Estey Player Organ Tracker Bar Data
Author: David Back, May 2015.
Updated June, September, October and November 2015, September 2016 and April 2017.
This data was collected from various sources including an in depth study of scanned Estey music
rolls and information from Treasures of Mechanical Music by Reblitz and Bowers.
1.0 Rolls
Early organs: Non Registering Rolls (i.e. No Stop perforations in the roll) are 10.125" wide.All these rolls that I know about are prefixed with a "C" and have their stop selections printed on the roll so that stops can be selected manually while the roll is playing.
Later organs: Self Registering Rolls (i.e. With Stop perforations in the roll) are 10.75" wide.
A few early rolls of this width were prefixed with a "C". This indicated that the original roll had stop
selections printed on the roll so that the roll could be played either using the included stop selections
or with manual selections while the roll was playing.
Note that these later organs had a "Stop Control" piston which could select whether the roll stops or manual stops were used.
Both type of roll have 12 holes per inch in 2 staggered rows.
2.0 Data
2.1 Notes
- Odd tracker holes = top row (Swell Organ)
- Even tracker holes = bottom row (Great Organ)
- * Pedal notes are lowest octave of Great Organ
- + 20 Chime notes are midi 57 to 76 on the Swell Organ when 5+ is selected. (Ref: Roll 990e.mes)
- Shades operate only on the Solo (Swell) Organ.
2.2 Initialisation
- All stops and pistons are closed.
- Shades are fully open.
Ref. Tracker Midi Note Scale Hole Great Swell Organ Organ C#0 1 Set Combination 1 and 1+ (sc1) D0 2 Set Combination 2 and 2+ (sc2) D#0 3 Set Combination 3 and 3+ (sc3) E0 4 Set Combination 4 and 4+ (sc4) F0 5 Set Combination 5 and 5+ (sc5) F#0 6 36* G0 7 36 G#0 8 37* A0 9 37 A#0 10 38* B0 11 38 C1 12 39* C#1 13 39 D1 14 40* D#1 15 40 E1 16 41* F1 17 41 F#1 18 42* G1 19 42 G# 20 43* A1 21 43 A#1 22 44* B1 23 44 C2 24 45* C#2 25 45 D2 26 46* D#2 27 46 E2 28 47* F2 29 47 F#2 30 48 G2 31 48 G#2 32 49 A2 33 49 A#2 34 50 B2 35 50 C3 36 51 C#3 37 51 D3 38 52 D#3 39 52 E3 40 53 F3 41 53 F#3 42 54 G3 43 54 G#3 44 55 A3 45 55 A#3 46 56 B3 47 56 C4 48 57 C#4 49 57+ D4 50 58 D#4 51 58+ E4 52 59 F4 53 59+ F#4 54 60 G4 55 60+ G#4 56 61 A4 57 61+ A#4 58 62 B4 59 62+ C5 60 63 C#5 61 63+ D5 62 64 D#5 63 64+ E5 64 65 F5 65 65+ F#5 66 66 G5 67 66+ G#5 68 67 A5 69 67+ A#5 70 68 B5 71 68+ C6 72 69 C#6 73 69+ D6 74 70 D#6 75 70+ E6 76 71 F6 77 71+ F#6 78 72 G6 79 72+ G#6 80 73 A6 81 73+ A#6 82 74 B6 83 74+ C7 84 75 C#7 85 75+ D7 86 76 D#7 87 76+ E7 88 77 F7 89 77 F#7 90 78 G7 91 78 G#7 92 79 A7 93 79 A#7 94 80 B7 95 80 C8 96 81 C#8 97 81 D8 98 82 D#8 99 82 E8 100 83 F8 101 83 F#8 102 84 G8 103 84 G#8 104 85 A8 105 85 A#8 106 86 B8 107 86 C9 108 87**** C#9 109 87 D9 110 88**** D#9 111 88 E9 112 89**** F9 113 89 F#9 114 90**** G9 115 90 G#9 116 91**** A9 117 91 A#9 118 92*** B9 119 92 C10 120 93*** C#10 121 93** D10 122 General Cancel/Rewind D#10 123 Shades close in 3 steps E10 124 Shades open in 3 steps F10 125 Set Combination 6 and 6+ (sc6)
3.0 Early Music. Rolls up to 403
- When a set combination hole is opened for the first time the basic combiation is selected.
- When it is opened for the second time the + combination is selected.
- Each combination cancels all the others.
3.1 Combinations
Solo (Swell) Accomp (Great) Pedal (always plays) 1 8' String 8' Flute Bourdon 1+ 8' String 8' Flute, Harp Bourdon 2 8' Flute 8' String Bourdon 2+ 8'flute, 4' flute 8' String Bourdon 3 Vox Humana String Bourdon 3+ Vox Humana, Stopped Diapason String, Harp Bourdon 4 8' Flute F String, Flute Bourdon 4+ 8' Flute, Tuba String, Flute + accompaniment Bourdon 5 Woodwind Suitable accompaniment Bourdon 5+ Woodwind, Chimes Suitable accompaniment Bourdon 6 Mezzo forte Mezzo forte Bourdon 6+ Fortissimo Fortissimo Bourdon
4.0 "New Music" stage 1, mid 1920's. Rolls 404 to 1099
- When the combination hole, shades open and shades close are selected simultaneously the A combination is selected.
- When these three holes are simultaneoulsy opened the second time the A+ combination is selected.
- Four combinations are available for each combination hole (24 in all).
- Each combination cancels all the others.
4.1 Combinations
Solo (Swell) Accomp (Great) Pedal Tremolo 1 String Flute Bourdon Yes 1+ String Flute or Harp Bourdon Yes 1A String String Bourdon Yes 1A+ String Flute Bourdon Yes 2 8' Flute String String Yes 2+ Doppelflute, piccolo String, Flute Bourdon Yes 2A 4' Flute String String Yes 2A+ Mixed Solo, Heavy Diapason Bourdon No 3 Vox Humana String String Yes 3+ Vox Humana, Flute Harp, String String Yes 3A Clarinet String String Yes 3A+ Reed String, Flute Bourdon Yes 4 Flute F String Bourdon Yes 4+ Flute F, Reed String Bourdon Yes 4A Diapason String, Flute Bourdon Yes 4A+ Diapason, Oboe String, Flute Bourdon Yes 5 Oboe String Bourdon Yes 5+ Flute or Chimes Soft String Bourdon No 5A Saxophone Flute Bourdon Yes 5A+ 8' String, 16' String Flute Bourdon Yes 6 F Unison F Unison Bourdon, String No 6+ FF Unison FF Unison Bourdon, String No 6A FF Unison FF Unison Bourdon, String No 6A+ 8' Flute, 4' Flute Trumpet Bourdon, String Yes
As you can see by examining the two tables of combinations above the new combinations were not particularly compatible with the older rolls.
5.0 "New Music" stage 2, late 1920's. Rolls 1100 and above
These rolls are not compatible with earlier rolls.Shades open (hole 124), shades close (hole 123) and hole 116 are selected simultaneously at the beginning of these rolls to indicate New Music Stage 2.
- ** Tracker hole 121 is used with sc1 to sc6 and simultaneous shades open and close to extend the existing 24 combinations. There is no information as to how these extra combinations were instrumented.
- *** Tracker holes 118 and 120 were claimed to be used as controls to make all 32 Pedal notes playable, however these holes are NEVER USED on any of the Stage 2 New Music rolls currently in my archive. In spite if this the extra pedal notes marked **** ARE used in all of the aforementioned archived rolls.
- **** It is logical to assume that these holes were used as the additional pedal notes. However I have made a special version of eplayestey which plays these five extra notes as midi notes 48 to 52 (i.e. adding five extra notes to the top of the known pedal scale). Many of the extra notes are off beat and make no musical sense to me. If anyone is interested I can supply standard midi files of all four tunes with the "extra pedal notes" playing.