# ORGAN PROJECT UPDATE: THE UFOS ARE LANDING

The Nitetime organ project has officially gotten completely out of hand, which means it is finally starting to become what it was supposed to be.

What started as me getting a free Lowrey Jamboree LC/20 and wondering if I could make a computer play it has turned into a full blown electronic performance system involving MIDI, multiple computers, audio routing, DJ equipment, hidden switches, subwoofers, FireWire cameras, OBS, live streaming, and increasingly questionable decisions involving additional organs.

The Lowrey itself has been getting a workout. I am pretty sure this thing has been turned on and played more in the last month than it had been in the previous year. At first I was mostly fascinated that I could send MIDI files into it and have this giant old console organ play them. Then I started actually interacting with the MIDI playback.

That changed everything.

The bass pedals are especially ridiculous. Barefoot, I can stomp the pedals while the computer handles most of the impossible keyboard work. Hold a big note on top, pump a couple bass notes underneath it, start fiddling with the stops and effects, and suddenly the garage is going WAMP-WOMP-WAMP-WOMP through the subwoofers.

At that point you stop caring who technically played which notes.

This is show business.

I have also discovered that half of selling the illusion is simply behaving like you meant to do it. Hit a few keys, slide your fingers dramatically across the keyboard between songs, stomp the pedals, twist some knobs, yell “WOOOO!” after a particularly nasty section, and suddenly you are apparently an organ virtuoso.

The computer quietly playing 98 percent of Bach is none of anybody's business.

## OrganOS Got Too Smart for Its Own Good

I spent a lot of time building what I was calling OrganOS, a Linux based control system for the organ.

It actually got surprisingly far.

I had MIDI hardware discovery, safe note testing, MIDI file importing, a searchable music library, macros, audio monitoring, recording, system telemetry, MIDI compilation, streaming experiments, a web interface, and even a hidden switch inside the organ's expression pedal compartment that could trigger functions.

The long term idea was great. Put a little HDMI screen in the music holder and make the whole computer disappear into the organ. The organ's own buttons, keys, pedals, and hidden switches would become the controls.

Basically a 1980s home organ secretly containing a modern computer controlled performance system.

The problem was that the software started turning into spaghetti.

As more features were added, CPU use started climbing. Processes would get stuck. Things would sometimes forget to release audio devices. The laptop started running hot. At one point Ubuntu actually began warning that the machine was going to shut itself down.

That was the point where I stopped being impressed by how many features we had managed to bolt onto it.

A musical instrument cannot randomly decide it needs 100 percent CPU.

So I am scrapping the current OrganOS build.

Not the idea.

The implementation.

I would rather go back to a clean Ubuntu installation and rebuild the useful pieces carefully than spend the next six months fixing a gigantic pile of AI generated code that nobody completely understands anymore.

The new rule is simple.

If the organ is playing music, don't screw with it.

## The Gear Is Starting to Talk to Each Other

The other major development is that I finally stopped looking at MIDI as simply “the cord that makes the organ play songs.”

MIDI is control.

That opens up practically every piece of gear around here.

I have been looking at the whole system as a chain now. The Lowrey, computer, DJ mixer, effects equipment, feedback eliminator, additional MIDI interfaces, and eventually possibly another organ can all become parts of one performance system.

The computer can send MIDI.

The organ can receive MIDI.

Some equipment can send control messages back.

Unused buttons on the DJ mixer can potentially become transport controls.

PLAY.

STOP.

NEXT SONG.

PAN.

EFFECT.

PANIC.

UFO ATTACK.

That Behringer DJ mixer I have suddenly became a lot more interesting once I realized the MIDI ports were not just decorative. There are whole sections of that board I normally barely use. If those controls can be mapped, they become physical controls for the organ system.

The crossfader does not necessarily have to crossfade anything.

Maybe it pans the organ from left to right.

Maybe a sampler button launches the next MIDI file.

Maybe another button triggers the hidden “magic mode.”

That is exactly the kind of nonsense MIDI was invented for.

I also have a MIDI capable feedback eliminator sitting around. That means the goal is no longer one computer talking to one organ. The goal is an actual MIDI network where each device listens for the messages intended for it.

The important part will be mapping everything carefully so pressing one button does not accidentally make four pieces of equipment lose their minds at the same time.

Eventually I want a setup wizard where I press a physical button, the computer says “I saw MIDI CC 47 on channel 3,” and then I choose what that control should do.

After that I should never have to remember the technical details again.

## The Second Organ Problem

Then another organ appeared.

Because apparently owning one giant electronic organ was not enough.

I found a Yamaha MR-700T for sale locally for $50 and offered $25 for it.

The Yamaha has a real MIDI THRU port.

That is where things start getting stupid.

If I get it, I should be able to send the MIDI performance into the first organ, pass it through, and have the Yamaha play the same performance at the same time.

Same notes.

Different synthesis.

Different speakers.

Different tone generators.

Different character.

One MIDI performance driving two physical organs.

And naturally my first thought was not “that would be useful.”

My first thought was:

What happens if I put BOTH OF THEM on pipe organ?

Probably mud.

Possibly glory.

There is only one way to find out.

The visual possibilities are even better. Two organs side by side, MIDI handling the impossible parts while I move between them, playing bass pedals, grabbing controls, hammering notes, and generally looking like a human octopus operating some kind of Victorian spacecraft.

I already have the name.

The Human Octopus and His Two-Organ Orchestra.

That is no longer entirely a joke.

## The UFO Sounds Are Becoming Real

The biggest surprise has been what happens when I stop trying to make the Lowrey sound like a traditional organ.

I started routing it through the DJ mixer and experimenting with flanging, panning, EQ, effects, bass, and weird combinations of sounds.

It started sounding like UFOs.

Not metaphorically.

Actual 1950s flying saucer movie noises.

Some combinations make it sound like something is hovering over the garage. Other combinations sound like a machine powering up. With the subwoofer involved, some sounds stop being musical and become physical.

You feel them.

That gave me an entirely different idea for performing with this thing.

Instead of simply playing songs, I can create little sound performances.

A quiet drone.

A strange chord.

Something begins oscillating.

The lights change.

The sound starts moving across the speakers.

The bass starts pulsing.

The organ begins screaming.

Something lands.

That starts turning the organ into part musical instrument, part synthesizer, part theatrical prop, part special effects machine.

Which, frankly, is much more interesting to me than becoming good at playing “The Entertainer.”

## The Garage Is Becoming a Studio

The physical side is coming together too.

The cheese grater Mac Pro workstation running Ubuntu is sitting near the organ setup now and is extremely useful for this. It has FireWire for the camera, USB audio coming from the Yamaha mixer, plenty of horsepower for OBS, and it can become the live production machine for the organ area.

That means I can put a camera on the performance, grab clean audio directly from the mixer, and broadcast the whole thing without trying to force the little organ laptop to also become a television station.

That was another important realization.

The organ computer should operate the organ.

The broadcast computer should broadcast.

The server should serve.

Stop making every computer do everything.

I am also configuring the streaming side so multiple Nitetime machines can feed the same server. My normal movie playout system can keep doing what it already does perfectly, but when I want to go live from the organ, I can stop that stream and start OBS on the cheese grater.

Suddenly Nitetime cuts away from whatever bizarre public domain movie is playing and there I am in the garage operating a 300 pound electronic organ under red lights.

Then when the performance is over, stop OBS, restart the regular stream, and the station goes back to normal.

That feels right.

## Where This Is Going

The goal has changed considerably.

Originally I wanted an AI organ.

Now I want an instrument.

AI can still be part of it. It can generate arrangements, organize MIDI files, build playlists, help with mappings, and create strange musical ideas.

But I do not want some enormous software system sitting between me and the hardware anymore.

I want the hardware to work.

I want MIDI routing that I understand.

I want buttons that reliably do the same thing every time I press them.

I want the Lowrey.

Hopefully I want the Yamaha.

I want the mixer.

I want the effects.

I want the subwoofers.

I want the lights.

I want the cameras.

And I want all of it chained together into one enormous ridiculous machine.

The last few weeks have mostly been experimentation, but I think the direction is finally becoming obvious.

This is not really an organ restoration.

It is not really an AI project.

It is not really a MIDI project.

It is becoming a Nitetime performance installation.

A machine that happens to contain an organ.

Possibly two organs.

Probably lasers.

Definitely subwoofers.

And judging by the sounds currently coming out of the garage...

the UFOs are landing.