[rodgersorgan] Using Other MIDI Devices -

I received a message this morning from Ron Pearcy, which follows the
message below which I just received.

I would like to apologize to Ron, however I must point out that I did
approve his message for distribution this morning to Yahoo and I sent
this time stamped copy of the approval message I responded to as well as
the time stamped copy of the message when I approved it again this
evening,  which failed to post it.  I attempted to do so again this
evening and it failed to post again.  So I am posting the message myself
along with Ron's message so that he can share his concerns.

We are leaving Yahoo for a number of reasons, one being the ads, the
spam junk mail, but also due to a failure of them to properly handle
messaging.  THe group we are going to is a technical message group only,
run by a skeleton staff, but a staff whose passion is maintaining a
message board.  There may be problems with it, we will see, but the
response to my questions has been top-notch.  Yahoo instructs moderators
not even to bother asking questions.

As far as censorship, this is a private group.  Some messages, if I
permitted them to post, would create a flame war.  Some would provide
grist for the rumor-mill.  Messages are approved if they in my opinion
provide help & support to Rodgers Users. If you want to talk about
brand_____organs, they probably have their own group.  If you want to
compare Rodgers to brand______ go hear them both, and make up your mind
with your ears.

Here's Ron's message.  I have known him through the internet for the
past 6 years, as I recall and have the utmost respect for him and am
glad he cares enough about Rodgers and this group to be passionate about
it.

noel jones

Noel,

Well my posting has certainly not reached me in the normal way. Nor is
it
listed in the Rodgers Group Messages page. I re-checked there just
moments
ago.

This episode seems similar to previous patterns I have experienced with
you, and is precisely why I have not been contributing to this List for
a
some considerable time now. And yes there are others who share my
concern
. some of whom I believe  have unsubscribed.

As you know I was a senior educator in NZ for more than thirty years.
'Freedom of Expression'  involving honest and critical comment, is
integral
to everything I believe in, and respect.

Frankly I am totally critical of the 'approval process' that you employ
to
'moderate' the free exchange of information on the Rodgers List.

Accordingly, this forum can never claim a free exchange of
understandings, ideas and concepts precisely because of your censorship
procedure.

My understanding is that United States Citizens believe in the concept
of
Free Speech as embodied in your Constitution. Sadly, to me, your stated
position seems to be contrary to that simple basic concept.

Ronnie

--
  ----- Ronnie Pearcy <ronniep@xxxxxxxxxxxx>  17 Donegal Crescent,
                                              Greenswood, Greenmeadows,
                                              Napier, New Zealand
-------


> Subject: Re: [RodgersOrgan] Alternatives to the PR-300
> Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 15:25:53 +0000 (GMT)
> From: Ron Pearcy <ronniep@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: rodgersorgan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> References: <002601c20b6b$3e7ed1a0$6701a8c0@Lestrange>
>      <3CFC23EA.7818DEC3@xxxxxxxx> <3CFC292C.89BA854D@xxxxxxxx>
>
> On 04 Jun, noel jones <gedeckt@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > We represent a pretty good cross-section of Rodgers Organ
Users...those
> > of you who use MIDI equipment other than the PR-300, we'd like to
know
> > more about what you use and why.  Educate us!  We had an interesting

> > thread about using a garage door opener to control a PR-300 [novel
and
> > useful] and Ron Pearcy in New Zealand has done a masterful job of
> > interfacing a Rodgers 360 Theater Organ with Kurzweil Modules.
>
> > What are you using and why does it work for you?  I am hoping that
Ron
> > will update us as to progress with his hardware.  What sequencers
are
> > you using?  How many of you have a computer directly interfaced with
you
> > Rodgers?
>
> Greetings,
> Here is an update of sorts .. ..
>
> Rodgers/Kurzweil Hybrid
> ===================
>
> Rodgers produced the 360 Theatre Organ in the Mid 1990's.
> Unfortunately, it is now discontinued.
> It features 29 'ranks' of theatre voices sampled from the
> Dick Wilcox 4m Wurlitzer,  featuring the original Brooklyn Fox W4/34
> console.
>
> The 2x Kurzweil K2500Rack units each feed into the Rodgers, a battery
of
> about 900x multi layered stops, available to all divisions.
> These stops vary from one to six layered voices.
> The samples are ex three Wurlitzers, three Henry Willis, one Norman
Beard
> and Hill, and several Dutch Romantic organs. These apart from Michiel
> Post's Dutch organ samples are not available commercially.
>
> I commenced this project some six years ago, (originally for a Rdgrs
805B)
> and have currently logged in over 16,000 hours programming and
reviewing.
> This has involved tuning, voicing, blending and combining the two
sound
> sources. When I moved from 805B to 360, I had to start tuning and
revoicing
> all over again .. .. I almost despaired .. but carried on!
> It would seem that the task is still not completed .. but almost!
>
> The organ is now very dependent on the Kurzweils. Without the Kurzweil

> input, the 360 on its own sounds relatively 'inconsequential'.
> That was my experience also with the 805B after blending with
Kurzweil.
>
> Daily, the Kurzweils are powered up and loaded each with 100 Mbytes
> of Sample data. This takes several minutes to achieve.
> This is a negative, as the data is held in Ram, and is lost when the
units
> are switched off.
> Consequently, the Kurzweils are not turned off until bedtime.
>
> The organ operates differently from standard organs in that the
> Presets control the organ .. .. ie because of the total usage of
> MIDI inputs.
> Consequently the organist  needs to know well, the preset construct
for all
> memories, to use the organ effectively.
>
> There are 4x banks of 10x  General presets
>                 4x banks of 5x Divisional Solo Presets
>                 1x universal Solo external Piano preset for all banks
>                     (Sound Effects de-activated and assigned to stand
alone
>                      Clavinova digital piano via MIDI and channel #16)

>                 4x banks of 10 Divisional Great Presets
>                 4x Banks of 5x Divisional Accomp + Pedal Presets
>                 4x Banks of 5x Divisional Pedal Presets
>
> All 8x MIDI  A  and B  buttons are used fully with all presets,
> typically feeding in 28x to 34x layered/blended pipe organ voices for
each
> total organ setting.
> The isolated digital piano audio output, sounds hugely better than
having
> piano sounds dispersed through the organs multi channel (physically up

> high) speaker system and subject to organ reverb, which sounds
unnatural
> for piano sounds.
>
> The Roland cheap and incongruous automatic rhythm unit together with
the
> Roland unfortunate and equally cheap Japanese Sound Effects 'noises'
have
> been disabled.  These features are in fact present on many inexpensive

> Roland keyboards, and frankly do nothing to enhance the quality of the

> Rodgers component of the organ.
> These are probably key reasons why the organ never sold well.
> Apart from a few tuned percussion and choir voices (all blended with
> similar Kurz voices) the unfortunate and dated Roland Sound Canvas
voices
> are also not used.
>
> Frankly the Roland orchestral voices do not compare with those found
in
> the high quality Kurzweil rack modules.
>
> However I do not use the Kurzweil orchestral voices either. For the
simple
> reason they do not compare with the pipeorgan sampled voices used by
> preference. Why? Simply because the pipe organ samples sound better.
>
> For sequencing, I chose not to purchase a PR300 unit.
> The main reason being in-depth editing is not possible with the PR300.

> Nine years ago a Roland MC50mkII was purchased instead .. this is/was
a
> fine unit and has an extensive editing facility. When the 360 was
> purchased, it became very apparent that the MC50's internal memory was

> insufficient to cope with the extra MIDI channels being used by the
360.
> After careful research the MC-80 (without the Sound Canvas internal
> module) was purchased. An internal 100Mb Zip drive was added, and this
has
> been a blessing.
>
> As you will have noted, I am quite critical of several of Roland's
> contributions to the Rodgers product line.  And I make no apologies.
>
> However the Rodgers MIDI system, is in my opinion without equal
amongst
> the producers of digital 'pipe' organs. This is of course another
Roland
> product, but one for which I am deeply grateful, as without it, the
overall
> project I have briefly  described above would have been simply not
> possible.
>
> With best wishes,
> Cheers,
> Ronnie
>
> --
>   ----- Ronnie Pearcy <ronniep@xxxxxxxxxxxx>  17 Donegal Crescent,
>                                               Greenswood,
Greenmeadows,
>                                               Napier, New Zealand
-------

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