Don Schoeps
The organ generates all its sounds digitally in real time. As with a CD player, only the final stages of amplification are analog. In all, seven independent “PC” processors work together to make the magic happen. All the processors, amplifiers, and speakers are contained in the console. As for playing, Don says that layering, keyboard splits, and a robust “preset” capability lets you easily play three-manual arrangements with plenty of snappy percussion and reed punctuation — but he still longs for second touch, a real horseshoe, and a stop rail a mortal can understand! … But at the end of the day, it’s the Theatre SOUND that lifts the soul — and there’s plenty of that. Don, a retired electronics engineer, says he built this WERSI Gamma DX 500 from a kit from Germany in the ’80s, and has been fiddling with it, on and off, ever since to refine its Theatre voices. Don and his wife Nancy have been Theatre Organ fans since he was involved in the effort to restore the Forum Theatre Organ in Binghamton, NY in the ’70s. They have been MTOS members since moving to Charlotte.
