Progress
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Last updated: 7 June 2008

 

Prog Organ progress:

 

  1. Version 1 of the software was made available, free, in March 2006.  At this date the PCB layout for the parallel port keydesk interface had gone through several revisions and prototype boards had been tested in a keydesk.  The alternative MIDI interface had also been tested by an independent supplier.  Version 1 has now been withdrawn and superseded by Version 2.

  1. An 80-plus page User Manual for Version 1 was made available at the same time (now withdrawn).

  1. Later in 2006, version 2 of the software was made available on  limited distribution to members of the Electronic Organ Constructors' Society (http://www.eocs.org.uk/).  However the User Manual for version 2 can be downloaded on unlimited distribution from this site (go to Up then click on the User Manual link on the Prog Organ page).

  1. Some feedback issues to date:

 

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Users who already had, or subsequently obtained, a standard organ keydesk with keys, stops and pedals seem to have experienced little difficulty in getting the system going within a few days of installing the software.

 

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However, some users seem unable or unwilling to use a standard keydesk including stop switches of some description.  They want to run the system using commercial MIDI keyboards but without using conventional stop switches.  Prog Organ was not designed to support this as it offers no means of virtual stop control using the mouse and monitor.  It is intended to be played exactly as would an ordinary pipe organ from a standard keydesk.  To get round this problem, some users have used the Midiox utility to send MIDI stop control codes to the MIDI ports on his computer.  Prog Organ then accepts these as having arrived from an external keydesk.

 

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More feedback issues are on the FAQ page (go to Up then click on the FAQ link on the Prog Organ page).

 

  1. (Nov 07) A technique for encrypting SoundFont (sf2) files has been developed.  These cannot be opened nor edited with common editors such as Vienna yet they can be loaded into sound cards and used by registered copies of the Prog Organ software.  This will encourage me to make more widely available some of the more exotic SoundFonts on which I have expended much effort, such as simulations of Cavaillé-Coll, Silbermann, Wender and Schnitger organs.

  1. (Dec 07) Couple-through couplers are now available.  This means that coupling in mechanical action organs can be more accurately simulated.  For example, most Baroque two manual organs only had two couplers: a manual coupler and a pedal coupler to the chief manual such as the Hauptwerk.  Drawing both would allow the pedals to also play the subsidiary manual such as the Oberwerk because the manual coupler obviously couples the pedals through from the Hauptwerk with a mechanical action.  Such couplers are infrequently simulated on digital organs.

  1. (Dec 07) A facility for simulating Cymbalstern stops is now available.

  1. (Jun 08) Supplement 1 to the User Manual issued describing the facilities above (paragraphs 5 - 7) in more detail.  See the User Manual page (go to Up then click on the User Manual link on the Prog Organ page).