Classic Vox
Lesser Known Features of a Classic System Part 1
Anybody who has used a couple of Classic's systems is familiar with certain functions and features. Everybody knows what the Transposer piston does, or Alt, or Up/Down, or Setup, but do you know what the MIDI Level Select is, or the two different ways that the Piston Coupler can work? That's the subject for this post. What are some of the features available on a Classic system which aren't being used, because people don't know they exist?
Piston Couplers: There are two different ways a piston coupler can work on a Classic system. Most of the time it is the Great and Pedal which is coupled together, so I'm going to use these in my descriptions, but you can couple other divisions. In the first method when you press a Great piston, the Pedal piston of the same number is also activated. For example, you press Great 3, Pedal 3 will also turn on. The other way a Piston Coupler can work is it allows you to set Pedal registrations on a Great piston. If you press Great 3 and the P.C. is OFF, only the Great stops will change, if you press Great 3 and the P.C. is ON both Great and Pedal registrations will change. The Pedal stops stored on the Great 3 divisional have nothing to do with the stops stored on the Pedal 3 divisional. They are independent. If you want, you can have a P.C. on a divisional piston. If you have the P.C. on when you set the registration for Great 3, then when you press Great 3 later, the P.C. will activate and the Pedal registration will also change. We must know before we program you system how you want the Piston Couplers to work.
MIDI Level Select: You may have up to 8 MLS pistons or toe studs on a console. Pressing an MLS piston changes the configurations on the MIDI expander stops, without changing the Combination Action Memory level.
Key Locks: The Classic system comes with the option of using piston presses to lock the Master Lock or individual Memory levels, however if you want, you can also use a key lock or a dedicated piston lock. The key lock can be either a two position lock (locked/unlocked) or three positions (lock, neutral, unlock).
Auto Pedal/Solo: Most people are familiar with these two features, but did you know you can specify whether it functions over the full range of the manual or over only part of the range? You can also apply the Auto Solo feature to a single stop, for example Festival Trumpet Solo to Great?
Alt Crescendo: The console can have up to three Alternate Crescendo pistons giving you 4 different Crescendos (default + three Alts). You can also have a single Alt Crescendo piston and have it cycle through the available memories. You will want a different indicator light for each Crescendo, just so you know which one is active.
Pedal Divide: This function splits the pedalboard action below the second “C” (key-13) so that “bass” and “solo” are playable separately on the pedalboard. All manual-to-pedal couplers are prevented from operating in the lower octave, but will operate normally on the upper keys. The pedal division works normally but only in the bass octave of the pedalboard.
Adjustable Pedal Divide: This is the same as a regular Pedal Divide, but the split point can be changed by the organist. This split point can also be saved on a pistons. We must be informed that you want this feature before we program your system.
Adjustable Reversible: Works just like any other reversible piston, like Great to Pedal, but the organist can change what stop the piston reverses
Recall: The “RECALL” piston allows the organist to restore the registration which existed just prior to the previous general or divisional piston press. For example, if you press General 1, change the registration manually, press General 2, then change the registration manually again, the registration which would be restored would be General 1 + the manual registration.
Stay tuned for the next post when we will look at such things as Ventils, Pizzicato Couplers, and MIDI Sustain.
Cathy
2015-06-24