NEB
New member
Hi,
This is a topic very much in my mind right now since I'm trying to put together a case for my church to have an overhaul of the organ and potentially expand it (which would be nice indeed).
It's a smallish organ of about 16 stops over 2 manuals and completely mechanical. It has some of the most beautiful sounds I've seen on any organ, which considering it was probably built to a fairly tight budget in the first place is a testimony to the skill of the original builders.
All that said, IMO the Mechanical action is wearing out. For example, Coupling the swell onto the great, the swell organ doesn't speak properly at all and only physically opens the inidividual pipe's air flow when the key is about 1mm above fully depressed, and seems to never comletely open the air flow for the pipe(s) in question (whichever that may be).
IMO the action is as a consequence much heavier than it would otherwise be as well (I'm sure someone will correct me here on the mechanical details of how this all works - I have a passing but not detailed knowledge).
Coupling into the pedals presents even more of a challenege requiring a 'stamping' of the pedal to make the Swell reeds speak on the coupled pedals.
OK. These are drawbacks as I see them or more likely inconveneinces that you overcome as you play, and I'm sure this is not always the case on tracker action instruments especially those in good condition.
But - surely rebuilding using an electro-neumatic type cosole will remove a certain amount of the feel and directness involved in playing while it would open up all sorts of possibilities in terms of couplers, selectors, revoicings etc simply by using the electronics intelligently.
Then there's the issue of to make the console remote or keep it directly attached. Going remote adds a time delay while keeping it attached doesn't necessarily place the console in the most ideal position.
From time to time I do get the opportunty to play a very very much larger instrument which has such a remote console, and while the intrument is truly thrilling and glorious as only a cathedral type organ can be, it is a bit of a handful on the time delay and takes some getting used to...
I suspect this is a debate that organists have been having since systems other than pure mechanical came into force and the purists would say Tracker while other would vote for as much electronic assistance in the console as possible. Who's to say who is right, but I'd love to hear some opinions about this.
Kind regards
NEB
This is a topic very much in my mind right now since I'm trying to put together a case for my church to have an overhaul of the organ and potentially expand it (which would be nice indeed).
It's a smallish organ of about 16 stops over 2 manuals and completely mechanical. It has some of the most beautiful sounds I've seen on any organ, which considering it was probably built to a fairly tight budget in the first place is a testimony to the skill of the original builders.
All that said, IMO the Mechanical action is wearing out. For example, Coupling the swell onto the great, the swell organ doesn't speak properly at all and only physically opens the inidividual pipe's air flow when the key is about 1mm above fully depressed, and seems to never comletely open the air flow for the pipe(s) in question (whichever that may be).
IMO the action is as a consequence much heavier than it would otherwise be as well (I'm sure someone will correct me here on the mechanical details of how this all works - I have a passing but not detailed knowledge).
Coupling into the pedals presents even more of a challenege requiring a 'stamping' of the pedal to make the Swell reeds speak on the coupled pedals.
OK. These are drawbacks as I see them or more likely inconveneinces that you overcome as you play, and I'm sure this is not always the case on tracker action instruments especially those in good condition.
But - surely rebuilding using an electro-neumatic type cosole will remove a certain amount of the feel and directness involved in playing while it would open up all sorts of possibilities in terms of couplers, selectors, revoicings etc simply by using the electronics intelligently.
Then there's the issue of to make the console remote or keep it directly attached. Going remote adds a time delay while keeping it attached doesn't necessarily place the console in the most ideal position.
From time to time I do get the opportunty to play a very very much larger instrument which has such a remote console, and while the intrument is truly thrilling and glorious as only a cathedral type organ can be, it is a bit of a handful on the time delay and takes some getting used to...
I suspect this is a debate that organists have been having since systems other than pure mechanical came into force and the purists would say Tracker while other would vote for as much electronic assistance in the console as possible. Who's to say who is right, but I'd love to hear some opinions about this.
Kind regards
NEB