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The Rodgers Difference

THE RODGERS DIFFERENCE

What sets Rodgers organs apart from other products? In this story, we highlight several features and state-of-the-art innovations that are standard equipment in Rodgers organs.

RODGERS VOICE PALETTE™ SYSTEM

The Rodgers Voice Palette™ system is a user-friendly, real-time instant selection of main and alternate organ stops that vastly increases the number of tonal colors available to the organist. The Imagine Series and Infinity Series organs come equipped with four distinct Voice Palette™ organ styles per stop control: American Eclectic (the stop name engraved on the organ’s drawknobs or stop tabs), English Cathedral, French Romantic and German Baroque. Organists are free to explore their imagination and create a custom stoplist, selecting any of the Voice Palette™ stops in real-time without being restricted to only one of the organ styles.

For example, the Great Principal 8’ stop can be easily configured to VP0 (American) 8 Principal, or VP1 (English) 8 Open Diapason, or VP2 (French) 8 Montre, or VP3 (German) 8 Prinzipal. Each Voice Palette™ selection is a unique, high-resolution sample of each rank’s pipe from notable pipe organs worldwide.

The real-time stop and voice selection is not limited to the Voice Palette™ system. It also extends to the Organ Stop Library and Orchestral Library, completing a vast selection of pipe stops and orchestral voices with astonishing versatility.

ORGAN STOP LIBRARY – AN EXPANDED RESOURCE

Every pipe organ stop on a Rodgers organ is professionally sampled using a high-resolution recording process. Each available stop is independently sampled from renowned organs around the world. Each Main stop, Voice Palette stop, and Library stop, is a unique sample with no borrowing or duplication.

The additional stops offered in the Rodgers Organ Stop Library include state-of-the-art pipe organ stops and ensembles. The libraries are accessible on all manuals and pedals, through any of the two Library/MIDI controls per division.

ORCHESTRAL LIBRARY – ADDING A NEW DIMENSION

The Rodgers Orchestral Library offers premium orchestral voices, including the Orchestral Trumpet, Orchestral Oboe, Grand Piano, Harpsichord, Guitar, Handbells, Timpani, and many more – all available for real-time selection while playing. To deliver the most authentic sound, each orchestral voice is brought to life using a high-resolution, digitally sampled original instrument.

CREATE A CUSTOM STOPLIST WITH UNMATCHED TONAL FLEXIBILITY

The organist can either select the entire stoplist of one organ style or combine voices from various styles. When combining voices, the organist’s unique stoplist might include the American Eclectic Principal 8’, the English Cathedral Octave Gamba 4’, the French Romantic Doublette 2’, the German Baroque Mixtur VI, and the Organ Stop Library State Trumpet 8’.

DIRECT STREAMING TECHNOLOGY

All of Rodgers’ current organs are equipped with a technology that we call Direct Streaming, or DS Core technology.

With the first generations of digital sampled organs, samples needed to be stored inside the organ, requiring some sort of permanent digital memory. This was very expensive and also very limited in size; thus, many techniques were employed to reduce the size of the samples. For example, only one note’s recording (or a few at the most) of a single stop were stored inside the organ and all notes for that stop were generated based on this one recording. Also, the length of the recording was made as short as possible. And although this was already a huge step forward compared to analog organs, the compromises that had to be made were still huge. There was still a clear audible difference with a real pipe organ.

As permanent memory became cheaper, it became possible to store more and longer samples inside the organ. This increased the sound quality significantly. In fact, it is easily possible to store a relatively long recording for every key and every stop. This allows for the most accurate reproduction of pipe organ sound ever.

For older digital system technologies to fully use these samples, they need to be ‘read’ and then copied to the ‘working memory’ first. And although the reading process has become faster, the increase of data capacity has gone even faster, meaning that it still may take significant time to read all the data. For example, it could still take up to 5 minutes before all the data is read and ready to be used. Imagine you would have to wait this long when you power on your organ before you can play!

Our revolutionary Direct Streaming technology solves this problem. Instead of reading and copying all the data to the working memory first, it is capable of playing (streaming) samples directly from the permanent storage in real-time without delay and without interruptions. It allows the time needed to start up the organ to be reduced to approximately 10 seconds. Hundreds of Voice Palette™  optional stops are all instantly available as a complete organ type or individual stops. No upload or download delays occur when selecting any Voice Palette™ stop to play. There is no need for ‘borrowing’ or ‘unification’ in the organ’s tonal specification.

The storage hardware used for Direct Streaming is industrial grade, providing a longer lifetime compared to consumer electronics which are often used in PC-based solutions. 

AUTHENTIC SOUND MODELING OF THE MOST EXQUISITE PIPE ORGAN SOUND

Rodgers organs offer the most authentic pipe organ voices for an immersive experience. Each individual note of each stop on the entire stoplist is masterfully captured with a unique high-resolution sampling process. After the samples are captured, Rodgers Pipe Dimensional Imaging™ recreates the tone placement of the pipe chest, resulting in the most detailed and nuanced pipe organ sounds.

These sophisticated pipe organ voices are preserved through the Rodgers sampling process and brought back to life to be heard again.

Pipe and acoustic sound modeling technologies recreate the vividness and beauty of winded pipes with stunning and unequalled precision.

• Digital Domain Expression™ models all of the nuances found in pipe organ Swell boxes.

• Digital Dynamic Wind™ models pipe organ wind supplies and the interactions of pipes for a true-to-life pipe organ sound.

• Random Tuning meticulously simulates the environmental variations in pipe organs.

• True Sound Space (TSS) provides 12 authentic real-reverb environments, recorded in notable American churches ranging from 2-10 seconds in length.

TRULY UNDERSTANDING THE AMERICAN PIPE ORGAN

Rodgers is the only digital organ company to have built and crafted its own pipes and complete pipe organs during its history. One of the world’s largest pipe organs – the organ in the Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas – is a Rodgers pipe organ with over 10,000 Rodgers pipes and 194 ranks. With over a decade of complete pipe organ building, Rodgers understands the real American pipe organ sound like no other.

Rodgers absorbed the complete engineering records, drawings, and files of the Aeolian-Skinner Pipe Organ Company, Boston. With this information, Rodgers’ goal was to create organs that modeled the sound of the American Eclectic pipe organ. What resulted was a masterful representation of the true American pipe organ sound.

EXPLORE A CONSOLE THAT EXCELS MUSICALITY TO NEW LIMITS

A centrally located high-resolution color LCD Display provides convenient visual access to the organ’s status and menus. Easy-to-reach drawknobs or tabs place the controls perfectly within reach, all while adhering to the strict building standards of the American Guild of Organists.

HIGH-RESOLUTION LCD DISPLAY – A BRILLIANT ENHANCEMENT

The Imagine and Infinity Series organs feature an experience like no other with a state-of-the-art, multi-color, high-resolution LCD screen. This sophisticated LCD screen offers crisp, easy to read letters and images, vivid colors, and user-friendly controls for effortless navigation.

The LCD Display shows real-time performance information including:

In addition, over a dozen color settings and display theme combinations provide control for more personalized display preferences. The new enhanced menu system was developed to allow the organist to be fully in control and immersed in the performance.

EXQUISITE CRAFTSMANSHIP – A TIME-HONORED TRADITION BASED ON DECADES OF EXPERTISE

Rodgers Organs are built with a commitment to detail and in a time-honored tradition based on decades of expertise. The 32-note velocity-sensitive AGO pedalboard is elegantly crafted with solid oak natural keys and beautiful hard, dark wenge wood sharps.

Stable, solid, and superior, Rodgers organ consoles are built to last with a rugged inner shell for stability and longevity. The result is a superior grain and ideal surface for applying the premium American white oak rift -sawn veneer, available in a variety of finishes. In addition, each console is subjected to, and surpasses, rigorous quality and safety testing.

GREENER AND CLEANER

The compact circuit boards and surface-mount components allow for faster and more efficient operating, using a small fraction of energy.

ALL LED LIGHTING

Enjoy efficient, super-long-life, warm-hued, “candlelight” LED lighting for the music desk, pistons, drawknobs, tabs, and pedal lights. All console lights are independently dimmable for desired preference.

15 NOTEWORTHY STANDARD FEATURE FAVORITES

Rodgers Organs are designed by and for people who understand what organists care for and value most. What some may think of as special extras are delivered as standard. 15 examples are:

CONSOLE

1. High-resolution color LCD Display

2. Performance Touch™ velocity-sensitive keyboards

3. 32-note radiating velocity-sensitive AGO pedalboard for expressive playing of onboard percussive voices such as piano, string bass, or timpani

4. Built-in and conveniently located headphone jack for quiet practice

5. Dimmable illumination for the entire console

SYSTEMS

6. On-board Hymn Player with 350 hymns common to many denominations

7. USB storage for registration data and recorded performances

8. Built-in demo songs, including music for worship and standard organ literature

9. Easy-to-use record and playback system, storable to USB

10. Complete combination action with 50 or 99* internal memory banks, 10 or 12* General pistons, and 5 divisional pistons for Swell, Great, Choir*, Solo*, and Pedal (*depending on model).

CONTROLS

11. Transpose Up and Transpose Down thumb pistons

12. Configurable toe pistons to change the number order or the function

13. Programmable pedal F# sustain function and programmable kick-switch functions

14. Organ Type piston immediately accesses American Eclectic, English Cathedral, French Romantic and German Baroque organ styles

15. The Melody Coupler transmits Solo, Swell, or Choir stops to the highest note played on the Great, providing ease of playing Swell melody stops and Great accompaniment stops all on the Great manual. The Bass Coupler transmits Pedal stops to the lowest note played on the Great, eliminating the need to play the pedals.

A Rodgers hybrid organ unites a new or existing pipe organ with a Rodgers digital organ in a brilliant partnership enjoyed by thousands of churches worldwide. All Imagine and Infinity Series consoles are pipe-compatible, meaning winded pipes can be combined with the organ’s state-of-the-art digital sound. New pipes can be added, or existing pipes can be preserved or enhanced, perfectly matching the ranks with Rodgers digital tonal finishing and auto-tuning technologies. Hybrid organs offer an even greater selection and diversity of sound, and enormous savings in the cost of purchase and maintenance compared to pipe-only instruments.

Rodgers Hybrid Organs can transform an aging or limited pipe organ and can greatly expand its tonal palette by combining existing pipes with beautiful pipe and orchestral voices. By breathing new life into an old tradition, a once silenced pipe organ will be able to sing out again, thanks to contemporary technology. Its bellows will move once more, pumping the air that brings it to life again. Rodgers’ love for pipe organs, combined with a belief in modern technology, brings pipe organs out of history, across the threshold of the present and into the future.

A HERITAGE ROOTED IN INNOVATION

For over a decade, Rodgers built and crafted pipes, windchests, and the many components of a pipe organ.  With careful study of countless records and data, Rodgers was able to understand real pipe organ sound further and more deeply like no other digital organ company. Rodgers successfully built the world’s first pipe-electronic hybrid organ, was the first digital organ company to build its own pipes and pipe chests, and built the world’s 17th largest pipe organ for Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas with 194 ranks and over 10,000 pipes.