Just because an Organ is an electo-pneumatic is no
guarantee that the Swell Shutters will open
automatically and they should be fully opened before
shutting down the organ just as a standard practice.
If the shutters automatically open on a given
instrument when it is off there should be no problem
with the shutters already being open.  The Reuter, I
have practice priviledges on. does not automatically
open the shutters when it is off. Another organist
left them open and we had to  have the technicial out
to tune as well as take care of some cyphering
problems growing out of the swell chest being closed
while the Organ was off.

Now to the coupler situation.

I grew up in the old fashion manner in which couplers
were almost absent from instruments. If there were any
couplers at all---they usually were octave and
sub-octave couplers or all manuals taken to the great
and pedal.

In well designed instruments these are luxuries and
should not really be necessary in smaller instruments
if they have a well designed upper and lower works.

Most coupling mechanisms that I have seen are made of
metal except on very old instruments and the couplers
here are of the type that Audsley writes about in his
treatise on Organ Building and History etc. Most of
the Organs I have played have setter buttons for the
free combinations and clear or off buttons for
removing combinations. To set a combination one should
(although many do not do it)clear out all the old
combinations on any given piston button.  Then one
draws the stops one wants on a given piston button and
presses simultaneously the setter button and the the
piston button that one wants that combination on. Then
one reviews these and makes notations by piston
numbers on one's music--so one knows what is where.

Those of us who do not play Casavants probally do not
have to worry about problems with couplers and damages
thereto as most of the Organs we play have metal
pistons and manual mechanisms with in the console.

Since on some instruments coupler problems can arize
and on others no damage can occur then perhaps the
best solution is for Organbuilders to permanently
attach instructions for operating their type of
couplers.

In the newer solid state couplers; one can have as
many as 100! combinations all from a single memory
computer chip.  For those of you who are not very
mathematically gifted this means every number from 1
to 100  stop combinations multiplied by each other or
1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8x9x10------to 100 or 9.332622e+157
combinations--these are more than most organists will
use in their entire life time.

I am a tracker fan but feel that some concessions need
to be made to modern times and solid state chips which
move sliders and do other such work should be included
in any organ as well as providing backups for when
there is no power to run these device

william rowland
--- William Baker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Ken Bales writes:
>
> > OK, now I'm really confused.  Can someone explain
> how to determine
> > whether a swell box should be left open or closed
> if there are no
> > explicit instructions nearby.  (most organs I have
> seen and played do
> > not have "explicit instructions", at least they
> are nowhere near the
> > console).
>
> Generally speaking, it is desireable to have the
> swell shutters
> remain open when the organ is off.  This permits at
> least some
> circulation of (building) air and more or less
> equalizes the
> temperature.
> Most (!) electro-pneumatic organs automatically do
> this.  That is,
> when the wind is out, the shutters are opened by the
> return spring.
>
> SO
> Mechanical action (expression) --- the swell shoe
> should be left
> in the open position.
> Electro-whatever action -- the swell shoe should be
> left in the closed
> postiion to minimize fatigue on the contacts.
>
> The principal exception I can think of would be,
> say, a high dust
> situation (or bats) where one might want to have the
> shutters closed
> when off.
>
> One opinion, but I hope it helps.
> William
> Wm Baker Hatfield, MA
> Website:  http://users.crocker.com/~wmbaker/
>
>
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Note:  opinions  expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity at Albany.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  GET LSVCMMDS.TXT  or see  the  web
page at http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/lsvcmmds.html .
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