Rodgers 940 and Allen 1105

[Guest]

I would appreciate any thoughts on the relative strenghts and weakneses of these two organs, particularly with regard to MIDI.One of each isfor sale on ebay.

[m&m's]

Re: Rodgers 940 and Allen 1105

The Allen 1105 is from Allen's MOS-1 era, that is, it was one of the first groupof digital organs, As such, the sound is outdated. The Rodgers 940 is around ten years old, just before their current Trillium series, and sounds wonderful. If I had the money and room, I would not mind having the Rodgers myself.

[arie v]

Re: Rodgers 940 and Allen 1105



Hi,</p>

The Allen 1105 is a MOS-2 organ. Would have been made from 1981 till 1983. This instrument would have had 4 computer boards (1 solely dedicated to doing Mixtures) and 8 audio channels. The MOS-2 organs were simply cleaned up versions of MOS-1, and so sounded slightly better.</p>

If I am not mistaken, the Rodgers 940 was from the early 90s and made till about 1996. It is a PDI instrument. There are those out there that believe the 940 sounds as good or better than the new Rodgers Trillium organs. In some ways they may be right.</p>

Comparing the older Allen to the Rodgers, the Rodgers will sound better in terms of tone on the individual stops. However the Allen may very well sound as good or better in the overall ensemble.</p>

Personally, if it was up to me I would choose this particular Rodgers, but then if I did go for something, I would go for a Hauptwerk system, which when properly setup just blows either of these two models away.</p>

AV
</p>

[jbird604]

Re: Rodgers 940 and Allen 1105



You wouldn't go wrong either way, IMHO. The Rodgers is newer, and true "sample-playback" technology, therefore theoretically more realistic. It also has lighted drawknobs as opposed to the Allens moving tabs.But the Allen is the top of the line multi-computer MOS-2 model and makes full use of that technology to give you an incredibly interesting andquite pipe-like sound.</P>


I have played both these models on numerous occasions and have enjoyed both immensely. Either would be a joy to play in church or at home.</P>


Both have MIDI (the Allen didn't come with it, buthas been upgraded to MIDI) but the Rodgers MIDI would be more advanced. Older Allens (or anything else from the early 80's) will basically have MIDI out only. That means you can add external sound modules and synthesizers, etc., and play them properly from the keyboards, with each keyboard on a separate MIDI channel, and thus have a different MIDI voice or unit on each division.</P>


However, that is MIDI out only. You cannot connect a sequencer and play back pre-recorded music complete with stop changes and expression. You might be able to play back the keystrokes alone, but you'd have to do the expression and stop changing.</P>


OTOH, the Rodgers 940 will have the full MIDI implementation that was available by the mid-90s. You can connect external sound modules and use them as above, but you can also connect a sequencer or a computer running sequencer software such as Cakewalk, play the organ, change registrations, move the expression pedals, etc. Then you play back the recorded sequence and the organ responds by perfectly replicating what you just did. This is a great feature if you need it.</P>


So, you get a little more feature-wise with the 940, but the 1105 is also a wonderful instrument. Not all MOS Allen's still sound great, but one this large and complete will still sound awesome, even next to later models.</P>


There is a very large price difference on ebay, so that might be an important factor to you. They are also in different parts of the country, which might impact the cost of shipping.Either one would be an excellent organ to own.</P>


John</P>
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