Decap dance organs never went out of production!

Thanks to Jody and MMD I found the Decap home page and contacted Tony
Decap about prices on his wonderful instruments.  I am copying some of
his reply which is basic information on the company and what they do.
Some highlights:

They have a book punch machine.  They have MIDIfied the whole organ and
included karaoke.  They can retrofit other brands of existing organs.
They have the organ all designed to play in sync with videos.

They can go back to the old fashioned book system of playing it with
very little trouble.  They can turn the volume down below that which
pipes can play and the electronic sampled pipes take over at the lower
volume.  You can play a book on the organ and record it to MIDI and
playback from disk ever after.

Fancy cases are cut out by CAD system CNC mill.  All the instruments
including percussion are capable of expression when playing from MIDI.
Lights are computer controlled for complex light shows.

 ** They can go back to the original blueprints and make a copy of an
early dance organ like their grandfather built. **

They made nine of the famous robot organs, of which two were destroyed,
but they are waiting for a couple of people who want them to build some
new ones.

I was very impressed.  Their prices seem quite reasonable next to the
cost of originals, which you can't find anyway.  That huge organ on the
web site cost $80,000.00 with karaoke, video and everything.

D. L. Bullock    Piano World    St. Louis

 - - -

 [ This is the letter from Tony Decap to D. L. Bullock ]

We are fully capable of producing books as we have a computerized
cutting machine. The only limitation is that spacing must be standard
Decap or Mortier, etc.  (We are thinking about building a second
machine that has no spacing limitations.  Technically no problem,
but is there enough business for it?)  The distance of the first hole
to the top can be changed at a small setting cost.  If the speed of
transport is not standard, then this must be specified at the time
of ordering.  Normally this is about 3.65 meters paper/cardboard per
minute.

We have a big repertoire of old patterns, but all music can also
be newly programmed for you (in the famous Decap style).  It can be
e-mailed if you want to listen to it before the cutting process is done.
A standard book costs about 2500 BEF (about 62.50 US$) plus tax plus
shipping and handling.

We also like to inform you that we are specialized in non destructive
(does not change the originality of your organ) Decap designed MIDI
retrofit systems that can be built in any organ, so that music is a lot
cheaper (about 1/5 of the book price), and the organs playing capabili-
ties becomes a higher standard.  We have done this in Mortier, Bruder,
street organs as well as Decap organs, at great satisfaction of the
customers.

The organ on the top of our web site is our latest product, of which we
are very proud.  It is based on the 105 Decap scale, but as it is fully
MIDI and computer controlled, the possibilities are far greater.  As
everything is velocity controlled (drum section, accordions, xylo's
etc.), a book would have no way of controlling this instrument
properly, due to it's limitations.  You can play a book through the
computer, but then the organ plays the same like in the good old days
(which is, as you may know, not so bad at all).

Full remote control, including song selection and master volume of
all instruments including acoustic ones.  The pipes switch off under
a certain volume level and are then replaced with electronic samples,
or [the pipes] can be mounted inside a computer controlled volume
chest).  Also complete change of light colors, karaoke, audio -- you
name it, the organ does it.  The price is about 80.000 US$., including
400 tunes.

The organs that we have built in the last seven years include:

 - two big 121-key pipe organs (about 700 pipes), of which one included
the velocity drums, giving it great 'big band' style capabilities.
Price (including standard front, 4 Italian accordions etc.) about
150.000 US$;

 - 92-key (320 pipes), price about 60.000 US$;

 - 72-key (168 pipes), price about 40.000 US$,

 - 52-key (169 pipes), price about 30.000 US$ (see picture at the
web site);

 - 38-key (73 pipes), price about 8.000 US$;

 - and many Decap 105 standard electronic organs (prices ranging
from 15.000 to 80.000 US$).

About the robot organs, as you mentioned, there are not many built
(6 small 92 key, and 3 big 105 key one's, of which 2 are burned to
ashes), and they are hard to get by.  We would love to build some new
ones, and we talked a lot about it, but somehow we never got the time
(always a problem) and/or momentum to start on them.  We would have
to make some choices.

We could build them as an exact replica (as we have access to the
original plans) of the old robot organs, or we could modernize them
inside, which would greatly enhance the performance (better movements,
better sound due to more accurate action and volume controls etc.),
even if we made them to look alike the old ones.

Fronts are designed in any style based on examples the customer send
us.  Our shop includes a CNC computer machine that cuts wood from a
CAD/CAM design program, enabling us to come up with tricky designs.
All final wood carving by hand is also done at our location.

We hope that this email gives you some data to work with.  Anyway,
we thank you for your interest in our company, and we are always ready
to serve you with excellent quality, which is the main goal in all of
our products.

Bye for now,

Frank Decap, Electronics/Organbuilding
Tony Decap, Music/Organbuilding
http://home2.planetinternet.be/tor-4917/