Allen Organ Company LLC MDS-30 LDS User manual

LDS
MDS-30
Copyright © 1994 Allen Organ Company
All Rights Reserved
AOC P/N 033-0083

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ALLEN ORGAN COMPANY
For more than fifty years--practically the entire history of electronic organs--the
Allen Organ Company has sought to build the finest organs that technology would
allow.
In 1939, Allen built and marketed the world’s first purely electronic oscillator
organ. The tone generators for this first instrument used two hundred forty-four
vacuum tubes, contained about five thousand components, and weighed nearly
three hundred pounds. Even with all this equipment, the specification included
relatively few stops.
By 1959, Allen had replaced vacuum tubes in the oscillator organs with transistors.
Thousands of transistorized instruments were built, including some of the largest,
most sophisticated oscillator organs.
Only a radical technological breakthrough could improve upon the fine
performance of Allen’s solid-state oscillator organs. Such a breakthrough came in
conjunction with the U.S. Space Program in the form of highly advanced digital
microcircuits.
Your MDS organ is the product of years of refinement in digital techniques by
Allen engineers. It represents the apex of computer technology applied to exacting
musical tasks. The result is an instrument of remarkably advanced tone quality and
performance.

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Congratulations on the purchase of your new Allen Digital Computer Organ!
You have acquired the most advanced electronic organ ever built, one that
harnesses a modern computer to create and control beautiful organ tones.
Familiarize yourself with the instrument by reading through this booklet. We call
your attention particularly to sections on Transposer, Console Controller™,
Second Voicing, and MIDI Guide, since these elements are important to realizing
the full potential of the instrument.
The sections on stop description and organ registration are intended for immediate
use as well as for future reference. Because the Allen Digital Computer Organ
offers limitless tonal possibilities, plus authentic tone quality, these subjects can
now be more readily explored than ever before.

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Contents
I. Description of Stops.......................................................................................1
II. Artistic Registration.....................................................................................11
III. Transposer....................................................................................................16
IV. Capture Combination Action.......................................................................17
V. Installation, Voicing, and Care of the Organ...............................................18

MDS-30 LDS 1 Section I
DESCRIPTION OF STOPS
PITCH FOOTAGE
The number appearing on each stop along with its name indicates the “pitch” or
“register” of the particular stop. It is characteristic of the organ that notes of
different pitches may be sounded from a single playing key. When this sound
corresponds to the actual pitch of the playing key, the note (or stop) is referred to
as being of 8’ pitch; therefore, when an 8’ stop is selected and middle C is
depressed, the pitch heard will be middle C. If it sounds an octave higher, it is
called 4’ or octave pitch. If it sounds two octaves higher, it is called 2’ pitch, while
a stop sounding three octaves higher is at 1’ pitch. Likewise, a 16’ stop sounds an
octave lower, and a 32’ stop sounds two octaves lower.
Stops of 32’, 16’, 8’, 4’, 2’, and 1’ pitch all have octave relationships, that is, these
“even numbered” stops all sound octaves of whatever key is depressed. Pitches
other than octaves are also used in organ playing. Their footage number always
contains a fraction, and they are referred to as mutations. Among these are the
Nasard and Quinte 2-2/3’, Tierce 1-3/5’, and Quintflöte 1-1/3’. Because they
introduce unusual pitch relationships with respect to the fundamental (8’) tone,
they are most effective when combined with other stops, and are used either in solo
passages or in small ensembles of flutes (see explanation of Cornet in Section II).
TONAL FAMILIES
Organ tones divide into two main categories: flues and reeds. In a pipe organ, flue
pipes are those in which the sound is set in motion by wind striking directly on the
edge of the mouth of the pipe. Flues include principal tones, flute tones, and string
tones. Compound stops and hybrid stops are “variations” within these three
families.
The term “imitative” means that the organ stop imitates the sound of the
corresponding orchestral instrument; for example, an imitative “Viola 8’” would be
a stop voiced to sound like an orchestral viola.