ADC5000DK, setup and voicing?

[rjsilva]

I'll be setting up an ADC5000DK soon and wanted to get some advice. It's setup as 6 channel. I don't think it's using subwoofers but it does have 2 speakers bigger than the other 4 (assuming for the pedal channels).

My understanding is that it's in great operational order and perhaps only minor adjustment may be necessary, but any advice or experience someone could give with unique aspects or voicing would be very much appreciated!

[John Vanderlee]

First be very sure all of the potentiometers are clean. Does it have the antiphonal feature?
What model are the loudspeakers?

[rjsilva]

The organ is using HC11-1, HC12, HC13, and HC14. I'm not sure which ones have more than one since I haven't seen the organ/speakers in person yet.

The console has antiphonal tabs for Swell and Gt/Pedal (along with corresponding ‘main off' tabs) but it's my understanding that the current installation wasn't setup for that.

[myorgan]

RJ,

I have the voicing chart for the next model larger, the ADC-6000. If no one has the one for your organ, I can send it to you. When you get the organ and have the details, we can provide more exacting advice. The HC-12s would be used on the 32' Pedal/Great channels, while the HC-14s would probably be used for the Swell channels. If your organ has Brass Choir, I suspect the HC-13 or HC-11 (which I've never seen) could be used for that channel. The HC-13 speakers are a smaller form factor than the HC-12s & HC-14s.

Again, when you get the organ, we can provide more exacting advice. The advice John V. gave about the potentiometers on the cards is good advice. Be sure not to put undue pressure on them or force them in any way. John (jbird604) also advises putting a drop of WD-40 on each and allowing it time to soak in. Each of the pots will need to be exercised to reduce any oxidized sections of the pot.

Hope this helps.

Michael

[rjsilva]

Thanks Michael!

I'm not too concerned with getting the right speakers on the right channels because all of that is labelled from its previous installation (and I don't have reason to think it's incorrect, although I'll be sure to pay attention).

I'd be interested in seeing the ADC6000 voicing chart. Or one for the 5000 if someone has it.

[samibe]

You might be able to put together your own voicing chart by unplugging all but one of the audio outputs from the cage and make a list of all of the stops that still sound. Then switch to another channel and list all of the stops associated with that output. If there is any reverb, make sure it is off. Most of the tone generation (TG) cards in the cage have two separately adjustable sets of stops. To figure out which stops are associated with which group you might want to temporarily set one of the gains high and the other low and try to figure out which stops are louder/softer than they should be. Make sure you plug everything back in and set everything back to where it was when you get done.

Once you figure out which controls affect which stops, there is a voicing procedure that John (jbird) has written out a few times on the forum that is very helpful for getting the voicing reasonable quickly and then fine tuning as required.

[AllenAnalog]

I think you are confusing the voicing guide with the cage chart. The cage chart showing which tone generator (TG) board controls which stops for an ADC-5000 is either in a packet inside the organ or readily available from other members here. There is no need to manually figure that out.

To my knowledge a voicing guide was not published for every model of ADC organ. The ADC-6000 guide mentioned by MyOrgan will work as long as you substitute the information from the cage chart for the voicing control locations.

There is much similarity between the stops on various models and JBird's somewhat generic version that he has published on here works well for many ADC organs. I don't have time to search for it this AM but I'm sure someone will find a link to that.

[samibe]

Thanks Larry. Valid point. I probably should have been a bit more patient waiting for a much more knowledgeable response. I have a voicing chart for my organ but I found the cage chart to be significantly more helpful when voicing. It is easier (for me at least) to see which pots affect which stops.

[jbird604]

Here's the ADC 5000 cage chart. I'm sure that I and others have written extensively on this forum about the details of voicing a large ADC model. But it's really a matter of using your ears and your head. Set the 8' principal on the great to a reasonable level, match other stops to it. Find and read one of the extended sets of instructions on the matter. Keep in mind that these large ADC models with multiple boards in the cage require somewhat more adjusting than the simpler MADC models and the later MDS W-5 organs, which generally have only two sets of pots per division. Many large cage ADC models have at least four and possibly as many as six or eight sets of BTMG pots for each division of the organ.

The amp channels are the numbers in the circles on the chart. The HC-12 (or pair of them) must be used on channel 3, as it carries the 32' pedal stop. You will notice on the chart that all channels get an HC-12, but that was only true for the earliest 5000's out the door. By 1985, the HC-15 was the standard speaker on all channels except the one with the 32' pedal stop. If the organ in question happens to have the bass crossover installed and a subwoofer (such as a B40), the situation is a little different. If it happens to have the (rare) Brass Choir option installed, that constitutes a separate channel, usually provided with a type HE-1 or HE-2 speaker ("high efficiency") so the brass choir can be REALLY loud. Also, you'll note on the chart that a mix of S-100 and D-40 amps were used back then, but later production used all S-100 amps or, eventually, all ADC amps.

ADC5000-cage chart.pdf

[rjsilva]

Thanks everyone! I'll have a look for John's voicing tips (I've read through them in the past...). Thanks for the cage chart John. That definitely helps to have an idea before I do it.

[rjsilva]

I did the setup yesterday. I hadn't really delved into the internals of an Allen organ before although I've read many threads here about them for the past few years. (I did disassemble the one MOS2 organ a while back though.) I have to say that my opinion of Allen has improved. The layout and sensibility was fantastic. Even the old analog it was replacing was amazingly neat and well put together.

What a chore though! The old analog's wiring went up to the attic and over the years more cabling was added to the space available and getting the old wiring out was really difficult. I didn't finish everything until 2am (and started around 9am).

I got to see two rotating speakers though, one of them with two 15” subwoofers on the bottom (separate bass channel, I presume). I've never seen one in person so that was cool.

[organman95]

I adjusted the voicing on the 5000 in my previous parish, per John's voicing chart. Worked well for a while, but had to exercise them now and then. "recently" (December 8, 2018) closed and sold that church building, and the now owners asked to keep the organ. Worked for us, so we didn't have to deal with it. Had the antiphonal division, 6 speakers each. 10 HC-14 and 2 HC-12. Very good sound, in my opinion.