Hi, all.
Since Larry rephrased his question to include "dream" instruments, I thought
I'd submit my tentative plans for a residence organ. This I do with a bit of
hesitation, since actions speak louder than words, and I have some tendency to
start more projects than I complete, and this one would be VERY ambitious (at
least for me)...
But here goes:
I am planning to put together a home theater organ, from parts. I am planning
to build electric-action chests for reliability and to allow them to be as
close as possible to the floor, since the chamber would be in the basement
with a 7' ceiling. The manual chests would be typically 2 ranks each, with
removable side panels and on wheels for easy servicing. The listening area
is small, consisting of my entry hall, living room, and dining room. Each
of these rooms is about 12 x 13 feet.
The organ's size would be:
1 or 3 manual / 3 ranks unenclosed (this would be a starting point to give
myself an idea of the amount of work involved before
cutting holes in the floor for tone openings)
3 manual / 12 ranks (nice complete 1-chamber installation) (all enclosed)
3 manual / 16 or 17 ranks (if I add a second (echo) chamber; WAY in the future!)
The first 3 ranks (chosen because they are soft) would be:
8' Flute 85 notes
8' Dulciana 85 notes
8' Quintadena 73 notes
Electronic pedal
The next 9 ranks would be:
8' Tibia 85 notes
8' Violin 85 notes (perhaps Austin or Wurlitzer)
4' Violin Celeste 61 notes
8' Saxophone 61 notes (non-brass for cost reasons)
8' Orch Oboe or other buzzy reed 61 notes (voiced soft for Accomp. use (!))
16' Bourdon (extension to Flute) 12 notes
8' Harmonic Tuba 73 notes (I like Austin harmonic tuba sound)
8' Open Diapason 73 notes (I like Wurlitzer open diap.)
16' Gamba 85 notes (will be interesting due to 7' ceil.)
8' English Post Horn 61 notes (voiced appropriate to SMALL room)
Third 16' extension, either Tuba or Diaphone
The next 5 ranks, should I be fortunate enough to get to that point, would be:
?' Flute (something different than the first flute, maybe Harmonic)
(or maybe something with chiff) (I like chiff)
8' Salicional
8' Voix Celeste
8' Clarinet
8' Some other reed, TBD, perhaps French Horn
I plan to put this together gradually over a number of years, for both time
and financial reasons. Probably I will do 1 major item each year. The first
will be a 3-manual Robert Morton console, which I will be buying next month
(it was originally from 3/13 in Loew's Hillside Theater, Jamaica, NY).
BTW, Dave (or anyone else): do you know of a source of new RM-style stoptabs
(especially in non-standard colors), along with
the contact rod that goes in the back of the tab?
Misc Ideas / Rationales:
1) At the current time, I am planning to include a saxophone instead of a vox
humana. I don't particularly care for the "billy-goat" tone that voxes
typically produce (at least when heard alone). The saxophone sound
is somewhat similar to a vox, but smoother/lusher, and it seems to me that
a sax could be used in situations where you'd normally use the vox, as
well as being pleasant by itself. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
2) The dulciana is there for two reasons: (a) to produce a soft drone
melody controlled by a sequencer, and (b) extended to 2' to add just a
slight bit of brilliance. The quintadena is there as a second soft rank
which should give lots of possibilites for combining/contrast with the
dulciana, and is very nice at 4' on Accomp.
3) My current organ is a Lowrey (made in 1966 or so, before they started
loading 'em up with all the self-playing dreck). It has a couple of
features that I like and would plan to include on a pipe organ:
a) A nice selection of accompaniment reeds, including a soft english horn
(cor anglais), which along with the diapason (the Lowrey diapason
sounds more like a gamba to my ear) is a staple for me. Although I
can't allocate very many ranks to this task, I do plan to have one
soft, buzzy reed (orch oboe or cor anglais) and a gamba to provide a
similar effect. Hopefully the saxophone will be soft enough to also
use on accompaniment.
b) An "Auto-Orchestra" feature. This is a solo-to-accompaniment coupler
that is only active when note(s) are played on the solo manual, and
couples the octave of the solo manual just below the melody part to
the entire accompaniment manual below that note. The effect is to
create chords in the solo manual that track the melody (OK, so the
dreck index on this one isn't exactly zero, but I like it anyway;
even though I'm a reasonably proficient amateur, this feature provides
a distinct change in the sound and it can follow as fast as I can play
a single-note melody). It couples a subset of the solo stops; anything
that would get muddy (such as 16' stops and mutations) are not affected.
4) I have tried to keep the number of reed ranks low to reduce the amount
of time spent tuning.
5) Most theater organ traps are unmusical because they are too loud (they
distract the listener from the music), are too few in number/variety, play
reiterating rather than single-stroke, and the drums are usually old, worn
out, and not tuned/damped properly. I plan to enclose most of the
traps in a swell box within the chamber, settable to 4 volume levels so
they can be balanced with the organ as desired. They will (for the most
part) be controlled by a pizzicato relay*, so that every keypress pulses
the selected traps (even while other notes are being held). The pizzicato
relay will also prevent unwanted sounds from items such as tambourine
or maraca upon note release. The traps I'd like to include are:
Cabasa (Latin percussion instrument; it is a cylinder of
crinkly sheetmetal wrapped with loops of ball chain; played
by turning the cylinder while holding the chains stationary;
makes a "sh" sound)
Fish (Latin percussion instrument; it is a serrated hollow wooden
vessel decorated like a fish; played by dragging a stick over
the serrations)
Hi-hat with open/close actuator and second striker for accented notes
Maraca
Claves
Tambourines (2 of them for normal/accented notes; you could use the
softer one on first touch and the louder on second touch)
Rim Shot
Finger Cymbals
Wood Block
Cowbell(s) <-- (Dave, please note!)
Snare Drum with second striker for accented notes
Tap Cymbal with damper and second striker for accented notes
Crash Cymbal with normal striker and soft re-it mallets
Bass Drum (set up so it doesn't "ring" for a long time)
Hand Clap (perhaps generate this sound electronically)
Triangle with damper
I plan to include a sequencer capability so you can program rhythms
ahead of time. This will be about the only way to make use of the second
strikers provided for accented notes on some of the trap instruments.
6) Tuned percussions: I plan to drive the single-stroke tuned percussions
(at least the marimba, xylophone, and steel drum) with a pizzicato relay*.
This way, I can have a second-touch stop to make them reiterate.
In order of priority, the tuned percussions would include:
Marimba Harp (EASILY the most important percussion)
Glockenspiel
Piano
Xylophone
Chrysoglott/Vibraharp
Chimes w/ dampers
Electric Piano (probably use a sampler instead of a real electric piano)
I'm also considering what use a steel drum might have in an organ.
* I have designed a computer relay system (but not built it yet). A file
is available which describes it in detail, for anyone who is interested.
7) As mentioned several times before in this group, a stop to control the
trems from second touch.
Kevin Scott
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