|
|
Steph's Organ |
Steph's Organ |
How about a 70+ rank pipe organ for your apartment? I didn't think so either. So... What's going on is a 2 Manual and Pedal instrument, wth 2 ranks of pipes - a 97 note Gedeckt/Bourdon, and a 73 note string. This makes 170 pipes. That is doable. Since that's nowhere enough for me, I've added 58 more stops, which control 70 digital ranks, extending from a 128' pedal stop to a tiny 1' Sifflote. I'll be re-puttying windows monthly, and my neighbors will hate me. Herein, you will find the specification of the insrument, construction photos, details on how this was done, and some MP3 of music performed on it. Course the amplifier and speakers you listen to it on will bear heavily on what you hear. Progress to date, (Feb 2, 2010) Has the console almost fully functional - some s/w issues to iron out' It plays nicely. I have the pipework,though the windchest and reservoir have not been built yet. Now that I don't work there and am unemployed, this could take a while. It plays the digital ranks wonderfully. It is available to be played , at my house, by appointment. Now that I've moved to a house in the woods of Palermo (NY), there isn't room for the pipes, so they probably won't happen, but that's OK. These digital ranks can be added to an existing pipe organ. Good candidates are those who already have a tired console that could use a rebuild, as the controller system is an excellent organ relay. Special thanks go to all those who have helped make this happen. You know who you are! |
This console is unique in that it separates into two pieces. By unplugging a few cables, and removing 4 wing nuts, the top section, from the keydesk upwards can be removed from the base. The design was done this way so that the console could fit through a 28" door. The other dimensions also give it a small profile, and we used an Allen Princess style pedal board. These features will make it fit better in a residence, or a balcony that is tight on space. The console is primarily made of walnut veneer plywood. Trim for the end grain is solid walnut. The relay is the Opus-Two made by Essential Technology, located in Canada. It provides many functions, including MIDI, transposer, combination action, auto bass, and a melody coupler. It also handles all key and stop inputs, as well as the outputs to the pipe valve magnets. The MIDI is fed into Hauptwerk (A Virtual Pipe Organ) which provides the digital ranks. This is running on a dual core 2.4Ghz CPU machine with 4 Gig of DDR Ram. The output of the Delta 1010LT sound card is sent out 6 chanels into three Pyramid PA 1000X amplifiers. A dual coil subwoofer and two 3 way speakers support the pedal department. The Great and Swell each have two 3 way speakers. The digital stops are controlled by reversible thumb pistons (58 of them) representing each stop, mounted in a box. These can be included in combination pistons, or you can make registration changes on the fly. These stops are available on the crescendo, and tutti as well, The stop tabs on the console control the pipes, and coupling. When the console was first designed, it wasn't clear what the digital side would be or how many ranks it would be. There simply was not room for 58 more stop tabs, and it was way too late for a console redesign. So, this is what we got. The ourputs of the Delta card also feed into a XENEX mixer and a reverb unit for headphone use. |