I noticed the way the frequency would change when you applied more pressure/connectivity to the alligator clips. Have you considered a CV sequencer to operate it? Cheers.
Wire it in as a rank with Joan's organ! Use what you already have to be able to play it. You'll probably need to create some other bits to MIDI-fy it, but in the end you'd have what would amount to the first MIDI-ed Compton organ, and from there clever folk with organ sampling technology could sample and preserve these sounds and make them usable today.
Well, I have seen someone play an angle grinder for precussions on stage, and naturally there's Einstuerzende Neubauten that regularly play compressor turbines, haemostatic rubber bands, teacups, a shopping cart etc.
Reporter: "Mr. Turing, now that the war is over, what do you think you will focus your efforts on next?" Alan Turing: "Well, I was thinking about building an instrument..."
I was an electronic organ, digital piano, synth tech for 37 years. When I first got hired, my employer explained all the various tone generation designs the various manufacturers had come up with through the years. They were extremely varied and extremely clever. This is one I have never seen.
It's like when you set out on the first day of a journey you've been planning for ages, and the sun is shining, the views are beautiful, and by the end of day one, you're well on your way.
Those disks are amazing. Primary tone plus a selection of harmonics all in one. Even changed tones by having irregular shapes. What I find most astonishing is that this was probably all built by very skilled people with excellent hearing who could match the sound with old pipe organs. Oh, and they probably also avoided touching the 500V lines.
I would take a bet at them recording organ samples on vynil, and then observing them through a microscope to match it. Or the more boring way through an oscilloscope. Still takes a lot of knowledge and skill, but the coolest part is how they even came up with that method of generating the tones.
You marvelous nutter. I'm having a VERY rough day with loss and you manage to make me laugh, with your comments and expressions, at a time that it's sorely needed.
I really enjoy how close to a computer this stuff is but even so, it's still so beautifully arcane. Those electrostatic spinners and the etching look way too beautiful to function. playing the spare with a drill was literally witchcraft
Oh, you're right! I guess one could play with the waveforms and even essentially get analogue computer out of it, doing some math using wave interference... if only I had infinite time xD
I have overhauled one of these Compton electrostatic tone generator organs. It is a delicate business re-coating rotor surfaces and the adjusting the gaps between rotors and stators, then voicing and filtering the outputs. Lots of fun!
Fantastic! I used to know an amazing old engineer who lived in Ramsgate, Brian Carpenter. He rescued several of these Comptons and had them running (also a 3 manual pipe organ he had built himself!) in one of the large Victorian houses on Marlborough Road.
What an amazing set of ideas went into that! The tone wheels effectively varying the capacitance as they revolve, according to the shape of the pattern! Really analogue! And those 2D relays to link the keys via the selected stops - you can see that the designer was really thinking about traditional wind-boxes in organs with their 2D structure - and at the same time as you say, looking like cross-bar telephone selectors! Absolutely magic - I’m glad it still makes sound and look forward to seeing it Midi-fied!
@@stitchfinger7678 I have to think that, even then, there were better ways to do it. Look how many outputs those tone wheels have. The amount of redundancy seems insane. Was this organ capable of playing every key simultaneously?
@@tsm688I wouldn' call them redundant. More "voices / possibly stacked mean greater depth in sound. There is a reason some crazy people put together the Yamaha Rack monstrosity that held 8 or more Yamaha DX7s to play via midi
@@tsm688 have you ever used one? I don't know how you want to make such sound depth without Manny Manny voices stacked. Sure you could record one and duplicate the recording but that's not very live play friendly now is it
@@patrickbodine1300 "Joan's" as it was owned by a woman named Joan. No worries, he's been doing that project for a while, can't expect everyone to know everything :)
My mentor on the electronic side is an organ repairman. He showed me a much smaller version of the organ sound generator like those. It looked just like a metal brick with axels coming out its sides. My other mentor keeps me on par with acoustic pianos. Just to keep my story strait. My electronics mentor began having issues with walking on a problematic leg. So, getting an episode on organs is a real treat. Much friendly love. Lily
The inside of those tone generators is just beautiful. Whoever invented this was a genius. They didn't have transistors or fancy ICs, they had relays, motors, metal, and Maxwell's laws. And they still made music. Also, manufacturing these could've been a real chore. A modern CNC would make short work of it, but back then this was made by hand, or with a manually controlled mill. The mechanisms they must've came up with to make perfect sine waves (or the other more intricate waveforms) are equally fascinating, I'm sure.
You could etch a tone wheel like one makes an etching or lithograph. Coat the disk with etching “tar” scratch in the waveforms then submerge it in acid. Then wash off the tar, the acid will have etched where the waveforms where scratched in and not where the tar was. There’s more modern was to make etchings with less harmful chemicals etc. I haven’t made an etching since the 90’s. The new techniques are friendlier. Man you could scratch in some wild waveforms. Maybe a wavetable type scenario. This is so cool. Such a perfect example of sound and art. I’m inspired.
As a professional organ maintainer, I think your video was absolutely BRILLIANT ! Thank you. Amazing bit of gear how they use the (presumably mains synch) motor to make sure it's ON PITCH, (and if there is no belt slip) IN TUNE. Like a Hammond tone-wheel, but using electrostatic generation like a Wurlitzer Piano. And congratulations on your presentation - clear, to the point, but technical and entertaining. Well done.
Wow what a nice find. I absolutely love the tonewheels especially the novel idea of using etched circular waveform patterns ( make a nice tattoo !! ) I have the salvaged guts of a rhythm unit from a Hammond T500 that I'm in the process of bending/modifying (transistors and passives with a couple of logic chips ( its 1973 vintage) but I digress... This thing takes the biscuitt !!! :o x
The electrostatic pickup works a bit like a Wurlitzer Electric Piano where the reeds move relative to a charged pickup. Or you could think of them as two plates of a capacitor with air as the dielectric.
An old 3D resin printer can be used to very easily etch a precise and intricate pattern on metal if you wanted to have a go at your own waveforms.. I've made some lovely lithographic plates this way in a few minutes (as opposed to the old ballache way). This thing is amazing.
@@pattheplanter You still use photofilm but you don't have to print a transprency, or cut a stencil or make a screenprint. Resolution depends on the printer but most are going to be 2-4K these days. Lots of hobby modellers have an old Mars lying around.
@@radarmusen Choirs, yes. I wonder if the inventors of this thing could imagine some kind of changer, like a record changer, to expand the memory bank capacity.
I found the video VERY interesting. I have an old 1960's Vacuum tube, Hammond home organ that still works, though, no one seems to want it. So, I might start to do some experimenting of my own with it, would be interesting to mess around with the tone wheels, and it has a power amp, and 2-3 Pre-amps in it. along with a spring reverb Tank, and tremolo, and other interesting circuits, for my Mad scientist experiments 😀👍
i dont think people understand how amazing this is, in a day where all of this is ran by software, to be able to do these things with insane analog solutions is just amazing
That really is an amazing piece of ancient technology. It's stunning the lengths men went to to make noises in churches, I know that's a super over simplified explanation. But, it really is that simple when compared to how complicated and complex these beautiful old machines are. Thanks for sharing such things with us.
@@envisionelectronics - I am waiting for Martin to add this machine to his marble machine ;) And I admit it would be cool - but that marble machine might never play music if he sets out to add this.
@@stevebabiak6997 considering the time it took to build the 2nd one... he is on the 3rd yet? maybe by the 4th one... If these two guys get together a singularity will occur.
I love old electronics that bridge the gap between mechanical and solid state. Those tone generators are a work of art, the genius who worked out how to make this stuff is incredible.
Just incredible! I’m so glad this is being preserved, and not just chucked out. I had the absolute privilege of rebuilding a Hammond and Leslie once - it blew my mind! But this machine is off the charts! I just love everything about this!
Wowwwwww! My wife was trained as a church organist when she was a girl. The congregation had, on the South Side of Chicago, of all things, in a Very Traditional congregation, a Hammond B3 with a Leslie speaker! I first saw it in the Fall of 1971, and man, I was BOGGLED. === But you, young man, keep cranking out the most amazing videos, unearthing electronic musical gear from The Ahistorical Vermiform Appendix of Time! ❤ Thank you! ❤
This guy is amazing! While I'm trying to get a record player with a handful of TO-72 transistors working, he's fixing organs with thousands of electrical, mechanical and pneumatic parts. Next project: connecting the Apollo 11 flight computer to work the Star Trek transporter!
This is so cool. It is amazing. It showed the creative mind of the times before modern electronics. What genius thought of this? Insanely awesome 👌 👏 👍
That is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time! You could MIDI that to your existing pipe organ and have a sizeable hybrid setup. I'd like to hear how all the various "ranks" from that sound when it's being played.
I'm very impressed by your ability to describe and present this system. My mom restored a Wurlitzer for her home and I learned how it all worked. There are so very few people who make the effort to learn these things and fewer yet who are actually teaching the next generation. Thank You
When you opened that tone disk it reminded me of Roto pulses we used to work on back in the 70s/80s in a machine shop. They used two rotating graded glass disks to make a stepping motor move a rack and pinion very accurately. I love the technology and ingenuity of these old systems. You are very smart being able to work all this stuff out. I applaud you mate. Well done. Take care and watch those 500V rails - they hurt. Stu
However! I found if you adjust the 500v going into the different relay banks the volume is adjusted but I think that's for the isolate switches on the console. The 347 rack in the back I'm going to make some voltage dividers for all of the tones going in to make a big drone machine which will be really funky I recon! But for this one I think I'm going to get it going as originally Intended but midi :D which has no amp adjustments
I think the original question here is how it’s doing the envelope of each note, correct? I could hear that each note’s attack and decay was somewhat gradual. This video is the first time I’ve seen this type of tone generator, but my guess is that you’re charging/discharging the 400V to each etched waveform, and it probably goes through a resistor, so that the charge/discharge isn’t instantaneous. Just a guess.
There is something magical in having the guts of this mechano-electronic organ exposed to explore like this! I like the idea of making it MIDI controlled - it could be fun to see if you could use a device to adjust the belt tension to make a controllable pitch bend. Interesting sounds!
waaa really? my wife says i come out with seldom used phrases too much and it catches her out of sorts ha. i thought in situ was quite a common one but hey ho!
I enjoy your videos Sam. I showed the guy that i used look up to early in my computer dissecting career. He was blown away! Huge fan of what you do bro... 🍻
I’m currently rebuilding a Viscount Grand Opera (1980s Italian electronics!) for our local church where I’m the organist. Love this piece of nostalgia technology, thanks for saving it and showing it - looking forward to hearing it in its fully glory.
If you do etch a plate, heat it evenly till warm in the hand before you dip in a beeswax resist. The temp of the plate determines how thick it is when the wax cools. And clear all bubbles that form away with a feather or soft synthetic brush. In all reality you want them laser engraved. Multiple passes will give you whatever depth. Electro-erosion (similar to edm) would be crispy lines too. All kinds of things, you could electroform a negitive mold, etc, etc.
@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER every time you produce a video with unusual item as its center piece, my first thought is "Where in the heck - and how - do you find all these wild things?" Was this one a "Well, hey mate, the church got a new organ. So let's go dig around in the basement and see what's just laying around?" :))) Very amazing things you're doing over there across the Pond - keep up the great work! - H in Florida, USA
Those tone generators are amazing!!! You could put any waveform into them with a CNC router. It looks like the waveforms are just bent into a circle...
Known as "Electrone". Another intereting one was the "Melotone". I was lucky enough to see one at Southampton Guildhall when Lucien Nunes was repairing it. He took me up to see it plus all the main pipes. The melotone was an addition to the pipe organ and similar to what youre showing us. The melotone fed two push-pull valve amplifiers feeding speakers transducers in two pipes. The pipes were arranged on a 'Y" formation and converged to one sound pipe, terminating into a horn. This converging of pipes, gave effect of two high frequencies added (beating). I really hope you are lucky enough to inherit one, Lucien did have one in Hatfield workshops, in same barbones style as yours you are showing.
Fascinating, the etching in the tone wheels are a thing of beauty and I imaging this would sound fantastic in a large reverberant space. Thanks for sharing.
Congrats Sam! Having been around Church organs my whole life, I've NEVER seen one of these!! 😳 Good that you were able to rescue it. Probably also the only way you'll be able to fit two complete Church organs in the Museum, eh? 😅👍
This is a piece of technology I never knew existed. Absolutely love the invention required to figure something like this out. Spinning discs with etched patterns to generate tones? Crazy... marvelous, but crazy. Love that you are taking care of this and finding this organ a new home.
Fantastic stuff indeed. This is yet more really incredible gear to get for the museum. The transitional technologies that get forgotten are fascinating. Looking forward visiting again...
Excellent Sam. I've always wondered how these tone units worked. You're doing great work not only rescuing equipment but getting them working, often without manuals. Looking forward to the next episode.
Such inquisitive mind you have and I just wonder how many people respect this kind of engineering and labor that went into something like this organ. Truly incredible and so sad the consoles are chucked out. These pieces deserve to be preserved so future generations can understand how easy or how convenient their lives are. Literally this entire thing's tones can be generated on a chip no larger than a zippo lighter with software. It will never replace this authentic sound though because it's mixing electronic wave forms by mechanical spinning. Sure algorithms can simulate that inconsistency but it's not the same nothing can replace the sound of analog.
As is often the case with your videos, I am blown away by learning about something I had no idea that existed. For all I know, there's no other video online showing this vintage tech.
I learned to play the organ on a two manual electrostatic tone wheel Compton organ when I was 14. It had just 12 tone wheels. It did not sound great, mostly because the drive belt had a join that caused a regular wibble in the sound, and also there was some static despite those earthing strips. It used synthesis of a small number sinewaves, so it always sounded flutey rather than reedy, through that was a welcome break for me from the square and sawtooth electronic organs of the day. Within two years I was playing on the UK cathedral organ shown in my bio, so it gave me a great start in music. Great video! I love your style! 🙂
IT NOW IS MODIFIED FOR MIDI th-cam.com/video/eIRNdGzwktc/w-d-xo.html
The most stylish stylophone! :)
@@5cyndi Fran-tastic! :)
I noticed the way the frequency would change when you applied more pressure/connectivity to the alligator clips. Have you considered a CV sequencer to operate it? Cheers.
Why don’t you use the organ PCBS to send 24v into the switch board
Wire it in as a rank with Joan's organ! Use what you already have to be able to play it. You'll probably need to create some other bits to MIDI-fy it, but in the end you'd have what would amount to the first MIDI-ed Compton organ, and from there clever folk with organ sampling technology could sample and preserve these sounds and make them usable today.
That is ridiculous! I love those etched/routed tone discs.
I trust your opinion, as you are familiar with the ridiculous.
Ah! Love it when the worlds of my favourite TH-cam channels collide!
Yes! They're so... explicit!
@@PhilR0gersexactly my thought!
Some wizard out there is mighty confused why people are calling the magic circles "tone discs".
"What instrument do you play...?
"The 18V hammer drill." 😂
haha. the warmest sounding power tool brand
@Stadsjaap your comment reminded me of Einsturzende Neubauten and playing the angle grinder 😁
Percussion drill.
Well, I have seen someone play an angle grinder for precussions on stage, and naturally there's Einstuerzende Neubauten that regularly play compressor turbines, haemostatic rubber bands, teacups, a shopping cart etc.
Mr. Big from 1991 enters the chat...
Looks like something you'd use to break the enigma cipher.
That was my first thought! A Turing number cruncher...
My first thought too. Looks like that machine that Turing built. Bomba or something I think it was called.
Instead they used it to break out the Enigma Variations!
@@blancfilmsYes! Btw. "Bomba" was the Polish machine that the British machine was developed from called "Bombe"
Reporter: "Mr. Turing, now that the war is over, what do you think you will focus your efforts on next?"
Alan Turing: "Well, I was thinking about building an instrument..."
I was an electronic organ, digital piano, synth tech for 37 years. When I first got hired, my employer explained all the various tone generation designs the various manufacturers had come up with through the years. They were extremely varied and extremely clever. This is one I have never seen.
OK that's pretty scary. Probably a lot of avoiding patent infringement.
"The conclusion on this video isnt great" - Pardon, it is a great video about a great piece of technology. Thanks for bringing it online, Sam.
absolutely. All of their videos are so damn inspiring!!
It's like when you set out on the first day of a journey you've been planning for ages, and the sun is shining, the views are beautiful, and by the end of day one, you're well on your way.
The look of delight when successfully playing a tone generator with a drill...
That spinner you've opened took my breath.
It looks and sounds frigging awesome! Who needs transistors when gears, pulleys and relays will do!
Not quite in the same league as the Bendix air computer though is it 😀
I was looking for your comment on this beauty!
Those disks are amazing. Primary tone plus a selection of harmonics all in one. Even changed tones by having irregular shapes. What I find most astonishing is that this was probably all built by very skilled people with excellent hearing who could match the sound with old pipe organs. Oh, and they probably also avoided touching the 500V lines.
I would take a bet at them recording organ samples on vynil, and then observing them through a microscope to match it.
Or the more boring way through an oscilloscope. Still takes a lot of knowledge and skill, but the coolest part is how they even came up with that method of generating the tones.
@@Kalvinjj but wait what decade is this because that oscilloscope might be a giant tube operated thing! Which means it's still impressive!
You marvelous nutter. I'm having a VERY rough day with loss and you manage to make me laugh, with your comments and expressions, at a time that it's sorely needed.
Be gentle with yourself, you'll get through 💪😘
@@docthorrwhats a nutter?
I really enjoy how close to a computer this stuff is
but even so, it's still so beautifully arcane. Those electrostatic spinners and the etching look way too beautiful to function.
playing the spare with a drill was literally witchcraft
Oh, you're right! I guess one could play with the waveforms and even essentially get analogue computer out of it, doing some math using wave interference... if only I had infinite time xD
I have overhauled one of these Compton electrostatic tone generator organs. It is a delicate business re-coating rotor surfaces and the adjusting the gaps between rotors and stators, then voicing and filtering the outputs. Lots of fun!
must have been quite an undertaking
Are there any left which have the ultralinear tube amp?
What are the rotors coated in?
What are the different waveforms in the rotor for?
It's filtered? How?
I have a million questions.
What a wonderful machine. *Please* show the output of one of those wheels on an oscilloscope
Fantastic! I used to know an amazing old engineer who lived in Ramsgate, Brian Carpenter. He rescued several of these Comptons and had them running (also a 3 manual pipe organ he had built himself!) in one of the large Victorian houses on Marlborough Road.
Wonder what happenned to it all?
How many British houses had an organ built in? Did the Council know? 😜
What an amazing set of ideas went into that! The tone wheels effectively varying the capacitance as they revolve, according to the shape of the pattern! Really analogue! And those 2D relays to link the keys via the selected stops - you can see that the designer was really thinking about traditional wind-boxes in organs with their 2D structure - and at the same time as you say, looking like cross-bar telephone selectors! Absolutely magic - I’m glad it still makes sound and look forward to seeing it Midi-fied!
Those test panels REALLY going to save time building an interface... don't need to trace ALL THOSE WIRES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😏😉😎
🤯🤯🤯🤯
Wow. I love the ingenuity. It really is an analog sample playback machine. So many possibilities.
@@OmegaSparky
Just need a way to etch some metal.
I wonder what the metal is...
@@MostlyPennyCat Usually aluminium.
Dear God, when you adjust the tension on those wheels, the slowed tones sound so eerie. Like the world is melting
Truly amazing. Imagine slapping the blueprints of this whole thing on the table these days: "Hey guys, i have an idea."
Yeah, with how complex electromechanic are, its crazy some of the things people were actually willing to engineer, fund, and physically construct.
@@stitchfinger7678 I have to think that, even then, there were better ways to do it. Look how many outputs those tone wheels have. The amount of redundancy seems insane. Was this organ capable of playing every key simultaneously?
@@tsm688I wouldn' call them redundant.
More "voices / possibly stacked mean greater depth in sound.
There is a reason some crazy people put together the Yamaha Rack monstrosity that held 8 or more Yamaha DX7s to play via midi
@@NinoJoel they did that because they thought it'd be a cool use for 8 yamaha dx7's. You don't actually need to do that to get the effect.
@@tsm688 have you ever used one?
I don't know how you want to make such sound depth without Manny Manny voices stacked.
Sure you could record one and duplicate the recording but that's not very live play friendly now is it
Sam, your enthusiasm is contagious ❤
I read "autism" at first, kinda fitting too.
What a totally wacky thingamajiggy! I just love that you call the other one "Joan's Organ", very sweet to remember her.
Joan's or Jones?
Makes a big difference.
(Please pardon my ignorance)
@@patrickbodine1300 "Joan's" as it was owned by a woman named Joan.
No worries, he's been doing that project for a while, can't expect everyone to know everything :)
Very cool old technology, good on you for saving such a beautiful machine from the scrap heap and making it sing again!
My mentor on the electronic side is an organ repairman. He showed me a much smaller version of the organ sound generator like those. It looked just like a metal brick with axels coming out its sides. My other mentor keeps me on par with acoustic pianos. Just to keep my story strait. My electronics mentor began having issues with walking on a problematic leg. So, getting an episode on organs is a real treat. Much friendly love. Lily
The inside of those tone generators is just beautiful.
Whoever invented this was a genius. They didn't have transistors or fancy ICs, they had relays, motors, metal, and Maxwell's laws. And they still made music.
Also, manufacturing these could've been a real chore. A modern CNC would make short work of it, but back then this was made by hand, or with a manually controlled mill. The mechanisms they must've came up with to make perfect sine waves (or the other more intricate waveforms) are equally fascinating, I'm sure.
You could etch a tone wheel like one makes an etching or lithograph. Coat the disk with etching “tar” scratch in the waveforms then submerge it in acid. Then wash off the tar, the acid will have etched where the waveforms where scratched in and not where the tar was. There’s more modern was to make etchings with less harmful chemicals etc. I haven’t made an etching since the 90’s. The new techniques are friendlier. Man you could scratch in some wild waveforms. Maybe a wavetable type scenario. This is so cool. Such a perfect example of sound and art. I’m inspired.
I would imagine a micro imperfection in the etching process Could render the entire plate defective.
@frederickbaugher8361
A feature!
As a professional organ maintainer, I think your video was absolutely BRILLIANT ! Thank you. Amazing bit of gear how they use the (presumably mains synch) motor to make sure it's ON PITCH, (and if there is no belt slip) IN TUNE. Like a Hammond tone-wheel, but using electrostatic generation like a Wurlitzer Piano. And congratulations on your presentation - clear, to the point, but technical and entertaining. Well done.
Amazing, the first thing I thought was the Hammond tone wheel, but it's different and weird! Whoever came up with the idea was smoking the good stuff!
Wow what a nice find. I absolutely love the tonewheels especially the novel idea of using etched circular waveform patterns ( make a nice tattoo !! ) I have the salvaged guts of a rhythm unit from a Hammond T500 that I'm in the process of bending/modifying (transistors and passives with a couple of logic chips ( its 1973 vintage) but I digress... This thing takes the biscuitt !!! :o x
So cool to see al this lost technology. What a beauty! People become the most resourceful in the light of lacking resources.
The electrostatic pickup works a bit like a Wurlitzer Electric Piano where the reeds move relative to a charged pickup. Or you could think of them as two plates of a capacitor with air as the dielectric.
An old 3D resin printer can be used to very easily etch a precise and intricate pattern on metal if you wanted to have a go at your own waveforms.. I've made some lovely lithographic plates this way in a few minutes (as opposed to the old ballache way).
This thing is amazing.
Will that be better resolution than photoresist?
@@pattheplanter You still use photofilm but you don't have to print a transprency, or cut a stencil or make a screenprint. Resolution depends on the printer but most are going to be 2-4K these days. Lots of hobby modellers have an old Mars lying around.
I would totally do that.
It could be human choirs not a long sample.
@@radarmusen Choirs, yes. I wonder if the inventors of this thing could imagine some kind of changer, like a record changer, to expand the memory bank capacity.
Not many of them monsters around, good job saving this one! Can't wait to hear some real music from it
I found the video VERY interesting. I have an old 1960's Vacuum tube, Hammond home organ that still works,
though, no one seems to want it. So, I might start to do some experimenting of my own with it, would be interesting
to mess around with the tone wheels, and it has a power amp, and 2-3 Pre-amps in it. along with a spring reverb
Tank, and tremolo, and other interesting circuits, for my Mad scientist experiments 😀👍
i dont think people understand how amazing this is, in a day where all of this is ran by software, to be able to do these things with insane analog solutions is just amazing
Chatty Kraftwerk is back with another beautiful example of audio engineering. The tone generating etched circular waveform assembly is a thing of art.
Speaking of Kraftwerk, I think Sam would get along with Ralf Hütter if they'd ever meet. Perhaps this needs to be arranged.
That really is an amazing piece of ancient technology. It's stunning the lengths men went to to make noises in churches, I know that's a super over simplified explanation. But, it really is that simple when compared to how complicated and complex these beautiful old machines are. Thanks for sharing such things with us.
Martin: “It would be so cool to play tight music with that instrument using marbles.”
This is exactly what I thought about when I saw this thing.
@@envisionelectronics - I am waiting for Martin to add this machine to his marble machine ;)
And I admit it would be cool - but that marble machine might never play music if he sets out to add this.
@@stevebabiak6997 considering the time it took to build the 2nd one... he is on the 3rd yet? maybe by the 4th one... If these two guys get together a singularity will occur.
I just can't get over how beautiful those etched waveform generators are - mind blown... absolutely love what you do Sam.
Its amazing what kind of electronic devices you find and show us. Great work!
I love old electronics that bridge the gap between mechanical and solid state. Those tone generators are a work of art, the genius who worked out how to make this stuff is incredible.
Just incredible! I’m so glad this is being preserved, and not just chucked out. I had the absolute privilege of rebuilding a Hammond and Leslie once - it blew my mind! But this machine is off the charts! I just love everything about this!
The Wurlitzer spectra-tone was similar but spun the speaker 😆
Those tone generating discs are so cool. That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen this month.
Wowwwwww! My wife was trained as a church organist when she was a girl. The congregation had, on the South Side of Chicago, of all things, in a Very Traditional congregation, a Hammond B3 with a Leslie speaker! I first saw it in the Fall of 1971, and man, I was BOGGLED. === But you, young man, keep cranking out the most amazing videos, unearthing electronic musical gear from The Ahistorical Vermiform Appendix of Time! ❤ Thank you! ❤
This guy is amazing! While I'm trying to get a record player with a handful of TO-72 transistors working, he's fixing organs with thousands of electrical, mechanical and pneumatic parts. Next project: connecting the Apollo 11 flight computer to work the Star Trek transporter!
Have you seen the channel that restored an Apollo AGC and ran the software that flew the spacecraft?
This is so cool. It is amazing. It showed the creative mind of the times before modern electronics. What genius thought of this? Insanely awesome 👌 👏 👍
:D your face when messing about with the drill
That is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time! You could MIDI that to your existing pipe organ and have a sizeable hybrid setup. I'd like to hear how all the various "ranks" from that sound when it's being played.
bro is reaching new heights of complexity everyday
I'm very impressed by your ability to describe and present this system. My mom restored a Wurlitzer for her home and I learned how it all worked. There are so very few people who make the effort to learn these things and fewer yet who are actually teaching the next generation. Thank You
Always love a good organ transplant
This is the craziest thing ive ever seeen. like... who originally built this?!! this is an amazing peice of electronic engineering.
0:03 that giggle :D
I went back for a listen. That needs to be loaded into a sampling synth.
When you opened that tone disk it reminded me of Roto pulses we used to work on back in the 70s/80s in a machine shop. They used two rotating graded glass disks to make a stepping motor move a rack and pinion very accurately. I love the technology and ingenuity of these old systems. You are very smart being able to work all this stuff out. I applaud you mate. Well done. Take care and watch those 500V rails - they hurt.
Stu
i dont have words to express how cool this is
oh my god those waveform/pickup etchings look so damn cool, like something you'd find in an alien spaceship
It's only a matter of time until Sam obtains the RCA Mark 2 Synthesizer. Jokes aside, I'd love to see that happen 😂Love your videos Sam
I am amazed how busy you keep yourself Sam.
Love that you just got stuck in 👍
I tried to come up with a better comment but I've just circled back around to " this makes my brain happy"
These tonewheels make a B3 feel jealous :-)
The insanity level is rising and I like it.
Yet another interesting thing about organs.
How is it generating the amplitude envelopes?
It isn't. Beyond some capacitors on the lines going into the electrostatic wheels. Organs are just on and off
However! I found if you adjust the 500v going into the different relay banks the volume is adjusted but I think that's for the isolate switches on the console. The 347 rack in the back I'm going to make some voltage dividers for all of the tones going in to make a big drone machine which will be really funky I recon! But for this one I think I'm going to get it going as originally Intended but midi :D which has no amp adjustments
Possibly those lines went into volume swell foot pedals. Still making a list of the pinout on that big loom to the consol 😂haha
I think the original question here is how it’s doing the envelope of each note, correct? I could hear that each note’s attack and decay was somewhat gradual. This video is the first time I’ve seen this type of tone generator, but my guess is that you’re charging/discharging the 400V to each etched waveform, and it probably goes through a resistor, so that the charge/discharge isn’t instantaneous. Just a guess.
There is something magical in having the guts of this mechano-electronic organ exposed to explore like this! I like the idea of making it MIDI controlled - it could be fun to see if you could use a device to adjust the belt tension to make a controllable pitch bend.
Interesting sounds!
I don't think I've heard someone use the term "in situ" who wasn't an attorney or geologist 👍
waaa really? my wife says i come out with seldom used phrases too much and it catches her out of sorts ha. i thought in situ was quite a common one but hey ho!
I thoroughly approve of seldom used phrases
Strange coincidence, but the last time I saw it was on a theatre organ page.
What a fantastically complex, yet deceptively simple, bit of kit! Wonderful bit of musical machinery.
Maybe it can be used to mine bitcoin?
I LOVE that thing! Worst comes to worst, you could always rig some switches to that crocodile clip board and run it that way...
I enjoy your videos Sam. I showed the guy that i used look up to early in my computer dissecting career. He was blown away! Huge fan of what you do bro... 🍻
unreal find. The ingenuity built into this chungus of a kit is truly a marvel.
I’m currently rebuilding a Viscount Grand Opera (1980s Italian electronics!) for our local church where I’m the organist.
Love this piece of nostalgia technology, thanks for saving it and showing it - looking forward to hearing it in its fully glory.
That sound with the drill mock up is wonderful 😊
Fascinating! And wonderful. Thank you
If you do etch a plate, heat it evenly till warm in the hand before you dip in a beeswax resist. The temp of the plate determines how thick it is when the wax cools. And clear all bubbles that form away with a feather or soft synthetic brush.
In all reality you want them laser engraved. Multiple passes will give you whatever depth. Electro-erosion (similar to edm) would be crispy lines too.
All kinds of things, you could electroform a negitive mold, etc, etc.
Thanks for all showing and explaining. So cool to see such exotic hardware working in detail.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, what a fantastic machine. How did I every live without you?
You’re a beautiful machine...
@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER every time you produce a video with unusual item as its center piece, my first thought is "Where in the heck - and how - do you find all these wild things?" Was this one a "Well, hey mate, the church got a new organ. So let's go dig around in the basement and see what's just laying around?" :)))
Very amazing things you're doing over there across the Pond - keep up the great work!
- H in Florida, USA
Those tone generators are amazing!!! You could put any waveform into them with a CNC router. It looks like the waveforms are just bent into a circle...
Known as "Electrone". Another intereting one was the "Melotone". I was lucky enough to see one at Southampton Guildhall when Lucien Nunes was repairing it. He took me up to see it plus all the main pipes.
The melotone was an addition to the pipe organ and similar to what youre showing us.
The melotone fed two push-pull valve amplifiers feeding speakers transducers in two pipes. The pipes were arranged on a 'Y" formation and converged to one sound pipe, terminating into a horn. This converging of pipes, gave effect of two high frequencies added (beating).
I really hope you are lucky enough to inherit one, Lucien did have one in Hatfield workshops, in same barbones style as yours you are showing.
Yeah the melotone had
Already been spoken for sadly! But he's on the hunt basically the same as this but 2 disks instead very funky
Fascinating, the etching in the tone wheels are a thing of beauty and I imaging this would sound fantastic in a large reverberant space. Thanks for sharing.
how awesome is that incremental to waveform thingie... beautiful
You made my day. I am sitting here a bad dose of COVID. I didn’t know these existed considering my favourite music is on the church organ. Thank you.
Congrats Sam! Having been around Church organs my whole life, I've NEVER seen one of these!! 😳 Good that you were able to rescue it. Probably also the only way you'll be able to fit two complete Church organs in the Museum, eh? 😅👍
What a fabulous piece of engineering. I had no idea that such a thing ever existed.
This is a piece of technology I never knew existed. Absolutely love the invention required to figure something like this out. Spinning discs with etched patterns to generate tones? Crazy... marvelous, but crazy. Love that you are taking care of this and finding this organ a new home.
Electro mechanical music: This is amazing and I had no idea this existed. Thanks for rescuing this tech, and presenting it. Cheers!
A new amazing project that also sounds very nice.
Wow! Sometimes it's such a surprise to find out stuff like this, it's been there in our midst for ages but hidden away.
Absolutely fascinating! Never knew something like this existed.
Fantastic stuff indeed. This is yet more really incredible gear to get for the museum. The transitional technologies that get forgotten are fascinating. Looking forward visiting again...
Hey ya moke. Thanks for sharing this. Unreal amount of effort to produce these back in the day.
that sine wave backplate is frickin' sweet! 🐝
I’m so happy you’re doing what you’re doing. All the old amazing machines of the world need a knowledgeable and creative person like you.
Wow! Those etched waveforms were a surprise!
What a fascinating bit of kit. I want one too!
Excellent Sam. I've always wondered how these tone units worked. You're doing great work not only rescuing equipment but getting them working, often without manuals. Looking forward to the next episode.
Madness! Those etchings are so cool looking.
Such inquisitive mind you have and I just wonder how many people respect this kind of engineering and labor that went into something like this organ. Truly incredible and so sad the consoles are chucked out. These pieces deserve to be preserved so future generations can understand how easy or how convenient their lives are. Literally this entire thing's tones can be generated on a chip no larger than a zippo lighter with software. It will never replace this authentic sound though because it's mixing electronic wave forms by mechanical spinning. Sure algorithms can simulate that inconsistency but it's not the same nothing can replace the sound of analog.
Thank you so much for sharing this stuff with the world. It's always good to learn something new.
As is often the case with your videos, I am blown away by learning about something I had no idea that existed. For all I know, there's no other video online showing this vintage tech.
I learned to play the organ on a two manual electrostatic tone wheel Compton organ when I was 14. It had just 12 tone wheels.
It did not sound great, mostly because the drive belt had a join that caused a regular wibble in the sound, and also there was some static despite those earthing strips. It used synthesis of a small number sinewaves, so it always sounded flutey rather than reedy, through that was a welcome break for me from the square and sawtooth electronic organs of the day.
Within two years I was playing on the UK cathedral organ shown in my bio, so it gave me a great start in music.
Great video! I love your style! 🙂
Fantastic!! Thank you so much for letting the rest of us see and hear these crazy contraptions! ❤