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Guest Cynic

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The OD can be a bit loud in a small room, although I don't know how big your spare bedroom is, of course. How about a tapered flute?

 

Cheers

B

 

Depends on the voicing, obviously!

 

Personally while many may not find it ideal to listen to I find practice sessions far more productive using a couple of 4' registers. As well as taking half the space, half the metal, less wind etc, accuracy is so much more important. You can also then have an 8' stopped bass on the pedal to give the illusion of gravitas. You might scoff but it's amazing how quickly (i.e. within minutes) the ear adapts to the pitch; I used to watch open mouthed as Magnus Williamson accompanied Howells settings and the Psalm Preludes at St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, beginning on 4' registers only; then when the time came to add some beef and the illusion of growling doubles, on came the 8' stuff. Very effective.

 

I have designed a 4' organ for home and have made a start on building it; it will have about the same footprint of an upright piano or small American organ with a pedalboard attached, and no height above music desk level unless I attach the 8' pedal bass (which can basically be pushed away from the organ. There are Swell shutters in the kneeboard which will be controlled either by a trigger pedal or a knee pedal - not sure which yet. There are 3 things I want it to do - trios, pedal solo chorales and manual solo chorales. I'm still toying with making it GG which might make it possible to add the 2' to I and use it down an octave as a continuo organ - it'll be small enough to transport easily in an estate car. Here's the stoplist:

 

P Stopped Diapason 8

(Spare slide for a Regal or similar, 4' or 2', on the removable block with the 8')

Permanent coupling to I

 

I Koppelflute 4

(Spare space for a 2' of some description at a later date)

 

II Chimney Flute (bott 6 from I) 4

Tierce 1 3/5

 

Tremulant to whole organ

 

Transmissions are OK but the problem is that you get problems with 2 pallets per pipe. I don't believe clack valves solve the problem adequately. So I'll just lump it and have couplers, thank you and just accept the lack of flexibility.

 

Don't be too harsh on Spitzflutes/Gemshorns/whatever - virtually anything can be voiced to give a pleasant sound.

 

Transmissions are not easy to do well, but they can be if you severely restrict the foot of the pipe so it can only accept as a maximum the wind it needs - lots of trial and error but I've seen some really effective ones.

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Personally while many may not find it ideal to listen to I find practice sessions far more productive using a couple of 4' registers. As well as taking half the space, half the metal, less wind etc, accuracy is so much more important. You can also then have an 8' stopped bass on the pedal to give the illusion of gravitas. You might scoff but it's amazing how quickly (i.e. within minutes) the ear adapts to the pitch;

I can well believe this... these are good points. Your practice organ looks interesting and I'd be quite keen to get rid of my toaster at some stage for a real organ, even if it means making it myself.

Transmissions are not easy to do well, but they can be if you severely restrict the foot of the pipe so it can only accept as a maximum the wind it needs - lots of trial and error but I've seen some really effective ones.

Yes - but who would you trust to do it well? I can think of very, very few people...

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Yes - but who would you trust to do it well? I can think of very, very few people...

 

You know, this is one of the things that I think people spout off because they've heard it somewhere...I used to say it too.

 

Now I have three transmissions on my house organ. I do believe that I have quite good ears, and I have never heard any difference ever on any note that would indicate grave problems when both pallets are open. It is important, as has been indicated already, to restrict the foot, but also to get the pallets as far open as they will go.

 

The big Trost organs have lots of transmissions and they work just fine!

 

My house organ, incidentally, has: I: Chimney flute 8', Gemshorn 4'; II: Stopt Diap. 8', Open Flute 4'; Pedal: Flute 8', G 4', OF 4'.

 

It's perfect.

 

Cheers

B

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  • 11 years later...

Sorry to resurrect an ancient topic; I found the posts on mechanical transmission helpful.

Please can anyone point me to a diagram of how the double-palette transmission mechanism works?  From the description on here I can see how having two palettes allows any stops drawn on one department to be playable from more than one keyboard simultaneously but I can't picture how stop control then works (ie how can each stop be available on one and not on the other?)  Have I got it all wrapped around my neck?

Second question for anyone who's super-knowledgeable: is it possible to retrospectively fit a double-palette transmission, or is it something the soundboard needs to have been designed for expressly?  Presumably a second set of trackers is necessary for the borrowing department? 

Thanks in advance.

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I have seen this done on organs from some USA builders on an ‘ether/or’ basis where a stop lever slid L engages the stop on one manual, slid R engages on another or is off when central. There is also a French builder who from a basic 2 man GO and Rec. scheme craftily derives a Pos. by similar means from the GO (and possibly some of the Ped. too) but I am unsure about the stop control for this. Maybe our host could enlighten? Peter Collins, Nigel Church also used to build small instruments with this idea behind them.

A

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