Theatre Organ Software Demo

[Maxxarcade]

@Acer0304 This was done on my old camera, and compressed to a really low bitrate with another program.

All of my videos before mid 2009 were taken with a Canon Powershot A630. All others are with a Powershot SX1 IS.

[The2010SnowDay]

Nice organ! What soundfont are you using? Is there anyway you can give me a copy of your soundfont and disposition to get it to work on my system?

[jukingeo]

Back again :). I am transferring JOrgan over to Puppy Linux now. It is supposedly a much faster operating system and it supports an RT kernel. It also has the snd-virmidi driver. The only trouble is that Puppy doesn't support my SB X-Fi card. With all the fuss with that card, I am going to ditch it and revert back to a SB Live. Then I know it will work with Linux.

[jukingeo]

I was reading that because Jack can do virtual midi connections that snd-virmidi is kind of obsolete. But what I been reading also confirms to what are saying that it is something that is a part of the kernel and cannot be installed. So I guess it looks like I may have to use the version of JOrgan with the fluidsynth installed already. Hopefully the JOrgan devs catch on and make a work around though. (continued)

[jukingeo]

Hello again,

I am progressing along...but at a snails pace. I been talking to a fellow over at the JOrgan forum by the name of Graham. He does know you. At any rate he says I need a file/module by the name of snd-virmidi. Do you have that on your system? It is needed for Debian, but when I looked this module up for Ubuntu, nothing comes up. If you run 'sudo modprobe snd-virmidi' in your Terminal what do you get?

[Maxxarcade]

in the /etc folder, edit the file called modules and add snd-virmidi to the bottom of the list. This loads the module on bootup. I don't recall excatly how to set it up in Jorgan though, it's been too long and I can't get to the organ to look at it right now.

[jukingeo]

I put it in there, but when I do a 'sudo modprobe snd-virmidi' It comes up 'Failure-Module SND-VIRMIDI not found.

I was told that this means it isn't on my system at all. That is my dilema, there was only one document I found to load the module on and when I followed that, it STILL wasn't found. However, it isn't in any repositories or anything. I am wondering if Ubunty Hardy did away with it, but if so what is the new replacement?

[Maxxarcade]

Seems like I had a problem like that with Ubuntu Studio, but not regular Ubuntu. If they did get rid of it though, that would not be cool. It is not something you can just copy from another computer. It is part of the Kernel.

[jukingeo]

(continued) If worse comes to worse, I do have Ubuntu 7.10 on a disk and perhaps I just will have to set it up on an older machine I have laying around. V7.10 SHOULD have the virmidi module. We will see which way I will go. Maybe the new version of JOrgan will be enough.

[jukingeo]

Back again,

How did you get the jorgan.jar file to open? I loaded JRE 6 on my machine tonight and I went to where I have jorgan loaded on and it (the jorgan website) says to click on the jorgan.jar file. Instead of jorgan coming to life, I get a package extraction screen. Ubuntu thinks the .jar file is a package. Can you help me?

Thanx

[Maxxarcade]

Make a shortcut in the same folder as your JAR file that runs this command.

java -jar jorgan.jar

You're in for a lot of stress if you're new to all this :-) Someday I hope to make a bit of a tutorial on how to make an organ run on Linux.

There is also a Puppy Linux based Miditzer live CD somewhere, that you can just boot from and go. I haven't tried it though.

[jukingeo]

Well, I am checking out Linux right now and I only been a month on it. I had my fair share of hair pulling to get my semi-supported soundcard to work with the ALSA drivers and Jack. So that is good. But when I revisited your posts here the key thing that got me interested was the fact that JOrgan is customizable. Since I have Ubuntu Studio, I have everything else necessary to pull off a project similar to yours. (continued)

[jukingeo]

(cont from below) I don't have a console as of yet, but I do have midi controllers, but making changes within JOrgan is really what it is all about. So I could configure it for an old Conn or Lowrey organ later on. Next thing, in my tests of JOrgan I noticed that the latancy in the keyboard is high. Granted this is using the sound within JOrgan. But for regular midi control I am hoping that I will not have this problem. Did you have the latancy with the jorgan test?

[Maxxarcade]

I don't have latency problems. I think there is a delay setting in Jorgan that lets you adjust latency for different chambers.

[Maxxarcade]

Now that I think about it, you can right-click on the JAR file, and under properties, change the program it opens with from Package Manager to Java.

[jukingeo]

Yes, I have done that. Thanx, that is working fine now. Two things though. How did you get the skins to work? I downloaded the .zip files for the Classic and Theatre stop skins and I did put them in the same directory as the jorgan.jar file. I did verify that the skins folder is present, however, I can't find them within the program itself. How do I get to them?

[Maxxarcade]

I'm afraid I wouldn't be of much help with that problem... Only thing I heard is that the latest jOrgan needed new skins, and I don't know if they are out yet. You might want to try a previous version of jOrgan.

[jukingeo]

Yes, the new skins are out. The download numbers are very low so they must have just have been released. I did notice something just now. Within the zip file there is the folder labed "skins". Within that is ANOTHER zip file. Does that have to be unpacked too? Does your skins folder have .zip files in it? I am sorry, but to be honest with you the JOrgan directions are NOT that great. Someone needs to redo them...pronto!

[jukingeo]

Hello again,

Another quick question. You mentioned that you have everything running stand alone. How did you get Jack to memorize all your settings? It seems like either if you use Jack's connections tab or the patchbay tab it will erase everything once you turn off the system. So obviously there must be a way to save everything AND boot it all up when you start up. I am wondering how you did it all.

Thanx,

Geo

[jukingeo]

I am just now working with Linux and I had followed your project for a short while last year. So Miditzer works in Linux too?

Looks like you got Ubuntu going with Jack there, huh? What are you using for an audio interface?

Where is the download link for the Linux version of Miditzer?

Sounds great BTW!

[Maxxarcade]

It is not Miditzer, it is Jorgan. But I think there is a Linux Version of Miditzer somewhere.

[jukingeo]

Wow! Could have fooled me, that is for sure. It sounds great though. Is it also soundfont based like Miditzer? Didn't you used to use Miditzer? If it is on Linux, why the change? Is Jorgan better in terms of control or overall sound? (sorry for 100 questions).

[Maxxarcade]

Jorgan fit my console better because it is 100% customizeable. It is soundfont based at the moment but will be upgraded to support Gigasampler format soon. I went to Linux because it is free and has everything I need to make the organ work.

[jukingeo]

A couple more questions. I see the midi encoder cards, but what are you using to interface those cards to the computer? Are you using a merger box? I currently have all the programs you have now. I have Synth and Jack (came with Ubuntu Studio). I have JOrgan, but I have to install it. You mentioned JOrgan is customizable. So if I wanted to I can map out all the switches for an old Conn or Lowrey organ?

[Maxxarcade]

I'm just using one MIDI cable from the interface to the primary sound card.

jOrgan can turn stops on or off with any MIDI message.

I'm using a combination of Kent Allman, Bruce Miles, and John Tay's soundfonts. The complete soundfonts are loaded into different banks in Qsynth, and jOrgan is programmed to use certain stops from each soundfont. Everything can get tricky to set up. I started with Windows first until I was familiar with jOrgan, then went to Linux.

[jukingeo]

So if you are using one midi cable, how are the interfaces connecting to each other. Speaking of which, what kind of interface are you using? Perhaps if I saw the card on-line somewhere I could get a better idea of how it hooks up.

Thanx

[aihoschema]

The sounds are fantastic and very authentic! How will the speaker system be? Internal or external cabinets to represent the pipe chambers? BTW: I have the MidiTzer and the only real weak point are the percussion (especially snare and cymbal) because it's only one sample, no natural behavior or randomness. Perhaps as a final touch you might want to use some modern drum/percussion software and set of samples for that. Just an idea. Looks like this is going to be a sought after instrument one day!

[Maxxarcade]

Everything needs to be upgraded now, this video is pretty old.

For the speakers, I have one pair of Cerwin Vega 12" 3 way for the main chamber, and a pair of Fisher 12" 3 way for the solo chamber. Amplifiers are 200W per channel, for a total of 800W.

Also note that the sound quality on the video is very poor. I really need to make a new video using good microphones.

[aihoschema]

Nice speakers and enough power for a theater!

Of course I took the video sound quality into account. One thing that struck me anyway is how well the sounds blend during the sustain phase. These are pretty complex audio signals. This perhaps has a lot to do with your careful choice of sound cards. I also love the tremolo. Not easy to emulate via software, complex phase, timbric, pitch and volume changes. Very convincing here!!! PLMK when you have a new video uploaded. Keep up the great work.

[edonmusic]

Which soundfonts are you using with two soundcards? Nice going!!!

[Maxxarcade]

I'm using a combination of Bruce Miles, John Tay, and Kent Allman's soundfonts. Right now I'm waiting for the Linux Sampler/Qsampler stuff to mature a bit so I can move up to the Gigasampler technology.

[jukingeo]

I DL'ed all of them last night. Are you using them in complete sets or did you 'borrow' individual sounds? If you did the latter, I am curious as to how you did it considering that would mean "breaking up" a soundfont set. I don't know how to do that.

[djypsydjazz]

Ubuntu. Nice.

[32Diaph]

I see you've made a lot of progress. Sounds Great too! Good Going and keep up the good work.

[jefferyb304]

Kewl !!

[Maxxarcade]

Stupid audio glitches... Why does it always do that to my videos when the audio is most important?