WELSON ORGANS

Welson Organs who have been regarded for some time as being in suspended animation are back on the British market. Welson U.K. which is the trading name of Beethoven Ltd, are handling the U.K. concession from the Italian manufacturers. The managing director, Mr John Cowley (right in photograph) has announced that they are conducting a vigorous marketing campaign to promote the Welson brand which has been expanded by many new products.

The quality control, servicing and spare parts for Welson Organs will be handled by Norbury Electronics Ltd, of Manchester.

Part of the marketing campaign was to sign concert artist Jerry Allen (left in photograph) to perform on Welson organs, to provide product development and marketing consultancy.

The following is a list of the new products from Welson which are now available:

Disco Star: a portable single keyboard, 49 key model, 15W rms amplification into twin elliptical 5" x 7" speakers, Swing Machine II rhythm unit with eight combinative rhythms.

Gypsy Star: as above with 61 keys.

The Vega: two manual electronic keyboard, 25W rms amplification into two elliptical speakers, upper and lower manuals 44 keys, bass section pedalboard and rhythm unit with eight combinative rhythms.

Super Pigalle: single 61 key home organ, 15W rms output and eight combinative rhythms.

Super Fiesta: two manual home organ, 44 keys on each keyboard plus a 13-note pedalboard, 40W rms and the eight rhythm swing unit.

Monte Carlo L: twin manual 44 key keyboards, 13-note pedalboard string synthesiser, 16' and 8' pianos, poly synthesiser, new rhythm unit with 10 rhythms and synth bongos, a split mechanical Leslie, twin 40W rms amplifiers into twin 12'' speakers and tweeters.

Festival 2000: twin manual 37 key keyboard, similar to the Monte Carlo, replacing the Comet.

For prices and further details contact: J.A. Gould on behalf of Beethoven Ltd, (Contact Details).

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AWARDS

We've noticed a collection of votes and awards recently which might interest you. GPI Publications in the US publish three well-known magazines for musicians, Guitar Player, Keyboard and Frets, and every year their readers vote for their fave musicians — a rare example of musicians (mainly) voting for musicians (mainly). What did they choose? All was revealed in the respective December 1981 issues, but of interest to E&MM readers may be the following choices: best overall guitarist was Steve Howe and the best guitar album was DiMeola/McLaughlin/de Lucia's 'Friday Night In San Francisco'. Best keyboard album was voted in as Steve Winwood's 'Arc Of A Diver'; best 'lead synthesist' as Keith Emerson; and top three studio synthesists were Brian Eno, Wendy Carlos and Isao Tomita.

Slightly more obscure is the Industrial Designers' Society of America (IDSA), who in November last awarded Ned Steinberger — President of Steinberger Sound Corporation in Brooklyn, New York — their Industrial Design Excellence Award for Consumer Products for the Steinberger Bass, which Ned claims is a pioneer in all-plastic musical instrument construction. The bass was among three other winners, chosen from over 200 entries in 10 categories.

Lastly, following our American awards theme, JBL have come out top in a survey of monitor speakers used in US studios. In Billboard magazine, JBL monitors were found to be located in just over 29 per cent of 691 polled studios, and top the survey for the fifth consecutive year. In the U.K. we suspect smart money might be on Tannoy.

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DESIGNS FOR AUDIO

A new company to us is Designs For Audio, who claim to 'make available to musicians custom-built effects and signal processors, made to the individual requirements of each musician'. Which seems like a good idea, especially when they say that they'll give you a free quote on your particular effects requirement. The example given is a digital delay line for £90 (including the statutory one year's guarantee). Sounds good?

Quotes for an SAE — write to Designs For Audio, (Contact Details).

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Electronic Organ Festival Weekend at Barton Hall, Torquay

For the second year running Pontins Holiday camps were hosts to 600 organ enthusiasts, many leading organ manufacturers and over a dozen top organists. If you like organs, these weekends are an ideal break for you and your family. Pontins do everything to make you feel welcome and apart from the entertainment, the food is excellent.

There were organ demonstrations all through the day and evening. Brenda Hayward was teaching chording and basic notation in one of the lecture rooms, Brian Hazelby was giving hints and tips on playing techniques, and of course there were organ showcases continuously in the two ballrooms.

Later this year Pontins will be holding residential festivals at Tower Beach, Prestatyn from August 28th to September 4th and at Torquay from December 3rd to 5th. For further details write to (Contact Details).