Home Made Pipe Organ

[lostokesgt]

Haha, this is awesome. Great work.

[califdon]

I think that's very small minded. So he didn't chop down the tree for the wood and he's not a professional musician. Can't you allow yourself to admire the work he put into this instrument. What have you done to compare with it?

[MrButtttttttts]

NOT IMPRESSIVE CARVE THE PIPES YOURSELF NEXT TIME AND PLAY THE NOTES YOURSELF THO

[dmwilk99]

@MrButtttttttts your comment refers to your ID (buttttttttts)

[KMacKellerann]

Amazing. You took part of a pipe organ and made a complete musical instrument out of it. The sound is excellent and it plays perfectly (at least to my ears). Congratulations on excellent work.

[wolfmanradio]

You make me sick! I'm so jealous of you right now. That is the coolest thing that I've ever seen.

[121omePiet]

DER VOGELHANDLER ~ Nightingale Song

[DeathbySuburb]

Sounds like Roller Coaster Tycoon..

[DonaldFranklin67]

@powaybob I figured that you use a MIDI controller to play your homemade pipe organ. MIDI is the way to do it. I'll have to subscribe to your channel.

[DonaldFranklin67]

@powaybob  your homemade pipe organ is amazing. How do you play it, with a keyboard? You may call it an organ, but it sounds more like a circus calliope to me. You did a great job building it.

[powaybob]

@DonaldFranklin67 Thanks! It plays using MIDI. I play MIDI files with a laptop computer. You can plug in a MIDI keyboard and play it by hand if you have the skill. I don't.

[0983584]

@powaybob it could be easy if you practiced im only 13 and i play the pipe organ, the big kind

[robbie19371]

I recognize that tune but the name escapes me. Can anybody come up with the name?

[powaybob]

@robbie19371 It's from "Der Vogelhandler"

[bfs1888]

i want one

[mooneypete]

Did you need to tune the pipes?

[powaybob]

@mooneypete

Yes, of course. I used an electronic tuner for one octave, then the rest by ear.

[KingFate20]

@powaybob did you do the rest by ear as in stand alone notes or did you use octave dissonance with the ones you tuned "AS PERFECTLY AS YOU CAN" to tune them.

[powaybob]

@KingFate20 I tune the other notes to the "Perfect" octave. And, check some with the electronic tuner also.

[powaybob]

The blower is a surplus unit. I built a power supply to run it. The pressure is adjusted by changing the voltage to the blower. There is no regulator, just the volume of the chest to smooth the pressure a little. Seems to work fine. Follow Flickr link in description to see pictures of blower.

[ANDREWLEONARDSMITH]

How is it blown and regulated?

[PonyTails55]

Sounds pretty nice and mellow, it plays the tune lovely too!

[baxter5431]

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! See Jo-Jo the dog face boy! He walks, he talks, he crawls on his belly like a rep-tile!" Sounds like the circus/side show is on town. Nice though!

[uvman707]

These pipes sound beautiful.

[AdmiralGilgamesh]

Wow, that is incredibly cool! Nice work!

[gelpgimLa22]

Tiene siete juegos de registros.

[powaybob]

I didn't make the pipes. I bought them on ebay. It took a month or so of spare time to build the wind chest that they sit on. Yes, it's one 61 note rank.

[hartleymartin]

@powaybob - Do organ pipes come up regularly on ebay? I'd like to build a home organ, but don't want to make all the pipes (partly because I don't have the workshop for it).

[powaybob]

@hartleymartin Yes, ebay has pipes fairly often. Even whole organs sometimes.

[clintonearlwalker]

@hartleymartin Bud, you might want to check "Craigslist" for your area. The other night I seen a beautiful organ that came out of a church, they said they didn't need it anymore, they were giving it away for free.

[hartleymartin]

@clintonearlwalker Thanks, but as I live in Sydney, Australia organs are fairly rare items to come onto the market.

[clintonearlwalker]

@hartleymartin Sydney Australia? People in Sydney Australia are hooked into the same internet I get here in Maryland USA? Anyway, I looked on Craigslist for Australia there are no organs, in fact very few items at all in AU, I guess not popular there. I looked on AU e-bay, there is one in Shellharbour, New South Wales, Australia starting bid, $50. Another organ in Brisbane, Queensland, starting bid $65. About 6 more also, You'll have to look to see which one is closest. Hope it helps.

[armstronglance]

How long did it take to make these? Is this one rank of pipes?

[jimamia77]

Amazing what mankind can do with a bunch of wooden sticks! They look like a set of delicious fudgecicle pops! can i eat one?

[6remlinNYC]

That's cool 

[christianvs1]

Gosh.... LOL! :D

[itaremeelar]

I totally thought of RollerCoaster Tycoon.

[ericoschmitt]

those are a lot better than the midi from speakers....!!!

[SuperCrazyJunk]

I WANT ONE! Its soooo cool

[leakesonasucs]

Which one sounds better, metal or wood.

[powaybob]

@leakesonasucs

Neither is "better." Different types of pipes, metal or wood, sound different. Organs have many types of pipes to provide a variety of sounds.

[creamyfilling102]

now THAT'S music.

[carltonpowers]

Cheers to you, mate.

[PonyTails55]

This sounds great. EVERY SINGLE note is in line too :)

[TheFritzblack]

sehr schönes instrument super gespielt.

[blu3m00npk]

prachtige melodie

[powaybob]

@blu3m00npk  Blij dat jullie het leuk vinden. (I hope Google translated this correctly)

[musicjohn]

@blu3m00npk

Dit is (als ik me niet vergis) een liedje uit de operette "Der Vögelhändler" van Carl Zeller

[futuristfood]

brilliant. i'm in love with it!

[myoldbones]

Would love to see the photos. Would you mind posting them on Flickr or somewhere that does not require registration to see them? Thanks.

[powaybob]

@myoldbones Flickr link added to description.

[TheYarxia]

Sweet!  Is that a 4' Bourdon? Or is it a 4' Melodia?

[powaybob]

@TheYarxia They are labeled Melodia

[paulfreefall]

how does it play midi?

[powaybob]

@paulfreefall Each pipe has a magnetic valve under it. The valves all connect to a MIDI decoder board (Midiator UM0.) The MIDI signal comes from a laptop with a USB to MIDI cable.

[bamaslamma1003]

That is freakin' awesome!!! What's the name of the song?

[powaybob]

@bamaslamma1003

The tune is from "der vogelhandler." A German operetta.

I don't know it's exact title. 

[francomug]

@powaybob The title is "Wie mei Ahn'l zwanzig Jahr'". 

[powaybob]

@francomug Thanks!

[HegClan]

@powaybob der vogelhändler = german ^^

[Owdfolkie]

Wonderful! I've a few fair organ MIDI files you may like to try - send me a message with your email & I'll send you some.

[DeltaPhi79]

Giant flute! XD

[powaybob]

I think the pipes came from a church organ. The wind is 4", which is what they seemed to "like." They do have a nice bright flute sound. The arrangement is very fair organ style. Listen to my other video "Parlor organ unknown tune" for a classical selection. Yes, you sure got a scolding on the Organ Matters Forum. ;-) Thanks for the invite.

[powaybob]

@latribe This is interesting as it sounds like a fair organ but presumably the pipes would have come from a cinema instrument or church instrument. Whether the very bright sound might be a matter of wind pressure is another matter but this crossover between genres is a reason why I have come under fire for putting cinema organs and fair organs in the same discussion group on the Organ Matters Forum on which you'd be very welcome.

[shapphirestar]

OMG THats AWESOME!!

[xcsorg]

how are they played? via midi? or is there a counle?

[powaybob]

It plays MIDI files. You could also use a MIDI keyboard.

[xcsorg]

is there any other videosshowing the other angles and how it works?

[powaybob]

Check the new info in the description.

[anglerfly]

Looks like a barrel organ. it would make a good one

[mattrehmhext]

Sounds great! And nicely in tune too!

[powaybob]

They are open pipes. The longest is about four feet. They are labeled "Melodia." There has been plenty of discussion in other comments here.

[adairalien]

where might one get plans or book on how to do this ? I want one bad enough to make it XD

[hug103]

I want one.

:3

[powaybob]

I just checked in Audsley. He says the Melodia and Waldfulte are very similar, he even uses the same picture for both. Anyway, that's what they say. ;-)

[wdunklin1]

Never trust anything in Audsley. It's beautifully drawn, it's expansively described, it all appears to be of the highest authority and most of it is utter fiction.

The MIDI organ here is a delight. Excellent work powaybob!

[ccoraxfan]

The organ community is and has long been well supplied with highly opinionated people such as Audsley and his critics. If you followed the opinions of everybody concerning the organ, you would soon trust nobody.

Audsley had his strengths and his weaknesses. One of his greatest strengths was his ability to describe an organ on paper, which few before or since have managed to do. There is great value in much of what he published, so long as you use your head when consulting it.

[stoppuller]

The pipes do not look like true Melodias to me. They are usually big, fat stoppered pipes, not unlike a Tibia Clausa; and they do not sound like anything that huge. The largest in your set are apparently 4' pitch, and they remind me of the Waldflute 4' I have in my church organ. No telling why a pipemaker would label them Melodia.

[ccoraxfan]

Stoppuller, these are indeed Melodia pipes, which you must have confused with something else. A Melodia could never be mistaken for a Tibia Clausa.

The Encyclopedia of Organ Stops (organstops(.)org) lists the Melodia as an open wood flute rank, usually with inverted mouths, as these pipes have. I am familiar with an organ that has a Melodia rank, and they look and sound like these pipes.

The Waldflute is considered basically the same as the Melodia, often at a higher pitch.

[wdunklin1]

ccoraxfan is 100% correct. Melodias may have stopped basses (the first octave or so) but are, by definition, moderately scaled, wooden and open with an inverted mouth. Of course, organbuilders in the past were pretty loose with their naming conventions. I once played an organ with a Tierce 1&1/3' - something went very wrong in the organ shop that day!

[ccoraxfan]

"1-3/5', 1-1/3', what's the difference? Let's just call it a Tierce!"

Perhaps they had just hired a new guy to engrave the stop controls.

[stoppuller]

Yes, waldflute with the metal flap tuners instead of stoppers.

Does it use a roll player like a player piano?

[powaybob]

It plays MIDI files. I use a Yamaha MDF2 disk player, or I can use a computer. The pipes are stamped "Melodia" don't know how that compares to waldflute.

[leakesonasucs]

u have to show me how to make them

[jotalegend]

I think I am on the Circus...

[Wisetorsk]

Reminds me of rct1

[bert7885]

I believe these are Walflöte pipes.

[scorekeepn]

Superb.

[xYEAHxKYLEx]

wowow hoe the hell did you make that lol love it :)

[Mclaren1O]

You should add more onto it like percussion. a company called alan pell would be worth a look for you if you would like to add more onto it.

[Ineededanaccount0]

sounds like carnival music

[mainecolbs]

thats the idea. near my town there is an amusement park with a carousel and one of these organs with pecussion also

[choirmasterUK]

Haha! Love it :)

[charpini]

wonderful sound and tone setting, bravo!

[Guppypants]

beautiful sound.

[scartusk]

Its Brought ooon Eeeebaaay ;)

Well its okay for a organ tho

- Scartusk

[CindyBradyTooh]

Absolutely *AMAZIN*! :D

~Cindy!  :)

..

[gmmix]

Fabulous! Zeller's 1893 operetta is considered by most operetta authorities to be one of the best of the late 19th century operettas. There are vocal versions of this melody, one with bird imitations by Charles Kellog. Remember, the lead character IS a bird seller. FIVE STARS

[mangabassman2]

hey thats great!

can you tell what this tune is PLEASE?!

[powaybob]

The tune is from "der vogelhandler." A German operetta.

I don't know it's exact title.

[mangabassman2]

Ah! Thanks!

P.S. Der Vogelhandler translates as 'The Bird Handler!'

[eat911t]

Astoundingly clever. How is it blown?

[powaybob]

I used a blower in a box lined with carpet to reduce the sound. The speed is variable. The pipes like about 4" of pressure.

[acoustics101]

I love it!! I designed a three octave one myself between 1974-1976. Maybe someday I'll make mine MIDI capable.

[1stab]

Wonderful!!!!!

[sina4]

this would make a great musical clock!  A rather big musical clock, but an incredible one!

[BayAreaBiker2001]

They were fairly popular when this piece was written.

[ratuse]

Well, this answered the question that I left on your other video. Amazing work man. If I were rich, I would pay big bucks to have one of your creations. Sadly though, I am poor, and can only listen.

[jkeelsnc]

very cool indeed. impressive.

[accousticdecay]

Very nice carousel sound.