THE MIDITZER
Introduction
what is the Miditzer
Get Started
download the Miditzer
and set up your PC
 Console Up!
setup and use of the Miditzer

The Console
find out what all the controls do
  the Keyboards
how organ keyboards are set up
the Stops, part 1
the Stops, part 2
the Stops, part 3
controlling the sound of an organ
  the Other Tabs
couplers and tremulants
the Combination Action, part 1
  the Combination Action, part 2
orchestrating the stops
  the Swell
controlling the volume

Tech Session
make the Miditzer do more
Recording Studio
record your performances

ELSEWHERE
Bruce Miles
cinema organ soundfont creator
Bob Loesch's Theatre Organs
story of the Rialto Style 216

The great range of expressive power of an organ is due in large measure to the use of stops to control the sound that will be produced by the keys.  On a pipe organ, every note is produced by a pipe.  The pipes are very much like whistles, producing a musical note when air is blown into the pipe.  In facts, organs are sometimes referred to affectionately as a box of whistles.  The pipes that play the very high notes are just about the size of a toy whistle.  In very large organs, there may be pipes up to 32 feet long that produce building shaking low notes.

Pipes can be constructed of wood or metal in a variety of shapes to obtain a wide range of sound qualities.  Theatre organs were designed to replace orchestras as musical accompaniment for silent movies, which never really were silent.  The pipes in a theatre organ were chosen to provide sounds that are reminiscent of orchestral instruments such as flutes, violins, and oboes.  For each sound provided there is a set of pipes, called a rank, that includes one pipe to make the particular sound for every note on the keyboard.  Robert Hope-Jones, the genius behind so many of the revolutionary ideas that shaped theatre organs and made them different from classical organs,preferred to call his instrument a Unit Orchestra rather than an organ.

Classical organs are generally provided with knobs that are pulled out to make a rank of pipes active so that playing notes on the keyboard will cause the pipes from that rank to play.  Manipulating these draw knobs can be cumbersome.  Hope-Jones replaced the draw knows with a semi-circular arrangement of stop tabs that require only a quick flick of the finger to turn on or off.  They are more compact than draw knobs so many more stop tabs can be placed within easy reach of the organist.  The tabs are color coded to make it easy for the organist to find the desired stops quickly in dim light.  The arrangement of the colorful stop tabs provides the unmistakeable look of a "horseshoe console" that is the signature of a theatre organ.

Each stop is associated with one of the keyboards.  All the stops that affect a keyboard are grouped together.  The Miditzer screen has to take great liberties with the stop tab layout to put usable controls on a computer screen.  The Miditzer recreates a Wurlitzer Style 216 organ.  The main stop tabs are arranged in a single row on the horseshoe with a row of shorter tabs below on the fallboard as seen in this picture of a Style 216 console that was originally in the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena, California:

photo courtesy of Bob Loesch

On the real console the Pedal stops are at the left, the Accompaniment stops are in the middle, and the Solo stops are to the right.  If you compare the Miditzer screen to the real console you may be able to spot the color patterns to see how I folded up the stop rail to fit the screen.