-Bob Scott wrote: > I seem to recall measuring the pitches of an Allen digital organ a number >of years ago. I was surprised to find that it had some designed-in stretch. >Does anyone know how they decide how much stretch a digital organ >should have? They obviously don't need to worry about inharmonicity. >Perhaps they are trying to make the Allen correspond a little more with >pianos for when they are played together? > > -Bob Scott > -Ann Arbor, Michigan We're the Allen Organ dealer for the Phila./S. Jersey area. I'm not too involved with the organs but as I understand it, all the tuning paramaters of the organ are able to be set to whatever the designers want. This includes the tuning on one keyboard with one stop down, the differences in tuning with different stops and different manuals on the organ. In other words they can design the organ to have the ideal tuning that a pipe organ would have and it stays permanantly. I recall a pipe organ builder & friend who stopped in the store, he also taught a course on organ in one of the colleges in Phila. We're standing by the grand pianos with Allens smallest organ behind us. He was explaining how the problem with the digital organs is that the tuning was locked in because it was a computer. As he was saying this I reached over, turned on the organ & started playing a few intervals on one manual, added a stop, etc. He stopped and said, "how is that happening?" We had a church call this week to get their piano tuned, "to the Allen Digital Computer Organ." The lady said that a previous tuner said that the organ was sharp, compared to the piano. I said that that wasn't the case and a tune can just tune the piano to A-440 and they'll match fine. A previous post here said accurately that the 8' Principle on the great is tuned to A440. Other stops may be sharp or flat for ensemble. This is quite different from the scenerio I've encountered with many pipe organs under service contracts where the organ is basically tuned where it's at and we're faced with the prospect of tuning a brand new piano a 1/4 step flat to match the organ. Glenn Grafton Grafton Piano & Organ Co. Souderton PA
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