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Maltese Historic Pipe Organs - New Webiste

Bumblebee001

Guest
Hello all,

May I introduce my new website http://maltesepipeorgans.webs.com/ to this community. It is fully functional except that the virtual replica of the first Maltese Historic Pipe Organ is still being developed and therefore not yet available for downloading. The website appears on Google.

Any donations or sponsorship for the project are most welcomed. Donations can be done with PayPal through the website and sponsors can write to me by clicking the "Become a Sponsor Now" button. Sponsors will not only be acknowledged but will feature prominently on both the website and on the consoles of the virtual organ replicas created with their help.

The project aims to accomplish the following objectives:
* increasing awareness of this largely unknown National Heritage;
* promoting the organ as the King of all instruments;
* encouraging music students to take up the organ as their instrument of choice;
* giving the opportunity to established musicians anywhere in the world to hear and actually play these instruments in the comfort of their home and in public; and
* allowing students, musicians and researchers a unique opportunity to analyze the sounds and compare organs from different periods - as early as the 16th century and as late as the early 20th century - that's a staggering 400 year period in the history of pipe organs!

It will also help in promoting the sanctuaries where these instruments are housed. These sanctuaries are works of art in themselves as photos posted there will gradually reveal.

The virtual replicas are being developed so professionally that it would be impossible to distinguish them from the real instruments. Each organ that will appear on the website will be the next best thing to actually playing the real thing!

Links are provided to help the newbies set themselves up and get all the assistance needed from people like you who have been active in this sphere for many years. One may get in touch with developers of the software needed to install and play these organs, other developers of virtual instruments (organs, harpsichords, theatre organs, pianos), musicians, computer gurus, and many other experts who do what they do freely and without any obligations - merely for the love of these instruments and their joy at helping their fellow men and women around the world.

Bookmark the site and watch that space regularly. The first organ for both jOrgan and GrandOrgue will be available for download very soon. What will be notable is that the jOrgan version will be constructed with 12 samples per octave - the first ever - and still be well within the sf2 limit.

The project is currently a joint venture between me and Panos Ghekas already very well known to most of us and therefore needs no introduction.


Support this website ("like" it) and therefore the project so that we can move forward and continue surprising the world with the little gems we have on the Island Republic of Malta and its sister island Gozo. Your support will prove to potential sponsors, fund donors and the respective authorities locally that there certainly is a great following and a significant world-wide interest in this sphere. In this way our work will earn recognition and the co-operation needed from those who till now remain rather skeptical.
 
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wljmrbill

Member
Have to check it out as I have 2 virtual organs loaded now...Thanks for tip........oops don't have/use facebook so maybe can not acess it.
 
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Bumblebee001

Guest
You do not need facebook. This is a website on the internet.
Mark
 

wljmrbill

Member
was confused as a facebook page came up and you had to click continue..that is why I assumed you needed facebook account.. was able to click through to your site..Interesting.
 

wehtam721

New member
I was routed through facebook also and, as was mentioned above, was sent through to your site once I clicked continue. I'm excited to hear of your project though and I'll definitely check back in often! Thanks for all your work on this!
 

Ghekorg7 (Ret)

Rear Admiral Appassionata (Ret)
Hi,

You have to be patient.... I still need some time with all those samples. :)
We're trying to be ready for release of the first version (jOrgan > multi sampled, single loops, conventional synth type releases) till 30th of October.
GrandOrgue version with all new features (for example multi releases, fx) is still under development and most probably will be ready in December.
One must be very carefull and intence when dealing with historic pipe organs, to preserve the character and individuality of the instrument in question.
 

Ghekorg7 (Ret)

Rear Admiral Appassionata (Ret)
Are you missing any features in GO for that organ?

No ! Everything I need, already got it ! It's the work ahead to be done for this organ to be released in GO v.0.3.x , because we planned to release it also for jOrgan and there are many differences between the two.
Thus the full wet version will be for GO and the dry for jO.

Work is double on every pipe because jOrgan uses as native sound engine the Fluidsynth sampler, which so far we have found that cannot load more than 600MB per instance. Also Asio extension for jOrgan works with only one FS instance.
As you see , I had to use up to 2.5sec on main portion of each pipe sample and loop there so to be able to get 12 samples per oct and be less than 600MB full organ loaded.
More work also here to create the .sf2 file where each stereo sample must be two mono ones linked and panned hard L/R, select loop mode, select if will be to use 1 x release or the classic ADSR, correct/set each pipe's region on KBD ect ect

In GO version this is not a problem as it loads as much as our OS can handle and indeed the main portions of each pipe sample are more or less around 9sec ! add 3xreleases where the physical reverb of that church is around 3~4 sec , possibly alternate attack on some pipes and/or tracker sounds, individual drawstop sounds ect
The PITA in GO as is now is the GUI design, for one must perfectly calculate the positions on screen in .odf, but in the end the result is superb.
This is where jOrgan leads : GUI design, where the user can edit real time on screen. Here too of course basic .xml edit is needed previously so jO can "see" the elements we want.

Resuming from the above, one can understand why so much time is needed to publish a good sample set and more if a Historic organ is to be released, where the creators must preserve the original character .

Some news for GO version : The organ is in Alpha 0.7 state and has 3 ranks/stops on Principals 8', 4' and 2' and sounds goood ! I'll try to record some small pieces with those 3 stops , upload and link here for all of you to get a small taste and to keep your appetite alive :-D
 

Bumblebee001

Guest
Yes I agree 1000% about the GUI in GO. I had raised this issue. A great shame that this issue cannot or will not be addressed. If it will, GO will be second to none!!!
 

Bumblebee001

Guest
Hi,


NEWS UPDATE!


Apologies for the delay in publishing the first organ on this website. The work necessary to develop a good disposition took a bit longer than expected.

I hope that the jOrgan edition of the Balzan Parish Organ (please refer to the website for details) will be available in beta version sometime this week. Unfortunately the GO version will be available much later, possibly in about 2 months' time. Patience will be highly rewarding.


I have 2 other friends working on recordings of another organ, the St Paul's Anglican Pro-Cathedral Organ. This is proving to be a rather tough challenge as one set of recording was considered useless (the result of what could have been due to electrical interference) and a second set was made with equipment that was not suitable enough for the purpose. The original organ has since been dismantled for a complete re-build so we cannot go back to it, at least not as yet and won't be the same organ sampled. There is a great possibility that the new organ, currently under construction, that will have much of the original pipework, would help us re-construct the previous model as well as produce the digital version of the new instrument. I do have the right equipment now to produce much higher quality samples than I did when I attempted this first organ in the series!


You'll be hearing from me soon, God willing!


Regards
Mark
 

Bumblebee001

New member
Much progress was made since I wrote last 10 months ago. Balzan Parish's Platania 1827 organ is now available as wet, moist and dry sets for jOrgan, GrandOrgue, Kontakt 5, ARIA, and Hauptwerk. The organ is a 1M (56)+ p (13), full compass, multi-releases, tracker sounds + church bells.

See the home page of our website for details and other info. The download page (http://maltesepipeorgans.webs.com/downloads-1) has a link which allows one to order any of the versions free of charge. DONATIONS
 

Bumblebee001

New member
(sorry.... my contribution got posted before I could finish it!)

DONATIONS will be gladly accepted and a great reward for 2 years of hard work by Panos Ghekas and myself to bring this organ from the small Island of Malta to your home with the highest degree of perfection and realism that was possible so that you can enjoy the real character of this historic gem wherever you are on Planet Earth! We are certain that our time was well spent.

Look out for more VPOs from Malta so stay tuned to:
* our website (http://maltesepipeorgans.webs.com) and
* our new facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/maltesepipeorgans)!

Mark Bugeja MD
 

Ghekorg7 (Ret)

Rear Admiral Appassionata (Ret)
Has anyone tried Balzan wet set for GrandOrgue ? Any feedback ?
Soon will be the same set for Hauptwerk available , we're running beta testing on temperaments function and re-working for.
 

Bumblebee001

New member
We have a new organ available: Fontana (Gozo) for both GO and HW.

Free demos available from our website: maltesepipeorgans.webs.com/downloads-2.
 
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