Marshall & Ogletree Revelation™ Systems
By now, most everyone involved with organs is familiar with Marshall & Ogletree Opus Organs, which enjoy a singular reputation for offering the very finest in digital organ building. Yet customers sometimes find themselves in the situation where there is an urgent need for a new organ but funds are not yet available to purchase a complete M&O Opus organ. We are asked periodically if an interim step could offer the incredible sound of an M&O Opus organ while using an available less-expensive console during the fundraising process.
Additionally, we are occasionally asked to provide best-in-class digital organ voices to expand the resources of a new or existing pipe organ. While this is not the focus of our business, it is something that we can do - and like everything that we do, it is always done at the highest possible level of artistic and musical quality.
Whether we are providing an all-digital instrument with a temporary console or providing world-class digital voices to expand a pipe organ, our firm supplies the tone generation and audio systems, but not a custom-built organ console to control them. The name we have given to these non-Opus projects is "Revelation™". To date we have installed 15 Revelation™ Systems throughout the US, the UK and even Africa!
Utilizing the exact same technology and audio components as found in our Opus instruments, M&O Revelation™ systems create the incredible M&O organ sound we are known for worldwide, without the spectacular custom-built organ consoles our Opus organs feature. In some cases, a Revelation™ System can be designed, assembled and delivered in a matter of a few weeks, rather than the 16-18 months an Opus organ normally takes to create.
M&O Revelation 7 - Page / Bosma Residence, Naples, FL
They also commissioned M&O Revelation 10 for their Enfield, CT home!
(Rodgers Oxford 925 Console w/MIDI Output)
Like every Opus Organ, each Revelation™ System is designed and built exclusively for its customer, console and venue. In many cases, it is even possible to order custom-engraved stop faces, coupler tabs and pistons to reflect new sound choices and capabilities.
While we must work with the console's existing control system and its inherent features and limitations, there are sometimes creative ways to improve an existing instrument's specification and feature set with a Revelation System. And, perhaps most importantly, Revelation Systems are tonally built and finished on-site ― stop-by-stop, chorus-by-chorus and division-by-division ― exactly like our Opus Organs are. So the musical results are just as consistent and as excellent as well.
Many customers have found that an M&O Revelation™ System instrument costs little more than a new production-line digital organ. However, whereas the sound of new production-line digital organs are sometimes not much better than earlier versions, the sound and musical results of an M&O Revelation upgrade always fall into the O-M-G category! Anyone who wonders whether our Revelation System produces astonishing sound quality might consider visiting our Proof of Concept page entitled "The Mission Project" for verification!
M&O Revelation 11 - Henry Fairpo Residence, Witcham, Cambridgeshire, UK
New custom built console by Renatus w/MIDI Output
The Revelation System is not a new idea for M&O. In fact, we've been building them from the very beginning. When Owen Burdick, former Director of Music for Trinity Church, Wall Street first visited the shop to hear our prototype in 2002, he actually played and heard an M&O Revelation System. He sat down at a used Rodgers 3-manual digital organ controlling what would ultimately become our OrganPower™ tone generator and audio system. After playing for only a few seconds, he famously remarked "We must have this for Trinity Church!"
Sam Nelson plays Robert Hebble's "I Wonder as I Wander"
M&O Revelation 8, Emmanuel Baptist, Brooklyn, NY just before delivery.
(Austin Organ Co. console w/Peterson control system & MIDI output)
In the case of adding digital voices to pipe organs, we have completed several such installations. Our approach is most economical when there are a substantial number of digital voices to add. After all, a single OrganPower™ generator can produce 300 or more stops simultaneously! As a result, the cost of adding a handful of digital voices versus adding 50 or 60 voices is more similar than different with M&O technology. The larger the number of digital voices required, the more economical it is to commission an M&O Revelation System to enhance your pipe organ.
Monty Bennett plays Stanley Trumpet Tune in D
M&O Revelation 2, Friendship Missionary Baptist, Charlotte, NC
(88-rank Fratelli Ruffatti pipe organ w/68 M&O digital stops)
The M&O Revelation System provides an affordable and expeditious path to musical greatness. And that's good news for many organ customers today, faced with the choice of replacing an older digital organ with an less-than-inspiring new one or perhaps expensively rebuilding a pipe organ which lacks the desired tonal resources to begin with. We would love to have the opportunity to speak with you to see if an M&O Revelation System might be the perfect alternative to those other options.