Ideal for Hauptwerk, GrandOrgue, jOrgan, Miditzer and any other Virtual Organ System - just connect keyboards and play!
KEYS2USB module scans and interfaces up to 4 Keyboards, + Pedalboard and 96 Stops or Pistons*
2 inputs for Swell and Crescendo pedal potentiometers
Single USB connection to host computer, fully MIDI-Compliant - no driver software is required
No additional power supplies or midi adaptors, the USB connection provides all that is needed
*160 Stops or Pistons if only 3 Keyboards + Pedalboard.
Full instructions for connecting to keyboards and console - diagram supplied
Data and Clock outputs are provided for external hardware, eg stoptab illumination, details available
Special Feature: Host Computer can read stop status at any time, so that stops left 'on' before power-up are identified. This is not possible with other midi-encoders, since only transition events (on-off or off-on) are transmitted.
Standard Smartphone cable connects with computer's USB port. Just plug in, no driver installation is needed.
Contact: bstuartb@compuserve.com for more details, and availability.
MINIKEYS module scans a single Keyboard, or a Pedalboard, or 64 Stops or Pistons
includes 2 inputs for Swell pedals, sending standard MIDI Controller messages
Single USB connection to host computer, fully MIDI-Compliant - no driver software is required. Ideal for converting a pedal board and Swell pedals to MIDI.
MIDI Channel Nr. can be set when installing, and changed if necessary. Several of these modules can be used together, one per department, and connected to the computer directly or via a standard USB hub.
No additional power supplies or midi
adaptors are required, the USB connection provides everything
, thus avoiding the usual tangle of wires!
MAESTRO
VIRUAL PIPE ORGAN
I have designed and built classical and other electronic organs since around 1964 (!) I tried to keep up with available technology as increasingly useful integrated circuits became available, including microprocessor controllable ones. But everything changed around 1999, when powerful synthesiser cards and larger memories had appeared. People began to make sound samples from real organs, often of a length that could include aperiodic features such as wind noise. The subtleties of attack (with "chiff" ) and decay could captured and reproduced far more faithfully than possible with electronic hardware. My organ hardware was reduced to a parallel interface, with the PC doing all the console scanning, and sound generation via a standard Soundblaster audio card. It ran faithfully for the next 14 years on Windows 95 ! More recently I worried that more modern PCs and operating systems would make interfacing more difficult, the obvious standard to adopt being USB. Hence this board, which runs its own scan cycle and sends MIDI messages to the host PC.
Using Soundblaster or other MIDI compliant cards had always come with the restriction (mainly due to MIDI protocol) of being able to play only 15 'presets' or stops at once. Some fonts have been made to get around the problem by combining sensible combinations of stops in a single preset. NB MIDI protocols for synthesiser control and soundfont design are a subject in themselves - the 127 selectable presets in a soundfont bank can each contain many sound samples. Anyway, with powerful PCs it is now possible to avoid the restriction of 15 presets by resorting to "Soft-Synths" - these are program libraries which generate the final waveforms in software, fast enough for real-time playing. Thus the software evolved into its present form. I am happy to provide it for private use as shareware, and it will run with or without my interface boards, if a console is already sending MIDI events.
MAESTRO Virtual Pipe Organ software can be configured to use any soundfonts, from Baroque to Wurlitzer, and provides on-screen stop configuration, voicing and fine tuning - no need to purchase any other software in order to enjoy dozens of freely downloadable soundfonts !
IDC or Dupont connectors, to plug into KEYS2USB, or Dupont connectors to plug into MINIKEYS
Standard Smartphone cable to connect with computer's USB port
Contact: bstuartb@compuserve.com for more details, and availability
Visit the Electronic Organ Constructors Society website www.eocs.org.uk for inspiration, information, and more.