Steve Goodwin

There is another example of an 'escaped' organ, this time a Hill, which moved from Burton on Trent to Berlin in 2015. NPOR record is at https://npor.org.uk/survey/G01463 I only know it because it exists as an excellent Hauptwerk sample set which I have and greatly enjoy playing. There are quite a lot of details about it's history here - https://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/england/william-hill-english-organ-model.html Steve

I know my HF response has been dropping for years - I'm 73. Like others, I seem to top out around the top of the 2'. For me, one ear is much worse than the other. My normal speech hearing is not too bad so I only have a single NHS hearing aid which I wear when out. It was unusable for music and eventually I got them to add a 'music' setting which turned it from unusable to lousy! Haven't yet tried any private hearing aids so all suggestions welcome... It is certainly true that younger people (i.e. under 60!) who come and play my HW organ sometimes comment that the upperwork is a bit shrill. It's interesting to think that not only are we not hearing the higher notes specifically but we are are also experiencing a totally different tone from many stops that involve higher harmonics. Steve

Not something I've heard of but I suspect it would not apply to those of us who are 'employed' by the church. I know many of us use the standard contracts provided by many of the music organisations (even for lowly paid parish positions). These are contracts of employment so personal Public Liability would not be relevant as you're covered by the Church's Employer's Liability insurance. If you don't have such a contract then I suppose (I am not a lawyer!) the church authorities could insist on it but where would it end? Would it apply to pupils as well?

I currently use a fairly old version of Sibelius but have used Finale - and even the original DOS version of Score - in the past. Everyone will have their own favourite way of inputting stuff. For simple things, I get on fine with the Sibelius approach of note length with the mouse and note selected on the keyboard. If it's longer and more complex, I've found it much easier to input (play) the music (usually a line at a time) into a DAW - I use a very old Cakewalk - then quantise it and save it as a midi file. I then import the midi file into Sibelius and just have to do tidying up. (In theory, I could do it directly into Sibelius but it's always seemed easier to me getting stuff into Cakewalk/Sonar/etc.) Steve

Talking of getting a bad press... Diapason Phonon. A very powerful diapason .... The stop is associated with the name of Hope-Jones. It is difficult to think that it has any artistic value. Diaphone. A valvular reed ... developed by Hope-Jones, and of more use as a foghorn, for which it is valuable, than as a voice in the organ. The Organ - WL Sumner p.307 I think you are right that he was probably a talented inventor but perhaps some of his technolgy was a little ahead of its time.

It's great to see these organs getting a new lease of love and life.

Like many organs, it has had a lot of work done over nearly 200 years but most of the Hill stuff is still there. There is a very good analysis in Iain Stinson's history of it referenced in the article. It's a pdf and is here Regardless, I'm very much enjoying playing it!! S

I don't know that one but I've recently come across a nice Hill rehomed in a Berlin suburb. I came across it as it has been sampled for Hauptwerk and very nice it is too. Lots about it here... https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/home/view_cat/cat/8/sort/166/order/last_modified/limit/10 Briefer details (mostly in German) and specification here - https://organindex.de/index.php?title=Berlin/Gesundbrunnen,_St._Afra Steve

Bayley & Ferguson in Glasgow were a good source for me in the 70s. There was also the long-gone William Reeves booksellers (& publishers). When I knew them in the 70s, they had a large warehouse somewhere in South London full of new and s/h music. I bought piles of stuff from them amazingly cheaply! Like Martin, I also recall Duck, Son & Pinker who had a shop in Gloucester. There were occasional bargains to be had in Foyles as they never seemed to update the prices which were all pencilled on the cover and sometime old stock could be very cheap!

I played from August through till the November lockdown then from after that until this one started. Most of the time we managed a socially distanced choir of 6 to 8! Although in theory we can still continue legally, we've all decided the risk is not sensible at the moment - given our ages! Steve

They know. I've said over there that I'd really like to shut the forum down now that we know this one is safe. That is currently still my intention but there is some resistance! Steve

... and I'm 70 so not far behind you!

I don't want sole responsibility! If the forum takes off then I'd want at least 2 or 3 other people to be administrators/moderators. As long as one or two are technically competent then the future should be secure. If anything happens to me, or I get fed up, anyone who knows what they are doing could move the entire forum off my server to another host somewhere else in a few hours. Sure, the web address might change but all the content, users, etc would be unaffected. You are also right that we need some forum rules and a privacy policy and I'm happy to sort that IF the forum takes off. What I don't want to do is to spend hours sorting all this out now before we really know if we need the new forum or not. Steve

I'll check, but I believe when we talk about 'active' members we're talking about members logged in, not members posting. However, there is a relevant point comes out of this - I suspect many of us (like me) get the forum notifications by email and that means you get to see the text of the posting without actually logging in to the forum. So there may indeed be many(?) more 'lurkers' than 'active members'. You are correct that I don't post much - I listen and learn!

Easy to add such a forum if you want. Consider it done! Steve

... but see my comment above - very, very few are actually active on here.

So am I - but as it could disappear without much notice it would be good to have a contingency plan in place! Steve

While we are talking about funding possibilities to keep this board going, I think we need to bear in mind what Stephen told me during a telephone conversation... Although there are many registered users, there are only around 30 currently active users. That might make finding ongoing funding more difficult/expensive! Steve

If anyone wants to play with a possible replacement forum, go and register at https://www.houndscroft.co.uk/organ-forum/ I need to approve registrations but i'll do it promptly. Steve

I doubt they know we exist! Anyone with any good contacts could always ask....

Stephen can probably tell us how many members there are. However, if it's like every other forum I've been involved with, a large proportion will be inactive! I'm sure crowdfunding could raise money but it needs to be ongoing ($540 pa) which is never on of crowdfunding's strong points. We need a supportive, rich organist. (... although I'm not sure you can use the words 'rich' and 'organist' in the same sentence!) Steve

Looks interesting but (according to their rules) another one that doesn't like anyone discussing much about electronic organs!

This forum uses Invision forums on a commercially hosted basis. It's unusual in being one of the very few non-free forum systems! If we could find who runs it, we could probably take it over but it's not cheap. Looking at their price list, I'd guess we're talking $45 - $70 per month. There may well be enough members to fund it, but who is going to take on all the hassle of running a membership/accounting system? On the plus side, we'd keep all the content. An alternative system could cost almost nothing BUT we'd loose past content. The welcome page says to email admin@newvalleywebdesign.com but that domain no longer exists! However, there is a 'Staff' page and the "Webmaster" link does show that he/she has visited the site over the last week or so and I shall message them and make enquiries. (Also a 'Staff' member is Geoff McMahon but he does not appear to have been online here for over a year.) I have created the bare bones of a forum which anyone can play with if they want to but I'll report back here on any response I get from the webmaster. [Edit] I've also discovered there are commercial services that will convert IPB (Invision) boards to other formats like phpBB (which doesn't cost). Steve

If you want to keep it the same, i could host one under one of my various sites. The overhead is so small there would be no cost involved. I could create the same topic structure if that's what's wanted or could adapt it to whatever the majority want. Thoughts? Steve

Most of the small digital recorders - especially Edirol and Zoom - have pretty decent microphones and while it's true that a quality external mic can be better, it won't be cheap. (You can certainly forget the ones in the attached video which are all cheap 'n nasty and also years out of date!) I have a Zoom 2 and a Zoom 4 both of which produce entirely acceptable(*) organ recordings - assuming your talking streaming/podcasts and not professional CD quality recordings. You'd probably want mid range mics in the £200 - £400 range to get significantly better than built in ones. Don't forget that positioning is vital - try lots of places and see what sounds best. S (*) - acceptable to me - and I'm an electronic engineer not a musician!!