Phoenix digital Organs

[John Vanderlee]

Are they still around? Tried a website but that did not work.

Anyhow, I was at a church that had one. A pipe organ builder made it into a pipe organ using just the console.

The church had only the speakers left, some else bought up all the rest. I saw them and got real curious: they used literally dozens of small cabinets of various sizes. From a 6" cube with a 5" driver on top and 2 tweeters on the sides to a huge 4ft ported sub using a 15" driver. Also 3 smaller subs. maybe 40 speakers in all.

Did they use multiple amplifiers? or crossovers?

BTW I bought the whole mess... ;-)
now what to do with it?

I DO have a use for the sub!

[toodles]

Their website seems to be active, with a 2018 copyright showing: http://phoenixorgans.com/

[samibe]

I get an "Internal Server Error" trying to follow toodles' link. Their facebook page seems to be active https://www.facebook.com/pages/categ...9850628768484/.

[toodles]

I get the internal server error now, too. Their service provider is probably having trouble. Try again later.

[jbird604]

Best I can guess, going by the only Phoenix I ever saw the inside of, the system is very flexible on audio. The one I saw was configured for just a few audio channels, but there were empty slots on the motherboard for several more audio output boards, and I assume that the system is somehow configured for each installation to direct the stops into whichever audio channels the installer or designer desires.

So I suppose a really deluxe and high-end Phoenix installation could have one or more audio channels for each stop, or a small one could have just a single pair into which everything is mixed down. It would all depend on how much money the purchaser was willing to spend, and of course on the number of stops, number of discrete tone generator cards, and all the various options, how many keyboards, and so on.

I sounds like the one you ran across might have been a pretty ambitious one, if it had dozens of speakers. Makes me wonder what was the rationale for spending what was surely a large chunk of money for such a big digital organ, and then replacing it with pipes relatively quickly. (I assume it wasn't in service for a great many years, as Phoenix itself has only been around for 19 years.)

If all those speakers are in good condition, they might well be suitable for use in another digital organ. I always thought Phoenix had some great ideas about speakers. Especially the ones that were more or less omni-directional. And they built some big subs that could really pump air down into the infrasonic range, putting some of the current subs from other builders to shame.

You'd just have to figure out the useful range of each speaker, and whether or not it contains a built-in crossover, to determine what kind of audio channel it might work with. Sounds like fun!

[John Vanderlee]

For starters the sub is going into a venue where the theatre organ is being renovated after water damage. A recently acquired ADC4500 will do the job with 8 Allen speakers wit this sub added. Some of the smaller speakers may be used to add some omni-directionality . Kind of like the presence projectors.

[Guest]

Hello, I'm new here and I also had trouble with the Phoenix website. Something about an improperly configured "whatever." An email to them got bounced back. Today, there was no problem with their website, so I'm trying another email. I'm not an organist, but as a Bach and French organist admirer, I listen to more than a healthy amount of organ music. The VERY small church in our VERY small town in northern Vermont has a Phoenix.

My story: I am looking for a sequencer to record the organ at our church. Our former organist, retired this year because he is elderly and has had a spate of health issues. He has a dream of recording himself on the organ he played for many years so that he can hear himself. He would like to program the music which will be heard at his memorial service.

Jim - the organist in question - told me he had contacted Phoenix about obtaining a sequencer. He was told they do not manufacture one for this particular (older) model.

Fair enough. However, I've made it a goal to find what he needs. I've attached a photo of the electronics under the keyboard. I would greatly appreciate it if someone among you could look at it and say, "Well, what this fella in Vermont needs to do is contact . . ."

Thank you for any help and information you might have.

Obviously, a sequencer would make a wonderful Christmas gift for a very special organist in our small community.

[jbird604]

All you need is a simple MIDI sequencer program such as the old Cakewalk software that was practically given away 10 or 15 years ago with MIDI cable purchases. That program may not be available now, but there are similar basic MIDI record/playback programs, and many of them are free.

With a laptop computer of almost any kind (speed not important) and a USB-to-MIDI adapter, connect the MIDI Out of the organ to the MIDI In of the adapter, and connect the MIDI Out of the adapter to the MIDI In of the organ. (Not sure why there are MIDI 1 and MIDI 2 outputs. Perhaps one is switched and one is not, as is often the case with modern organs. If you can find out, use the one that is NOT switched so it will record everything without the need to keep the MIDI couplers always turned on.)

Then, once you are connected up, with the sequencer software running, and making sure that it recognizes the USB adapter you are using, start a "new song" or however the terminology is on the sequencer software you have. Anyway, set it to record the incoming MIDI signal, then press REC (on some sequencer programs you may have to press REC + PLAY or some such).

Once recording, just play the organ. The sequencer program should record every keystroke, every stop change, every piston press, every movement of the expression pedals. In other words, it should perfectly transcribe everything that happens at the console. Then when finished, just click STOP and then save the file with a unique name.

When you play the file back, the organ will do exactly what the player was doing -- reproduce his performance precisely.

MIDI files take up very little space on a hard drive, so even if the laptop is an older one with a small hard drive, you should be able to store a very large number of files on it.

Hope this works for you. The gentleman certainly deserves this treat after years or decades of service.

BTW, this is basically the way you record and playback almost any modern-day digital organ. I have helped several people set up such a system on older Rodgers and Allen organs, as long as they have MIDI, and this works without fail. No need to even know what the organ's MIDI channels are, as the program will simply record whatever comes out the MIDI stream and send it back exactly as it was received.