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Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


Bet everyone here has looked at a stop list for an organ that they've seen a picture of that looked nice, or heard on a CD and said to themselves, "That's an organ I've always dreamed of playing."

Bet the Hauptwerk folks and some of the 3rd-party digitizers of instruments look at this site to see what us organ simulator folks are playing and using. Wonder if they'd pay for time in a venue or talk venues into allowing them to sample the organ(s) there if there were a large enough outcry (or market since $ speak louder than words) of the folks here demanding it.

Just to get the idea rolling along, Here are 5 organs of which I would probably buy the sample set if it were available at a reasonable price:

Notre Dame De Paris
The National Cathedral in Washington D.C.
Wanamaker's Department Store.
The Cathedral in Cologne.
The Mormon Tabernacle.

Anybody else have a dream organ they'd like to be able to play at home?

--Kevin
by KSByrne
Oct 29, 2018 05:33 AM

Replies (34)

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


Westminster Abbey comes to mind for me.
by Wannabe
Oct 30, 2018 04:34 PM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


Do you really think any of these organs could be sampled and made available at a resaonable price?
by Erzahler
Oct 30, 2018 06:07 PM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


Erzahler has a point: most of the organs with the "not-so-common" ranks that I'd like to hear/play are huge instruments and would be rather expensive to sample. Probably would cost something like the Budapest concert hall organ that is available in a digitized hauptwerk format, but costs in the $800 range (last time I looked, maybe if they put it on sale in the $500 range I could afford it after the holidays).

Perhaps if we all encourage every organist, organ student and keyboard player we know to purchase digital organ software and there were enough of us out there in the real world enjoying the simulated world of organs, the companies providing the samples could lower their costs and still make a profit by making up the loss of income from individual sales over a larger volume of sales.

Perhaps that's why I referred to them as "dream" organs, because I must be dreaming to think you could get one of those on the cheap.

--Kevin
by KSByrne
Oct 31, 2018 02:05 AM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


How come no one mentioned St Ouen de Rouen? or St Sernin? c'mon
by RRKdudas
Oct 31, 2018 07:00 AM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


The beautiful 1868 William Hill organ in the Parish Church of Sarum St. Martin, Salisbury UK would not be too large a project and would provide a very good example of this master builder and his two son's work.
by robcamfield
Nov 1, 2018 05:02 AM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


I'd like to go with some familiar ones (yeah, familiar -- not famous)... ;)

- Magdeburg Cathedral main organ (Schuke 2008, IV+P, 92 stops, 117 ranks)
More or less for the training effect and to get used to the instrument, which I'm allowed to play when I pay a visit to my former birthplace. Hometown glory! ;)
--> Stop listing: http://www.magdeburgerdommusik.de/html/the_west_organ.html
--> Demo pieces: http://www.magdeburgerdommusik.de/html/klangbeispiele.html

- Old Parish Church, Solda/South Tyrol/Italy (II+P, 18 stops, 20? ranks)
My source of inspiration during summer vacations. Built in 1907 (builder unknown to me) and refurbished in the 1970s, this gem still has still a lot of romantic warmth in it. Along with that squeaky e3 in the mixture, which always is a pain when accidentally hit. Sampling would need extensive post-processing to get rid of all the artifacts and malfunctioning pneumatic bellows "experience", but would be worth the effort IMHO. A sampled version should include an "original mode" with all the failures being present... ;)
In July 2016, I took the time to create a spreadsheet (in German) where I listed any errors that I could find. A small number of issues seem to have been fixed over the past 2 years. The spreadsheet file also serves as a stop listing.
--> Stop listing: http://whirlpool.media-culture.de/tmp/Sulden_Fehlermatrix.pdf
--> Sound demo and footage: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYdkxyPei724Gi8PfDOlt_3euf-HPJ0rt

Perhaps the latter would be a new challenge for our friend Piotr Grabowski... :-)
by woody-mc
Nov 2, 2018 08:58 PM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


P.S. Regarding the organ at Solda, I'd be willing to fund Piotr or whoever intends to provide a free / non-commercial sample set. As I try to keep an eye and care as much as possible for that orphaned organ, this would be the least that I can do to conserve it.
Talking to the locals would be no problem either, including German-English translation services for the sampling person/team if (s)he/they is/are no native German speakers.
In case anyone is interested in a collaboration, please feel free to contact me via the forum or PN.
by woody-mc
Nov 2, 2018 09:32 PM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


Blackburn Cathedral would be truly marvelous!
by robcamfield
Nov 3, 2018 03:46 AM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


Agree, this is a significant organ;
https://www.blackburncathedral.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Blackburn-Cathedral-Organ-Specification.pdf
by Erzahler
Nov 3, 2018 04:01 AM

RE: Dream Pipe Organs pipe organists would like to see digitized.


St-Ouen (although the composite Aristide is a perfect substitute)
St-Sernin
Köln cathedral (the transept organ)
Frederiksborg castle
Goslar Grohauf
a big Walcker (why isn't Annaberg released, it sounds already perfect in beta version ?)
by PLRT
Nov 3, 2018 11:00 AM

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