The Rodgers 530 Project

New Sound through old speakers The main reason buying it was, that the Rogers 5xx feature a Midi Interface and do have an Aux-in. So, you can replace the outdated tone generator with a contemporary software sampler. If you go for the high budget variant, simply buy Hauptwerk and you are done. I tried the Basic demo and the integration of the organ works perfectly out of the box. Using GrandOrgue you have to to invest far more time, but far less money. If you are new to the subject, please go here for more info and how to get this great piece of software. There are quite a some free sample sets available in the net, most outstanding those from Piotr Grabowski and his collection of very well sounding instruments. The target for me was now to integrate the entire organ front-end (pedal, manuals, stops, volume control, crescendo ..) into the UI of Grandorgue. Step one was to disconnect the manuals and pedal form the internal tone generator. The most easy way to do this, is to s

Changing the lower manual ... So, today the new keyboard arrived. I ordered a Fatar TP/8L, DF version. There was no notion in the schematics if it is a DF or a DR, but the DF is the standard so, keep fingers crossed. Removing the old keyboard is pretty straight forward. Remove the power cable! Remove the upper three screws that hold the top lid. Slip it - carefully - forward and put it away. Be careful not to scratch anything as the clamps holding the lid are pretty sharp.  Remove the roll-cover by puling out at the back and watch out that is does not fall into the cabinet.  Next is to remove two screws (see picture, upper right corner) that hold the front panel in place. Once gone, you just remove four screws below the manuals with an Allen key and you can flip both manuals up.  Unscreew the keyboard from the two aluminum rails, cut the copper, remove the two cables and you can lift it out. Mounting is everything in revers order. Everything seems

Dears, I found this organ on eBay. Its owner deceased last year and the family wanted to get rid of it. So, put it on a trailer and drove it from the Black Forrest to my place. The intention is to repair what needs to be repaired and give it a second life as MIDI frontend for GrandOrgue. Things that need to get mended are: - The felts in the pedalboard were gone - The lower manual needs to be replaced - Some of the bulbs need to be replaced - The sound generator is outdated - The smell .... I worked myself through the Internet to understand what the efforts are and the risk to get it done. The 520/530 models did not get good reviews being built in Italy and positioned by Roland at the lower end of budgets.  At a first glance, yes, some details are not that rock solid as you would expect. Pedal Board The pedalboard is only equipped with rear flat metal springs and not with the additional wire springs in the front as you know from church organs. The s