This is a personal project that began in the Summer of 2016. I took an analog 1970's Rodgers Classical/Church organ console and converted it into a fully functional virtual pipe organ (VPO) console. This was an exteremly fun project for me, fusing my engineering skills with my love for music. I will be placing my software and PCB design files on Github, released under the TBD license. Github: organProject.
I obtained an 1970's Rodgers 555 Jamestown analog organ from my church (we were kindly donated a much better, digitally sampled Allen organ). The console was in good condition for its age, all stops were fulley functional except the principal's on the F and D below middle C. I compleatly gutted the old analog components and created a MIDI interface to the organ. The two organ manulas (keyboards), pedal board, and shutter boxes are interfaced with an Arduino Mega. The Custom PCB's for the SAMs, the thumb pistons, and the transposer knob are connected to another Arduino Mega. The Magnetic Stop Tabs (SAMs) are also fully functioning, providing the operator with a classic organ experience.
I spent a lot of time lerning about the SAMs. I wanted a "real" organ experience for my counsole, and I beleive it's a nicer expereience to flip a stop tab, then to lean over to a laptop to clik a icon on a screen. I designed a PCB in EagleCAD using ?? Darlington transistor arrays and ?? shift registers. My PCB design files are located in my GIT repo.
I use both jOrgan and Grandorgue for soung generations. I perfer the audio quality of Grandorgue, my favortie sample sets are: .
I would like to extend a special thank you to >> for sharing his design insites with me about the SAMs. He has a cool blog over at ? where he blogs about his awesome virtual pipe organ consoles.