Compton 5-22 Specification
Frank Cornish and Bob Hercock have had this project ongoing for the past ten years! The organ is based on the Compton "Emperor" which was originally designed as an all electronic organ using electrostatic technology. The console is one of a rare breed of 5 manual units built by the John Compton company and was in a sorry state when it was discovered by Frank and Bob. It's now been lovingly restored to its former glory as witnessed on our Examples/5/22 page.
The original 'guts' of the organ have been scrapped and it has been completely re-specified and utilizes some 219 stop tabs to simulate the (WurliTzer !!!) organ in the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, UK as well as some extra voices to 'bring it back to earth' as a Compton instrument, as suggested by local organist and friend - Michael Maine.
The instrument 'lives' in a two-up/two-down terraced house on the South Coast of the UK, between the front and back living areas! It is organised as three 'chambers' which house various loudspeakers including a couple of 18" units. Each speaker is driven by its own discrete amplifier, fed by a MOTU 24I/O sound interface which is driven by a PC using Hauptwerk software and samples from the Milan Masterworks 3/31 package. The organ definition is currently being written (using the Hauptwerk CODM) by none other than the Webmaster of this site. The latest definition can be downloaded from the HauptwerkODFWriters (Yahoo) forum files section.
The capture system was designed and supplied by local builder - David Houlgate and the MIDI controllers were purchased from MIDI Boutique.
Click HERE for a photo of the console layout.
The stop specification is downloadable below in the form of two .xlsx files, viewable in Microsoft Excel.
The use of a spreadsheet will allow you to re-specify at will, to suit yourself.