• Welcome to the Pipe Organ Forum! This is a part of the open community Magle International Music Forums focused on pipe organs (also known as "church organs"), organists, organ music and related topics.

    This forum is intended to be a friendly place where technically advanced organists and beginners (or even non-organists) can feel comfortable having discussions and asking questions. We learn by reading and asking questions, and it is hoped that the beginners (or non-organists) will feel free to ask even the simplest questions, and that the more advanced organists will patiently answer these questions. On the other hand, we encourage complex, technical discussions of technique, music, organ-building, etc. The opinions and observations of a diverse group of people from around the world should prove to be interesting and stimulating to all of us.

    As pipe organ discussions can sometimes become lively, it should be pointed out that this is an open forum. Statements made here are the opinion of the poster, and not necessarily that of the forum itself, its administrator, or its moderators.

    In order to post a new topic - or reply to existing ones - you may join and become a member by clicking on Register New User. It's completely free and only requires a working email address (in order to confirm your registration - it will never be given away!). We strive to make this a friendly and informative forum for anyone interested in pipe organs and organ music.

    (Note: If you wish to link to and promote your own website please read this thread first.)

    Many kind regards
    smile.gif

    Frederik Magle
    Administrator

    Krummhorn
    Co-Administrator

The Glory Of Hauptwerk...

AllanP

New member
The playing in that video is excellent, he has rhythm and flow to the music. I certainly can not come close.

The lowest cost 3 manual Allen is about $40,000. The Hauptwerk system seems to be less than a quarter of the cost. I still prefer a real pipe organ which I am fortunate enough to have.
 

jhnbrbr

New member
I got Hauptwerk working on my computer for the first time yesterday and was very impressed with it. Now I would like to get two manuals and pedals set up to make full use of it. I've also experimented with Miditzer, and I just wish I'd known about this type of software sooner.
 

Corno Dolce

Admiral Honkenwheezenpooferspieler
Aloha AllanP,

Yes, I do prefer a pipe organ but a Hauptwerk set-up is a perfectly acceptable system imho.

Cheerio,

CD :):):)
 

tittualex

New member
The playing in that video is excellent, he has rhythm and flow to the music. I certainly can not come close.

The lowest cost 3 manual Allen is about $40,000. The Hauptwerk system seems to be less than a quarter of the cost. I still prefer a real pipe organ which I am fortunate enough to have.

Hello Allan,

It feels great to know that yuo have a real pipe organ at your home. Can you give the descriptions of your organ like .... make , stop list, dimensions ,... etc.

thanks,
Alex :)
 

musicalis

Member
Dear Corno Dolce

Of course Hauptwerk is a very good VPO (virtual pipe organ), but it is very expensive. It is the reason why I use an other VPO, not so reallistic but good enough for a freeware. Have you listen to my lastest musics made with this free organ ?
 

AllanP

New member
Hello Allan,

It feels great to know that you have a real pipe organ at your home. Can you give the descriptions of your organ like .... make , stop list, dimensions ,... etc.

thanks,
Alex :)
img118.jp
My pipe organ is a Style D Wurlitzer built in 1927. I am seated at the console in the Avatar. The stop list is:

PEDAL:
Bass (Diaphone), 16'
Bourdon, 16'
Trumpet, 8'
Open Diapason, 8'
Tibia Clausa 8'
Flute, 8'
Cello, 8'
Accompaniment to Pedal
Solo to Pedal

ACCOMPANIMENT MANUAL (Choir):
Contra Viole (Ten. C), 16'
Vox Humana (Ten. C), 16'
Trumpet, 8'
Open Diapason, 8'
Tibia Clausa 8'
Salicional, 8'
Flute, 8'
Vox Humana, 8'
Octave, 4'
Piccolo, 4'
Salicet, 4'
Flute, 4'
Vox Humana, 4'
Piccolo, 2'
Chrysoglott
Triangle
Tambourine
SECOND TOUCH
Trumpet, 8'
Tibia Clausa, 8'
Chimes
Triangle

SOLO MANUAL (Great):
Trumpet (Ten. C), 16'
Bass, 16'
Tibia Clausa (Ten. C), 16'
Bourdon, 16'
Vox Humana (Ten. C), 16'
Trumpet, 8'
Open Diapason, 8'
Tibia Clausa, 8'
Salicional, 8'
Flute, 8'
Vox Humana, 8'
Octave, 4'
Piccolo, 4'
Salicet, 4'
Flute, 4'
Twelfth, 2 2/3'
Piccolo, 2'
Tierce, 1 3/5'
Cathedral Chimes
Glockenspiel
Chrysoglott
SECOND TOUCH
Trumpet, 16'
Tibia Clausa, 8'

Five Adjustable Combination Pistons per manual

The flute stops are open wood changing to open metal in the higher octaves. Otherwise, the pipe work is generally described by the stop name. The 4' Piccolo is somewhat similar to a harmonic flute. The 2' Piccolo is composed of fairly bright open metal pipes. The stops with the same stop name control the same pipes so that it is possible to mix and match combinations without the use of inter-manual couplers.

The pipe chamber is a former bedroom about 15' by 11' with a 14' ceiling. The chamer shutters are located in an entrance hall. The entrance hall acts as a sound mixing chamber. The sound then goes through an archway into the rest of the house. This tends to "mellow" the sound which could be too intense if experienced directly.

A short description and pictures are located at
http://www.hochhalter.com/page23.html
 
Last edited:

tittualex

New member
img118.jp
My pipe organ is a Style D Wurlitzer built in 1927. I am seated at the console in the Avatar. The stop list is:

PEDAL:
Bass (Diaphone), 16'
Bourdon, 16'
Trumpet, 8'
Open Diapason, 8'
Tibia Clausa 8'
Flute, 8'
Cello, 8'
Accompaniment to Pedal
Solo to Pedal

ACCOMPANIMENT MANUAL (Choir):
Contra Viole (Ten. C), 16'
Vox Humana (Ten. C), 16'
Trumpet, 8'
Open Diapason, 8'
Tibia Clausa 8'
Salicional, 8'
Flute, 8'
Vox Humana, 8'
Octave, 4'
Piccolo, 4'
Salicet, 4'
Flute, 4'
Vox Humana, 4'
Piccolo, 2'
Chrysoglott
Triangle
Tambourine
SECOND TOUCH
Trumpet, 8'
Tibia Clausa, 8'
Chimes
Triangle

SOLO MANUAL (Great):
Trumpet (Ten. C), 16'
Bass, 16'
Tibia Clausa (Ten. C), 16'
Bourdon, 16'
Vox Humana (Ten. C), 16'
Trumpet, 8'
Open Diapason, 8'
Tibia Clausa, 8'
Salicional, 8'
Flute, 8'
Vox Humana, 8'
Octave, 4'
Piccolo, 4'
Salicet, 4'
Flute, 4'
Twelfth, 2 2/3'
Piccolo, 2'
Tierce, 1 3/5'
Cathedral Chimes
Glockenspiel
Chrysoglott
SECOND TOUCH
Trumpet, 16'
Tibia Clausa, 8'

Five Adjustable Combination Pistons per manual

The flute stops are open wood changing to open metal in the higher octaves. Otherwise, the pipe work is generally described by the stop name. The 4' Piccolo is somewhat similar to a harmonic flute. The 2' Piccolo is composed of fairly bright open metal pipes. The stops with the same stop name control the same pipes so that it is possible to mix and match combinations without the use of inter-manual couplers.

The pipe chamber is a former bedroom about 15' by 11' with a 14' ceiling. The chamer shutters are located in an entrance hall. The entrance hall acts as a sound mixing chamber. The sound then goes through an archway into the rest of the house. This tends to "mellow" the sound which could be too intense if experienced directly.

A short description and pictures are located at
http://www.hochhalter.com/page23.html

Hello Allan ,

Fantastic........ I can Imagine your home reverberating when you play the pedal.....and does it use tracker system to control the pipes?. If Im not mistaken Wurlitzer is a theater organ isn't it?
 
Last edited:

Hans0166

New member
I'm also an Hauptwerkian, but when you think the sound of this movie is great, go and try hauptwerk yourself...in real the sound is much better.

A complete Hauptwerk hardware setup (when you already have a electronic/digital organ) including buying a real good sampleset comes around 1000/ 1500 euro.
 

JONESEY

New member
With regards to the VPO's ... where do you guys get the manuals and pedals? - using a VPO sounds like a great idea, but in order to get the realistic feel of a pipe organ, surely you'd need a couple of manuals and a pedal board.

But where do you get them - anyone know?

Cheers.
 

AllanP

New member
I'm green with envy, Allan, but the fact remains that for most of us it's simply not practical to have the "real thing" (take 14' ceilings for starters!) so a realistic simulation at an affordable price is very, very appealing. By the way, is your Wurly similar to this one, which is supposed to be the very first one imported into the UK?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x64kss_jean-martyn-plays-the-oldest-wurlit_music

Yes it is similar. Mine is from somewhat later date of manufacture when the consoles were made with smooth side panels and black cap magnets were used in the chests. It is a theatre organ and uses electro-pneumatic action with an extensive relay and switch system to connect the keys to the pipes.

The 14' ceiling was obtained by raising the bedroom ceiling (now pipe chamber) up to the house roof line. The house was selected to be suitable for the organ installation.
 

jhnbrbr

New member
.....The house was selected to be suitable for the organ installation.
That's true dedication - to choose a house to suit the organ, and not vice-versa! Judging from the photos, it was all done very professionally too.
 

jhnbrbr

New member
An interesting and totally pointless exercise while waiting for the Midi keyboard to arrive is to try and get a tune out of a virtual organ using only the computer keyboard and the mouse. Sometimes it seems possible to play 3, or even 4 note chords on the typing keyboard - but it varies depending on the chord, and while that is going on, you can use the mouse to press a key on another manual, or to press a pedal. You should hear my rendition of "Away in a manger"!
 

tittualex

New member
hello,
Is it possible to play My Organ with the virtual keyboard(with the aid of mouse)? I have played Miditzer with the virtual keyboard... but not with My Organ...

thanks.
Alex
 

JLD

New member
Hauptwerk 3 is nice indeed but you can start with freeware and get good results.
We have been doing some interesting tests and unless you are ready to spend the money for a very good audio interface and top of the line headsets or speakers (which is the way to go if you can afford), you might not hear much difference between Hauptwerk and other solutions like MyOrgan.
The main issue with non hauptwerk solutions is the availability of good sample sets (I will refrain from advertizing Pibrac here ;))

To start playing, you can buy relatively low priced MIDI/USB keyboards and use the USB connection to your computer, this is very simple indeed. I have been using the M-Audio 61 with good results and even if the feel is not identical to a real organ, many seasoned organists had a lot of pleasure playing and practicing on my console. The pedal board is more difficult to resolve as there are not yet any low cost alternatives to the expensive solutions that can be found at the links above in this thread.

One thing I would like to add to the debate of electronic versus real. I don't think electronic organs purpose is to replace real organs. The best sounding solutions (VPO with good sample sets) are at best trying to very closely immitate the real thing. You need a real organ to record samples and create a VPO. If you don't have real organs, you don't have VPOs.
This being said, even if you have access to real organs, being able to use VPO for teaching and training with results very close to the real organ is certainly a very good thing when you want to practice almost every day and you can't get to church or church is busy when you are available. I also strongly believe that a real organ can be intimidating and sometimes very difficult to access (let's be honest... not all organists are friendly and ready to share access to their jewel!) and VPO could be excellent solutions to allow more people to learn how to play organs and eventually transition to the real thing.
If more VPO were available in music schools and homes, we would have more organist players available and motivated to help churches maintain and keep their pipe organs.

JLD
 

jhnbrbr

New member
I agree wholeheartedly JLD. In terms of both price and convenience the VPO puts the classical organ on a par with other instruments, and it would be great if that allows more young people to take up the instrument.
 

greatcyber

New member
Judy, check out a used keyboard on Ebay. You can pick one up really cheap and then start playing with MyOrgan, Miditzer and Hauptwerk. Hauptwerk is a little intimidating but I am modifying my Hammond (gutting it, really) and putting a computer inside and plan on adding touch screens. It has a 2 octave pedalboard and I bought a Midi foot controller with 2 swell shoes and 10 foot controllers to change sounds. It's been occupying my time as well as trying to learn how to use finale and other softwares that I recently got.

It's tremendous fun and the sounds are astonishing. I have about 50,000 sounds I can sample. I use Miroslav Philharmonic, Sample Tank, Reason, Native Instruments, GPO, Symphonics Choirs.... And the list goes on and on. That's why I haven't been around here lately, I've been trying to learn all this stuff.

So many of the demos are quite workable and fun to play around with.
 
Top