earliest imaginings, merely for a reverb unit) It will be a circuit board that has "mixer" written on it. On most Allens small or large it is going to be on the inside of one of the fly-out wood panels. Like this:
http://anim8.com/G2/main.php?g2_itemId=1706

You just have to look around in there. Especially, by the time of MDS-10, they would have anticipated external audio sources.
If you've never been behind your organ, be careful about the music rack if it's the non-foldable variety! Very easy to bang your head on it!
The AE-50 is pretty ancient. How many sounds does it have? I think there was one on ebay ages ago...and the instructions for the ADC MIDI "translator" mentions it.

[stuartl28803]

We found the board and it had several RCA sockets... it was hit and miss until we found the right combination! IT WORKS! Thank you. I have found that the general pistons correspond to the sounds in the AE-50. IE - if I select piston 1 it moves the AE-50 to sound 1. If I select 7 it moves it to sound 7.... well, that's all fine and good for what it's worth HOWEVER, there must be a way to by-pass that. I may want to use the oboe solo stop on the AE-50 number 28... however, when I select pistion 1 on the organ it moves the AE-50 to #1 instead. I can't take the time then to dial up to #28.... there has to be a way to say DON'T allow the AE-50 to change (except manually...) Any thoughts on that one? Thanks!!!

[circa1949]

If you join the "Allen Organ Owners Club" on their website (free, no verification required LOL), you can probably download the manual.

[holzerp]

stuartl28803, What was your solution to your problem? "there has to be a way to say DON'T allow the AE-50 to change (except manually...) Any thoughts on that one? Thanks!!! "

I have the same need.

[toodles]

I don't think the AE-50 manual shows up on the user section, but if you email Allen from their website, they will research it and answer your question. They are quite helpful, in my experience.

Toodles.

[holzerp]

Yes, Allen is very helpful, but mostly with Allen Organs and accessories. I need to know how to make a KORG TR-61 control an MDS-40-S and AE-50 independently. Using the MDS-40-S on it's own with the AE-50 works fine. They are designed to work together. There is a switch on each manual for the MDS-40-S to turn on and off MIDI signal to the AE-50. I haven't been able to configure a similar switch (SW1 or SW2) or Realtime Control knob 1-4 on the KORG TR-61 to turn down the AE-50 when I don't want it to play.

I have been able to change patches on the AE-50 independently of the MDS-40-S by turning on/off Programs Change in various COMBI I have defined to match the General Pistons of the MDS-40-S.

Now I need to be able to send a CC#7 volume message to the AE-50 without changing the volume of the MDS-40-S. So far the CC#7 message is changing volume on all devices. I tried turning off Control Change on various MIDI ch., but that didn't seem to work.

On later model Allen Sound Modules patch 1 is MIDI OFF. The AE-50 doesn't have a MIDI OFF patch so I trying to send a volume Zero message to just the AE-50 on MIDI ch. 5 from the KORG TR-61 without changing volume on the MDS-40-S

I've found some discussion about using the sequence mode on the KORG TR-61 to accomplish this task, but loading a sequence from and SD card every performance is not very practical and an accidental power down would require a reload to get things up and running. I found a post that talked about assigning SW1 to something called AMS, but I haven't been able to get that to work on an External device( AE-50 ) yet.

I'd like to avoid adding a MIDI patch bay or Computer control to this setup. I hope I just need to learn more about the KORG TR-61 to get this working.

[toodles]

Have you joined the Allen Owners Group on Yahoo and askes about it there? There are people there who seem very technically knowledgeable about such things.

toodles

[holzerp]

I haven't joined the Allen Owners Group on Yahoo. I did join the Allen Owner's Club at wwwallenorgan.com . I actually got it to work!!. I don't completely understand how or why it's working, but it is working. I was editing COMBIs on the Korg TR-61 trying to solve a level jump that happened occasionally when switching between COMBI when all of a sudden the COMBI I have named General Piston 8 was able to adjust the volume of the AE-50 without adjusting the Main organ level. It involves KEYZ(Key split/layer) and MIDI Channel that seem to be making it work. I copied that COMBI to the other nine I have stored on the KORG TR-61 for General Pistons 1-10 and now it's working fine. I was originally using a Layer to bring in the PEDAL for the bottom octave of the KORG TR-61.

I can't make much sense out of why it's working, but it does what I want. Next I will explore the "Ensemble" mode of the AE-50 and see if I can get some percussion to work along with the piano sound.