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Voicing is key to making an electronic installation successful

Started by David Pinnegar, May 31, 2011, 04:53:30 PM

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David Pinnegar

Hi!

Sadly we have to accept that at times an electronic instrument is the only way in which organ music is kept alive and whilst it's important for electronic instruments to be nowhere near as good as a pipe organ, if they are not good enough, then the instrument as an example of an "organ" to the man in the street gives the instrument a bad reputation.

Last evening at Hammerwood I was playing French Baroque in Meantone temperament and was rather unaware that I was not at St Maximin in France  . . . This came about because I had been aware of shortcomings of the instrument formerly at LondonDerry Cathedral which I sought to overcome by additions to make it more versatile. However, as time has gone on, I have carefully gone through the original Makin instrument, both improving speakers on most of the channels, and paying particular attention to voicing. In particular the Great I had not felt to be particularly satisfactory, particularly on full organ and a screaming 5 rank mixture contributed to this. In addition, playing a chord in the right had on top of a large chord in the left often made no audible contribution. Paying particular attention to ensuring that
  • the top octave is prominent enough without being overbearing, and particularly ensuring that
  • where stops are split into low and high harmonics, it's the high harmonics that are more prominent in the top octave,
  • prominence is given to the 2ft in the top octave
  • reducing quint based components of the Fourniture mixture in the bottom octave
  • evening out notes in the top two octave of both mixture and 2ft so that none scream
  • giving prominence to the higher harmonics of the mixture in the top two octaves
  • reducing the raw power of the mixture
  • adjusting the balance between 8ft Stopped Diapason and 4ft Principal so that the combination can serve as Small Open Diapason
  • evening out notes on the Posaune and adjusting the upper harmonic element of it to be more prominent in the top two octaves
has made the difference between what one might expect from an electronic instrument and now something rather better

Similarly ensuring proper progression from Diapason on Swell to Mixture, an appropriate Oboe and then the progression to Trumpet, making sure that the addition of Clarion and Fagotto make a real contribution means that the Swell makes an appropriate crescendo to the Great when required.

These issues of balance are key and without them any electronic installation is impoverished and won't measure up on full organ.

I note that one of our members here:
http://www.paulisom.com/organ-consultantvoicer.html
does this sort of thing commercially and it's probably well worth getting him in on any installation that's indifferent.

Best wishes

David P

revtonynewnham

Hi

Very true David.  Isuspect that most electronic organ builders just don't budget for the costs of proper voicing on site.

I look forward to hearing the improvements to the Makin next time I'm down your way.

Every Blessing

Tony

Colin Pykett

I should like to make some points about this.

1.  Voicing is also key to making a PIPE installation successful!.  Many pipe organs suffer from similar problems relating to the regulation of mixtures and mutations.  Electronic organs are by no means the sole culprits.

2.  There are two ways to do the job.  The first, and quickest, is to sit down at the instrument much as David has described and adjust it to one's taste.  The second, and better, method is to do the same thing but ONLY AFTER one has had one's hearing checked professionally by an audiologist or ENT specialist.  This is because presbyacusis (age related hearing loss) starts to set in quite strongly in one's forties.  One seldom becomes aware of this at first, and some (many?!) remain in a state of denial even when they are so aware.  (Incidentally, an ENT surgeon is much better than a High Street audiologist because s/he tests other things than merely your frequency response.  For example, mine checked the mechanical impedances of both ear drums and various other things as well.  Very thorough and well worth while, because these things can also indicate severe illnesses which are quite separate from hearing itself.  However I could not get this done on the NHS (of course) because I was obviously not yet quite dead.  I paid for it and it was worth every penny).

John Norman recently became one of the few people in the trade to declare honestly and publicly that he suffered from ARHL (not that it's exceptional in any way - it affects everybody as they age).  See his recent piece in Organists' Review where he described how he cannot now hear the top few notes of a fifteenth stop.

My own hearing is not quite as bad - it's about 40 dB down at 8 kHz (the top note of a 15th), and I can still just about hear that top C.  But it means that when I regulate my own instruments much as David has described, I have to compensate for my own hearing defects.  I am still searching for the best way to do it, but a graphic equaliser can help considerably.

Only if one does this can one hope that the results will be acceptable to people of all ages, rather than just to oneself.  Otherwise, you might adjust an instrument entirely to your own satisfaction, only to find a younger person finds it screeches and screams - which is exactly what one wanted to avoid in the first place.  It's an important but much-neglected matter.  Not surprising, considering that voicers and tuners in middle age and beyond still have to make a living, and they are hardly likely to tell a client that they can't do it properly!

You might like to read my web article on the subject which has attracted much interest, judging by the amount of email I've received:

http://www.pykett.org.uk/arhlandob.htm

Incidentally, none of this is in any way intended to be critical of David's approach, which I fully endorse.  I'm merely saying it gets more difficult as one gets older and one has to be aware of this if one is to do a proper job.

Best wishes

Colin Pykett


David Pinnegar

Dear Colin

You make some very valid and worthwhile points here and I wonder if this might be the reason why in the 1980s and 90s as a younger man I objected so very much to the hideous neoclassical instruments which might have been so very much loved by the older generation with hearing loss!

Certainly if the Makin ever received regulation, its mixture had been done by someone with extreme hearing loss in the upper frequencies as the Fourniture had always been a stop labelled "use this at your peril". Now it's still excitingly strong but works as well with the Diapason/Principal/Fifteenth as with the quieter flute chorus Stopped Diapason/Flute/Fifteenth.

Because of the attention I have paid to the instrument, it has become something beyond that to which the derisory term of "toaster" is applicable. It's as close to a pipe organ that any electronic instrument can be - but that's not the point. It provides a test-bed for registration experiments, for putting together pipe organ specifications as well as an instrument on which tuition and  masterclasses can be given in every different style. More than that, it's a concert instrument which can do justice to all periods and regions of the repertoire. Organists are always welcome - 01342 850594

Best wishes

David P


Barry Williams

I agree with Colin; many pipe organs fail for want of proper voicing and tonal finishing.

These skills (voicing and tonal fininshing) are quite separate; this is often overlooked.  A voicer receives the pipes from the pipe maker.  At that point they do not speak at all.  The voicer sets the Cs by cutting up and adjusting, including the languid and tip.  This is all done in the voicing shop, though some earlier organ builders had a voicing machine on site.  (I think that Schulze may have done this.)

The other pipes in the rank are then prepared to match the Cs.  This work is sometimes undertaken by an apprenctice.  The pipes are then placed on the voicing machine, (actually a small organ chest with a keyboard,) and the voicer makes each pipe speak.  This process can take two or three days for a single rank of 61 pipes.

When the pipes are placed in the organ they are tuned.  Then the organ undergoes tonal finishing.  This is the adjusting of the instrument to the building.

Both voicing and tonal fininshing are highly skilled jobs.  Most organ builders (who make soundboards, build organs, etc) are not qualified to do voicing or tonal finishing.  Some do, with unhappy results, as Colin has pointed out.

I have heard pipe organs transformed by a voicer who has shaped the tone to match the building and give the organ colour, vitality and an individual 'voice'.

The same can be done with electronic instruments, though I do wonder whether some of the people who undertake this work, being organists and lacking the extensive training of a pipe organ voicer, can do the job well.  It takes far more knowledge than being an organist to be a voicer and to do tonal finishing.  Mention has been made of Paul Isom.  Paul installed several electronic instruments in the Diocese where I am the Organs Adviser.  The tonal finishing of these instruments was impeccable.  I say 'was', because in one case someone else came along (who is a very competent organist, but no voicer,) and altered the tonal finishing, with unfortunate results.

I have heard electronic instruments voiced and tonally finished by pipe organ voicers.  The results have been, as you would expect, superb.  I am amazed that the electronic organ industry does not engage the tonal skills that are so urgently needed.  Often, the installation is left in the hands of an organist/saleman whose skills cannot possibly match those of a pipe organ voicer, despite the best of intentions. 

Age related hearing loss is not the only problem for voicers.  Several have developed tinnitus which is a most distressing condition.  There is an incident reported of a disagreement between W T Best and 'Father' Willis about the regulation of certain top notes, when the issue clearly related to one having lost some of his hearing in the top register.

Of course, what one has in a house organ in entirely one's own business, but organs in churches and schools should be voiced and finished to the highest possible standards, whether pipe or electronic.  That they are not is sad, because it means that the particular instrument fails to reach its true potential,

Barry Williams