Digital Organ Choice

[FelixLowe]

Here is a video with reasonably good recording quality for you to briefly assess the Allen organ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctzinTnq41w. Do you think the one playing the Christmas hymn sounds English or German, or the middle way? I think it leans towards South German Baroque. But the thing is, the organ lacks chiff. If the chiff volumes are turned up, then it would sound even more like German Baroque. This shouldn't be too difficult because Allen claims that every single note of its organs can have all its parameters adjusted in any degree.

[FelixLowe]

For home practice, it is possible to play a digital organ module without connecting it to loudspeakers. Use a professional audio headphone instead, if you don't want to invest in a set of louspeakers with subwoofer. In the past, I paid about US$147 for a very durable Austrian-made 600-ohms K240 AKG Monitor headset. For this amount, you'll be able to hear the full spectrum of the audio output from 16hz to 24khz of the organ module. The headset is now over 11 years old and is still working in excellent condition.

The only setback of using a headphone for practice is that some of the lower harmonics appear to be more thinly expressed than what would have come from the loudspeakers, while you could say this promotes clarity of the audio, giving a more discerning refinement of the audio output as a whole. Another is that wearing a headset over two to three hours could cause pain to the ear lobes.

Remember, the organ module works quite differently from your mini-Hi-fi system with regards to the way their earphone outputs work. Ordinary Hi-fi systems would cut out any audio output to the loudspeakers the moment you insert the headphone jack into the socket. But the sound modules, at least those I own, don't work in this way. The two outputs are independent and can work at the same time -- so you could listen with your headphone on, while the outputs to the loudspeakers remain unaffected.

Today's K240 MKII Headphones, Semi-Open, Dynamic, boasts capability of expression of 15Hz-25kHz:

[Clarion]

Here is a video with reasonably good recording quality for you to briefly assess the Allen organ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctzinTnq41w. Do you think the one playing the Christmas hymn sounds English or German, or the middle way? I think it leans towards South German Baroque. But the thing is, the organ lacks chiff. If the chiff volumes are turned up, then it would sound even more like German Baroque. This shouldn't be too difficult because Allen claims that every single note of its organs can have all its parameters adjusted in any degree.

From the brief sound samples, it sounds like a typical American/English blah organ. The fact that that the chiff can be turned up, doesn't mean it's a very good or acceptable idea. If you desire chiffy baroque, then far better to start out with the appropriate sampling from the outset. You can probably munge a diapason into sounding like an oboe, but that's not really an idea way to create an oboe rank.

Keep in mind, that while companies like Allen and Rodgers advertise the wonders of the ability of their products to be modified in the ways you have mentioned, and more; the reality is, that most of the software for modifying these organs, is not available to customers; it's only available to dealers. Even obtaining the simple software available to customers make simple changes in voices assigned to stops, be prepared for the: "Oops! Didn't anyone mention to you?: That will cost you another $500!! "

My experience with Phoenix was entirely different. A couple of weeks after installation of organ, Don Anderson came again to my home, and installed both the Voicing and Configuration software on my computer; and then spent and hour or two showing me how to use it. No "Surpise, that will cost you an extra . . . .!" The software is merely an integral part of the overall organ. The Voicing software, provides the customer with a host of options ranging from merely exchanging stop assignments for different voices on the sound cards, to controlling every individual note, including volume, tuning, timbre, channel assignment, and yup, even chiff. Then there's the rather fascinating Configuration software that allows you to pretty much rewire the entire organ, re-assigning and plugging in various functions to tabs/drawknobs. Just an all round fun system to play with.

Just "because Allen claims that every single note of its organs can have all its parameters adjusted in any degree"; doesn't mean squat if they won't provide you with, or even allow you to possess the tools needed to do that.

[FelixLowe]

The problem is what samples we want, we sometimes don't know the tonal quality just by seeing a list of names of the stops. Different periods feature rather different sounds even under the same names. I have discovered a really detailed article today to help me solve some mysteries regarding deciding on the tonal design and disposition of the stop list. The following article is almost a must-read for any organ enthusaists, be it digital or pipe. It is an essential primer to further studies in individual areas in the studies in tone. And another issue is the deployment of what kinds of stops which are tuned and voiced properly in proportion to the size of the hall, with the available tonal resources at hand. For example in this Diane Bish's performance of the John Stanley's Trumpet Voluntary, neither sets of the trumpets employed sounds excessive or overbearing in a huge space filled to the full by audience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl3eZ...eature=related. So tuning an organ is also an acoustical consideration of a wide range of factors. When I had my two Ahlborn Archive Modules, I often wondered what db should be employed to turn up the sheer volume of each stop, as some of the stops seemed conspicuously weak, like the Gemshorn 8, and the related Gemshorn Celeste. Also, on my Romantic module, all the English Horn, the French Horn and Clarinet were too soft, even when efforts were made to increase the dbs by adjusting them in the tuning menu.

The best of all seems to be the Festival Trumpet from the Classic module, which has a very closely similar English counterpart called the Tuba Mirabilis on the Romantic module. The difference between the two is a matter of the degree of silvery quality. The Festival Trumpet is slightly brighter. However I disagree with certain remarks that say that the Ahlborn reeds sound fake. This is not true. I also had another called En Chamade from the Allen module. That one is the strongest and most sonorous one. It has both the highest degree of brightness, as well as a good imitation of an ebulliant flow of air through the trumpets through the subtlety of rattling buzz in it. It is definitely one of the centrepieces in the module. It is the most stately of all the trumpets and reeds I have. It sounds exactly like what you hear at the beginning of Bish playing the voluntary. But mine was of 8 feet.

The Allen module, the MDS Expander II, doesn't provide any function to allow adjustments to the tonal parameters of its 100 or so voices. But the advantage of having it is that it contains some of the rarest voices of reeds from the North German school of organ buildings of the Rennaisance period: the Barpfeife, Musette, Schalmei, Krummhorn, Cromorne, Dulzian, so at least one could experience and experiment with these sounds. Other than that, I find not many occasions to call for their tonal appointment for playing the Baroque or classical music, except perhaps the Krummhorn/Cromorne and the Dulzian. But one aspect of satisfaction comes from its available Viole 4', which I used to synthesise the Octave 4' by combining it with the Flute Octaviante 4' on the Great of the Ahlborn Classic module. The problem with my organ is that it lacks a vital Octave 4'. The Classic Module from Ahlborn is not too surprising when it features only an Octaviante Flute 4' instead of the Prestant 4', though, because in many pre-Classical French organs, they hadn't got the Prestant 4'. The Octaviante Flute took its place.

Happy reading!


A Brief Look At The French Classical Organ, Its Origins and German Counterpart

by Lawrence Phelps

Although the organ has its origins deep in antiquity and is known to have played an important role in the ceremonial life of the people in Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt and Babylon, the instrument as we know it today - the "modern" organ - took shape in the Gothic period, particularly in the 14th and 15th centuries. The organ builders of the lowland countries, especially those of Brabant, made the most significant contribution to the evolution of the instrument during this period and also throughout the next two centuries, as it changed from the ungainly multipipe noisemaker requiring as many as 70 men to maintain its wind supply, with enormous fist sized keys and presided over by "organbeaters" (viz. the 12th century monsters at Winchester and Halberstat), to the precise polyphonic instrument that inspired Bach and the colour-rich instrument that shaped the works of many generations of French Classical masters. Today, the clear polyphonic texture of the North German instruments seems so vastly different from the colour conscious scheme that became virtually a standard for well over 100 years in France, that it is difficult for us to believe that these two schools of organbuilding sprang from the same source. Nevertheless, both these contrasting concepts were evolved by builders from the lowlands working in Northern Germany and in France, particularly Paris.

During the 15th century in the tiny Flemish region known as Brabant, there developed two distinct schools of organbuilders. Conveniently they divided themselves geographically, so if we do not take these titles too literally with reference to the actual political divisions of the Duchy of Brabant, we may refer to them as the North Brabant builders and the South Brabant builders. The northerners were notably slow in introducing innovations. The Gothic organ customarily had a main division (called a "Blockwerk") which usually had 10 to 12 ranks sounding together for each note, but in large instruments the number of pipes per note was 40 to 50 or sometimes more, and these could not be separated into ranks to allow any of the pipes to be sounded individually.


Historical map of the duchy of Brabant and of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (1477).

You have been reading A Brief Look at the French Classical Organ, its Origins and German Counterpart, Article for the ARGO division of the Decca Record Co. Ltd., accompanying Gillian Weir's recording, “Couperin - Pièces d'Orgue”, ARGO STEREO 4BBA 1011/2, April 1973.

To read on, visit this link: http://lawrencephelps.com/Documents/...rieflook.shtml.

[FelixLowe]

In this part of the world, where it has been a British-owned Crown land for over 166 years, carol singing normally makes one conjure up the soft yet bright sound an English/American church or Cathedral organ. This kind of instrument is cleverly voiced to allow its principal tones to sound Romantic but features somewhat English/German Baroque mixtures and the German Cymbel. This is why sometimes it is not so clear-cut and easy to classify the voicing of the modern English Cathedral instrument. These smart instruments are in fact a product of Eclecticism. Of course normally in the larger ones, there would be a Principal and an Open Diapason also to allow differentiation in order for the organist to adapt to the playing of German Baroque preludes and fugues, or whether to accompany the choir or the congregation. The clever use of Romantic Diapason gives a singing, melodious and gentle effect. I would think because the people living in those parts of the world were so used to the sound made by the harmoniums, which were extensively employed, gradually they got used to the non-chiffy voicing of the pipe organs inherited from the mood and tradition of that time.

In the following musical excerpt taken from the Nine Lessons and Carols of 2004, that features "Once in a Royal David's City":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RC34N1TfCQ, you can appreciate the richness of tone by, I guess, combining the more Romantic Diapason with the German-flavoured Mixtures and Cymbel. But because of distance from which the mic was placed, the result is a rather soft dazzle of sound. But I do think the Cymbel is more the like German thing. The last verse cleverly features the Posaune from the pedal to create a thunderous atmosphere at the beginning of the verse.

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The History of Christmas Carols

Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, usually taking place around the 22nd December. The word Carol actually means dance or a song of praise and joy! Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived!

Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations for Christmas and gave people Christian songs to sing instead of pagan ones. In AD 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called 'Angel's Hymn' should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Another famous early Christmas Hymn was written, in 760AD, by Comas of Jerusalem for the Greek Orthodox Church. Soon after this many composers all over Europe started to write carols. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that the normal people couldn't understand. By the time of the Middles Ages (the 1200s), most people had lost interest in celebrating Christmas altogether.





This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs or 'canticles' that told the story during the plays. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.

The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410. Sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists. The carol was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Most Carols from this time and the Elizabethan period are untrue stories, very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the holy family and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs. They were usually sung in homes rather than in churches! Traveling singers or Minstrels started singing these carols and the words were changed for the local people wherever they were traveling. One carols that changed like this is 'I Saw Three Ships'.

When Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came to power in England in 1647, the celebration of Christmas and singing carols was stopped. However, the carols survived as people still sang them in secret. Carols remained mainly unsung until Victorian times, when two men called William Sandys and Davis Gilbert collected lots of old Christmas music from villages in England.




Before carol singing in public became popular, there were sometimes official carol singers called 'Waits'. These were bands of people led by important local leaders (such as council leaders) who had the only power in the towns and villages to take money from the public (If others did this, they were sometimes charged as beggars!). They were called 'Waits' because they only sang on Christmas Eve (This was sometimes known as 'watchnight' or 'waitnight' because of the shepherds were watching their sheep when the angels appeared to them.), when the Christmas celebrations began.

Also, at this time, many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England and people wanted Christmas songs to sing, so carols once again became popular. Many new carols,such as 'Good King Wenceslas', were also written .




New carols services were created and became popular, as did the custom of singing carols in the streets. Both of these customs are still popular today! One of the most popular types of Carols services are Carols by Candlelight services. At this service, the church is only lit by candlelight and it feels very Christmassy! Carols by Candlelight services are held in countries all over the world.

Perhaps the most famous carol service, is the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College in Cambridge, UK. This service takes place on Christmas Eve and is broadcast live on BBC Radio (and all over the world). In my house, we listen to it and it means Christmas has really started!! The Service was first performed in 1918 as a way of the college celebrating the end of the First World War. It is always started with a single choir boy singing a solo of the first verse of the Carol 'Once in Royal David's City'. Sing along to Once in Royal David's City! A service of Nine Lessons and Carols, has nine bible readings (or lessons!) that tell the Christmas story with one or two carols between each lesson. Sometimes you get carol services which are a combination of nine lessons and carols and carols by candlelight! So you have nine lessons and carols by candlelight!

Source: http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/..._history.shtml

[FelixLowe]

If you want to know the more about the instrumentarium of your organ, visit this site to learn about what the actual instruments of some of the organ stops look like and see a description of their sounds in words: http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/instrumt.html.


Above: The Gemshorn. By mid sixteenth century the instrument had fallen out of use. It has survived in the organ stop of the same name.

[Corno Dolce]

Ah yes, the Gemshorn aka Cor de Chamois = Goats horn

Rauschpfeife = Raunch-pipe

[FelixLowe]

Ah yes, the Gemshorn aka Cor de Chamois = Goats horn

Rauschpfeife = Raunch-pipe

But the organ Gemshorn is nothing that sounds like the Renaissance Gemshorn. The essay in the link I attached above says it has stronger fifth-sounding partial in it. I think immediately of the Quinteton 8' more than the Gemshorn in this regard. The one in the picture above, as its MP3 suggests, emits a voice reminiscent of tribal or ethnic music. It is not the same one on the organ. Perhaps the organ is made as an impressionistic interpretation of the real instrument. The Gemshorn is nothing as pastoral in character on the organ. Rauschfeife II as an organ stop is also not quite like the actual instrument. The real Rauschfeife is more like the organ Schalmei or Barpfeife in their form as organ stops.

[FelixLowe]

Check out this presentation of O Come, All Ye Faithful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trpNL2347Ho. Excellent rendition of the hymn on a Casavant. The one posting the message on Youtube says the model is a North German Style. Well, the stop list disposition may well be it (but we haven't seen it yet), but the voicing is not. It is the Austrian/ South German style found in Catholic Germany in the Baroque era. If you like this kind of voicing, then the digital equivalent is the Ahlborn Galanti. Also check out this version by the King's College Choir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLId...om=PL&index=19.
Another famous English carol, The First Noel, the Angels did say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbbag...eature=related.

[Corno Dolce]

Hi FelixLowe,

Yep, the 'Gems' is nothing like the real McCoy in Renaissance music and the 'rausch', as you say is quite mundane, although it means 'rustling' pipe. Organstop nomenclature can be entertaining in the short-term but it quickly becomes just a "window into the organbuilder's mind" what he/she approximates the sound. Even then it becomes quite subjective depending upon the 'space' in which the organ is built.

Cheerio,

CD

[FelixLowe]

Yep, the 'Gems' is nothing like the real McCoy in Renaissance music and the 'rausch', as you say is quite mundane, although it means 'rustling' pipe. Organstop nomenclature can be entertaining in the short-term but it quickly becomes just a "window into the organbuilder's mind" what he/she approximates the sound. Even then it becomes quite subjective depending upon the 'space' in which the organ is built.

A window into the organbuilder's mind? I think you could put an "s" there. The organbuilders' minds.

Not only that, but fashion and tastes also changed as times changed. And don't forget about the wars that raged every now and again. Utimately, even given the same names of stops remaining on the console, the old pipes could have been completely removed to make way for new ones to fit the new reality and tonal paradigm. Thus, as you might have read a previously posted article about the origin of the German and French schools of organ building in this thread, the French Cornet had taken a process of becoming muffled as if the analogue treble knob was turned completely down as the principal pipes lost their places in its stop composition after 1650, utimately the all-flute stop composition becoming a new standard in the French classical organ disposition.

Also for the Salicional, I have heard various intensities of its incisive quality from different organs -- some resembling the Gamba more while others are more flutey and muted. Also, the metal ingredients of the pipes of any stop in them are a factor -- whether they have more tin and how much lead is used.

Just the day before I was perusing an old old document about German organbuilding in Bach's time. It details what stops were advised to be installed by Bach, and the philosophy underpinning the office of tonal appointment of those stops, but only in sketchy terms. What startled me most is that the writer describes how the manual keyboards of the organs of that time were played would also affect how the pipes sounded. He seems to suggest that unlike today's pipe organs or digital organs, the touch and the intensity or depth of pushing down the keys at that time could affect the volume of the wind's entry into the pipes, and the volume of wind could thus be manipulated for effects of great subtlety. This is completely contrary to what we would learn from organ lessons of today.

[Corno Dolce]

I am perplexed as to the statement by some wag that wrote about organbuilding at Bach's time, stating a nonsensical premise about varying dynamics by how far the key is depressed - utter rubbish imo - Maybe wishful thinking but hardly practical.

[FelixLowe]

So much about Content organ has been praised for its North German Baroque voicing, but another organ company Allen has also featured a series of North German Baroque digital organs of between 36 to 80 stops, that boast Arp Schnitger sampling. However, the company does not seem to have uploaded its sound samples onto its portal yet. Traditionally, Arp Schnitger built organs of a wide variety of tonal qualities; there was not always an easily identifiable Arp Schnitger voicing, as the organ builder is said to have integrated his new works into extant organs of his times.

Arp Schnitger is considered the most important organbuilder of the Baroque period in Northern Europe. His instruments in the churches of Northern Germany and Holland were the largest of his time. Some instruments were exported even to Russia, England, Spain, Portugal and Brazil. No other organ-builder of the past has had so much influence on organ building in the 20th Century as Arp Schnitger. The North German structure of spatially separated, tonally independent works (Rückpositif, Hauptwerk, Brustpositif, Oberwerk and Pedal) have become a determining factor in the organ building methods over the last sixty years. Schnitger took over these principles from his predecessors, developing them to their utmost consequences. Fantasy, artistic principles and logic merged in Schnitger's instruments on the highest level relating to craftsmanship.

The greatest fascination, however, is the sound of the Schnitger organs. Schnitger integrated the rich tradition of Renaissance and Early Baroque organ building into his own style. In many cases he integrated stops from a former instrument into his new masterpiece and achieved a sound which enables us today to perform the North German organ repertoire of the entire 17th century and the first decades of the 18th century in an ideal way.

Schnitger succeeded, by his concept of brilliant mixtures and (full-length) grounding reeds in fulfilling the novel 17th century organ task of accompanying the congregation. The sound of the full organ, the plenum, was stronger, fuller and firmer than its predecessors'. Schnitger's success was connected with the homophonic quality of his plenum sound, which was quite suitable for the accompaniment of the congregation's singing. The polyphonic quality of the separate stops remained. His style influenced other organ-builders and his influence was visible throughout the 18th century and even far into the 19th. If you want to read more about the history of Arp Schnitger, visit here: http://www.arpschnitger.nl/schnintro.html.

You can also hear a performance of BWV 592 on an actual Schnitger in Groningen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua_LO...eature=related.

[IMG]http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/gallery/the_netherlands/images/groningen_marti****rk_schnitger_lg.jpg[/IMG]
Above: Schnitger in Groningen.


As for the 80-stop Allen Arp Schnitger, the disposition is as follows: http://www.allenorgan.com/www/produc...90stopas1.html.

HAUPTWERK
• 16 Principal
• 16 Rohrflöht
• 8 Octava
• 8 Spitzflöht
• 8 Holzflöht
• 8 Viol da Gamba
• 4 Octava
• 4 Rohrflöht
• 2-2/3 Quinte
• 2 Superoctav
• 2 Flachflöht
• Scharff VI-VIII
• Rausch Pfeife II
• 16 Trommet
• 8 Trommet
• Chimes
• Tremulant

OBERWERK
• 16 Rohrflöht
• 8 Principal
• 8 Rohrflöht
• 8 Flöht Celeste II
• 8 Salicional
• 8 Voix Celeste
• 4 Octava
• 4 Spitzflöht
• 2-2/3 Nasat
• 2 Nachthorn
• 1-3/5 Terz
• Scharff IV-VI
• 16 Trommet
• 8 Trommet
• 8 Trecter Regal
• 8 Vox Humana
• 4 Trommet
• Celesta (SO)
• Harpsichord (SO)
• Tremulant

RUCKPOSITIV
• 16 Contra Salicional
• 8 Gedackt
• 8 Gambe
• 8 Gambe Celeste
• 4 Gambe Celeste II
• 4 Octava
• 4 Blockflöht
• 2 Octava
• 1-1/3 Siffloit
• Scharff VI-VIII
• 16 Dulcian
• 8 Bahrpfeiffe
• Tremulant

SOLO
• 16 Gamba Celeste II
• 8 Flauto Mirabilis
• 8 Solo Gamba
• 8 Gamba Celeste
• 4 Gambette Celeste II
• 16 Trompeta Real
• 8 Trompeta Real
• 8 Corno di Bassetto
• 8 French Horn
• 8 Cor Anglais
• 4 Trompeta Real
• Celesta
• Harpsichord
• Tremulant

PEDAL
• 64 Resultant
• 32 Untersatz
• 32 Principal
• 16 Octava
• 16 Rohrflöht (OB)
• 16 Subbass
• 16 Principal
• 16 Contra Gamba (SO)
• 8 Flöht
• 8 Octava
• 8 Gamba (SO)
• 4 Octava
• 4 Flöht
• Mixture VI-VIII
• 32 Posaune
• 32 Trommet (HW)
• 16 Posaune
• 16 Trommet (HW)
• 8 Trommet
• 4 Trommet

[FelixLowe]

I would like to post to you a very nicely written page of an ad about Makin and Johannus organs taken from their UK website.

After reading it, I still feel doubtful whether or not true pipe-by-pipe sampling is used for their organs. This detailed way of obtaining samples has been boasted for more than a decade by certain major digital organ manufacturers. But now, Makin is kind of saying that they had lied in the past, but Makin the actual one now doing pipe-by-pipe sampling.

Also, while I appreciate that separate stop amplification is necessary to process sounds better, what the article fails to mention is that after the amplification process, how many speakers will these stops be channeled to. Do they have a speaker for every four stops, when they say every four stops share an amplifier? Ultimately it is the speaker/stop ratio that is pivtol -- which is the smaller the better. Since distortion takes place when the sound is uttered through the cones and coils, more than the stops suffer chances of a failure in the amplification process. It is hardly convincing, therefore, that undistorted pipe simulation will be acheived maximally even by the maximisation of amplification channels, if those channels all end up with the one same speaker, all mixed up in the same cone and tweeter and subwoofer again.

The following is the nice bit of writing by Makin, but you can hear their organ in this performance on Vierne's Carillon de Longpont:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOraEe4s2uU. Also here this concert hall recital of symphonic Finale from Vierne on a Johannus organ in its classical French style of voicing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E51hPC2Ssok.

Technologies


For a number of years sampling technology has been viewed as the best available technology and sound in the digital organ world; indeed, to the average church goer, more or less indistinguishable from a good pipe organ. Put very simply, with this technology a number of notes from a pipe organ are ‘sampled’ (i.e. recorded) and then digitised and stored on the onboard organ computer for playback from its memory when requested.

Prior to the advent of sampling, the technology now used by most manufacturers of digital organs, tone generation was by way of artificially synthesised sounds, with the technology of choice usually being the ‘Bradford System’ developed in the late 1970s. There are still a few companies who use this technology today which is, to say the least, interesting, since it is now more than 30 years old and hasn’t really been developed nor has kept up with software and computer enhancements in general. Whilst there remain a few die-hard supporters of this system, who simply do not believe that sampled sound is better than artificially generated sound, they are very much a dying breed.

Of course, as you would expect, with sampled sound there is great variation in the quality, with much being determined by the original quality and length of the recording and the amount of computer processing subsequently involved. In essence, the longer the sample the better, with as little computer processing in use as possible. Makin and Johannus have very much led the way in developments in this area and customers have watched how year on year the sound quality is enhanced.

With both a pipe organ and sampled organs there are three definite phases to the sound: the start of the note, the holding of the note, and the release of the note. In each phase there are definite sound characterises which play a part in providing a realistic sound, and indeed this is a very complex subject where many nuances can be taken into account, such as fast repetition of notes where wind is already available in the pipe. Makin and Johannus have very much dealt with this particular aspect of sound generation and realism in recent years with many technological advances

However, perhaps the most important aspect to date is that a ‘loop’ of the sample is required for when a note is held. Sample loops are very varied with cheap and cheerful organs only having a sample loop of a second or so, which as you can imagine become very wearing on the ear. For sometime now with the Monarch technology used in Westmorland Custom organs our sample loops have been a minimum of five and in some cases ten seconds. Such samples provide incredible realism and thankfully, since computer memory is now much cheaper, are now within the financial reach of our customers.

Makin organs do not share samples between different stops, indeed for our mixtures we have separate samples for each rank! In the pipe organ world, unless it was an extension organ, you would not expect the Swell Open Diapason to use the same pipes as the Great No 2 Diapason. Therefore, if it is not usually the case in the pipe world, why should it be done in the digital organ world? The answer, of course, is that this will save the manufacturer some money; hence this practice may be found at the cheaper end of the market. But it is the customer that loses out since two different ranks of similar pipes, such as the Diapasons, should not be voiced alike!

One other dubious practice sometimes employed by certain organ manufacturers is to use computer algorithm to convert the sample of one stop to another, for example a Dulciana into a Gemshorn. This can be used to fill in the gaps where a company doesn’t have good pipe samples of a particular stop, rather than taking more samples of the right stop which is expensive to do. From the customer’s point of view this is very much a false economy, since it is so difficult to achieve a convincing sound this way, and a well trained ear will easily be able to spot this.

One subject that is not mentioned by most manufacturers is how many samples are actually used for each individual stop. The reality is that, in most cases, for a 61 note stop such as an Open Diapason, there are only one or two individual notes sampled per octave; so the 61 notes of a rank are probably made up of only 10 or so actual samples, with the other notes being generated by computer algorithm. In the past this was seen as an adequate solution to providing a good sampled sound. However, with the advent of very cheap computer memory, this is perhaps one cost-cutting short cut that is no longer needed; and indeed its removal would dramatically enhance the realism of the overall sound.



Amplification
In a digital organ, the sound produced is heard by the listener through a number of speakers, each of which is connected to its own amplifier. Each amplifier-speaker link is often referred to as a “channel” of sound, the obvious example being a normal stereo system which has two channels, left and right. With an organ producing a great deal of sound, the relationship between the number of stops and the number of channels will have an effect on the quality of the sound. The rationale is therefore very simple: the more amplifiers and speakers you have, the better the sound.

At Makin Organs, individual stops on an instrument are assigned to specific amplifiers, the aim being to have as few stops per amplifier as possible. For example, the Westmorland Jubilee II organ has 35 stops spread over 7 amplifiers, creating a ratio of 5:1, while with the Westmorland Village organ the ratio is even better at 4:1 with the 20 stops spread over 5 amplifiers. Compared with some instruments available from other suppliers, where sometimes over 30 stops are offered on only two channels, a Makin has an excellent overall sound. Moreover, on our Westmorland Custom organs the ratio is improved further with even more amplifiers offered for a given number of stops, with our largest public instrument at Inverness Cathedral having only 2 stops per amplifier.

Finally, Makin’s full-range speaker units are built with 3 or 6 drivers (or cones) in each to spread the sound still further for the realistic “feel” of a pipe organ, and the optimum sound quality. For example, the Village organ mentioned above uses 4 full-range and 1 bass speaker, which means that the sound is actually heard through at least 13 individual drivers.


MultiSamples
Now, in contrast to such shortcomings found elsewhere, in a revolutionary “leap forward” in tonal reproduction, Makin and Johannus have introduced new “note-by-note” sampling. This means every single note of every single stop has a separate sound sample. This is unique in the digital organ industry since in the past the maximum number of samples per 61 note stop has been between 4 and 10.

You can certainly hear the difference, and of course the organ does not become tiring upon the ear as has often been the case in the past. The major benefit is that, since minor differences between the individual pipes are all captured in the sampling process (rather than the computer of the standard system “smoothing out” irregularities) the sound is even more life-like than was previously the case. We use these samples on our Westmorland Custom range of instruments.

Use the Best Speakers
A promising organ on paper can be disappointing if the correct speakers are not used in an attempt to save money and potentially cut corners. This is a false economy. As a company Makin always suggests the best speaker system for its organs. Indeed if budget becomes an issue we look to reduce costs by for example reducing the overall specification rather than reducing either the number of channels of amplification or by suggesting an inferior speaker system. Getting the right ratio between the number of stops and channels is critical in getting the most out of an instrument.


Makin don't use Hi-Fi speakers. In anything but the smallest chapel or building, Makin recommends the use of our UL speaker system which contains a range of speakers designed to cover all organ sound frequencies from the lowest 32’ C through to the top C of a 2' stop and beyond. After many years of research and development, these speakers work hand in hand with our organs to provide simply the best in sound with all the associated warmth of a pipe organ.

Our speakers have multiple drivers per speaker, meaning that whilst an organ may have 13 channels of amplification, with a UL speaker system there will be upwards of 36 individual speaker drivers.

All these factors together give a Makin organ the warmth of sound through all frequencies that you get from a pipe organ.

[FelixLowe]

It's been a long while since I last heard the Prince of Denmark's March by Jeremiah Clarke. I just saw a great video on Youtube featuring Diane Bish playing it in a mesmerising manner on the Ruffati organ. She seems to have brought out all due flavours from this piece by showing extremely exquisite contrasts in between the passages in it: the gentleness and the magnificence of the trumpet choruses in the appropriate places. This song is named after the Prince of Denmark, George, the husband of the British sovereign Lord, Queen Anne. Ah!

The organ, however, seems to have been built under the principle of the acoustical space inside a Roman Catholic abbey setting, as I was able to glance through parts of the stop consoles, that say "antiphonal". There is also a special "Trompeteria", featuring a several kinds of trumpet. Bish says the organ was built in Italy, but it does not occur to my ears to be particularly continental in its voicing, though. It is more like an Anglo-American neo-Baroque, with eclectic instruments.

I hope you'll have fun watching Diane Bish blow the whistle and enjoy her virtuosic performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpmMb2RTDU4.