DESCRIPTION:
The Whispering Organ of Brad Swanson. Although I appreciate Allen organs, personally I am not partial to them. For organs that are prided on their individual oscillators ( meaning each note of the keyboard is created independently from one another as opposed to 12 tone generators that are divided) the Allen on this album sometimes sounds simple (un-complex). Except just when I think I don't like it that much it jumps out and grabs me. I think it is the seemingly peculiar tempo of the tremulent. It has an almost phase shifted decay as phrases decay and I like that very much, but sometimes it comes back in with those overly distinct pulsating tremulent beats. In cases where a manufactures spares absolutely no expense in the manufacture of an electronic theater organ (ETO), like particular Rodgers models, the not only create independent tone generators, but they can also use unlimited electronics for the voicing stages. Generally more filtering gives more tonal character. Regardless of which particular method is employed there are exceptional examples of every major organ design. Much of it depends on the filtering that comes after the fundamental tones are generated. Many players who become used to their independent oscillator organs often complain of 12 tone generator designs because they are 'phase locked'- meaning every C on the keyboard has the same oscillations, every D on the keyboard has the same...and so on. So that when full chords are played they don't have the ensemble of notes that comes from independent oscillators. What these players fail to realize is that there are ways to deal with the phase locked sound. To me being phased locked is the least of some organs troubles, but if an organ has a deep rich pallet of tones from good filtering, a good tremulent, and a reverb, delay, or short chorus delay system, and finally a good playing technique, then being phase locked doesn't matter. Sometimes these other systems are so well in place on a phase locked organ that unless an independent tone generator has excellent filtering it can sometimes sound kind of bland.
LISTEN TO: 21:15 until end of piece. Observe the unique Allen tremulent...
How a theater organ , or Electronic Theater Organ's (ETO) tibia (flute) voice responds to the mechanical rotor system, be it the famous Leslie speaker system, the Allen Gyrophonic, or the Wurlitzer SpectraTone, is what makes an organ stand out. It is a matter of taste who likes what, but with education one begins to understand why each manufacture employed their particular system. Contrary to a common belief that manufactures built their particular contraptions to be uniquely different from the others is a misconception. In fact they were designed to best suit the voicing characteristics of the organs they were employed on. Leslie's sound great on anything, but there were several types of Leslie's too. Not just the 122 and 147. The rotosonic drum is better for theater organ playing- like the SpectraTone and the Gyrophonic, the Rotosonic rotates the actual speaker in the drum, not a drum over a stationary speaker like on the 122 and 147.
Yes, Allen was pretty much the very first use of digital tone generation/sampling ever! The first digital Allen was such an advanced design it has it's own place in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.