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Hybrids... an article supporting a thesis of our forum founder's postulations...

Started by KB7DQH, October 20, 2011, 08:56:46 PM

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KB7DQH

http://www.bakersfield.com/entertainment/local/x1766488540/Pipes-are-going-to-speak-as-organ-gets-digital-makeover

One must bear in mind the Rodgers Organ Company was conceived by an electronics test equipment manufacturer, and eventually has built some all-pipe instruments  :o;) 8)  The article describes the process of incorporating electronics into the restoration and expansion of a pipe instrument and alludes to a similar project in the same geographic area...

QuotePipes are going to 'speak' as organ gets digital makeover
BY SUSAN SCAFFIDI Contributing writer | Wednesday, Oct 19 2011 12:42 PM

Last Updated Wednesday, Oct 19 2011 12:43 PM

Community concert

When: 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: First United Methodist Church, 4600 Stockdale Highway

Admission Free

Information: 325-1267

"You get this wonderful, grand effect: the organ will sound more alive and bigger."

-- Nelson Dodge, who directed the weeklong installation of the modified organ at First United Methodist Church

Until the modern age, the pipe organ was the most complex device ever created by human beings, with a history that starts in the third century B.C. But its precisely because of modern technology that this ancient instrument is finding a new lease on life.

In September, technicians from Church Keyboard Center of San Dimas installed Bakersfield's second digital-pipe combination organ at First United Methodist Church on Stockdale Highway and Montclair. The new organ, a Rodgers Masterpiece MS 376B, is a cousin to the instrument already in use at First Presbyterian Church on H Street. First United Methodist Church has been raising funds for over a year to upgrade the original $40,000 organ purchased in 1972, which has cost the church $80,000 in repairs. A committee of church members concluded that merely repairing the organ wasn't cost effective, and that upgrading the entire instrument, with its 1,500 pipes, would be a better investment.

"One of the selling points (of the Rodgers) was that we are going to keep our organ," said committee member Walter Grainger. "The investment in today's dollars would be far more than this church has ever paid -- almost $500,000."

"You just don't throw that kind of investment away," Grainger said.

According to Church Keyboard Center president Nelson Dodge, who directed the weeklong installation, the upgrade and new digital technology will cost the church $151,000 -- far less than replacing the entire organ.

But the members of First United Methodist are getting more than an upgrade.

This new model is engineered by organist and digital technology expert Dr. Robert Tall, who is as widely respected as an organ-building consultant as he is a performer. Tall will perform on the new organ Sunday.

Dodge said the organ has been customized for the worship center at First United Methodist Church.

"The pipes are going to 'speak,'" Dodge said. "With the digital we can add to the reverberation."

"You get this wonderful, grand effect: the organ will sound more alive and bigger," Dodge said.

Pipe organs function by sending pressurized air through pipes of various sizes, each of which is tuned to a specific pitch and sound quality, known as timbre. The pipes, which are normally closed, are opened when the organist presses the corresponding keys on the keyboard or steps on the assigned foot pedal. The first type of pipe organ, an ancient Greek invention called a hydraulis, used water pressure to compress air and push it through the pipes, like a gasoline pump in reverse. By the Middle Ages, bellows and hand pumps were used to push the air through.

During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, organ builders -- themselves both artists and mechanical engineers -- were able to add different timbres to the organ, imitating various types of wind and stringed instruments. By the Romantic period, pipe organs were capable of mimicking an entire orchestra.

Electricity was used to move the air at the end of the 19th century. Invented by English organ builder Robert Hope-Jones, the electro-pneumatic organ was sold to the Rudolf Wurlitzer Company, which found an immediate use for the powerful instrument: accompanying silent movies in the giant movie palaces of the day.

The digital pipe organ represents the next great leap forward in organ building. Using music sampling and MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) technology, the new organs can now re-create the sound of an orchestra -- hundreds of instruments -- with astonishing accuracy.

"There are over 1,000 voices possible," Dodge said, adding that all of the organ's pipes have been digitally sampled and included in the hybrid's memory.

"But then the rest of it is orchestra sounds, Hammond B3 (organ), percussion, Clavinova, electric piano, guitar -- just about everything," Dodge said.

Dodge said the organ is also equipped with virtually limitless memory, which will enable any number of organists to store their instrument settings for all of the music they play.

Tall took charge of retuning the organ's pipes, an arduous task that includes adjusting each of the 1,500 pipes for individual sound and timbre, and then matching them each to the other for the best sound possible.

"That's really where my expertise is," Tall said, adding that the common term for the adjustment is "voicing."

"You adjust the pipes for the attack, the running tone, how (the organ sounds) in relationship to the entire room," Tall said.

The new technology brings with it another benefit -- making the organ, with its ability to reproduce faithfully contemporary instruments, useful to younger generations of church-goers and musicians.

"It's one of the ways by which younger people who have an interest in contemporary music can be drawn," said Dr. Phil Dodson, one of Kern County's pre-eminent organists and a musician at First United Methodist.

"This is the thing we've been looking for because we have the contemporary service and we're trying to sell (younger members) that this is the instrument to liven up their service," Grainger said.


Eric

Quote
"One of the selling points (of the Rodgers) was that we are going to keep our organ," said committee member Walter Grainger. "The investment in today's dollars would be far more than this church has ever paid -- almost $500,000."

"You just don't throw that kind of investment away," Grainger said.

KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

David Pinnegar

:-) Ummm . . . !

This is a controversial issue but I really do feel that it warrants more open discussion and even imaginative thought.

UK professional organ builders probably boycott this forum because I have dared utterances on this Taboo . . . but the article above raises important issues, some of which are stomach turning, of course.

Possibly one of the best ways of keeping "The Organ" "pure" is for organ builders to stick to purely mechanical tracker instruments. These cannot be bastardised and are the only true instruments which will last for 100s of years and always be repairable and maintainable as a matter of common sense.

As soon as electric actions and electronics necessary for remote consoles are concerned, a whole world of opportunities can be opened up - and - in the light of the degradation of church music that has led to adoption of "keyboard" synthesised sounds, then using the organ console to control them at least gives contact to people who would not otherwise come to an organ with the instrument . . . The degradation of church music is so abysmal in some arenas that the reintroduction of the organ may have to come from the concept of bringing the organ to the people rather than expecting inexperienced people to come to the organ.

There are, however, inspirational instruments that can wholly buck that trend. Last weekend I took a friend who had never heard an organ recital before to St Maximin . . . and . . . WOW! She was converted . . .

However, there are many instruments that are simply not at all inspirational. Many octopods on which nothing very exciting can be done and which most probably face the scrapheap, bonfire and metal merchants. What is better? That they be scrapped or otherwise form the basis of something more adventurous? Were an octopod to receive a 12th, 15th and possibly Tierce and or even a mixture, and possibly a reed that won't go out of tune . . . many a boring instrument, if well combined, could possibly be a good deal more interesting and perhaps without even really jeopardising the integrity of the original pipe instrument.

I have bought recently on ebay a little 2 rank pipe mixture. It will be very interesting to play with this, adding a MIDI decoder so that possibly it might be used with the digital instrument . . . or by using a clampon to the swell of the pipe organ feeding pouch switches, to add to the pipe organ. Whilst established builders cannot be seen to break taboos, be adventurous nor experiment for the fear of suffering the fate of Peter Collins, the amateur organist and amateur builders have an important role to play in their freedom to explore . . .

Thanks, Eric, for bringing this interesting article to attention.

Best wishes

David P

KB7DQH

Quote
This is a controversial issue but I really do feel that it warrants more open discussion and even imaginative thought.

And so it may be time to create a board within the forum where Hybrids can be specifically dealt with?

I also note this was a subject largely absent from the discussions in Zurich...

The development of the pipe organ throughout the past centuries suggests a desire to increase its versatility... The addition of reed pipes to emulate brass band instruments, string-scale pipework to incorporate orchestral sounds, the "pedal organ"... and... the swell-box, permitting more flexible control of "dynamic" output...  The first use of a mechanical "memory" system allowing the instrument to be played without an organist...

And then along came electricity:)  and with that, "electronics"... making possible truly "orchestral" instruments of immense size and complexity.

To a great extent the development of electronic audio reproduction pioneered by the motion picture industry has diminished the role of the pipe organ in the greater society.  Nowhere was this more apparent than in the cinemas themselves where the technology of the pipe organ was pushed to the limits of the technology available... necessary to provide some form of "aural" reinforcement of what was presented on the monochrome screen... to vanish nearly overnight with the introduction of "sound" in cinematography.  Yet the cinema organ as a musical instrument in its own right has not become "extinct"...  Some even remain fully playable in the cinemas where they were originally installed.  And still get used to provide musical accompaniment to silent films:)

A century later the humble pipe organ is still being built using methods developed centuries ago,
but is very likely to be equipped with state-of-the-art computer technology, to store and retrieve information related to control of the instrument, and in some cases serve the same purpose as a rotating drum with pins installed centuries earlier...

That being said, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"... It is no surprise that the same technology used to bring sound to movies was employed along with other electromechanical devices to emulate the sound of pipe instruments... and like the soundtracks on early film the results were not entirely successful... but still convincing enough that these "musical appliances" gained acceptance in places otherwise unsuited to the installation of pipe instruments... and as technology progressed, began invading spaces that could likely be better served by a pipe instrument...

One cannot discount the fact that the most cost-effective employment of state-of-the-art technology in the development of a "universal keyboard instrument" relies on the existence of "real acoustical musical instruments" to provide the most accurate waveforms to drive the loudspeakers of such an instrument.

Yet there are limitations to the ability of a loudspeaker to accurately reproduce these sounds accurately...

One could logically follow on that a combination of pipe and non-pipe technology represents the pinnacle of Man's abilities in musical instrument development, as it exists using all of the economically viable technology available?

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

Another one ;D

QuoteRestoring Uxbridge's last remaining pipe organ
St. Andrew's - Chalmers Presbyterian Church offers a service in "grand style"

Celia Klemenz / Metroland
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UXBRIDGE -- The only pipe organ left in Uxbridge has now been restored and is giving the St. Andrew's - Chalmers Presbyterian Church "greater potential", according to Reverend Ted Thompson.

"We do a traditional service here," said Mr. Thompson. "Now we have the equipment to do it in grand style."

After the congregation gave its approval for the restoration of the pipe organ, dating back to the early 1900s, Richard Watson, church musician, got to work.

The project began in June and cost about $22,000. The cost would have greatly increased if the work was not done by church members. The organ is now a combination of a traditional pipe organ and an electronic digital instrument.

The massive sound that bellows from its 900 pipes echoes through the breathtaking, ornate sanctuary. Mr. Watson's passion for the project and his musical talent also echoed through the sanctuary, reaching the top of its cathedral ceilings.

"You have to hear it in the flesh, I can't describe it," he said.

The pipe organ was the only surviving instrument of its type in Uxbridge and before it was restored had severe electrical problems. Mr. Watson said many of the pipes would occasionally, without warning, "speak on their own" without the organist touching the keys.

"It was very awkward during a service," he chuckled.

The project began with the replacement of all the controlling electronics with a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), the industry-standard for communication between electronic musical instruments and computers. Mr. Watson explained this allowed the existing malfunctioning electrical controls to be replaced by a single small MIDI cable.

"The hundreds of individual wires between the organ console and the pipe chamber were replaced using this one simple cable," he said.

Congregation members, Scott Andrews, John Gould and Greg Jess assisted Mr. Watson in the revamp of the organ and the crew eventually decided to further improve the instrument's abilities, using sounds recorded from large, existing pipe organs.

The church purchased three separate recordings from pipe organs in Oshawa, Chicago and England.

According to Mr. Watson, the recordings would have taken years to complete and each cost about $1,000.

While a pipe organ with 900 pipes may sound extremely large, the organ in England has a whopping 9,000 pipes while the Oshawa organ has 3,500 and the Chicago organ has 6,000.

"When you get both (sounds) together, that's what makes it work," he said. "This is a labour of love, I do it for my Saviour."

The sampled sounds were combined with the original pipe organ, resulting in a 'hybrid' pipe organ.

"This combination makes the resulting sound of the two sources sound like one huge and powerful pipe organ," said Mr. Watson.

For the first time, the new organ was recently played at the church's Christmas Eve service.

"This system takes full advantage of the enormous processing power of the latest computers," said Mr. Watson. "The resulting sound has to be experienced firsthand in order to appreciate how old and new technologies have combined to save and extend our previous real pipe instrument."

To experience the sound of the new pipe organ, visitors can stop by the Uxbridge St. Andrew's - Chalmers Presbyterian Church, 40 Toronto St., on Sundays at 10:30 a.m.

http://www.durhamregion.com/community/life/article/1272722--restoring-uxbridge-s-last-remaining-pipe-organ

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."