A Brief History
On February 24, 1976 Henry Wemekamp took what had been a couple miscellaneous projects for a friend and established The Classic Organ Company Ltd, a new company building control systems for pipe organs, one of the first companies worldwide to develop micro-processor technology for classical organs. In the late 1980's Classic again led the way by being one of the first companies to develop digital-sampled tone-generation technology that permitted note-by-note regulation, similar to that possible with organ pipes. In 1990 Henry was again first on the market when he débuted the Console Control Computer a single computer board which not only functions as the brains for an organ's entire control system, but had fully integrated MIDI support. An updated version of this computer is still available today. As computer technology and the internet continued to grow and advance, Classic followed suit, and in 2013 shipped its first Maestro System. Maestro is a Linux based control system which allows authorized people, such as the organist and builder, to access the system over the internet.
With the continuing development of computing power, in 2002 MIDI Works was established and shipped its first entirely MIDI-based organ system. MIDI Works continues to grow, focusing on home organ installations. It is quite popular with organists who don't want, or are not necessarily able, to go to the local church whenever they what to play. Both the MIDIWorks and OrganWorks hardware are able to interface with several different types of sound generating systems, such as Hauptwerk, Organteq, CM-100, and Laurel.
In 2005, we launched the MIDIjet Pro wireless MIDI system. With a range of 500' and a rock solid connection, it has been used on large concert tours by artist such as U2, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, Dreamtheater, Dragonforce, the Rolling Stones, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker to name but a few. MIDIjet Pro is also embedded inside cutting edge instruments like the Zen Riffer and Nyle Steiner's EVI.
In the over 45 years since Henry first started a lot has changed; people have come and gone, technology has changed, and Henry's hair is thinner and white. We have grown to include multiple divisions, functioning under the Classic banner, each with its own focus, and clients all over the world. As we look to the future we continue to as ourselves, where are we going and how can we better serve you.