Pipe Organ in da (church) house!

[Mallette]

Sorry to hijack your thread.

Not a problem, Bruce. Looks like a great concert. I've a couple of his LPs from the heydey with Telarc. Excellent stuff.

Dave

[jtnfoley]

Dave... Last summer (or was it the previous?) I attended a full Catholic Mass before the christening of a friends' first son. The service was at St. Marys Star of the Sea, in Beverly Massachusetts.

http://database.organsociety.org/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=14519

A 1908 Hook & Hastings, restored in 2007, it was not a high holiday, just an average sunday. Spectacular sound.

Evidently they are getting a new console:

http://www.dobsonorgan.com/html/instruments/resto_rebuild/beverly/beverly.html

https://www.facebook.com/StMaryStarOrgan

[Mallette]

A 1908 Hook & Hastings, restored in 2007, it was not a high holiday, just an average sunday. Spectacular sound.

I'll bet. Hook and Hastings built some fine instruments. I had the privilege to record an 1861 Hook in Marine City, Michigan at the Roman church there. Restored by Hook and Hasting in the early 20th century, then again in the 1960's by Bozeman, I think, but maintained pretty much original everything and a truly awesome sounding piece of history.

So, I successfully got a Yamaha HS-4 Electone to connect to a computer yesterday, mapped the two manuals and pedal to the GrandOrgue software, and Presto! instant organ. The Danish instrument sample set I had sounded delicious through headphones and much better than any Allen, old or new. So, we'll have something to tide us over whilst we wait on the Schantz once I can get a PC built and my Frazier Elevens' up to the loft.

Then, if I needed even more miracles, our junior warden tells me this morning that he has a close friend and business associate who JUST HAPPENS to be in the moving and storage business in Dayton, OH. He'll move the instrument for expenses.

Of course, this is all just luck. [A]

Dave

[Marvel]

Dave,

This is so cool! I'm really happy for you andyour church that this is happening. I know you will keep us updated, but you will have to post pictures when things start changing and arriving.

Bruce

[Mallette]

Roger that, Bruce. As a few folks here have a vested interest in the project I'll be doing that.

I posted my intention of donating my Frazier Elevens to the project in the Frazier thread and might as well repeat my question here. The Frazier's are extremely efficient, 107db/w/m corner loaded. Initially, they will not be corner loaded and I am really not sure whether my final plans for them will be true corner loading or not, so I'd appreciate your opinions.

My experts group is currently leaning towards double expression for the instrument. It has two pedals, one swell and one crescendo. Crescendo basically just adds ranks as you depress it and the consensus of the organists is that they rarely use it and just pull stops to the same end. Therefore, we'd repurpose the crescendo to function a second, internal, swell box. The entire instrument would be enclosed. This is practical on an instrument this size and it may well have been installed this way originally. However, it's limiting creatively for the organist to have only all or nothing. On the other hand, it's totally liberating and almost exponential to have dual swell boxes to the point that either can be at any point and yield a world of differing sonic potential. To my knowledge, double expression is only found on Schoenstein instruments and it's they that pioneered and championed the concept. It's so simply it's hare do imagine how it managed to be overlooked for centuries. It's also my hope to synchronize the swell organ with the MIDI resources to provide even greater possibilities. But I digress...

The rendering shows the fully enclosed instrument with secondary, internal swell box. It's my intention to screen the Frazier's so they match the aspect of the instrument itself. I am wondering if a rigid box were built if it would reenforce the bass like a corner. Intuitively, it almost looks like a continuation of the Helmholtz slots in the rear. However, I am not a speaker designer and don't play one on TV, so any thoughts on this would be most welcome.

As to powering them, I hope to use the two 100w Allen monoblocks from the dead instrument. One needs repair and I am not quite sure just what. The folks who make the Artisan MIDI interface for organs say they are pretty sure they can fix it reasonably, and while they seem competent and helpful I'm not sure how they can say that without having looked at it. My backup is to use a Citation 12 I have, 60wpc.

The space is about 44'X75' and seems to me this should be adequate power and headroom to balance and blend with the Schantz.

Thoughts and comments most welcome.

Dave

[Vital]

My wife and I were married at First Methodist in downtown Houston, they say it's the second largest pipe organ in the area. I know when we met with the organ player and went over the music he asked what kind of intro we wanted and we said the biggest one you have, the most impact. He smiled and played it and we decided we would go one notch below that, I didn't want to give the grandparents a heart attack! That thing was loud and deep, thunderous. I looked it up and it looks like what they have is a 118 rank Aeolian Skinner pipe organ. They also have a two-manual Allen Renaissance to go next to it. Very impressive for sure!

[babadono]

Of course, this is all just luck.

Dave

Dave,

It's not luck, it's a Blessing. Our relatively new Parish church has a real pipe organ and it sounds wonderful. Our Pastor was insistent we have a "real " organ and some of the parishoners were concerned about the cost. But God provided. It is worth all the money and effort. Keep up the good work.

Eric

[Mallette]

Our Pastor was insistent we have a "real " organ and some of the parishoners were concerned about the cost.

Thank God for pastors like yours! They are getting rarer all the time. At my last parish, the Rector was asked if a flutist could use a small amplifier up in the alter area and his response was "Over my dead body." Flute sounded fine without it. These instruments have survived and thrived without electricity for centuries.

A pipe organ is the second most expensive thing a parish will invest in after the physical structure itself, but properly maintained there remains no rival as a business expense. While the up front cost is frightful, it is permanent as the building with care. The Sion organ has been in continuous service since 1435. Let that sink in a bit.

I suspect it's paid for.

Spent all of Saturday preparing a presentation on "Organ 101, MIDI 101, and Schantz 1942 101" for the organ committee and had a nearly two hour meeting with them. It went very well, but I'll not bore you with the details. I think a real plan to get it moved and installed will emerge in the next 30 days. So many details! I was frankly surprised at the interest in the redo of the choir loft I built into the project. Of course, it's not necessary for the organ but would vastly enhance the lofts comfort for the choir, safety, acoustics, and view of the nave. Our most junior priest told me the other day that it was DOA and wouldn't happen. I told her I wasn't so sure and it was a miracle this whole thing had gotten to where it is. If I read the Rector correctly as we discussed the 3D model I showed I got the distinct feeling he was sold. We shall see...

Dave

[dtel]

Congratulations Dave, have been gone for a few weeks and glad to see it's working out, you are the Man. [H]

Things happen for a reason, and your the guy who made it happen. [8]

[Mallette]

Thanks, dtel. Been wondering about you. Nothing out of Christy in a while either and I miss her.

Dave

[Mallette]

Wanna see a bit of web future? HTML5 is coming to a browser near you soon. I've done some experimenting and used my parish organ project as a test bed.

Here are the caveats:

1. Internet Explorer at LEAST 9 or above.

2. Latest Chrome.

3. Latest Firefox.

It will do NOTHING if you don't have one of these. I only have a few hours in it so there's undoutdedly errors here and there, but seems to work pretty nicely in the listed browsers. Would like to know and Klipsch'ers will try anything they can do with a click.

Let me know how or if it works!

Dave

[CECAA850]

I'm one of the few members that can't see the pics on the first page on my home or work computer but I tried anyways. I believe I have the minimum requirements. I only saw a black screen with a small icon in the top left corner. How can I tell if I have IE9?

[Mallette]

Look at "Help," then "About Internet Explorer." You can update from the Windows Update site.

Frankly I expect more people to have problems than not as most don't update that often, the IE support is about 1/3 (though I didn't use much of the fancier new features of HTML5), and my compiler is beta.

But when it works, it's cool and points to a significantly improved user experience in the not too distant future.

Dav

[CECAA850]

I opened it up in Chrome and I can see the pics on the first page finally. I can also link to the other page and read it. I couldn't get the "What it sounds like" button to play though.

[Axz Hout]

W

[Mallette]

Yeah, Christopher! I wondered if anyone would be able to get it to work!

New compile up this morning and things should move faster. Won't go into details, but am pasting in my response to some input from fellow beta testers in Great Britain (where my programming tool is developed):

Wow...thanks to all! New version is up. I added a "Loading" screen up front as a kludge to the way the index page loads. First, I simply had the page to show for 5 seconds and advance. That did not work and may be an Opus bug.

Then, I added an intitially hidden button with a show after 5 seconds property. That worked, though it took longer than 5 seconds to show up.

Other stuff:

"There is a noticable gap between the words "League" and "City" on the bottom of your splash screen."

Can't reproduce and does not display this way on any browser I have.

"Role of Music in the worship of God loads fast. Very fast but there is a large black box under the hymn words on the right hand side.

Role of organ page loads very fast also but the black box is on this page too."

Those are embedded YouTube vids. They work fine both at my work and at my home, two different ISP. So, that's a concern. Also, I simply used the URL as when I tried using the "copy embedded URL" function from the YouTube orginal it didn't work at all. I'd noted that Opus used that same term. However, it worked (for me) when I just used the live URL. I suspect that is something the DW team should look at and comment on. I can upload the whole thing to our FTP site for them if they wish to take a look.

"Features and stop list - Nothing plays"

Here again, nothing for me to fix. Can't troubleshoot what I can't reproduce. Works here and from home. Comment from DW would be useful.

"Where will we put it page did not load, possibly because music is not playing. Tried again without trying to play music and page loads well."

Music isn't required. No connection of any kind nor have I seen this happen.

"First video loads but if you go to the next page while the video is playing, the video continues on"

Didn't think to put a "stop all videos" command, but doubt if it would work since this isn't in the pub. DW needs to look at that issue.

I mentioned and sent an image from Chrome. It surprised me that the two YouTube vids showed up overlaid on the index page. That seems like it has to be an Opus issue as there is no sign of them in that page actions or properties. No idea how they get there nor how to fix.

Will try the new beta, but off to Offshore Technology Conference first and not sure whether I'll have time after I get home.

Thanks a heap, and please stay tuned as I am REALLY high on the potential of Opus in this role and want to be a part of making it work!

So, please give it a try if you know what browser you have and let me know all the issues you have. We are working on the next generation internet here, and as Chris mentioned, it's look really kewl! And you can help.

Dave

[Mongo171]

I see pipes!

No sound, though. Using Firefox.

[Axz Hout]

M

[Marvel]

Dave,

Running Win7 as a virtual machine on my Mac Pro at work. Everything works fine using IE9 (realized I needed a bunch of updates, but I don't usually use Windows).

The audio tracks sound gorgeous! Youare truly Blessed to be able to get this organ for your church.

Bruce

EDIT: IE 10 works a lot smoother...

[Mallette]

Wooo...especially glad you were able to see it and especially HEAR it, Bruce. Isn't it a little JEWEL?

BTW, the acoustics are an acoustic render I did of our space. The previous owner recorded it where the instrument now resides, his dads garage. Bone dry. Took a lot of imagination to tell what it really sounded like without any reflection or decay. Sort of like hearing Strad with the back of the instrument completely off.

I hate processing, but even George Ellis Mims, my organ maestro friend, felt this was highly successful as do others that have heard it, including Brian Ebie who made the recording. He thought it was awesome.

Very small instrument that in no way sounds like it. Can't wait to get it into our church!

Dave

PS - For others, I found to my surprise there are far more issues in Firefox and Chrome than with IE. That's odd as IE is rated dead last in HTML5 compliance. Obviously, somebody ain't testing thoroughly and it's not me. Anyway, stick to IE9 or higher. I've a new beta of the compiler and will re-compile and upload tomorrow to see what's changed.