The Project
The
primary goal of the project is to establish
virtual, playable tonal documents of original
instruments in appreciation of their famous
organ builders, such as Silbermann, Schnitger,
Gabler, Cavaillé-Coll, Ladegast, Memel
and numerous others. All aspects of the original
instruments are preserved as much as possible,
especially the original room ambience and
reverberation, wind fluctuation, the manual und pedal
key action and blower
noise.
The
author has great appreciation for pipe organ builders
and their work and would like to emphasize,
that these virtual instruments
are not intended to be a substitute for
original pipe organs, especially in church
rooms, as regulated by licence
agreement.
The purpose of these recordings is
to provide the capability to virtually
play famous instruments in their
original room ambience. It will also give
a deeper
insight into the fine art of organ building
and the importance of preservation these
trade.
Each
pipe (!) of an instrument is recorded
separately by the authors OSM
method (original sound
mapping) , using long samples
and the original room ambience. Multichannel recording and special microphone
and processing techniques with state-of-the-art
equipment have made it possible, to fully
preserve all aspects of the original pipe
sound, like amplitude and pitch
fluctuation, transient response etc.
There is no electronic
manipulation or multiplexing of pipe
sounds, so recordings made with OrganART samples for
example, should
barely be distinguishable from recordings
made with the original instruments.
As
a scientific tool, the documented pipe recordings will also preserve
the detailed sound image of each instrument for
the purpose of organ research and organ
restoration, hence making a contribution to
the organ heritage. The author therefore has established
good communication channels with important organ manufacturers, workshops,
organ researchers
and organists. Part of the sales income always
will be donated to the parish for
organ maintenance and restoration.
The
virtual organs can be played with the Hauptwerk
software (Crumhorn Labs, England) and appropriate
computer systems, audio
systems (see requirements)
and MIDI organ playing consoles. This special
software enables complete original registration
and supports organ facilities, like
manual coupling, controlled by
the organ console.
The Author
The
author is working in his principal
function as a professor in computer
science and multimedia at Reutlingen University/Germany. He has a over 30 years
background in different aspects
of pipe organs, organ research,
musical acoustics and electronics, playing
organ as a non-professional.
He is
associated member of the "European Organ Expert" master study at Musikhochschule Trossingen.
The
author would like to thank the church
communities, organists, organ builders,
researche institutes and all the
other
supporters for their encouragement and
assistance in developing this unique project
