Aidan Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Our church is currently staring at a huge bill for restoring our ancient pipe organ, so we are considering all options. Yesterday the sub-organist and myself went to three locations in the Greater Manchester area to look at example installations (by the same company) of pipe, digital and hybrid organs. Can you spot which is which? Answers on this thread, if you please... Click here to play! Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37 Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgoo Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Well...... Organ A looks the most tradtional to me, but the panel above the top manual looks kinda suspect, so I'm gonna guess that to be the hybrid. Organ B looks the simplest, so I'll guess that's a real pipe organ. That leaves Organ C as the digital. The audio sample links didn't work so I couldn't listen. My answers are basically uneducated guesses. Good luck with the hunt! Looks fun. Custom Music, Audio Post Production, Location Audio www.gmma.biz https://www.facebook.com/gmmamusic/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Anyone else having problems with the audio btw? They work for me and various church colleagues I've sent the page link to. Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37 Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoggernick Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 The audio worked for me. I have very little (but some) experience with pipes and MIDI'd pipe organs. Nevertheless, I'd guess: A=Pure pipesB=DigitalC=Hybrid Favorite Gear:Vintage Vibe 73 w/MIDI, Microkorg, ipad2 with lotsa apps, VB3, Rhodes 88, Roland VK8, Fantom XR, Brainspawn Forte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig MacDonald Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 The audio worked for me. I have very little (but some) experience with pipes and MIDI'd pipe organs. Nevertheless, I'd guess: A=Pure pipes B=Digital C=Hybrid +1 Craig MacDonald Hammond BV, Franken-B (A100 in a BV cabinet), Leslies 122/147/44W, Crumar Mojo, HX3 module, Korg Kronos, VR-09, Roland GAIA, Burn, Ventilator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 For anyone who's had trouble listening to the audio, I've now updated the page to provide a download link to a .zip file containing all three MP3 files of the organs in questions. Some interesting answers so far - I'll say no more for now! Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37 Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnus64 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 A. Hybrid B. Digital C. Pure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Cygnus has it spot on. The background: Our current pipe organ (not particularly historically significant) underwent a fairly substantial restoration at the turn of the century, costing around £100,000. However, as our organ technician admitted to me on our little field trip the other day, the work carried out then represented fairly "easy" jobs. We're getting to the "hardcore" stuff now. We are faced with a prospective complete rebuild of the positif/choir, several stops on the great and swell need thorough rebuilding, and the bellows chests for all three manuals need total refurbishment. In addition, the organ has a hugely complex and unreliable pneumatic action which really needs replacing with an electronic one. The likely cost of all this work is close to £250,000. We are a large, town centre parish church but finding that sort of money would be nigh-on impossible. Even if we had it, as a Christian - much as I love pipe organs too - I couldn't justify spending that sort of money on a musical instrument when people in our parish are struggling financially and are losing their jobs. Our ministry team feel the same way. For around £30k, we can have a reliable and perfectly good digital console installed in the current space, with all the associated amplification concealed within existing pipework. To be brutally realistic, that's where we're headed. But I was pleasantly surprised at how good the digital installation I played was. For what it's worth, if money had been no object, my favourite of the three was actually the hybrid. Our organ builder told us that several professional organists had been unable to pick out which were the pipe and which were the digital stops. But such a solution would cost almost as much as the full pipe organ, and still leave major maintenance issues down the line. Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37 Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnus64 Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Aidan, my Brother-in law's ex is very involved in her Church, she works there. About 4 years ago there was a substantial fire and the organ was destroyed, so I have some (not a lot) of knowledge about it and was asked my opinion (sort of) as the musician in the family. Their church is in an upscale suburb of Pittsburgh and probably is more well off than others. We are a large, town centre parish church but finding that sort of money would be nigh-on impossible. Even if we had it, as a Christian - much as I love pipe organs too - I couldn't justify spending that sort of money on a musical instrument when people in our parish are struggling financially and are losing their jobs. Our ministry team feel the same way. This was my feeling too. I of course didn't voice it because it's none of my business and I'm not a member of their church. I think they had significant insurance money from the fire. They ended up spending over $250K for an Allen digital. It sounds amazing, no doubt. Purists might disagree, as it has a different type of sound than pipes: it's more focused and cutting. The high frequencies sounded like bells, they were crystal clear. This is it: [video:youtube] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Thanks for the clip, Cygnus - interesting stuff. In my experience, the success of a digital depends a lot on the acoustic you're placing it in. I regularly play two Viscounts at a neighbouring parish. I dislike playing the bigger, more expensive one intensely. I don't think the speaker system is good enough and it's a fairly modern church and has a lot of soft surfaces. The other has a smaller compass and is only a double manual, but because it's in an old Victorian church with lots of stone, the illusion is far more successful, IMO. Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37 Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Åslund Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 What brand of digital are you looking at? Too much stuff, too little time, too few gigs, should spend more time practicing...! 🙄 main instruments: Nord Stage 3 compact, Yamaha CP88, Kurzweil PC4, Viscount KeyB Legend Live Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 The small firm that maintains our current pipe organ is also an organ builder in their own right - George Sixsmith & Son - so we'll probably go with them. Makin might be another possibility, as I've been impressed with their installations. I don't particularly like Allen or Viscount, having played some of their digitals. Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37 Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobadohshe Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 The background: Our current pipe organ (not particularly historically significant) underwent a fairly substantial restoration at the turn of the century, costing around £100,000. Believe it or not, I'm not sure WHICH century your talking about. Gotta be 12 years ago, as £100,000 would have been ridic money in 1900. Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37 My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Yeah Bobby, at the millennium. Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37 Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orangefunk Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Aidan I am in agreement that £250,000 can be better spent elsewhere in the current climate! I love the sound of pipe organs but taken in perspective it does strike me as one of those eccentricities that has always baffled me... I seem to recall Rick Wakeman felt the same way... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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