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divmstr

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Everything posted by divmstr

  1. You should check out the Flanders and Swann rendition of the Mozart Horn Concerto, viz: "I once had a whim and I had to obey it, to buy a french horn at a second hand shop", etc. Every time I hear it now this silly little ditty pops into my brain. OK for Mozart, but please lets give JS a little more respect......
  2. In a word, bloody awful. I actually bought one of my own about 15 years ago. They had two of them, one in the quire and one in the nave. The instrument was a Hammond C3, with the full AGO pedalboard, two manuals, a swell pedal, enclosed speakers, and a very interesting set of pedal stops, which included not one but to 32 footers, one diapason and one reed. You could actually get a relatively good foundation tone out of it. The manuals had drawbars and presets, which were implemented as another 'octave' at the left end of the keyboard. One key enabled the drawbars, the other had some solo combinations, including a trumpet, oboe and some flute stops. Unfortunately, no thumb pistons. The drawbars brought out individual tones of 16', 10 2/3, 8, 5 1/3, 4, 1 1/5, 1 1/3 and 1 foot pitch, you could get a reasonable chorus out of it, but could not couple the manuals or get a reed involved as well. Not bad for 1965 technology, mine lasted about 3 years before the main amplifier died and I could not find any replacement parts.
  3. Thanks for all the replies. The retention of the original heavy wind reeds accounts for the instrument still having lots of gusto, I am surprised that the entire solo organ was removed, as it contained one of Allan's favourite stops. Is there a current specification floating around somewhere? I would be interested to do a side by side comparison. Another slightly different topic: I have a copy of the Canterbury Version of EMI's 'Great Cathedral Organ series', recorded after the 1968 rebuild. It is getting a little old and I was wondering if anyone out there had a copy for sale or would know where to get a replacement. The rebirth of this series on CD was entitled 'the best of the Great Cathedral...(etc)', and most of Canterbury was left out. Not surprising, as the second side was mostly Alan Ridout, but there is a good rendition of the Medelssohn #1 on the first side. Comments?
  4. I am new to this as well, so please don't be too brutal. I have been an organist for over 25 years and am a lover of the traditional instrument, but I am also a computer engineer and have not only played several digital organs but attempted to build one or two in my lifetime. I think that the answer lies in the base technology; granted we can reproduce the sound of an organ in its steady state throug digital sampling, the proof of this is just to play a CD! Harry Nyquist was after all, correct. There is also no doubt that the cost of the digital organ will continue to decline, as technology gets faster and cheaper. There is, I think, at least one piece of the puzzle missing: the pipe is dynamic, not static. Organ builders over the years have learned that by using metallurgy, wind pressure, pipe topology and construction they can not only vary the steady state and harmonic composition of a pipe, but also change the way in which it reaches that state, ie the 'chiff' in a soft flute or the gradual transition from wind to sound as a 32' pipe starts to resonate. These nuances are difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce with sampling. Until such time as we can derive an accurate mathematical model of the acoustics of a pipe and emulate it in real time, then a true digital facsimile of a pipe will not be possible. I have been working on this problem for some time, if there is anyone out there that would like to help, please join in. Cheers.
  5. I tried to listen to it but the link has expired. Can you e-mail it to me? I live not too far from there. Thanks.
  6. It is doubtful that anything running Bluetooth would be able to pick up a cellphone call, as itruns on a radio spectrum around 2.4GHz, close to your microwave oven. Cell phones are on a very different spectrum, last time I looked it was around 900MHz. This is like an apple talking to an orange. There could be a conflict, however, if you had a cell phone that was equipped with a bluetooth headset, and for some reason it was being picked up. Bottom line: turn off the cellphone when in places where you should not answer a call! The worst place is theatres, both of the live and movie kind!
  7. Hello. I attended the King's School, Canterbury, during what was thought to be the 'last rebuild' of the Willis Organ in 1968. I am interested to know what prompted a second rebuild not 10 years later. The resulting instrument is spectacular, I have several recordings of it in my collection. The voicing is quite exquisite, all the way down to the strings and up to the heavy winds. I am interested to know why you decided to reduce it to a three manual from four, and what stops wer removed (if any), and how you ended up with the current specification. The addition of the Nave organ was brilliant. I remember when we performed in the Nave of the Cathedral having to use the Hammond, which was scarcely a replacement, and you could not even hear the Great Organ in the Quire. Cheers.
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