Mallette Posted July 26, 2003 Share Posted July 26, 2003 Because there are a few of you who haven't signed to the local Hornhead group, I am posting this here as well. Saturday, 16 August around 3pm I am inviting all hornheads to the house to experience 24/192 surround in the form of the Asylum Street Spankers recorded 12 July at the Saxon Pub in Austin. Recordings at the level are scarce as hen's teeth so it will be an interesting experience. I am looking forward to your impressions. As a brief aside, I was stunned to get a call yesterday from Hank Waring of FSD Labs in CA. He had been referred to me by Rick Rooney of Dallas Maximedia production with whom he is apparent close and long friends. Rick doesn't have the capability to handle 24/192, and thought Hank would. Oddly enough, he isn't sure he does. OTOH, he has built the most sophisticated (22megabucks invested) processing lab in the world that can successfully make 5.1 material from stereo. He produced Buffalo Springfield, remixed Abbey Road and Stones albums, and that's just the tinest part of his credits. Google him if you want to know more and check out www.fdslabs.com. Suffice to say the hour and a half I spent on the phone with him was audio exhilarition on a par with my 1972 visit with PWK. Oh, by the way, he refers to George Neumann (yes, that one) as "Uncle George" and they whiled away the immediate pre WWII years in Germany doing three channel stereo experiments with Uncle G's handmade mics. I am sending some samples of the 24/192 for his analysis, as well as some downsampled 24/96 material. WHEW! What a rush... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 26, 2003 Share Posted July 26, 2003 Dave, That would be the coolest thing! Wish I could come, but Georgia is too far from the Dallas area. Plus we are hitting our peak at work right now, until school starts up at the end of August. Love to hear your recordings. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 26, 2003 Author Share Posted July 26, 2003 Let me know if you are ever up this way. I suspect we'd have lots to talk about and listen to. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthfreek Posted July 26, 2003 Share Posted July 26, 2003 Dave, I can walk to the Saxon Pub in about 3 minutes from my house. Wish I would've known about the show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted July 26, 2003 Share Posted July 26, 2003 It'd be one helleva walk for me...nonetheless, I wish I could attend. That hi-res recording would be of great interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 26, 2003 Author Share Posted July 26, 2003 Well, next time I'm in Florida I want to at least SEE that instrument of yours even if I can't hear or record it. ...and your always welcome in Texas. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted July 26, 2003 Share Posted July 26, 2003 Agreed, Dave...hopefully it'll be at least playable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjohnsonhp Posted July 26, 2003 Share Posted July 26, 2003 Dave, I think I can make it. I read the DFW_Hornheads Yahoo posts in email but I haven't logged into yahoo to respond. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 26, 2003 Author Share Posted July 26, 2003 You don't have to. I never do either. Just "reply" It gets there. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 26, 2003 Author Share Posted July 26, 2003 Man, what an awesome looking instrument. No caps, tubes, cables, speakers, or any such can compete with the real thing. I can't even begin to imagine what having such an instrument in my HOUSE would be like. You've lived my dreams. I'd love to meet your folks. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted July 26, 2003 Share Posted July 26, 2003 This is a view of the back of the Great Division. It's a 19 rank instrument, and it takes over 90% of the two-car garage (with a chamber wall built around it to regulate/maintain temperature, which keeps it in tune). My dad spent about 5 years building it (completed in 1983), and my mom just put up with it (the typical WAF, but she had grown to accept it). The console was built by a small PA organ firm in 1931, but with solid-state and microprocessor controls (and a MIDI playback system) deep inside of it, the 2-manual console is only a shell of its former self. Unfortunantly, a power spike or some other electrical disturbance must have literally fried some if not all of the microchips, for the MIDI playback system is inoperative. With my folks now living in CT, and my dad being quite busy with the pipe organ servicing firm he's employed with (and not possessing the same skills as my dad to repair/rebuild the home-made electronics), it may be quite some time until my dad has the time to come down to FL to make the necessary repairs. It is a wonderful instrument to have in your own home (it was always a dream of his to build his own pipe organ)...I'd just love to have it recorded one last time before it's sold (there are several churches in CT that may be interested in purchasing it for their congregations), and Dave would be the man to make it happen...if only the instrument was back in shape. Maybe someday soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKubicki Posted July 27, 2003 Share Posted July 27, 2003 That IS awsome...I'll bet it sounds as great as it looks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 27, 2003 Author Share Posted July 27, 2003 That should be in the "What kind of system..." thread! I stand ready when the time comes. I suspect I could talk Dr. Ann Stephenson-Moe, organist of the Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota, into doing the honors. That's where my church got it's organ. It would make a great 24/96 surround project. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted July 27, 2003 Share Posted July 27, 2003 You're so right, Dave. When my dad recorded the organ (from music we prepared on an old Cakewalk 4.0 DOS sequencer), all we used was two Shure Model SM81 unidirectional condenser microphones on stands, connected to a simple dbx 760X mic preamp, to a Panasonic SV-3700 pro DAT recorder. Unfortunantly, he set the recording level too low (he's used to using normal tapes on a Nakamichi 680ZX cassette deck...DAT recorders don't work that way), so sound quality is poor due to the low levels. And most of the MIDI files have later been rearranged and edited/improved, so now the music is arranged/registered better, but there's no way to play the files back through the organ's fried electronics (and I don't know if it's through the MIDI side or the organ's mechanical relay side (which actually drives the electropnuematic action to the organ's chests, which seat the pipework). He couldn't take a longer vaction this year to actually look at our organ due to the tremendous workload he has in the complete overhaul and restoration to the 1949 Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ at Symphony Hall in Boston (a one year, $1,000,000 contract). So it looks like our lil' pipe organ has got to wait... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted July 27, 2003 Share Posted July 27, 2003 ---------------- On 7/27/2003 12:27:59 AM AndyKubicki wrote: That IS awsome...I'll bet it sounds as great as it looks! ---------------- Thanks, Andy...it DID sound as great as it looks. Maybe someday it will again, and Dave will be there to record it! This is a partial view of the back of the Swell Division, looking into the rest of the organ chamber. Some of those pipes are very old, and others were built as late as '92. About half of the chestwork he either bought used, or scarfed up from churches that were literally throwing away their old organs as if they were the week's trash (a real shame). About 5 of the offset chests he built from scratch using 3/4 to 1" popular wood. Like a luthier who builds a handcrafted acoustic guitar, my dad can actually build a whole organ himself (minus the lead/tin metal alloy pipework)...I wish I had that talent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted July 27, 2003 Share Posted July 27, 2003 This is the 8' English Trumpet rank to the Great Division. The pipework was built in the mid '50's by the Wicks Organ Co. of Highlands, IL. Each pipe has little brass reeds inside their boots (like a reed to a clarinet or sax), and the upper portion of the pipes are the resonators (similar to flared bells on an actual trumpet or trombone, or the horns on Klipsch). The chestwork and braces are all handbuilt by my dad, and it took about a month to complete (after work and on weekends)...it would've been a week or less if he worked on them straight through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted July 27, 2003 Share Posted July 27, 2003 Didn't mean to hijack this thread...just one more post. This is an extreme example of old and new...The wooden 8' Gedeckt pipes on the left are the oldest pipes in our organ, from an old New England tracker action organ (builder unknown), ca. 1880's. The little 4' Holz Regal reed pipes to the right (with mahagony resonators) were the newest pipes, bought brand new in 1983 from the Franz Heissler KG Orgelbau of Bad Mergentheim-Markelsheim, Germany. It's amazing how well-matched these two different ranks are in their voicing, and can both be used in an ensemble or as solo stops. With over a hundred years difference in their assembly, used and new pipes can blend together if properly voiced...like a pair of new Klipschorns and a 40 year old H.H. Scott amp! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 27, 2003 Author Share Posted July 27, 2003 Feel free to hijack away. I am astounded at the mixture of pipes, ranks, and technology in this organ. Never seen or heard anything like it. Your dad really needs to fix it. He should have both the money, time, and inclination after the Boston project is finished. I'll get down there to record it if I have to walk and backpack the rig. As an old documentary film professor of mine use to say, "This is a story that must be told." Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted July 27, 2003 Share Posted July 27, 2003 Thanks, Dave...I'm flattered you feel that way. It is a unique instrument, not found in too many homes today (back in the 19th Century, only the wealthy and influencial of the Industrial Age had mansions big enough to house some truely amazing parlor organs...that of course was their form of home entertainment, way before silent pictures theatres and Victrolas). I just wish I had known you 20 years ago when our pipe organ was at its peak, but then you wouldn't have the latest multichannel 24-bit/96kHz recording equipment, just a Denon or Soundstream PCM digital tape recorder with a measley 16-bit/44.1kHz digital format...or something along those lines...whoopie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 27, 2003 Author Share Posted July 27, 2003 Our stars are crossed. You make it work, I'll preserve it. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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