11\. T T II U CE TIIE

11\. T T II U CE TIIE

A PIPE ORGAN rwo woRLD , , , SOUND FROM • • PIPES AND ELECTRONICS by Tom B'hend 1\. T T II CE TIIE I had studied radio and televIs1on l, OD u courses by mail because I didn't have 1 the time or money to go to college. These studies gave me some insi_ghtinto ~he next experiment, a magnetic recording TR device. Many more experiments during IN the next four years finally produced really exciting results that led to the "Leslie Speaker." An important clue was that Don tells his story: the pipe organ had motion in it - the sound jumped from pipe to pipe. That When the Hammond came out , I sound was entirely different from tone thought, "Oh boy, now I can have an or­ squirting out of a speaker all the time. gan in my own home." A real organ, too, This prompted the decision to experiment because Hammond said his instrument with putting 'motion' into my Hammond. could produce 256 million different voices. I built a drum-shaped rotor about 18 Of course, at that moment, I hadn 't inches in diameter, with 14 four-inch learned that of the 256 million you could speakers around the rim facing out, only define perhaps about ten. which was rotated in the hope of provid­ Totally oblivious to that, I purchased a ing 'motion.' It sounded terrible with a used Model A Hammond , Serial No. 58. " brrr-like" flutter. Next, the speakers Being very low on money, the thought were phased half plus and half minus. It was to save wherever possible, so I didn't was turned on and the rpm increased to buy a speaker because I could build one tremolo speed. Suddenly, it sounded myself. All Hammond had at that time really good. Then, individual speakers were speakers in a box. I felt I could pro­ were eliminated until only one was left, vide these items at much lower cost. It and its sound was excellent. This became DICK PETERSON took me about two weeks to become the basic idea for the organ speaker. At disillusioned with my Hammond, be­ this point the result was so good that I Don Leslieat the console of his pipe/electronicOpus One. Dick Peterson,the other half of Opus_Qne, is no~~ ll?the ~tre orga_n cause to me it did not provide the type of decided to build myself a full, finished world - in both the pipe and electro!llc fields. His assoc1at10~with electronic organ sounds I had expected. system. theatre organ is best known for the highly succesmd and musical Gulbransen In the pleasant living room of the large " No, just two - a Vox and Tibia," At that time Hammond had opened a When it was done, Bob Mitchell, a very Organ he designed, the popular Rialto model. Don Leslie residence in Altadena, Cali­ came the almost ludicrous reply. factory outlet store on Wilshire Boulevard popular local musician, was invited to In more recent years he founded and is President of Peterson Electro-MUSlcal fornia, organist Billy Wright was seated A look in the narrow chamber to the in Los Angeles. It later became Penny­ hear it. He was the first professional artist Products, Inc., at 11601 Mayfield Avenue, Worth , Illinois. at the console of the Peterson/Leslie left of the console proved there were, in­ Owsley Music Company, and today is a to use the speaker and said, many years His company has been a pioneer ~ the applicati~n of electronic ~ogy to Opus One, combination pipe/electronic deed, just two pipe ranks, and even they Sherman-Clay store. Hearing the organ later, that he didn't sleep for two nights organ, playing a show tune. Wright was were short ranks starting at Tenor C, in the store, it sounded pretty darn good pipe organs, and is the leading supplier of such C<Fpmentto the.~ ~­ after first hearing it because it was such He was the first to design a~d install an el~mc system penmttmg reco~ smiling. This was a most unusual instru­ assembled on small chests occupying because it was being played in a big, long a thrill to hear a Hammond organ sound ment. He had been playing theatre organs only a fraction of the space used by full hall with ideal natural verberation. After and instant playback of a pipe organ. This 1S the San Sylmar Museum digit:tl like that. system which was put in action in 1972 and has been used constantly to entertam for many years. His residency during the ranks. This "discovery" occured August figuring out that reverb was lacking in During this time I was working two tour groups without the need of having an organist present. peak of the silent era had been at the 30, 1988. my organ, I started experimenting to try jobs, had a sick wife and problems, pro­ Dick an avid theatre organ enthusiast, and his company manufactures a console of the large four-manual Robert­ Now, let's flash back over the years to salvage my purchase. There was no blems, problems. There just weren't is Morton organ in Loew's Midland Theatre, to the late twenties and early thirties and interest in solving anything other than to enough hours to continue experimenting. wide variety of organ equipment ~nd co~ponents inclu~ "O~ple.x", relays, Orgaplay Performance Rep~ucmg eqw~ent, ~mbmat1on 'Dyna­ Kansas City, Missouri. Billy had also been learn how this organ became a reality; make the organ sound good for my own However, I had met the engineers at acuons, tron" tremolo units, electromc tone generauon eqwpment an~ many~ pro­ part of the radio era which embraced it has been in the process of design for use. Nor did I have the faintest idea that Radio Station KHJ and they offered to both pipe and electronic organs. He is at least 20 years. But, there is an inter­ sometime later I would be going back to ducts related to pipe organs. This expl~ somewhat how 1t was .poaa.bleto take over and continue working on the gather all the parts and equipment to achieve Opus One for Don Leslie. adept at playing both. esting story about how it came to be built. the outlet store with something that project. They built a model, and managed Don Leslie, who recently joined ATOS, caused a good bit of excitement, and to do a bunch of nearly all wrong things. Peterson products are based on Peterson's inventions. But Dick is quick to When Wright finished his selection , had been interested in piano and organ that would, in time, put me in the organ Their model didn't sound very good; they acknowledgethat almost everything he h~ acco~plish~ in one way.or.~ Don Leslie was asked: "How many ranks early in life. He learned to play by ear and speaker business. did not have the concept of what I had was influenced or inspired by his long-time fnendshtp and assoc1atton wtth are in the organ?" had the opportunity to play pipe organs. I had many thoughts about what might been trying to do. Don Leslie. He was also a radio fan, especially when be done to get a better sounding organ, "The equivalent of 13," was his reply. Then, as sometimes happens, the light Dick shown above seated at the console of the installed Stankey/ Ann Leaf was on the air. "I loved her is recently but the first item produced was a rever­ bulb of inspiration lit up when I reasoned Hochmuth Wurlitzer in New Lennox , Illinois. (See "How It Happened," This, of course, prompted the next programs," he recalled. And it was in the beration unit, because I felt it was the it wasn't necessary to rotate the speaker THEATRE ORGAN Nov./Dec . 1988). A Peterson system was included in the half-assumed, half guessed-at assertion: latter part of this time period that Laurens most important. This was in advance of unit itself if a horn was connected to it project , and tapes made on this instrument can be played on Opus One . "Then there must be at least eight or nine Hammond brought out his new-fangled Hammond developing their spring-type and the horn rotated to accomplish the ranks playing?" electronic organ. reverberation system . same thing. 16 • MARCH/APRIL MARCH/APRIL • 17 THEATREORGAN THEATREORGAN Concurrent with my new thought, the engineers made a patent search and found that a fellow in 1895 had rigged up a phonograph with three horns that were turned slowly, driven by a belt from the cylinder, with the idea it would allow everyone in a room to hear the record reproduction which was so weak in those days. Since my speaker had a rotary horn and a similar idea had been patented in 1895, KHJ shelved the project saying 'you can't get a patent on this thing.' They gave it back to me - thank good­ ness! The only agreement for the return of the speaker idea was a promise to the station that when and if I ever made a speaker, I would sell them one at whole­ sale. So, I started experimenting again. A new design based on the rotating horn became two divided rotary horns to cover the entire frequency range. The best sound, it was discovered, comes from a point source because of the Dop­ pler effect. The Doppler effect is the - - change in pitch that occurs when a Vox and Tibia ranks are mounted on rear of paneled North end of chamber area is packed with elec­ source of sound moves relative to the wall at the south end of the chamber.

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