Preparation for the 64ft 128ft organ sound

The creation of a giant subwoofer with two 18 inch units is in preparation for an experimental 64ft and 128ft stop for the pedal stop for the organ. The speaker is in the corner of the room and vents into the floor below and a connected wall cavity.

The purpose of this organ is as a concert performance instrument to demonstrate the grandeur and variety of the organ repertoire in a concert-room setting removed from church connotations. Much organ music is in danger of being lost as people cease to have been introduced to the instrument in childhood, perhaps as a result of the decline in local church choirs. As a result people don't know the repertoire and just think it's a fuddyduddy thing.

The danger of using a digital organ to promote organ music is that people are led to think that electronic organs are as good as pipe organs and so "will do" at their local church where an expensive repair bill might be coming up for their pipe organ.

The instrument at Hammerwood Park is capable of the most superb sound . . . but this is only as a result of the work of David Pinnegar in making very careful and particular additions to the instrument and paying great care as to how the electronically reproduced sounds are translated into vibrations in the air that we hear. The reality therefore is that this instrument is wholly different from any instrument that can be bought "off the shelf", mass produced and sold by dealers who seem to like to score up the numbers of pipe organs that they have caused to be scrapped.

It is in pursuing this concept of making a unique instrument with the greatest versatility that the addition of these low sounds has been made. We've always wondered what they might sound like . . . so here goes in the next video . . .

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• organ
• experiment
• 64ft
• 128ft

[gwpritchrd]

If you don't mind me sayin, but it seems a bit messy there ;) But I have to say that is a rather interesting organ. I do hope you can get a better recording of those sounds.

[latribe]

@gwpritchrd One can't be inventive without having the stuff laying around to put together . . . ! On the video "Latrobian Whirl" the 128ft is used for some notes . . .

[kaferere]

Could I ask you why you chose 18" units instead of multiple 15" units? It's just that back in the '70's I gave up using 18" units on continuous bass as the cones tend to distend on very low frequencies. Even Altec Lansing units were prone to this "cone flexing". The enclosures were very well tuned but the !8" units were very unforgiving. Do they use better materials for cones now? Lovely job by the way!

[latribe]

@kaferere Thanks so much for your kind comment which is much appreciated. Good point about 18 inch units - I had them to hand and big surface area shifting lots of air was the idea . . . and perhaps you're right. For very low frequencies, car subwoofers simply don't flex at all and perhaps they'd be my choice possibly in doing it again . . .

[gwpritchrd]

@latribe I know what you mean there hahaha, my room was a mess when I tried to hook my pedals up to my keyboard. I'll have to check it out!

[TheElectronicaman]

You should use a rotary woofer . HAS Flat frequency response all the way down to DC. The rotary woofer can do a 120 db or greater spl from 1-20hz. And you only need 200 watts. Plus it uses very low pressure which results in very low bass that is real.

[kaferere]

@latribe That's a good point, I forgot about the car subwoofer market. The last organ I worked on was back in the seventies, an old Miller in Anfield church, I've had my feet out of the water for quite a while. I hope you can post a video when you're all done, it really looks great. Thanks again.

[peletonkambing]

@latribe

So you wouldn't hear anything larger than a 32 foot stop ? - 20hz being lowest frequency we can hear ??

[JazzIsaac]

@Vladflame

I believe it refers to how long the pipe would have to be to produce the tones. The 128' tone would require a 128' pipe, but they are using speakers in this case instead.

[N4CR5]

@Tricyklist

Wheee! That's a wicked setup you have there, true tower of power! Awesome swept volume, brilliant. You must get some awesome reactions to that rig. I'm not settled into a house yet, renting around so unfortunately truely epic subwoofers such as yours are not as much of an option.. one day though. 80-100kg 21" sub will be bad enough to move lol. Happy clean deep bass to you my fellow basshead ^__~

And I can't wait to see what latribe gets up to next hehehe :D