Allen L-321 speaker question

[julianjsoh]

I've recently become acquainted with an Allen L-321 Protege which has both internal and external speakers. The organ is temporarily installed at the chapel I play in until renovations at another Church is complete. The internal and external speakers are controlled by a relay switch mounted on the lower right of the console. What is curious, however, is that the external speakers are made up of a mix of both hc14 and hr200 speakers. There are 6 hr200s and 2 hc14s. Is this a normal configuration for this model? I thought they tended not to mix the hc14s and hr200s because of the different tweeter systems.

Julian

[jbird604]

Sounds like someone tried to make more out of that organ than it was intended to be! The L-321 is a fairly modest 3m with only four discrete audio channels. The REN-25 system is the latest in Allen's long line of second-tier technologies using a compact cage to produce a limited number of ranks (usually 32 max) for their smaller models.

Only four discrete audio channels are put out by the REN-25 system, though it is possible to add a subwoofer amp and speaker. Another option on that model is the "Acoustic Dimension" -- a pair of audio channels that presumably do what the previous "reflections package" did, which is to distribute reverberated sound only from separate speakers that are normally placed separately from the main speakers.

Honestly, it sounds like a lot of voodoo to me. As designed by Allen, the organ was intended to have the four internal channels plus optionally four external HR200 speakers in parallel with the four internals. Then if the optional Acoustic Dimension system was installed, it would have two or possibly four small speakers (HR100 or even smaller) placed on the side walls or along the rear wall at ceiling level.

Perhaps the six HR200 cabinets are connected to the four primary channels plus the two Acoustic Dimension channels. The HC-14's would not normally have been used along with HR200's due to the vastly different crossovers and tone quality, but might have been used for makeshift antiphonals or for extras on the Acoustic Dimension channels.

So without tracing out the wiring and drawing a diagram, it's hard to know just what the installer did with this organ. It's not that big an organ, though it's not than unusual for Allen dealers (and I did it myself back in the day) to install a modest four-channel organ in a medium-size church or chapel. These models were a good value for the money, and it would generally cost the buyer quite a bit more money to move up to a full-cage model with a similar stop list.

I'm guessing they wanted to get the most sound possible from the organ by hanging on more speakers. That might be OK if it doesn't over-stress the amps, or if more than the standard amps were also provided. Do you know anything about the details of the installation? How does it sound?

[julianjsoh]

I found out a bit more from the local dealer about the installation. When it was at the previous church (where it will be re-installed following their renovation works), the 2 HC-14s were connected to the 1 swell channel. He didn't offer more info, but I'm guessing this means it must be a double audio setup - 2 speakers on each channel without any additional amplifiers. I still find it strange, as you said, John, that the two different models of speakers would be mixed together in an installation. We are currently using the organ without its external speakers as we have fabulous acoustics in the chapel and the internals work well there.

When it was at its home church, the organ sounded under-powered in general. It is a huge neo-gothic Catholic church with a soaring ceiling. I always felt there was insufficient power from the organ to move the room, and I guess being only a 4 channel organ, it has limitations in such a huge cavernous space. There were some nice stops, for example the trompette on the cavaille coll suite sounded really fiery, which was very nice. All in all, I think this organ would be much more suited to the chapel it is currently in rather than that large church.

[julianjsoh]

How easy is it to do some rudimentary voicing of the organ through the console controller? I'm presuming you can adjust levels of the various suites and individual stops? Some of the suites are softer than others, and some stops are not balanced volume-wise.

[jbird604]

Look in the back of the console and see if you can find a sheet titled "Voicing Chart". It would look like a spreadsheet with the names of the stops in the left column, then some numbers in other columns. This is your key to using the Console Controller for setting levels and such.

Once you have that sheet, you will see that each stop has a "slot" number, or "rank" number. The stops will seem to be in rather random order, but listed by division in the voicing chart. The chart will also show you which audio channels are used for a given stop. Most stops use two channels in C/C# split.

Actually, at this point, it may be easier for you to make simple adjustments by using a miniature screwdriver to adjust the levels on the amplifiers. You may in fact find that this will be all you need to do in order to bring the voices into balance, at least in the primary suite. Use the audio channel numbers as a guide to help you figure out which channels, if any, need to be adjusted. Keep in mind that it is possible to turn the amps up too high and get distortion or clipping on loud registrations. Always be careful and conservative when changing these levels. So try that first, as it is much less complicated and dangerous than what I'll describe next!

I haven't done much work on organs as new as that one, so you may find that things are different from what I've seen in older Renaissance models. First you have to access the voicing menu. Hold the "SET" piston and repeatedly tap the "R" piston until you see "voicing" in the window of the CC. If the voicing menu is unlocked, pressing Set+R again will bring up a set of adjustments that you can make. If it is not unlocked, you may not be able to go any further. Some models have a voicing lockout switch inside the console, others require you to enter a code via the general pistons. I haven't voiced an L-321, so I don't know which method works for it. But it may be obvious, or it may not even be locked.

Once you have the voicing function unlocked, you use the cursor keys to select the "rank" or "slot" number, then turn the wheel to bring up the number, as seen in the chart, for the stop you want to modify. Then use the cursor keys to move to "volume" or other parameter and use the wheel to set it. You can hear changes in real time, though you may have to lift your fingers and re-strike the keys to hear the changes. Once you get a voice set where you want it, move the cursor back to rank/slot and choose the next one you want to modify.

After you are done with voicing, if you are sure you want to save the new settings (and if you have permission to do this!) hold in the SET and CANCEL buttons for a few seconds until you see "Done!!!!" on the screen (or a similar message). That means the new voicing parameters are saved and will return whenever the organ is turned on.

On older Renaissance organs, you can only make level changes with this method, though menu items appear to be present for changing bass and treble, etc. It's possible that newer organs really do allow more changes than just volume level. The DOVE software is required for making more detailed changes, such as tuning and note by note leveling, on all models.

As I said, this process can be dangerous! It is possible to really mess up the sound if you don't know what you are doing. So be cautious if you decide to try this, and don't make any changes permament unless you have permission to do this!

In my experience, I've found that installing dealers tend to do little or no voicing beyond setting the levels with the screwdriver controls on the amps. And the factory voicing is normally very good and should need little if any tweaking. So think it through before you do anything at all. Consider moving or re-orienting speakers, as their positions can have drastic effects on the perceived levels and balances of the stops.

[julianjsoh]

Thanks, John for the detailed explanation. I did not get down to doing this, and just decided to leave the stop levels as they are.

Would the procedure be similar for adjusting the OVERALL volume of each organ type in the console controller? I have found that some of the suites are much louder than others, and I would like to bring them down to the same level as the Classic Allen suite. Would appreciate some help.

Julian

[jbird604]

Well, I honestly don't know how to change the level of the individual suites. I would've thought that all the suite voices would change together with the primary voice in a given slot. The voicing charts that I have seen don't have a different slot number for the different suites, except in the case of the 32' pedal stop, which uses a different type of voice in certain suites (string instead of flute, for example). But that would be apparent on the voicing chart you find inside the console.

Send me a private message with your email address and I'll put you in touch with someone who has more recent experience with Allen than I do. My experience with Renaissance models is limited to the earliest series and organs such as the R-230 I recently acquired and the R-281 I used to play in a church. Anything with multiple suites is somewhat foreign to me.