New organs from Rodgers

Two of the most important missing stops on the three manual are an enclosed Festival Trumpet and the two 32 foot pedal reeds, This is very easy to fix. On the one 32 foot stop simply make palette 2 which is vacant the soft 32 foot reed and palette 3 the louder 32 foot reed. I've noticed that one the 32 bombard is selected on our 808 adding the other 32 foot pedal doesn't add that much. How Advances In Modern Holography and Digital Imaging Have Altered Our Understanding of Vision and Perception.

The day finally arrived on Monday, November 17, 2008, when Ken Kohler and two organ techs from Rodgers Organs, St. Louis, showed up at 8 AM to deliver my new A678. After bidding a fond farewell to my 530 (already purchased by someone in St. Louis), the 678 was up and running in a matter of minutes. Following a quick demo of the major features, I spent some time hooking up the MX-200 and working through the menus to select my favorite tones. Being a Macintosh person, I don't usually read manuals, but figure out the set up by trial and error. I have to say that the menus are very well done (intuitive, as we Mac types say).

As an amateur woodworker, I love to build using oak (stereo speaker cabinets, desks, bookcases, tables, etc.). This console is very beautifully done with nicely matched and figured oak veneers. It was a pleasure to sit on a real wood bench and admire the construction of even that simple piece of furniture. I particularly like the dark wood insert that houses the manuals and drawknobs. I was concerned about not having the same tones of oak throughout, but this looks much classier. Heck, the console matches my oak furniture and kitchen cabinets, no less.

There were several surprises that are not even mentioned in the two summary pages on the Rodgers website: switches to shut off the built-in speakers, two switches for two sets of external speakers (that I already have). I'm beginning to think that you guys are either mind readers or actually listen to our suggestions, since I asked several months ago about how to turn off the built-in speakers on my 530 and suggested a switch for such.

Of course, the BEST feature of the 678 is the sound. It is awesomely amazing. I was up for 12 hours exploring possible tones and some tone combinations. I literally fell asleep at the console and when I woke up, thought it was a dream. Love the feel of the keyboards (surface and pressure sensitivity) and the drawknobs are very classy to a former tab-guy. The first piece played through my computer interface, using Sibelius software, was BWV 639, Ich Ruf zu dir, Herr Jesus Christ (MIDI from James Pressler's Virtually Baroque site). It is the best sounding version of this, my favorite quiet Bach piece, that I have ever heard. For many reasons, this piece touches me very deeply and had a profound effect on me.

I guess you could say that this whole experience has been a dream-come-true. I hope to spend many, many hours playing at the console and offering my humble tunes up to Him, from Whom all good things come.

Thanks, Rodgers.

John Bozzola
Carbondale, IL

veri interesting, thanks, Mark

Robert McMenis
808 @ church

I love the two Prelude organs. They have a lot of palette stops which means the Prelude has endless possibilities. With divided expression and crescendo optional and speaker systems from simple internal to elaborate external, the Prelude two and three manual is perfect for both a home organ (the stock model) and custom model for the cathedral. I counted the digital ranks as I would have had the organ on default on palette stops and my default specification had 49 ranks. Most three manual pipe organs I have played have had from 35 up to 56 ranks. With palette stops that surpasses 56 available ranks.

Two of the most important missing stops on the three manual are an enclosed Festival Trumpet and the two 32 foot pedal reeds, This is very easy to fix. On the one 32 foot stop simply make palette 2 which is vacant the soft 32 foot reed and palette 3 the louder 32 foot reed. I've noticed that one the 32 bombard is selected on our 808 adding the other 32 foot pedal doesn't add that much. The Festival trumpet and tuba are both unenclosed on default and palette one. One palette two and three I would give the option of being enclosed.

For me, I wouldn't buy an organ without divided expression if I could avoid it. But I have had organists that have always played an electronic with only one expression shoe and no crescendo. They had a difficult time. One even had the two expression pedals wired so they would always be at the same level. So there is a real need for those one expression shoe models.

I am wondering if I would prefer the three manual prelude customized with all the missing palette stops filled in with stops of my choice over the 928 stock model. That would especially be true if I could add more channels. The more channels that the organ uses, the more pipe like the sound is as stops are added to the ensemble as we can hear those stops coming from various places throughout the organ installation.

I could definitely live with the three manual Prelude customized to my specifications with 28 main channels. Done right each principal stop on the manuals would speak through its own pair of channels giving real pipe organ sound. All the other stops would have to be added in a way to make it less apparent that the stop was borrowing the principal channels. The strings for instance can speak through the 8 foot principal channels. The flutes can be divided out to speak from the 4 foot, two foot and mixture channels. The reads can through audio mapping speak from all over the organ and sometimes speaking from more than one set of channels, especially the solo reeds. The Festival Trumpet can speak through all channels thus not needing special speakers just for the Festival Trumpet unless a person only wants the Festival Trumpet speaking from the rear of the church with the rest of the organ in the front.

The layout I have given would make a fantastic second to none organ for anyone as each person or church can customize the specification making each organ truly one of a kind. Yet the cost might very well be competitive with the stock 908. We have to remember what size three manual pipe organs are. Once a three manual organ reaches 49 ranks, quality and stop choices become much more important than adding more divisions and more physical stops, (not counting palette stops here as they are all part of one physical stop.)

However, when the Sahara desert freezes over and Rodgers decides to put our names in a hat and the winner gets the organ of his choice, I'll take the five manual please. One at home and one at the church.

Rodgers needs to add that record feature to the existing Masterpiece lineup ASAP. Do I use it that much? No. But it is a selling feature. We all just kNOW we are going to use it every Sunday. I haven't used it in months. It is like the Zimbelstern.
I love that stop, but I would never make an organ choice based on that one stop. It is an organ to be played live. Still, church committees are overcome with bells and whistles that sound marvelous that the organist will never use. Then they talk (as in outvote) the organist into buying the organ with some new toy instead of the one that really sounds like a pipe organ.

It is after all a live fine pipe organ that we are trying to simulate. Rodgers is doing an incredible job of bringing this down in a price range for more churches to enjoy.