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Presets changed!!!

JONESEY

New member
Ahh, that was a louder start to the service than I'd planned.
It seems something (someone?) caused the presets to be altered on our digital organ the other day, so my standard "go to" preset of general 7 for starting the verses of a hymn turned into something of a 'let's play full organ with lots of bombarde on the pedals for good measure'

Has that happened to others here? - now I've got the joy of trying to recreate the good old piston settings before the next Wedding this coming Saturday.

Nothing like a shock to make you think on your feet eh? - I normally start with a nice base sound, and build up gradually throughout the verses.
Still, keeps the congregation on their toes also :eek:
 

John Watt

Member
As a good man only of Scottish descent, with my north of Hadrian's wall metabolism,
I don't attend Catholic churches for services,
but,
bumping into a new priest from Barbados who agreed with me, saying this was a citizenship
move as much as a spiritual one, I said I heard about the new organ,
and he invited me to walk with him to go and see it.
Another priest was there and he too said I could sit behind it.
The one foot pedal looked like a big chrome foot, what was hot for hotrods in the fifties.
This church also has the only carillon outside of Toronto, serious about loud sounds,
one of them weighing 4.000 pounds, if I remember, and I could have triggered them too.
But I was just happy to sit there, looking around, respecting the equipment.
Another priest invited me to his house down the street after his shift, but I said I can't.

Thinking on your feet is what I call simply being alive.
I hope you find your humbled baptism by immersion,
with the laying on of hands by good men,
so we can be side by side, thinking on our feet, together.
And I'm never going to type anything like this again, on this domain.
 
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pcnd5584

New member
Ahh, that was a louder start to the service than I'd planned.
It seems something (someone?) caused the presets to be altered on our digital organ the other day, so my standard "go to" preset of general 7 for starting the verses of a hymn turned into something of a 'let's play full organ with lots of bombarde on the pedals for good measure'

Has that happened to others here? - now I've got the joy of trying to recreate the good old piston settings before the next Wedding this coming Saturday.

Nothing like a shock to make you think on your feet eh? - I normally start with a nice base sound, and build up gradually throughout the verses.
Still, keeps the congregation on their toes also :eek:

I am sure that you are aware of this now - but making a note of each setting on each piston (at least for your most-often used channel, if there are several), would be a good idea....

(Another is affixing a printed note to the console, requesting that all pistons are restored to the original settings before leaving the instrument, if others have to play it).



It occurs to me that there is a third alternative. However, since this would involve a very hungry Rottweiler and a long chain (and eventually a CSI team and a custodial sentence), I shall leave this up to your imagination.
 
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JONESEY

New member
The third option has been considered, trust me!
Still don't know how it happened - we had a visiting organist, but he didn't change anything. We're having some pretty extensive work done in the Church right now, so I do wonder if the power was cut for a long enough time for the Organ to reset to defaults? - still, a few hours on Saturday and it's pretty much back to normal now!
 

wljmrbill

Member
Glad you are back and running again.. I had the same happened to me many years ago ( they said was a near by lightning strike )..since then I back them up either in writing or dictation to recorder.
 
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Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
. . . We're having some pretty extensive work done in the Church right now, so I do wonder if the power was cut for a long enough time for the Organ to reset to defaults?

That is a common issue with digital organs - even pipe organs I would imagine - anything involving "memory storage" has back up batteries for those intermittent times when the power goes off. However, the batteries only last for a certain time - but will recharge themselves once power is restored.

The Allen digital I played years ago lost its memory after a massive power failure - always the day before Sunday - the 'default' for Allen's at that time was that all stops would engage with any piston.

When I practice at the church, and set pistons to use, I make those notations in the music as well. At the top of the score, I write the piston registrations (generals and divisional) so I have them again for any future use. The pistons at the church II/9 Möller are fully mechanical, so there is nothing to lose, memory wise ... unless the giant noisy plunger goes south for the winter, but so far has worked for the past 25 years.

Each year I am engaged to be the solo organ accompanist for the Handel Messiah. I figured out all my piston registrations long ago and wrote them all down, so when I arrive at that church for the dress rehearsal the day before, I can set them all up for the next days performance.
 

Soubasse

New member
All stops on for every piston?? Gosh, that's really musical that is </sarcasm>
Have not had the actual combination of a preset alter on me (unless through human intervention) but on the digital organ that I used to play, I did have presets change on me during a hymn, or an improvisation, always at the most inopportune moments (ie, in the middle of a sustained chord).
The very worst thing that happened to me was having the transposer kick in during a hymn verse - thankfully, my subsequent exclamations at the gallery console were not audible down below.
Someone once suggested it could be due to some sort of radio/shortwave interference - or possibly mobile phone tranmissions, but I never looked any further into that.
(There's a thought though, the Rodgers would sometimes pick up and broadcast some radio stations or CB transmissions ... but broadcasting someone's voice-mail could potentially be rather embarrasing, especially if it was the priest's! ;))
 

Mush

New member
I used to play the "Lightning Organ". The previous organist was playing it, badly so I heard, and lightning came through the roof and struck him and the organ. This is a mid 80s Allen. It worked ok after that except one problem. On rare occasions when you hit a preset button you got most everything, and it wasn't a nice everything either. So you always had to be ready to hit the button again to get the right combo.
 

kas

New member
I've experienced this sort of thing - which is why I no longer agree to play weddings outside of my own church, where I know the settings are safe. I've saved settings at other churches where I was hired to play a wedding and then came back a few days before and found that a whole bunch of pistons were changed. Even with them all written down - such a hassle to reset everything.
 

JONESEY

New member
Yep, it's all pretty much back to normal now, with the contractors finishing this week.
I'll then go back in and tweak it all back to roughly how it was, and make some notes which I'll keep in the organ stool.
There's a few new people lining up to play it, so I think a plan is well and truely in order.
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
Hi AllanP,

Yes - I do, most all of the time. I have only 4 pistons (mechanical, hold piston and set stop) at my disposal, so those are used for a quick setup for the Doxology or when I need a quick registration change for other music. I also lack a G.C. (general cancel), unless I use one of those precious 4 pistons in that manner.

I do have a Crescendo shoe that I use frequently for adding stops.

But mostly, all my registrations are done by hand ... I have worked out lots of logistics during the playing of pieces that allow for the pinkie finger to add this stop there, and the middle finger to remove one there, etc. I performed the Franck A Minor Chorale in that fashion ... did not use any pistons - all registered throughout the piece by hand and by judicious use of the Crescendo shoe.

Lars
 

AllanP

New member
Thanks for the reply Lars. I have only 5 pistols per manual which means that there is quite a lot of hand tee registration. I have set up basic registrations on the five pistols and then add or subtract stops by hand to get the effect desired.

I was beginning to wonder whether anyone ever used hand registration now that so many organs have massive electronic combination action memories. I am pleased to hear that the art has not been lost.
 

wljmrbill

Member
just noticed a link to your home organ Allan,,have to check it out,

JUst did..must be a joy to play and for friends to listen.. enjoyed the info on the site as very interesting. Years ago I played a large 3 manual in a Pizza and Pipes place for a time. Great fun..loved playing for the silent films which happen at least once an hour ( that took more practice than any other music I payed). Take care and enjoy
 
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Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
I should have mentioned that my church organ console has rocker tabs, and they are all in one line above the Swell manual, so that aids in the ability to manipulate stops being turned on or off rather easily.

The Crescendo shoe, when engaged, does cut out the celeste rank and both trems. I have separate trem boxes for the two divisions, thankfully.
 

John Watt

Member
Coming from the electric guitar, I'm getting a lot out of this thread, really enjoying it.
What you're saying about adjusting stops and registrations is like using battery and plug-in effects,
only you aren't moving your organ around to different venues that need individual settings.
You also aren't using feedback, artificial notes and sounds created by volume capacities,
tones that really change from space to space.
Is this making you feel better? Not!
 

JONESEY

New member
Been there and done that John, back in my band days, both with the guitar players, and also adjusting various things on the hammond / piano combo I used to play.
Was hoping that I wouldn't have to do that, but some weeks later, I'm still tweaking it to get it how it should be.
If I find the person / persons who did this (if it was human intervention), I'll insert them into the choir register personally :)
 

dll927

New member
For church organists, this is known as "how to tick off the organist". It happens when somebody else plays and knows how to change the pistons. Many recent organs have a computerized piston system with many "levels", some of which can be locked in. This at least solves a lot of the problem. But if it's an older organ with only one setting for the pistons, most bets are off. Moral: Be sure and check things out if somebody else has messed with the organ.
 
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