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Atlantic City Convention Hall Organs

Started by barniclecompton, October 11, 2010, 02:00:04 AM

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KB7DQH

In one of the "related" videos you didn't list is some footage shot on what I believe would have been one of the ACCHOS tours of the instrument... from behind the console, whilst the Grand Ophiclede
was in play... 8) 8) 8)

I have viewed all but the Hess Collection...  Too much to ask of a 28.8KBPS dialup connection... Will have to do that one when I can sneak the laptop out to a "hotspot" with better speed than the home
dinosaur computer for which I am composing this post upon..........

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."

barniclecompton

The Hess Collection video has some of the music from the 1950s recordings of the instruments (which are on cd as bach on the biggest and boardwalk pipes). On the ACCHOS DVD it is "private" recordings of the midmer losh which were made on a home tape recorder in the 60`s that is put to these photos!


NonPlayingAnorak

Quote from: KB7DQH on October 12, 2010, 07:24:46 PMa 28.8KBPS dialup connection

Hang on. You live in the country with the world's biggest economy - and they still have that crap?!

I'm in semi-rural, semi-suburban Surrey and I've got 20MBPS cable broadband... in fact, I think my ISP were going to be bumping it up to 50KBPS.

KB7DQH

Well, in my current state of "financial embarrassment" I would rather spend the money on utility-supplied electricity ;D  I am guessing about a third of the US population is still using dialup as their primary internet access...  That speed quoted above is all my telephone line will manage.

  Unless you spend the $ for two-way satellite service, the cable TV/internet provider has a monopoly on broadband service in my "neck of the woods"... Might have to talk to the neighbor about setting up a WAP and help as I am able with the expense of his cable connection... The CATV line ends just behind his residence, would need another 300 feet to get into the house following the overhead TELCO cable routing. 
The local wireless 4G broadband provider doesn't have a site close enough to penetrate the vegetation here >:(   so far as I can tell the nearest site is over 5 miles away on the other side of a hill... 2.7GHz doesn't talk through dirt, trust me ;)  Sniffing with a high-gain downconverter hooked to my portable spectrum analyzer shows the strongest signals in that band come from the magnetron in my kitchen microwave oven ::)

Fortunately local businesses do have free wireless broadband "hotspots" where it is possible to
"surf at speed" so on one of my forays into civilization I dragged the notebook along...  and had a look at some of the links above.  Some great stuff there... 8) 8) 8)

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."

revtonynewnham

Hi

Parts of the UK also suffer - the telephone copper pair wiring was never designed for fast data transmission - and the real available speed reduces with distance from the exchange - so in some remote areas in the UK, the same problems apply.  I'm fortunate here, as (now) I'm on cable - where the main links are fibre optic.  That said, there are still issues with contention ratios with other users - but at least most things that I download are smooth and reasonably fast.  (Nominally 20Mbits/sec)

Every Blessing

Tony

barniclecompton

Would be nice to keep things on topic....:D

KB7DQH

True, we did "stray from the path"... Speaking of electronics related to the organs for which this thread
is about ;)

As I understand it the rebuild of the console for the Kimball Ballroom organ included the addition of a MIDI facility...

And that with the cabling between the console and Left Stage Chamber cut in 1998 during the refurbishment of the Convention Hall, that this portion of the organ at least will employ a multiplexing scheme?  Along with a modern solid-state combination system?

Curious...

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."

barniclecompton

I think the Kimball does have midi now. The console is back at the hall on display for a short time (along with the 5 manual "mobile" console from the midmer losh) until a big enough gap in events in the hall allows for it to be gotten back into its space up on the "console balcony" in the ballroom.
The Midmer Losh, the cables from the left stage chamber to the console are  fine as far as Im aware (the kimballs console was cut though),  and they fired the left stage up earlier this year, or late last year, but it was mainly cyphers and VERY out of tune (like much of the organ is just now), and lots of dead notes too. That chamber has sat idle since...late 70s/early 80s, all got too much for one man to maintain on a very limited budget.

barniclecompton

Unfortunatly, it seems another leak has developed above the Kimball organs chambers, further delaying the connection of the newly restored console.

KB7DQH

A Math teacher, in an instructional blog series has charted the various divisions of the Midmer-Losh instrument and has produced a fascinating chart ;D 8) ;)  as part of his series on "Size"...

http://excelmathmike.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-do-you-measure-size-large-organs.html

Thought this would be of interest...

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."

barniclecompton

I was just reading through an old copy of "The Grand Ophicleide" (the ACCHOS 1/4rly magazine) about the various organists who have been known to play the Midmer losh organ. Ive always wondered about the organist William H Jackson who was the Atlantic city organist from 1926-1936, of which there is abit about in this edition of the newsletter http://www.acchos.org/pdf/GO28.pdf
Does anyone have anything more of him? Surely there must be recordings of him somewhere?!

David Pinnegar

Quote from: KB7DQH on January 22, 2011, 07:24:02 AM
http://excelmathmike.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-do-you-measure-size-large-organs.html

Hi!

Sorry to take something from this off topic - it links to
http://www.excelmath.com/BLOG/Clerambault.mp3
which is most excellently voiced - but one can tell it's not French because it doesn't have the slightly nasal tonality which one would expect from the effects of the temperament. This should have jagged edges to the sound which are not possible on the equal tempered instrument . . .

Perhaps this post should be moved to the temperament category . . . but in view of the link it's appropriate for the first entry to be here perhaps . . .

Best wishes

David P

KB7DQH

QuoteSurely there must be recordings of him somewhere?!

Maybe in Emmerson Richards' personal collection... Or maybe in an archive held by ACCHOS or possibly privately...

There have been surprisingly few recordings of this instrument which have been publicly released...
and even those would be "out-of-print" if it wasn't for the ACCHOS...

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."

barniclecompton

Id assume theres something at least in private. Emerson richards collection was sadly all lost in a fire in the 50s if i remember correctly, including the large skinner organ which he had in his house.
There is 4 reel to reel tapes of Barbara Fesmire and Lowell Ayers playing the Midmer Losh, and the Kimball, but, they havent been released yet, mainly because they mostly contain snippets of the whole peices of music. I find this abit of a silly reason to hold them because, they let people hear the instrument as it was in the 60s, entire peices of music or not!
Still William Jackson is said here to have moved on to play at Radio City music hall, as well as being Pierre Du Pont`s "private organist"....and hes said to have been a child prodigy, and would play any peice of music requested...surely there must be something, but if there is, why hasnt it been found yet!

barniclecompton


barniclecompton

The 55 rank Kimball is now on wind again, and work is starting on the console being connected back up!
http://www.acchos.org/ballroom.php

Midmerlosh

 HELLO!

     WILLIAM JACKSON WAS THE FIRST CITY ORGANIST AT CONVENTION HALL IN ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY. THE MIDMERLOSH IS STILL TODAY THE WORLD'S LARGEST ORGAN WITH MAGNIFICENT SOUND. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IMFORMATION OR AUDIO OF MR. JACKSON PLAYINGNTHIS ORGAN? THANKS SO MUCH!

pcnd5584

Quote from: Midmerlosh on June 20, 2014, 04:50:46 AM
HELLO!

     WILLIAM JACKSON WAS THE FIRST CITY ORGANIST AT CONVENTION HALL IN ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY. THE MIDMERLOSH IS STILL TODAY THE WORLD'S LARGEST ORGAN WITH MAGNIFICENT SOUND. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IMFORMATION OR AUDIO OF MR. JACKSON PLAYINGNTHIS ORGAN? THANKS SO MUCH!

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