The software for Phoenix organs has been developed using the Yourdon method.  This is a modern structured analysis and design technique that is widely used in both business and computer control systems.  Briefly, it involves the definition of the system requirements and then expands these in to processor tasks.  By developing the control software using this formal method, the Phoenix Organ software is much more likely to offer a reliable service than other systems.

A pipe organ usually contains thousands of pipes.  Each pipe can be voiced, regulated and tuned.  Our system works on a similar basis.  We can voice, regulate, adjust the attack and release, and tune every note of every rank independently. Our voicing software is written in the latest PC development environment which takes the strain out of setting up an organ.

On a pipe organ, moving the expression pedal does not just vary the volume of the sound, it also changes the tone by damping higher frequencies.  The Phoenix software simulates this by also attenuating these higher frequencies.  The calibration curves of our expression can be set using the voicing software.

The effect of wind variation on a pipe organ can have a significant effect on the sounds we hear.  Our software simulates this effect, and using our voicing software, each stop's loading on the bellows can be set across four areas of the keyboard.  A large Open Diapason's bottom octave will use far more wind than say the top octave of a Larigot.  Each stop’s response to bellows movement is also adjustable.  Wind calculations are performed hundreds of times per second to guarantee pipe-like response.

A pipe organ tremulant changes the pitch and loudness of a stop.  We have incorporated this into our design, plus a feature to provide some randomness in tremulant levels which occurs in pipe reed stops.

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