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Thread: Digital Organ Choice

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by LastCorpseStanding View Post
    I took a look at the pt243 specs, and there are really only a couple things that I would change on that organ.

    For instance, the Ped and Gt open diapasons would become principals, the Swell Cornopean would be a Trompette. I'd probably take the Hrm Flute from the Great and make it a 4', with a Rohrflute 8'. Change the Swell 4' flute to a Chimney flute. I prefer a Geigen Diapason on the Swell.
    That sounds a whole lot closer to the Phoenix Baroque specs I previously posted; whereas the published specs you are looking at for the PT243 are for the Romantic spec. So perhaps, like me, you would probably set up the organ with Baroque as default. Of course your preferred stops are all on the sound cards, and easy to change.

    As for the swell Diapasons, unlike the Choir and Great Diapasons, Phoenix uses prominent diapasons with narrower more horn like characteristics, making it quite useful for solo work.

    This is the default Romantic list for my III/44, with a lot of Harrison & Harrison stuff.

    Romantic Spec
    Great
    1 Bourdon 16 sc
    2 Open Diapason 8 h
    3 Stopped Diapason 8 h
    4 Gemshorn 8 as
    5 Octave 4 h
    6 Harmonic Flute 4 bp
    7 Super Octave 2 sj
    8 Fourniture IV bp
    9 Trumpet 8 sp

    Choir
    1 Principal 8 t
    2 Chimney Flute 8 h
    3 Unda Maris II 8 t
    4 Prestant 4 t
    5 Spire Flute 4 icm
    6 Nazard 2-2/3 h
    7 Block Flute 2 h
    8 Tierce 1-3/5 h
    9 Scharf III sc
    10 Cor Anglais 8 as
    11 Clarinet 8 sp
    12 Tuba 8 sp

    Swell
    1 Open Diapason 8 sj
    2 Lieblich Gedeckt 8 sp
    3 Salicional 8 h
    4 Voix Celeste 8 h
    5 Principal 4 sj
    6 Stopped Flute 4 ms
    7 Flageolet 2 ch
    8 Mixture IV t
    9 Double Trumpet 16 sp
    10 Cornopean 8 ch
    11 Oboe 8 h
    12 Clarion 4 sp

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by LastCorpseStanding View Post
    Hello Clarion. In all honesty, you don't need special skills to design a better organ. You just need your own personal experience of what works, and what your own personal preferences are.
    LastCorpseStanding, I'm talking about the ability to design and organ from scratch. I can't do that any more than I could design a new house from scratch; although I do have at least some ability to peruse various architectural drawings; pick out the plan that most appeals to me; and then perhaps do a little fine tweaking to make it more to my liking. In actual practice, I've never even been able to do that. I've never bought a house that I couldn't experience first hand, and try to envision how that would work for me.

    Designing an organ would be even more challenging: without first being able to hear the voicing options individually as well as in ensemble. Stop names are often less than informative. The idea that a-diapason-is-a-diapason-is-a-diapason, is simply not true any more than when buying a car, that a Ford-is-a-Ford-is-a-Ford! Diapasons are just as diverse as Fords.

    So . . . I am of the opinion that the prudent approach would be to rely on the organ architects who are not only experienced performing artists, but are familiar with each and every sound sample they have recorded, in isolation as well as contextually significant ensemble relating to all of the other voices selected for an organ.

    'Course, just like choosing an architect's house plan and tweaking the final product to serve my specific needs; the same applies to organ selection. I don't have any problem in tweaking an already great organ to better meet my personal proclivities.

    We have a couple of organ manufacturers in our neighbourhood: Classic Organ, whose area of expertise seems to be electronics; And Phoenix Organ, whose area of expertise seems to be music. Guess which one produces the most musical instrument! Not that Classic's electronic ability was all that great. With my Classic Organ, normal monthly maintenance included replacing fried final/output transistors.

    Quite apart from the voicing hoopala, IMO the most critical aspect of a well designed organ, is definitely the tuning. I am not up to date on Classic's current efforts, but in the past, their ability to artistically tune an instrument was abysmal. Your mention of Don being a piano tuner, although enlightening, is not at all surprising. When scouting for a new organ on the internet:

    1. Be VERY cautious of organ manufacturers who talk endlessly about their product; but provide absolutely no sound samples! There is a valid reason for this;

    2. When perusing organ manufacturer demos, avoid placing any credibility to manufacturers who find it necessary to mask the sound of inferior instruments in a sea of reverberation;

    3. While voicing can be munged, when scouting out a new organ, the thing I almost entirely focused upon, was the tuning of the instrument. While Classic Organ, who is now basically dead-in-the-water offerred absolutely NO sound samples of their instruments; Phoenix on the other hand, provided more musical samples of their instruments than ANY other manufacturer.

    When listening to Phoenix sound samples, while mentally filtering out the voices, the thing I focused in upon was the tuning revealed in the samples. While Classic Organ holds the honours for the worst abysmally un-artistically "tuned" organ I've ever heard since frequency-divider days; Phoenix came out the extreme opposite end of the spectrum. The difference between electronic experts and musical experts is that musical experts have the added ability to create musical instruments rather than mere electronik instruments.

  3. #33
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    It's funny, Clarion, that you mention the old Classics. Not long after the new Classic/Walker was installed at St. George's, I was asked to play a mini recital for a pow-wow at the Classic shop, and I drew Opus 310, which was their main show instrument, and the one they rented out when need be. St. George's had, in fact, used that same organ while waiting for C750 to be completed. After the recital, someone in attendance came up to me a remarked,"You looked like you were trying to get something out of it that wasn't there." 310 wasn't a bad instrument, and was running 24 channels, but that comment speaks volumes as well about the quality of the Walker samples in C750. Short of Marshall and Ogletree, there isn't anything out there that competes.

    When that organ was built, it was my understanding that Classic pretty much knew their samples were outdated, and rather than try to update, they chose to import. Bob Walker came up and voiced the organ himself, and then myself and a couple of the Classic people went and undid his work. We started by knocking the general volume down to about three quarters of where it started, and then fine tuned. I really suggest you phone Helen at the church and ask if you can come try it out. Just tell her Steve sent you. If the budget was there, I'd never hesitate to use Walker again. There's a quality to the samples that I just can't describe. You're right in that Classic has had some bad voicing years, but they've had some good ones too.

    The snag on the Walker is the cost. You pay through the nose for that stuff. St. G's paid about $120 thousand for that, and Classic didn't bill us for the upgrade to the Walker. No one would actually tell me how much more it cost, but it was substantial.

    On another front, I played an earlier generation Hauptwerk a couple years back, and it showed promise at the time. From what I've read, the samples are getting better with each generation, and the platform itself is improving pretty rapidly. It wouldn't surprise me if Hauptwerk surpasses even Walker within a couple generations.

    I think we're starting to see the repercussions of M&O Epiphany Organ at Trinity Wall Street. We may look back on it down the road and realize that its caused a fundamental shift in the way digital organs are built. Given how heavily software based organs are now, especially with their voicing capabilities, it's not a big step to move the samples in to the PC/Mac platform. Eventually, we'll see the systems expand to the point where they will run such massive amounts of RAM, that the HDD won't have anything to do once the samples are loaded into memory. If what I've heard is correct, and Phoenix has already tried to run Hauptwerk through a standard console, then they realize where the industry is going, and may be trying to position themselves accordingly in the market.

    I love the idea of HW in a standard console. Redesign the stop jambs to have touch screens instead of drawknobs, and special pistons that are programmed to call up a new sample set, all by pushing one button instead of having to navigate the software. I may be wrong, but I think the console interface is one of the stumbling blocks that companies have to overcome. I don't see Allen or Rodgers having anything to do with HW right now, especially as they've both brought out new lines fairly recently, so Phoenix could find themselves in an enviable position if they get a jump on it. I know Classic has a complete package available with desk and all. I suppose if you place an empty console shell around the equipment, it would still look like a regular console to the congregation, and you can overcome at least the aesthetic issue. And you could give new life to an otherwise old, broken down console that would otherwise be scrapped.

  4. #34
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    One way to design an organ is to look at some of the available stops that exist and cut and paste whatever you desire into the stoplist you desire. As a matter of fact, there is no hard-and-fast rule: it all depends on what kind(s) and periods of music you want to play. Personally, although I prefer North German voicing, I would design a kind of eclectic concert organ so that it is possible to deploy some stops called for in the sheet music.

    In the past, I made use of two of the Ahlborn modules (see the stoplists above) and one Allen module to create my organ. It worked fine for many years. But the Ahlborn 201 is the only stoplist which can be said to be a complete South German Baroque organ, albeit a small one. But its stoplist can be used as a starting point to design an organ.

    In my case, for instance, where I don't have a religion for a few years now, what has been left to my memory is a number of good pieces of organ music, some composed from the UK, some Germany and the Netherlands. And I have even stumbled across some good Jewish organ music on compact discs. So In that case, nothing except a self-designed organ can satisfy the playing of those pieces. In fact many concert halls are now equipped with organs of eclecticism because a concert hall is not a church, or a synagogue. So in that case, definitely you need to design your own organ, depending on what music you aspire to study. To me, I am no musician, but even then, I will have to design my own by looking at many stoplists, and singling out some stops which are thrown in just because I want to satisfy the stop requirements of certain pieces.

    One area which I have not studied in depth is the requirements for French music. In the past I have heard some organists having some comments regarding playing French music on the Rieger. This shows that there may be different requirements for French music; but I guess the question has to do with certain types of French Fournitures and the need for a Clairon 4'. But maybe the organ scholar can resolve this.
    Last edited by FelixLowe; Nov-11-2009 at 19:09.

  5. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by LastCorpseStanding View Post
    Perhaps if you're looking for something in the N German line, you need to convince your organ builder to sample the Wolff organ in Knox College at U of Toronto. Or better yet, try to get a chance to play it. I was lucky enough to get to play it not long after the installation as part of a masterclass for one of my courses. They even made us pump the bellows. And the fogelsang is a piece of work. I just couldn't get used to the flat pedal board.
    Sort of reminds me of an unforgetable organ recording Bob Kerr featured on his CBC organ day broadcast some thirty years ago. The album was: Old Polish Pipe Organs; and what a delight they were! Especially enchanting, were the the reeds (regals?) which buzzed and rattled all at the same time. If the muffler on your car sounded like that, you would prioritize getting it in for repairs. I've always wanted a Baroque organ that sounded like that, but Phoenix didn't have anything that approximated my bizzare description.

    I am not at all familiar with Wolff organ in Knox College, but it would seem to offer a similar kind of delightful experience that the old polish pipe organs did . . . something that might thrill organists, but beyond that, whose charm would probably be lost on anyone else.

    I would presume that in the infancy of digital sampling, that most of the effort will be expended in sampling the mass appeal kind of stuff. The N German stuff that so thrills Felix, probably fits into the same category, of stuff potential customers are not lining up to buy. I've even heard organists expressing dismay at the harsh strident characteristics of early German efforts.

    Although I truly enjoy Baroque above most other music, I'm not sure if I would appreciate or enjoy the harsh realities of some of their early instruments. I am satisfied that current moderate neo Baroque compromise tends to make almost everyone happy all round. If early Baroque was all that great, it would have crossed cultural barriers all across Europe; but it didn't!

  6. #36
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    I'm looking for a home practice organ (I've currently got a Viscount Cantorum which is fine to use for choir practices etc). Yesterday, I played a Copeman Hart in a locac church. Very impressive with excellent voicing. Falls down a bit on tutti, but certainly the best digital organ I've played to date.

    N

    (I'm in England, BTW)

  7. #37
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    I've just visited the Copeman Hart website http://www.copemanhart.co.uk/index.htm in Britain; they seem to make custom-made instruments only. Their homepage says the following:

    "Founded in 1960, Copeman Hart enjoys an international reputation for producing not only the most pipelike sounds but the most comfortable, authentic consoles.

    "Our approach to organ building, and sales ethics, has always been more akin to that of the traditional organ builder than to agents or retailers. All organs are individually designed and custom-built in Irthlingborough to traditional pipe organ standards, using many pipe organ components. Consoles are built to match the type and colour of timber in the client's building, and are superior to many pipe organ consoles.

    "Our long association with, and research into, digital systems, coupled with our use of the most advanced hardware, means that the software and data that we have developed from within our own resources gives results which are greatly superior to those obtained with cheaper or 'sampled' instruments.

    "The philosophy of the company has always been to make the best imitation of the pipe organ. Whilst acknowledging the superiority of a good pipe organ, it is a sad fact that some churches just cannot afford the many tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds sometimes necessary to install or restore a good pipe organ. There is, therefore, an established need for electronic organs at which organists feel at home, and which make convincing pipelike sounds."

    But I wonder how they generate the sounds if they are not using sampling. Could they be using the real time sythesising technology? But if they do, how much more can they guarantee autheticity? Honestly I feel the maker should include more information about their technology if they say their instruments are not sampling-based. Then, what is it? Or else, they should set up a audio repertoire played on their organs and include the highest quality MP3 for their potential clientele's preview. So far, I have previewed a few excerpts on Youtube, such as this one on Love Divine All Loves Excelling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0DrKvvA9kw. My conclusion, as far as those videos are concerned, is that it is a South German Baroque tradition, with the addition of Festival Trumpet (or a Tuba Mirabilis, rather) and the like, to make it suited to playing certain English repertoire. But I also notice that the rumbling bass is more of the softer Posaune type than a Bombarde 16'. But maybe it has the latter, too. So it could be a typically large instrument of English stop disposition, that usually contains perhaps the Cor Anglai, French Horn and Clarinet, etc. However, the principal tones and the mixtures and the Cymbel remain those having a heavy slant towards the South German Baroque accent. To me overall, it sounds like it has a style not unlike the Allen organ in its traditional voicing.

    And another page in their portal continues: "It is important to note that a Copeman Hart organ does not become obsolete: our digital system is software based, which means we can (and do) continually incorporate the improvements that we make in voicing techniques, not only in new organs but retrospectively in our earlier instruments. Also, as new and faster hardware is developed, it is always compatible with our earlier digital organs. Thus a policy of on-going improvement does not necessitate the development of new 'models' but ensures that every organ we make is able to be up-dated. Some of our older analogue organs (all of which are still serviceable with modern components) have been 'digitised' at minimal cost when the client has wished to take advantage of our superior digital voicing."

    This brand is quite new to me, although they say they started their business in 1960. Certainly, here in Hong Kong, formerly a long-time British Crown land (even currently so in parts), we certainly have seldom seen or heard one. It may be worthwhile to investigate further the tonal quality of such brand.
    Last edited by FelixLowe; Nov-12-2009 at 18:04.

  8. #38
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    I'm not technically qualified to comment on the system of sound generation, but the organ I played yesterday - a small 2-manual/pedal in a country church - certainly sounded superb. I was also impressed by the console layout which was absolutely standard with no gimmicks. C-H are certainly very highly regarded in England and have supplied many hire organs to cathedrals during rebuilds of their pipe organ. I can comment further if I end up buying a second-hand organ from them, which is similar to the one I played yesterday.

    N

  9. #39
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    Johann Sebastian Bach traveled on foot over long distance in 1705, from Arnstadt in Thuringia to Lübeck, just to hear the magnificent organs in the north of Germany and just to hear the organ master, Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) play. What exactly were the sound and those voices from the stops of those North German Baroque organs?

    In 1999, a European project was completed in an attempt to construct a pipe organ to relive the authentic tonal paradigm and glory of the voices of organs of the North German Baroque School -- thus the Örgryte Nya kyrka in Göteborg was born. They believe those stops contain the sounds for which the young J S Bach would have travelled for miles to aspire to listen to Dietrich Buxtehude's performances.

    During the Middle Ages, the major trade cities of northern Europe had an alliance, the Hanseatic League, which was the leading commercial power for several centuries. With Lübeck at the pinnacle, the Hanse cities developed an economic prosperity and a blooming culture that also generated an unusually rich period of musical performance and instrument building. Sea travel and trade created the favorable economic conditions. Due to clever political characters and because of their strategic geographical location, many of the cities survived the ravages and turmoil of the wars. Skilled artists, craftsmen, musicians, and instrument builders fled from the strife in the west and south to security inside the city walls. Power craved the proper authority. At the same time, the organ became a central symbol for the city's new prosperity and an inspiration for ongoing creativity with new expressions and rich decorations. Through its complex construction and nature, the organ attracted foreign craftsworkers and scientists at a level of quality that has rarely been surpassed since that time. In every case, the organs represented the zenith of architecture, music, mechanics, mathematics, art, handcraft, and techniques of their time. Therefore, everyone regardless of rank or class could enjoy sonorous artwork. They all listened to organ music, but only a few knew what went on behind the mighty façade. For musicians, the organ was the most prominent and visible instrument to be found. Organists demonstrated their musical positions and power through "organ sermons" played on the full organ with bells and bird songs on feast days and at weddings. For reflective services, prayer days, and funerals, organists chose fewer stops with color sounds, even the Trommel (drum).

    Much of the music from these 17th-century city organists is extant: from Hamburg, Lübeck, or Amsterdam... but what is the present state of the organs? The prosperity of the times made possible their conception and birth, but in a lasting strong economy, the symbols of wealth changed with time. The result is that none of these majestic north European Baroque city organs is preserved in its entirety. Fortunately, a few organs from that time exist with some of the material preserved, material that survived the World War II bomb raids, but which has been restored many times. Every succeeding restoration tends to erase more and more of the pipes' original construction and sound. But most of the preserved pipes, even those that have undergone many changes from organ builders or restorations, still sound better than modern copies. Why? We could only answer that question by making our vision a reality.

    The vision was clear: to experience for the first time in modern times how the famous Baroque organists' music actually sounded in their time. The same type of musical experience inspired Johann Sebastian Bach in 1705 to travel on foot the long distance from Arnstadt in Thuringia to Lübeck, just to hear the magnificent organs in the north and just to hear the organ master, Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) play. Thus, recreating that musical experience was also our vision. But how could we get the necessary experience and study 17th-century organ and instrumental music unless we would build, yes, reconstruct such an organ?

    To find out more, visit this link: http://goart.gu.se/gioa/w-17.htm#spec to find out what was to become the model North German Baroque organ completed in 1999 and its stoplist: http://goart.gu.se/gioa/ngospec.htm.

    Excerpt from:
    The North German Baroque Organ
    Research Project in Göteborg
    Last edited by FelixLowe; Nov-12-2009 at 20:57.

  10. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by organloft View Post
    I'm not technically qualified to comment on the system of sound generation, but the organ I played yesterday - a small 2-manual/pedal in a country church - certainly sounded superb. I was also impressed by the console layout which was absolutely standard with no gimmicks. C-H are certainly very highly regarded in England and have supplied many hire organs to cathedrals during rebuilds of their pipe organ. I can comment further if I end up buying a second-hand organ from them, which is similar to the one I played yesterday.
    C-H uses age-old synthesizer technology: additive synthesis, which is accomplished by adding a number of harmonics together to produce a composite tone. By changing the relative proportions of the harmonics, it is possible to derive a variety of tones by simply adjusting the numbers of harmonics used and amplitudes relative amplitudes.

    Within the organ world, synthesis technology has undergone significant improvement over the years, and is capable of producing some rather agreeable sounding instruments like those of Veritas Organs i.e.:

    http://www.veritasorgans.com/sounds_cd_1.htm

    These synthesis organs are usually Bradford/Musicom technology. I believe that C-H organs use the same Musicom technology as utilized by Veritas. Of the two tech systems, Bradford is probably the oldest, going back perhaps a decade. British Wyvern Organ initially used Bradford technology for their high end custom organs, but better than a half decade ago, switched to the Phoenix sampled-tech system for their top-of-the-line instruments. From this, I would tend to suspect that migration from synth-tech to sampled Phoenix-tech was considered an upgrade.

    I have never heard a synth-tech organ like a C-H, or Veritas first hand, so cannot appraise them from that perspective. Nevertheless, neither C-H or Veritas have managed to make significant inroads into the organ marketplace. Additionally, they tend to be VERY expensive!

    If you are in England, where Phoenix is probably the #1 seller, it should not be difficult to find one to sample. As an old guy who is now on his sixth organ; since I haven't sampled all of the other options in the marketplace, I can't say for sure if Phoenix is the very absolute best digital organ out there. But what I can say, is that after a year-and-a-half with my Phoenix III/44; I am totally satisfied with the awesomely addictive sound of this instrument; and can't think of any changes that would improve the instrument just the way it is.

    And when I mention the addictive sound of the Phoenix, i.e. the more you play it, the more you have to play it! It becomes and addiction! In contrast, while bad organs might initially sound impressive; but as you play them more and more, the become more and more irritating they become. My previous organ, a Classic Organ Company offering emitted such disagreeable sounds, that for the last 8 years it was in our house, I never played it. Since I never played it, my wife was in favour of calling it a day for organs in our home.

    As Lastcorpsestanding previously mentioned, I drew [Classic Organ] Opus 310, which was their main show instrument, and the one they rented out when need be. St. George's had, in fact, used that same organ while waiting for C750 to be completed. After the recital, someone in attendance came up to me a remarked,"You looked like you were trying to get something out of it that wasn't there."

    Wow! can I ever identify with that scenario!! With a badly designed organ which merely sounds bad . . . no matter what; the tendency is to push the pedal to the metal! Obnoxious amplified a thousand times, is still obnoxious!

  11. #41
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    Thanks for the explanation. Veritas is a new name for me on this side of the Pond. I'm looking for a secondhand organ due to financial constraints (ie I'm skint!). I spoke to Phoenix who told me that I'm more likely to find an honest member of the government than a secondhand Phoenix. I've looked at Viscount and other production models and CH are far better. Their customer service is also excellent when I've been talking to them about used models. So, fingers crossed when I get the details next week.

    N

  12. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by organloft View Post
    I spoke to Phoenix who told me that I'm more likely to find an honest member of the government than a secondhand Phoenix.
    Haaaar! Nothwithstanding, that's an unfortunate reality. On the North American scene, over the past decade, I'm aware of only one used Phoenix becoming availalbe; and that's only 'cause the owner died. :-(

    Quote Originally Posted by organloft View Post
    I've looked at Viscount and other production models and CH are far better. Their customer service is also excellent when I've been talking to them about used models. So, fingers crossed when I get the details next week.
    You have a couple of great options in mind. Viscount, although one of the better sounding options, are still a significant part of the crumbling Galanti Empire.

    For sure, if you could manage to latch onto one of the C-H discards, that would probably the way to go!!

  13. #43
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    Classic Organ Works seems to specialise in another area of digital organ technology, in which they have space-saving circuit boards to apply digital signaling, in lieu of tracker action, to drive pipes. It seems they have an ingenious invention that can drive pipes of a continuous rank of pipes to operate multiple stops, thereby enabling saving much on pipework. For example, you might get five most-needed stops from a rank of 96 principal pipes, for example: 8', 4', 2' and 2 2/3' (12th) and 1 3/5' (17th), the last two drawn together make the Sequialtera, etc, by means of intra-rank borrowing. Similarly, appropriate multiple stops for a flute tone can be created using a schema of similar continous rank of flute pipes, thereby creating the most-needed flute stops of 8', 4', 2', and the Nasard and Terz (1 3/5') (these five themselves together make the Cornet V), as well as the Quint 1 1/3' and Sifflote 1'.

    As for the bass tones, you could add pipes of Bourdon 16', or if I don't remember wrongly, the company can insert digitally sampled bass tones into the electronics, so that extra stops can be created and played together with the pipes.

    I think if you have a limited budget, and if you want to own a pipe organ, you may want to seek advice from Classic Organ Works for their digital electronics: http://www.organworks.com/Web/produc...ol_systems.asp.
    Last edited by FelixLowe; Nov-14-2009 at 09:14.

  14. #44
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    Felix, I'm not sure exactly how the Classic control systems work, however, I believe that supplying these systems to organ manufacturers and rebuilders has become a significant part of their business. They may even have a deal with M&O for that. Funny, since M&O deals also with Rodgers, if I remember correctly.

    When I did the recording of Christmas music on the Classic/Walker at St. George's, it was all MIDI files that were done ahead of time, and the computer played for the recording session. It was a much easier way of doing things, as we didn't waste time on multiple takes if I screwed up, but it also allowed us to record early in the morning before the noise of traffic and the like got too bad. The neat thing is, I still have all those files, and I can play them on ANY organ that has Classic's console control system driving the organ and has MIDI interface. That includes any pipe organs for which they have supplied the CCS.

    Clarion, you are absolutely right about the Wolff organ. You really need to be an organist to fully appreciate what it is and what it does. It is so very different from any instrument I've ever played before or since. For that reason, it was kind of jarring at first, but after settling in with it for a few minutes, I really could get a sense of the level of craftmanship and thought that went into it's construction. It's one of those organs that is tough to walk away from. Play it if you can.

  15. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by FelixLowe View Post
    One area which I have not studied in depth is the requirements for French music. In the past I have heard some organists having some comments regarding playing French music on the Rieger. This shows that there may be different requirements for French music; but I guess the question has to do with certain types of French Fournitures and the need for a Clairon 4'. But maybe the organ scholar can resolve this.
    Felix, I also find the French concept of organ music quite mysterious. Taking a look at the specs on the iconic St. Sulpice organ in Paris, serves to only deepen the mystery. I don't have the slightest clue as to how I would play this instrument:

    Great Division - St. Sulpice:

    Principal16′
    Montre16′
    Bourdon16′
    Flûte conique16′
    Montre8′
    Diapason8′
    Bourdon8′
    Flûte harmonique8′
    Flûte traversière8′
    Flûte a pavillon8′
    Quinte51/3′
    Prestant4′
    Doublette2′

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    By Frederik Magle in forum Pipe Organ Forum
    Replies: 12
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