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Digital Pioneer Challenge ALLEN ORGAN COMPANY safely to the Earth.’ The technology required to meet this ambitious goal had not yet been developed, but scientists and large companies were determined to meet the Digital pioneer challenge. Technological hurdles to be overcome Recent technology has revolutionised our planet, and not least the world of music. before NASA could fulfil Kennedy’s vision included the miniaturisation of computers Steven A. Markowitz relates the story of how his father, the founder of Allen Organ so that complex calculations, such as telemetry, could be made by astronauts in Company, pioneered digital organs 50 years ago. IMAGES COURTESY ALLEN ORGAN COMPANY real-time on the Apollo capsule. In 1961 a computer capable of such calculations weighed thousands of pounds; it had to be hroughout industries there are miniaturised to the size of a small waste bin, examples of individuals who have requiring significant advancements in large- changed the larger world. Some are scale integrated circuits (LSI) technology. The Twell-known, while others focused on their aerospace company tasked with resolving this trade and avoided publicity. In the electronic challenge was North American Aviation, later keyboard industry, Jerome Markowitz not to become North American Rockwell. only invented the first fully electronic organ, Because of Rockwell’s expertise in rocket (l to r) In the late 1960s, IBM mainframe computers were necessary to prepare the pipe recordings for storage in the digital organs; Jerome Markowitz, who founded Allen Organ Company in 1937, was at the cutting edge but decades later would be responsible for technology, it was also a prime contractor of analogue sound technology the introduction of the world’s first musical for the Apollo programme, with thousands instrument utilising digital sampling. This of employees dedicated to it. In 1966, three they were unwilling to invest in it until on advanced radar systems. Prior to the is a history of how vision, ingenuity and years before the first American would land Rockwell would create an actual working war, he resolved the technical problem that dedication, along with a willingness to take on the moon, Rockwell understood that US organ. Rockwell was unwilling to make this hindered the production of musical sounds on risk, would change the way electronic spending on the Apollo programme would investment and the digital organ project by electronic means: the need for stable musical sounds are produced, with wane in a few years. To offset this inevitable was on the verge of being cancelled. As a tuning oscillators. In 1938 he was granted implications far beyond the organ market. revenue loss, Rockwell’s management last-ditch effort to save the project, Rockwell the United States patent US2140267A for Digital sound is now ubiquitous, a part created a strategic plan for the company to contacted a small organ manufacturer, Allen the stable oscillator. This technology would of all sound-producing products. However, utilise the advanced technology it developed Organ Company. lead to the first fully electronic organ and the not long before the advent of CDs and MP3, for the space programme in commercial Allen Organ Company, founded by Jerome birth of Allen Organ Company. all sound was created through analogue products. These products would then require Markowitz in 1937, had always been at the Through the 1950s and 60s, Markowitz technology. Remarkably, the roots of digital Rockwell’s LSI circuits and create a longer- cutting edge of analogue sound technology. introduced numerous innovations and was sound production emanated within the niche term revenue stream. As the home organ While attending Muhlenberg College in granted patents that included low frequency church organ field from a small company business was booming in the mid-1960s, an Allentown, Pennsylvania, Markowitz was oscillators (US2190078A), space discharge located in Macungie, Pennsylvania. idea spawned by one Rockwell scientist was enamoured by the sound of the pipe organ harmonic generator (US2329069A0), In 2021 it will be 50 years since the to use digital technology to produce organ in the College’s chapel. In his book, Triumphs rotatable loud-speakers (Gyrophonic) with world’s first digital musical instrument sounds. & Trials of an Organ Builder, he stated: ‘The stationary baffle (US2491674A), circuit for was offered for sale. The development and Since Rockwell had no organ or music intricate patterns of sound created by the big, tuning oscillators (US2939359A), and Chiff commercialisation of this revolutionary expertise, it needed a joint venture with sustained chords especially fascinated me.’ characteristics (US2989886A), solidifying technology is a remarkable story of one man’s an organ manufacturer to co-develop the In the early 1930s, there was only one Allen’s leadership in analogue organ dedication to creating electronic instruments digital organ. The plan was that Rockwell electric organ, the Hammond Organ. It was technology. The company enjoyed significant of the highest fidelity. would supply the technology and LSI compact and inexpensive compared to pipe success, with thousands of analogue organ In a sense, the impetus behind the circuits, with the organ company supplying organs, which intrigued Jerome. However, installations made worldwide. technology that would lead to the digital the musical and business expertise. Also, the Hammond’s electro-mechanical tone By 1967, when Rockwell approached Allen organ and digital sound production was set Rockwell, using a practice common with generation system could only create sounds about the joint venture, Markowitz was the in motion by US President John F. Kennedy, government contracts, expected the organ appropriate for popular music; it could not world’s premier analogue tone generation who in 1961 declared: ‘I believe that this company to pay for the development cost for produce sounds required for classical or engineer. He immediately understood nation should commit itself to achieving the a commercially viable digital organ. liturgical music. Markowitz then decided the revolutionary potential of digital tone goal, before this decade is out, of landing After a small proof of concept project, to focus on producing pipe organ sounds generation, later called ‘sampling’. He focused a man on the moon and returning him Rockwell contacted all the major American through electronic tone production means. on the technology’s ability to accurately home organ manufacturers, including Markowitz was a self-taught electronic reproduce complex pipe organ waveshapes. The newest Allen organs have touchscreen interface Hammond, Conn, and Wurlitzer, proposing engineer with expertise in radio and vacuum For years, he had struggled with analogue as well as convolution acoustics, smart phone accessibility/Wi-Fi connectivity, and 250 dynamic a joint venture. While these companies were tube technologies. During the second technology’s limitations to create realistic (changeable) high-definition voices interested in the revolutionary technology, world war he was sent to Hawaii to work organ principal stops, the foundation sounds 38 CHOIR & ORGAN JULY/AUGUST 2020 www.choirandorgan.com www.choirandorgan.com JULY/AUGUST 2020 CHOIR & ORGAN 39 ALLEN ORGAN COMPANY ALLEN ORGAN COMPANY for classical pipe organs; but by the mid- circuits was then known as MOS (metal- the engineering work on the digital organ ensembles. What is recorded is what you get, Markowitz the coveted IR-100 Award for one 1960s he had concluded the technology oxide-semiconductor). would take over three years and required including room distortions and extraneous of 100 most significant innovations of that had limitations and reached its zenith. As a young teenager in 1967, while resolving significant technical issues. noises. And last, wet samples include some of year, and the first instrument is housed at Therefore, he was willing to radically change aware of the digital organ project, I did not More than a year into the digital organ’s the original room’s acoustics that then comes the Smithsonian Institution. This technology the company’s technology and direction to understand its significance. But in 1969, in development, significant tuning deficiencies in conflict with the acoustics of the building brought sampled pipe organ sounds to accomplish his tonal goals. the same week that Neil Armstrong walked were discovered by Allen, an issue Rockwell in which the digital organ is ultimately churches worldwide, many of whom could In 1967, when Allen Organ Company on the moon, I visited Rockwell facilities in had not recognised during the development. installed. not afford a pipe organ. entered the joint venture with Rockwell, Anaheim and El Segundo, California, with Ironically, this was an issue that my father’s To create pure pipe sounds, Markowitz The Allen Organ Company/North Markowitz bet the company’s future on my father; there I was instructed on LSI invention had resolved 30 years earlier for learned that the microphone needed to be American Rockwell joint venture was not the technology – a risky bet. To produce a technology by Rockwell engineers, and saw analogue tone-generation technology. Once commercially viable digital organ would a demonstration of laser technology. I recall again, the project was almost cancelled. ultimately require 13 unique custom LSI being schooled on Epitaxy growth, a basic Ultimately, the problem was resolved, but After Allen introduced the world’s first digital circuits, a project
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