When I was building the Adelmouse doll, I acquired a number of
solenoids to make a small MIDI test instrument.  This instrument would
be to test programming of a Jaquet-Droz type musician.  For this I
figured to use some sort of pneumatic to actuate the keyframe of the
doll prior to making the cylinder.

I met Mike Ames and Ron Perry at the MBSI convention.  I bought one of
the Octet decoder boards from Ron.  As a computer engineer I was a bit
disappointed in the manual or the web site.  After a few emails and a
visit to the MMD archive I found that the designer Laurent Coray died
unexpectedly.  Ron has not been able to answer my technical questions.
As I have over 20 years in computers I do not think he is prepared for
the level of depth I was asking.  Anyone else willing to help?

Most of my work in this area has been with video.  (I spent part of
the last few years experimenting, with a capitol 'E', with High
Definition Television, which is being tested in the San Francisco
region.)  I find the lack of professionally in the MIDI to mechanical
music on the net appalling.  Especially after dealing with the makers
of consumer electronics.  Some of the broken links related to Octet and
Devtronics are over a year old.  Much of the goodwill the founders of
these companies is lost by the new owners taking on more than they can
handle.  I am not sure what to do about this other than to persist in
my quest for information.

There is a really good MIDI site for do-it-yourselfers like me at
http://mall.lakes.com/~map/  This guy has been writing for electronics
trade rags for years.  It is what I have come to expect for this sort
of thing.

Now for the project as hand.  Quite a number of years ago, the family
got a new electronic organ to replace the plastic reed organ we had.
I can still remember the sales pitch like it was yesterday.  I wanted
a pipe organ but we settled on a Conn 466.  It was a bit of a lemon
(which is why I remember the sales pitch.)  After about 7 or 8 years
of repair calls it broke for good.  My father got some MIDI keyboards,
one of which lived on top of the old Conn, making a third manual.  This
gave me the idea to MIDI-fy the Conn organ.  I always liked how the
gold-plated bus wires on the keys worked.  These things were made
before the late-1970s gold scare.  A number of the chips are the
ceramic type with the gold-plated leads.

On my last visit to the folks I powered 'on' the instrument.  The reeds
were ciphering and the lower manual was intermittent.  Opening the
instrument up revealed something has been eating the felt!  This must
be a common problem is all sorts of instruments.  What is done usually
to prevent this munching after I replace the felt?

I found the Conn service manual on the 'net so the next visit I can see
what is really wrong with it.  I also found the Organ Ring from the
MMD.  Not much on the history of Conn.  On the site which I found the
manual on I found lots of stuff on Hammond/Leslie and Schober, but not
much on the mall organs so popular 20 or so years back.  Remember
these?  You could here the guy playing three stores away.  Has anyone
written a history of these?  I never thought much of them until now.
My father found the original receipt.  One could have bought a decent
used car back then for what it cost.

My current plan is to add MIDI to the old Conn as a test.  I always
liked the way I sounded: it is supposed to have Leslie tone generators,
even if it did sound a bit out of tune.  According to posts on the net
the capacitors in the transistor oscillators tend to shift over time.

I am also in the market for some pipes to play with as I still want to
make a MIDI pipe organ.  I see there are extra positions for additional
busses on the Conn; this looks to be a good place to start.  I found
quite a few plans for such mods on the net.  Anyone else working on
such a project?  As I do not play, this will need to be a mechanical
music instrument, albeit a modern one.

I think that after seeing Mike Ames' workshop and Ron Perry's Octet
MIDI board and the MMD Archives I have enough information to start.
These are pieces of the puzzle I have been missing.  Finally nice to
find that I am not the only one tilting this windmill.

Julie Porter