Viscount Organ

[Clarion]

Also, can any one identify what the reed is in the first solo voice of J S Bach's Wachet auf? Is it in fact a Cornet V? The second solo voice seems like a Medieval reed. It sounds like a very raspy short-length reed blaring.

These recordings are SO masked in sea of reverberation, that it is rather difficult to figure out what stop they are using, but I would guess that it is a Trompete.

The reverb tactic used here is a common ploy used by manufacturers of inferior instruments in an effort to mask the inferior sound of their instruments.

[Clarion]

We have just had the new Viscount Unicom 500 organ in our 1,000 seater church for a 2-week trial. The tone is undoubtedly better than the Phoenix . . . and other Viscount models that we previously tested . . .

Fascinating! Did you also have a Phoenix or any of the other mentioned makes and models installed for a trial period as well? And if so, which models/specs?

[Krummhorn]

. . .
Have you visited a German link with a long playlist of organ works played on the Viscount organ? The link is: http://www.sakralorgelwelt.de/viscou...ele/index.html.

Because it is extremely rare to be able to hear a pipe organ of the Italian Baroque school, please, if any one can, comment on the authenticity of the pipe simulation of Viscount.

It seems that the Viscounts playing the songs at the above link do have reasonably good articulation. But can any one help comment on the Mixture and the reeds? Are they genuine-sounding or do they sound fake?

Felix

Honestly, the chorus reeds sound quite "artificial" ... And the "twaaannnggggy" reverb doesn't add anything positive to the sound, either, actually, imho, "cheapens" the sound.

Read on:

These recordings are SO masked in sea of reverberation . . . The reverb tactic used here is a common ploy used by manufacturers of inferior instruments in an effort to mask the inferior sound of their instruments.

Bingo. I would like to hear these same pieces, sans all reverb, as then the true sound will be heard. Lots of reverberation can also make the poorest pipe organ sound pretty good.

[FelixLowe]

Hello there,

It seems that the nasality of the reeds of Viscount (http://www.sakralorgelwelt.de/viscou...ele/index.html)
does remind me of the Medieval instruments. For example, the "Bible Regal" in Europe was made to sound a high degree of mysteriousness, and hollowness and raspiness when played alone. The tone is raspy, but devoid of lower fundamentals. As a matter of fact, the raspy character and the level of nasality were also heard before on some organs dating to about 1500 AD even in Central Europe.

I earlier thought that some of the reeds were not genuine, but can somehow recall something of that character in those earlier organs. The twangy voices belong to a class of short-length reeds, like the Bärpfeife and Schalmei, which could sound quite harsh. However, either of these has slightly greater lower fundamentals than the reeds portrayed by Viscount. They did exist before. Some Spanish organs had stops that sound like them also, only with a more fiery character.

Felix