MIDI for Allen ADC Custom

[gbright]

Hi All,

Hope all are sheltering in place well. Gives us all to do some organ work.

I bought the Allen ADC Custom from the Allen dealer in Indianapolis about 6 or 7 years ago. It came out of a Lutheran Church that bought a new bigger Allen--it was a custom also.

t HAD some type of device attached in a small slide in area below the keyboard on the right side. At the back of that slide in area, is a midi input and a midi output.

I should have asked, exactly what was the name/number of the device.

What device do I need to be able to input MIDI from a computer?

I am fairly good with computers, but just have no experience with midi input/output to organs.

All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Grant

[toodles]

MIDI with Allen from the ADC era was note on and off information only--stops and expression were not included in the MIDI data. So the MIDI functions are minimal if you intended to use the computer as a sequencer--i.e., record & play back.

To get the MIDI data into and out of the computer, you will need a USB to MIDI cable, available from multiple sources. Look for a MIDI to USB adapter.

[myorgan]

Grant,

Welcome to the Forum! Congratulations on scoring a custom organ, as they generally have MUCH better sound because of the multiple audio channels.

If you have MIDI In/Out jacks in that drawer, I suspect if you HAD something, it was a MIDI device provided by Allen that the church may have kept for their new organ, though I'm not sure why. A new organ would ostensibly bring new MIDI equipment with it.

To connect to the organ, I suspect it is already MIDI capable, therefore, you only need a couple of MIDI cords, a MIDI adapter to connect to your computer, and MIDI software on your computer. The software depends very much on what you want to do: Recording, sequencing, notation, or other projects. For a MIDI adapter, I'll let others recommend more modern equipment, but I still swear by my Edirol UM-S1 (I think is the model number). It is made by Roland, and drivers are readily available and/or supported still.

Again, welcome to the Forum, and I look forward to your future contributions as you begin your journey into the world of MIDI.

Michael

[Organkeys Jones]

Grant, in your comment to gbright you mention MOS Allens. I think you mean "MDS", because those were the first Allens with total MIDI - note-on/note-off, expression, stops, pistons, everything controlled by MIDI.

[myorgan]

Good catch, Organkeys Jones. When I answered, I was in the mindset of adding MIDI to an organ, and never gave it a thought that perhaps the model was listed wrong.

In any event, didn't the early MDS just have note on/off like the ADC era, and then full implementation was provided in later MDS organs? Or did ALL MDS organs have full implementation?

Michael

[Organkeys Jones]

Grant, all MDS Allen organs has total MIDI.

[myorgan]

Can you recommend a beginner midi software?

The answer to your question depends entirely on your intent-what do you want MIDI to do for you? I'm listing a few options below:

• Additional Stops (generally a hardware option)
• Writing Music (notation software)
• Performance and Mixing (sequencing software)
• Playing the organ remotely (sequencing software)

Let us know what you need, and we can advise from there.

Michael

P.S. Depending on your location, a MOS 1 organ may be near you now. We can help you find one. You may also be interested in John's recent thread regarding his MOS 1 here: https://organforum.com/forums/forum/...venture-begins.

[gbright]

Thanks again MIchael, your list is great, for the start, I would like to use the sequencing features. Long time ago, I used Cubase to write, but that software and computer are long gone. I saw some midi software being used on a 5 manual pipe organ. It looked like the user of the laptop, had written the software on his laptop, but I couldn't see what software it was. Thanks ! Grant

[myorgan]

Grant,

Some of the established software sequencers would be Cubase (you've already used), Cakewalk Sonar, Ableton Live, FL Studio (FL=Fruity Loops), Logic Express for Mac, Metro (Mac version of Cakewalk), and ProTools (a professional-level software).

Personally, I began using Cakewalk in the 1980s/'90s with an old Zenith laptop (10MB hard drive!) and a docking station, Metro (Sagantech.com), Ableton, and FL Express. Each has features you will probably enjoy once you get used to them. Personally, I like the track editor on Cakewalk-related software because it allows me to edit events on a granular level, as opposed to the graphic level only.

At this point, others can weigh in on what they use. I know there are some free software versions available, but I'm not as familiar with those. Hope that helps.

Michael

[gbright]

Again, thank you Michael. Wow...I remember Cakewalk from the 90s. The computer it was on is long gone. Speaking of old computers, I have a 1990 Grid, made by Tandy. It has a whopping 20 meg hard drive and only runs in DOS. Some new computer people may think that stands for Dumb Old Sxxx lol, But I do have a a couple of fairly modern computers...I guess the newest one is 7 years old and runs windoze 10, the oldest Dell runs windoze 97, it has some midi program on it, I will have to go turn it on and check. thanks again, Grant

[Organkeys Jones]

Just today we were adding a video clip to our online worship for tomorrow - over 300MB just for the short clip. I told one of the young whippersnappers helping me about how exciting it was to have a 20 meg hard drive back in the stone age. But don't remind me of the B&W monitor and 9-pin dot matrix printers. The Allen Organs from that era still work, though, and can sound good.

[myorgan]

You had B&W monitor? We had a choice of green or orange print on the monitor!;-) It was an 80-86, 8bit processor.

Michael

[tbeck]

There are some linux distributions which are purpose-built to run on older hardware. Many of them provide excellent performance with minimal hardware requirements. Check out Puppy Linux, for example.