Reg Rawlings
Reg first started in music over forty five years ago, making areoplane noises on an eight bass accordion. (Some would say he's come full circle!)
He studied music at night school and started playing on stage at sixteen
Having had almost every electronic accordion ever produced, upgrading as soon as a new and “better” model became available, Reg then discovered MIDI, which opened up a new musical world to him.
Quality of sound and authentic voicing has always been Reg's goal. He was searching for “a certain sound”, which he could not explain nor find...until in 1991, his wife took him to Blackpool and into the famous Tower Ballroom. "I was stunned into shocked amazement and awe! That was it, the sound I had been looking for: the mighty Theatre Pipe Organ".
Reg strived to re-create that sound, programming synthesizers and sound modules with limited success. Nothing could really capture those fabulous sounds. He tried every instrument on the market that claimed to have theatre sounds on board, and although some were good, they still did not have the “soul” and almost living quality of that king of instruments.
"Thus I was stuck, until I got an instrument with a sampler unit included. If I can’t create the sound, why not sample the real thing, to play on my MIDI keyboard?”
So after years of work and study, improving all the time, Reg eventually achieved his dream, by sampling many ranks and combinations from several fabulous Theatre Organ installations, using his ears to guide him and, not just the waveforms on a computer screen. Not only do they sound like their real “parents”, but they have life and soul, that unique “something” that others seem to lack.
In May 2006, Reg met Tim Cooper at the Blackpool Organ & Keyboard Festival. At this time, Reg was using the Roland Fantom with his MIDI Accordion. As an IT professional as well as an organist, Tim immediately recognised the potential of developing the software for use on organs. Reg and Tim set to work, reworking the existing samples, adding additional ones and developing the software for organ. The result after months of work and many hours, is what Tim named 'Theatre Organ in a Box'.
Now, in fulfilling his dream, Reg has found countless others wanting the same realism, who, like him, felt that something was missing on other instruments available. After much peer pressure, followed by a great amount of work into “the wee hours”, Reg and business partner Dave Woods, have started the business you are now reading about.
Our business is dedicated to supplying truly authentic natural voices, all unique to us, sampled using human ears, for players who won’t accept a “sounds like” second best.
When you hear these sounds, you will understand why they sell themselves, without all the “hype” and “false hope” advertising we have become accustomed to.
Dave Woods
Dave started his musical life at the age of four, teaching himself to play the Harmonica and found he had a natural ability and ear for music. By the age of eleven, he had won every talent contest he had entered and appeared on Television and broadcast for the then BBC radio programme "Workers’ Playtime".
Many years later, Dave heard his first Electronic Organ, a Hammond, played by Klaus Wunderlich and decided that was the instrument for him. By the age of twenty four he had realised his dream and bought his first Organ. He then set about teaching himself to play it!
A chance meeting with Reg Rawlings in 2003 proved an instant hit, finding that Reg’s interest in music and electronics mirrored his own. The partnership was formed and the rest, as they say, is history.
While Reg provides the Theatre Organ samples, Dave provides the Electronic Organ samples for the Korg PA1X keyboard and Roland Fantom XR. The Korg, Dave says, is "one of the most intuitive arranger keyboards in today's market and with the advantage of samples, can become every organ to every player ".