[LAA] Organnery offers new life for electronic pipe organs

[Daniel James]

Organnery retro-fits existing keyboards, pedals and stops to work with 
the open source classical organ modelling software Aeolus, created by 
Fons Adriaensen. Aeolus is a software synthesiser optimised for this 
task, with hundreds of potential controls for each stop that enable the 
organ builder to voice unique instruments.

The best parts of an existing organ, such as the woodwork and the 
physical controls the organist is used to, can be retained and 
integrated into a new Organnery instrument. Alternatively, a complete 
instrument can be built from scratch using standard MIDI keyboards and 
pedals, for installation in a house of worship or for practice at home.

Organists can use a touchscreen display to control the Aeolus software, 
or the system can be hidden inside the console so that only traditional 
stops and pistons are visible. Unlike a PC-based organ emulator or 
sampler, the Organnery hardware has no moving parts or cooling fans.

The Organnery software is a customised Debian GNU/Linux image for ARM 
processors, including the Aeolus synthesiser and the programs it 
requires to run as a dedicated system. This software was prepared in 
partnership with Audiotronic by 64 Studio.

The Raspberry Pi has been chosen as the initial CPU board for Organnery 
because of its great development community, affordable price and 
worldwide availability. Organnery can use any class-compliant USB sound 
card, and specialised I2S sound cards designed for the Raspberry Pi can 
also be used.

A demonstration video is available at https://organnery.com and personal 
demonstrations are available on request at the Audiotronic workshop in 
Bordeaux. Pipe organ builders and MIDI hardware engineers who are 
interested in forming a network of certified Organnery technicians are 
invited to make contact with Raphaël Mouneyres <raphael at audiotronic.fr> 
or by phone +33 557 916 211.

Audiotronic
Rue des Terres Neuves
Batiment 19
33130 Bègles
France