Bob,
At this point each digital organ company, worldwide, is building one, and only
one, multi-keyboard church organ with pedalboard.
Every bell and whistle added does not change or improve the sound of the organ.
Mercury and Ford, Chevrolet and GMC come to mind as having a wide array of
products that are really not different.
Having multiple choices - often too many to deal with for the consumer -
results in building organs that never sell. Paper organs. Ones that dealers
won’t stock.
Rodgers has been in the front line of designing organs that match niches in the
market, making it possible to concentrate on organs that more closely match
what the market wants to buy.
As I understand it, and I could be wrong, according to a letter dealers
received, they had the option to order the two models to keep them in the line.
At this point continuing using the technology from Roland means creating
consoles in the Netherlands for each model which is not cheap. The two models
you mentioned were judged not that active in sales and dealers were encouraged
to order them to keep them in the line.
Dealers voted with their orders…and these models were dropped.
The entire issue of changes in technology is less complicated than most people
think. It would take little effort for any company to take the Rodgers samples
and load them to a sample player in stereo and produce the sound of Rodgers
organs.
The real issue is whether or not the complicated algorithms that made the
random tuning and many other features of the sound along with compatibility
with pipe organs and such are judged important by the new owners.
Of course, there must also be a good match with audio equipment, especially the
speaker systems to create the outstanding product that Rodgers has been known
for over the years.
Noel Jones, AAGO
noel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
606 756 7979
423 333 0947 cell
Frog Music Press
636 Old 19
Augusta, KY 41002
www.frogmusic.com
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