Hybrid Organs

We are increasingly hearing about ‘hybrid’ or ‘combination organs’ in the organ world. What exactly does that mean? A ‘combination organ’, is a midway between a digital and a pipe organ where some ranks are digital and others are pipe. This combination can offer your church many different advantages, the best of both worlds. For example, you can replace an old, often worn out, console with a less expensive, digital console. You also have the option of adding extra digital stops to your current pipe organ.

As a simple example, the church pipe organ may be too small to satisfactorily lead large services and would benefit tremendously with some additional pedal stops.

Together with Johannus, Makin Organs has been a forerunner with the development and building of ‘combination organs’ for the past 10 years. The advanced technology used for this purpose has proven to be both very reliable and very fast.

A specification of the Hybrid instrument we built at Chichester University in 2010 can be downloaded here.

We need a new console for our pipe organ
You have a good pipe organ, but the console now needs replacing, as the keyboards or stop controls no longer function properly.

Solution 1
Makin Organs can offer you a complete console in such situations. This console would be custom built especially for your church. The console would communicate directly with our Pipe Midi Interface, which directly controls the pipes in the pipe organ, via High Speed MIDI.

The advantage of this solution is that you will benefit from the relatively low costs of the new digital console since our scale advantage means our consoles are generally less expensive than the consoles supplied by the traditional pipe organ builders.

Another added advantage is that the MIDI information is sent via a thin cable. You also have the option of connecting, for example, our MIDI Sequencer + to your pipe organ. This will allow you to always record your organ playing and play this back again at the touch of a button.

We need extra stops for our pipe organ
You own a good pipe organ, but additional stops would be useful. However, either cost precludes this or your organ chamber does not have space for extra organ pipes.

Solution 2a
Makin Organs can offer you the Digital Stop Unit. The Digital Stop Unit is a module which houses the digital voices chosen by you. These voices will subsequently be reproduced in the organ case via our UL loudspeakers.

A number of modifications will need to be built into the existing console to ensure the organ voices can be efficiently controlled. We will prepare an inventory for your organ for this purpose. A new console, as described above is optional.

Solution 2b
In most cases it is also possible to control new stops with the help of our Pipe Midi Interface. In such cases new register controls will need to be added to the existing console. A new console is optional.

There are, of course, several other possible situations and solutions. We can generally state that the best results are achieved in combination with electro-pneumatic organs.

Please do contact us for advice.