Re: What's a "STRAIGHT" organ??

[<RickP@Solve.Net>]

Adrianne Schutt wrote:
 
> 
> Without going into any controversy about the merits of "unification" in a
> pipe organ, it is obvious that this principle cannot be used to reduce the
> number of pipes which would be necessary to control the tone quality by
> harmonic pipes alone, for in the common case where the same frequency
> reappears twice as a harmonic of different order of two notes in one chord,
> the single pipe would have to be made to blow twice as hard.  This is
> obviously impossible because the pipe must either be blown the same way or
> not blown at all.

>  Much else deleted....

I'll try this one (leaving the obvious punch lines to those more witty).

On a pipe organ the blower is running at full blast all the time.  What makes 
the organ louder 
or softer is adding/removing stops, which adds/removes pipes in the mix (some 
installations also 
have louvers to control how much sound leaves the pipe chambers).  In the 
statement above, it 
correctly details the difficulty in producing more "tone" when the same 
harmonic is required 
more than once.  To do this you would have to a set of pipes for each stop for 
each note!

A Hammond is different in this respect because the tone generator produces a 
certain voltage at 
a certain amperage.  The voltage is fixed in value by the distance between the 
magnet and tone 
wheel.  The amperage can be increased by having multiple key contacts 
requesting the same tone. 
 More amperage means more volume.  I am not sure if the amperage 
doubles/triples/etc... for 
two/three/etc... requests for the same tone, but it does increase.
-- 

                             "You meet the nicest people on a Hammond"

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