Baldwin 636c Church Organ

[jrmims]

was wondering if anyone could give me a little history on the model found one for sale just wondering what type of sound it has

[jbird604]

Pretty decent for an analog built in the 1980's. The 636 was the top of the line 2-manual with a 5-channel external audio system. These organs use a rather good microprocessor system that handles all the keying, stop control, combination action, transposer, and other console functions. The tones are generated by garden variety frequency synthesizer IC's and dividers, but the 636 has several sets of oscillators and dividers, so that makes it sound like it has a more sophisticated generator system than it does. Sound compares favorably to analog Allen and Rodgers organs, I'd say.

One of the divider sets is tuned quite sharp from the rest to drive the celeste stops, and gives a very rich celeste. The other divider sets are tuned a few cents sharp or flat from each other, so you get an interesting amount of beating among the various stops. They even went so far as to draw different octaves of the unit principal from different sources so that adding the 4' and 2' stops to the 8' principal gives a convincing effect of multiple ranks.

There is a rather complete and standard stoplist, much the same as you'd see on a typical Rodgers classical, all the usual stops at the usual pitches, all four families of tone plus chimes and harp. There are couplers at unison pitch and also at sub and super octaves in some cases.

The stop action is Baldwin's "Silent Touch" -- a miniature lamp above each tab indicates when the stop is on. You push the tab upward to turn it on and downward to turn it off, which is nice. The tabs are spring-loaded and don't stay up or down, you only know the stop is on by the lamp burning.3

I think the keyboards in these organs were quite excellent, firm and steady-feeling, not sloppy and springy as on many earlier Baldwin organs. The pedalboards are also better than some older Baldwin organs, but probably not as sturdy as Allen and Rodgers.

Probably a perfectly good organ for practice or even for a small church. The external speaker system is normally one large woofer cabinet and two smaller boxes that each contain two channels. So even though it's five channels you may only get three boxes. There is a hefty amplifier that's part of the system, darned heavy and big.

[jrmims]

thanks for your help going to play it tomorrow make sure everything is working thanks again John

[jbird604]

I re-read my post and see that I mis-stated about the stop tabs. You press downward to turn a stop on and upward to turn it off, just as you would if they were real moving tabs. Takes a little getting used to, but it is better than some lighted systems that have been on the market. Good luck!