Superior organ sound comes from a combination of advanced technology and years of artistic experience sampling pipe organs. Throughout history the organ has been a remarkable combination of technology and traditional music. With hundreds of pipes, early pipe organs were the most advanced products in a community. Modern electronics have enabled the production of pipe organ sound without requiring pipes. Today's finest digital instruments reproduce the grandeur of pipe organs, at significantly lower costs.

Allen's 7th-generation GENISYS™ technology includes dozens of advanced Digital Signal Processors working in parallel, supercomputer power, offering the most realistic pipe organ sound available from a digital organ. Coupled with a two-decade lead in digital sampling experience over other digital organ builders, Allen Organ Company is the acknowledged leader.

Today Allen's tonal capabilities go beyond traditional pipe organ sound. Allen Organs can also produce orchestral and other non-organ sounds to increase the instrument's flexibility. With GENISYS™ Voices technology, stops can be quickly be changed to dozens of orchestral sounds, as well as traditional organ voices not included in the instrument's standard specification. GENISYS Voices provides organists with the versatility needed for today's ever-changing musical landscape.

The organ is the "King of Instruments" not only because of majestic sound, but also because of its incredible dynamic range. The organist interacts with the instrument via the organ console that serves as "command central". Early pipe organ consoles were limited to their keyboards, a pedalboard and stop controls. Even with these relatively limited controls, changing dozens of stops during a performance was daunting.

In the early 20th century capture combination action systems were added, making preset stop combinations available and freeing up organists to create more expressive music. Since then organ builders have added more sophisticated user interface systems.

With the advent of digital technology, organs went through a revolution. Today's finest digital organs can duplicate the sound of pipe organs. Also, with increasing power, computer processors have enabled enhancements that expand the instrument's versatility, including more advanced capture combination systems, record and playback capabilities, the addition of orchestral and contemporary voices, multiple stop specifications, and more. However, the additional features increased the number of physical controls, adding complexity to performance. Utilizing these features required understanding huge owner's manuals and navigating multiple controls.

The challenges brought about by increased capabilities is not limited to just the organ. For example, automobiles now include GPS, Bluetooth, backup cameras, and sophisticated audio and climate control systems that required separate buttons and knobs which distracted drivers. Consumers demanded a better user interface system.
The answer: a color touch screen that has become the universal solution for high-tech products.

Until recently, all organ user interface systems were older technologies that included multiple button and controls. Making changes to organ functions required engaging multiple controls and memorizing menu levels. While most builders still offer this type of interface, Allen Organ Company has introduced a state-of-the-art system with a responsive color touchscreen. GENISYS™ Display is intuitive to the point that even guest organists not familiar with the instrument can easily access dozens of important console functions.

In a digital organ the most important task for advanced technology is to enable the production of realistic pipe organ sounds. Technology needs to also enhance the user experience so that organists can focus on creating music, not operating complex controls. A digital organ should today include not only technology that is superior in sound production, but also advanced technology for its human interface system to enhance the artistic experience.