Electronic simulation of theoretical and lost organs

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Most compressed audio - regardless of the system (mp3, ATRAC or anything else) throws away the information that the coders think the ear/brain combination won't notice - a false assumption.  It's interesting to compare (as I was able to do one) a 16bit uncompressed recording (on DAT) of a concert with the mp3 backup (we were doing a delayed relay of a live event on a radio station) - the differences were quite noticeable if you listened closely (most obvious was the truncation of reverb tails, but there were other artifacts as well).  I don't know what YouTube uses - nor what the video producers use (most camcorders will have some form of Automatic Level Control) - but computer bandwidth limitations mean that it's certainly not 16bit WAV (which is equivalent to CD). 

No form of recording will accurately represent hearing the same sound sources live.  Some might come close - but until the perfect loudspeaker is invented - and then placed in an anechoic room - perfection just isn't possible!

Every Blessing

Tony

[Colin Pykett]

I don't often post on discussion fora and don't belong to many, but thought I would say thanks for the kind remarks and interest in my work and website which have appeared on this thread and elsewhere on the forum.

So, thanks!

Regards

Colin Pykett

[revtonynewnham]

Hi Colin

Good to see you here.  Hope you're keeping well.  I must revisit your web site when I can free up some time - see what's new!

Every Blessing

Tony

[David Pinnegar]

Hi Colin!

Another welcome . . . it's great to see you here and perhaps it's a good place to mention updates to your website as you do them.

You've been leading in all sorts of fields for many years and I was amused, knowing that you have proposed for a long time the use of temperament in which the 2:1 octave ratio is not sacred, to read on a piano tuner's forum http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1351184/1.html that this is now starting to be being taken seriously on the piano, with the Circular Harmonic System http://math.unipa.it/~grim/Quaderno19_Capurso_09_engl.pdf

There are other areas where your research electronically has led to better understanding of pipe organs and for this reason your researches electronically are very important and they are validly discussed in a mainly pipe organ focussed environment.

I'm not unique here in believing that electronic organs are an inspiration to pipe organ building, proof of which is in Martin Hickman's editorial of the current EOCS magazine in which he documents how the installation of an electronic organ raised everyone's enthusiasm to get their pipe organ restored and playable again.

For this reason, there are no Taboos on this forum and we really look forward to whatever you might like to contribute in due course.

Best wishes

David P

[Colin Pykett]

Many thanks for your kind welcome gentlemen, especially as it's some time since we last met.

Personally I take neither side in the pipe vs electronic debate, believing that both have their place.  I have derived much musical pleasure and technical challenges from both types over 40-plus years.  However I accept that, maybe, I can only wallow in the luxury of sitting on the fence because I do not have to earn my living in the trade (or craft if you prefer).  An organ builder usually does not enjoy such freedom.  Perhaps one realistic way ahead (from a business - and hence survival - point of view) in these straitened times is for firms to consider having a foot in both camps, as Compton did many years ago.  It does not necessarily mean they would have to manufacture both pipe and digital instruments - at least one small and fairly new firm started with pipe organs but also now run a regional dealership for a well known digital brand as well.  And others work with makers of the other persuasion to offer hybrid pipe/digital organs.

I am sometimes disappointed to see people adopt a polarised position without acknowledging, or even understanding, the facts of the matter.  Some who do this are well known in their fields, but they sometimes seem unaware how it exposes them to ridicule.  However the upside is that it has been a fruitful source of quotations for my website over the years.  I hope they don't mind me tweaking them in this way!

And speaking of my website (since you both were kind enough to mention it), I have had some private correspondence on impure octaves with the piano tuning fraternity whom David mentioned.  Serge Cordier was one of the first to systematise it by using pure fifths and stretched octaves, and Yehudi Menuhin and Paul Badura-Skoda (among others) were very taken with the results.  I discussed this in detail, including some sound examples, in the article http://www.pykett.org.uk/impureoctaves.htm.

As to what's new on the site, I recently described my personal journey of 35+ years in analysing and trying to understand the sounds of organ pipes.  (http://www.pykett.org.uk/mysteriesoforgansounds.htm).  While it might be premature to say I'm now sitting on a cloud in some sort of Nirvana, at least I know more than I did when I started!

Best wishes and thanks again.  I'm glad there are no taboos on this forum.  Some others suffer badly in that respect IMHO.

Colin Pykett