A chance encounter
one day happened to place two engineers in the same room. They got talking and
very soon it emerged that both were also church organists. For years both had
been searching for an electronic organ which sounded like a pipe organ. Neither
had met such an animal before, despite long treks to check out exaggerated
claims by many manufacturers about their latest offerings which, although
sporting a fancy trade name or a suitable acronym, did not show much
improvement.
At this point in
time sampling technology was in its embryonic stage, and early indications were
that at last good diapason tone was available on a ROM card for a KORG
M1 keyboard of all things, hiding under the really imaginative name of
"106pipe". Nevertheless it proved that it could be done. The keyboard industry
and its giants (Korg, Yamaha, Roland etc.) had long since forsaken real time
synthesis, and opted for sample replay, which is commonly (and confusingly)
referred to as Wavetable Synthesis. The computer soundcard industry was also
coming to the same decisions, and the two engineers felt that this technology
was their way forward - both for purely technical reasons, as well as financial
and supply considerations. They were also convinced that the growing list of
current users were only scratching the surface of the technology that was
available.
Thus Phoenix Organs
was born. The system was designed from the ground up with a clean
sheet of paper, and is now the most flexible in the marketplace today. Gone are
the standard specifications, the standard models.
Everything is Custom built and easily alterable even after the organ has been
built. Mixture ranks can be added and compositions changed, pistons can be
given different functions, and the control over each note of each stop uses ten
times the parameters that the competitors have at their disposal. The system
uses computer soundcard chips which are easily obtained and will be with us for
many years to come.
Phoenix has now
grown into many parts, using common system electronics allied to localised
manufacturing centres. This site belongs to the Phoenix Organs facility based
in Northern Ireland. It is run autonomously by Stephen Hamill, who was one of
the engineers referred to above. You can visit his own website and see
something of the man and his background by
following this link.
Further afield is
Phoenix Organs America, which, as it's name implies, is the manufacturing
centre for the North American continent, based in Ontario. This is run by
brothers Don and Jim Anderson both of whom have many years' experience in the
organ business. They have the distinction of installing the first three
complete Phoenix Organs. Find out more about this company and the people behind
it by visiting their excellent
site.
At the centre of it
all is Phoenix Organs UK, building organs as well as supplying system boards to
both the NI and USA operations. This is run by Dave Bostock who is the brains
behind the whole system. His programming skills, together with his tonal and
musical expertise, are directly responsible for the success and flexibility of
the Phoenix system. Visit the UK
site and peruse the prestigious installations in Liverpool and Bangor
Cathedrals and elsewhere.