Down the Rabbit Hole
I've been taking organ lessons for the last six months, and just loving it like crazy. The organ is an amazing instrument, I've loved the sound from childhood and I'm incredibly lucky to get to learn to play it.
The most common roadblock is, of course, access to an organ. They are large and immovable. You pretty much have to go to them to practice, scheduling around your own life and the life of the organ, which is probably in a church and has other people practicing and rehearsing or using the sanctuary for something else and the organ is too loud sorry.
I've been practicing around 6-7am which is wonderful way to start my day - quiet and meditative with stained glass and the scent of candles and old incense. That was summer. Now it is fall and winter is coming. It is dark in the early morning, and the nave isn't heated to habitable levels unless something is going on. I'm getting motivated to have a practice organ at home.
Ok, people do install actual pipe organs in their houses. One can give up a bedroom to be a pipe chamber. I don't really have an entire extra room, and my next door neighbors are a driveway away.
There are chamber pipe organs, like this one:
https://www.organclearinghouse.com/organs-for-sale#/2978-noack-ormond-beach-fl
A steal at 44 grand. Plus a few extra thousand to have it professionally moved to my house in NY, voiced and tuned. A bit sad to spend that much money and have no 16' pipes.
Skipping over digital organs, which I just couldn't seriously consider, we come to the virtual organ.
Hauptwerk or Grand Orgue will play sampled pipe organs and sound pretty darn good. Runs on my mac. I could even record our own church organ and virtualize it, how cool is that? Problem is, one needs an organ-shaped midi controller. I can use my Yamaha P125 as a controller - sounds pretty good, but it is only one manual and no pedals. I still have to go to church to practice pedals or anything where the hands collide on a single manual.
I did a fair bit of research and shopping. With no woodworking capability of my own, the options boil down - from cheapest to most expensive:
1) build your own from inexpensive components - 2 cheap midi keyboards, scrounge a pedalboard and do a midi conversion, plop it all on a worktable.
pros: can be accomplished for under 2K not counting speakers
cons: looks like crap in the living room, no physical pistons or stops.
2) Buy a used digital organ or pipe organ console and convert it
pros: cheapest option for a full featured organ, good wood elegantly shaped looks nice in the living room.
cons: extremely large heavy object, expensive to move, unknown amount of work to convert.
3) Buy new purpose-built midi components
pros: console doesn't have unneeded space for mechanical parts, custom configurable
cons: $$$ - over $16k for a 2 manual setup not counting speakers
Constraints:
Budget - I could go up to $5000, would much rather come in around $3000.
Since the living room is where this thing has to go, looking nice is not just a 'nice to have'.
I am going to want to practice for performance someday, if only in my own church, I will need at least some physical pistons and toe studs so I can rehearse those motions.
Conclusion:
Option 2 it is. I have shopped and purchased a used 2-manual Klann console from pipeorgantraders.com It has an electric combination, no midi, so I will have to do all that myself. I have contracted Congressional Piano Movers to pick it up from the warehouse and deliver it to my living room. Moving the console is going to be the single most expensive part of the project. I had a cheaper quote from Wingman, but they flaked out on me - stopped answering my email and phone calls.
Here is my new baby. Bench and pedals are included but not in this photo.
If all goes as planned, I should have it in a couple more days. While I've been waiting, I've been researching how to do the electronics. The extra couple of weeks delay with the first movers at least gave me time to be ready to run with it when it comes.
Next...
The most common roadblock is, of course, access to an organ. They are large and immovable. You pretty much have to go to them to practice, scheduling around your own life and the life of the organ, which is probably in a church and has other people practicing and rehearsing or using the sanctuary for something else and the organ is too loud sorry.
I've been practicing around 6-7am which is wonderful way to start my day - quiet and meditative with stained glass and the scent of candles and old incense. That was summer. Now it is fall and winter is coming. It is dark in the early morning, and the nave isn't heated to habitable levels unless something is going on. I'm getting motivated to have a practice organ at home.
Ok, people do install actual pipe organs in their houses. One can give up a bedroom to be a pipe chamber. I don't really have an entire extra room, and my next door neighbors are a driveway away.
There are chamber pipe organs, like this one:
https://www.organclearinghouse.com/organs-for-sale#/2978-noack-ormond-beach-fl
A steal at 44 grand. Plus a few extra thousand to have it professionally moved to my house in NY, voiced and tuned. A bit sad to spend that much money and have no 16' pipes.
Skipping over digital organs, which I just couldn't seriously consider, we come to the virtual organ.
Hauptwerk or Grand Orgue will play sampled pipe organs and sound pretty darn good. Runs on my mac. I could even record our own church organ and virtualize it, how cool is that? Problem is, one needs an organ-shaped midi controller. I can use my Yamaha P125 as a controller - sounds pretty good, but it is only one manual and no pedals. I still have to go to church to practice pedals or anything where the hands collide on a single manual.
I did a fair bit of research and shopping. With no woodworking capability of my own, the options boil down - from cheapest to most expensive:
1) build your own from inexpensive components - 2 cheap midi keyboards, scrounge a pedalboard and do a midi conversion, plop it all on a worktable.
pros: can be accomplished for under 2K not counting speakers
cons: looks like crap in the living room, no physical pistons or stops.
2) Buy a used digital organ or pipe organ console and convert it
pros: cheapest option for a full featured organ, good wood elegantly shaped looks nice in the living room.
cons: extremely large heavy object, expensive to move, unknown amount of work to convert.
3) Buy new purpose-built midi components
pros: console doesn't have unneeded space for mechanical parts, custom configurable
cons: $$$ - over $16k for a 2 manual setup not counting speakers
Constraints:
Budget - I could go up to $5000, would much rather come in around $3000.
Since the living room is where this thing has to go, looking nice is not just a 'nice to have'.
I am going to want to practice for performance someday, if only in my own church, I will need at least some physical pistons and toe studs so I can rehearse those motions.
Conclusion:
Option 2 it is. I have shopped and purchased a used 2-manual Klann console from pipeorgantraders.com It has an electric combination, no midi, so I will have to do all that myself. I have contracted Congressional Piano Movers to pick it up from the warehouse and deliver it to my living room. Moving the console is going to be the single most expensive part of the project. I had a cheaper quote from Wingman, but they flaked out on me - stopped answering my email and phone calls.
Here is my new baby. Bench and pedals are included but not in this photo.
If all goes as planned, I should have it in a couple more days. While I've been waiting, I've been researching how to do the electronics. The extra couple of weeks delay with the first movers at least gave me time to be ready to run with it when it comes.
Next...
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