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MMD > Archives > December 2009 > 2009.12.10 > 03Prev  Next


Compact Crank Organs
By Karl Petersen

Looking at a few sites on small organs playing punched music,
I realized the difficulty of stuffing so many components into a small
space.  I then wondered what methods could be used to minimize the size.

Pipes can be shortened by using stopped flutes or Haskellized pipes
with a "folded" concentric passage, or an ocarina type volume-resonant
pipe can be fairly small.  These can all be used with valved resonance
points like an orchestral wind instrument or ocarina.  Serious portative
pipe organs often use these methods and they are quite successful where
adjacent notes are not needed at the same time.  I suppose a bird box
or a musical clock would take advantage of these methods too.  Hearing
a tiny box put out broad harmonies including notes in lower registers
is very impressive.  The Chein "Amen" organ I had in the early 'fifties
used reeds to achieve this effect.

So, what has been the success of using these volume-reducing techniques?
Surely history holds some outstanding examples.  What have you?

Karl Petersen
Boise, Idaho


(Message sent Thu 10 Dec 2009, 06:16:25 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Compact, Crank, Organs

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