The Hauptwerk Paramount 3/32 Theatre Organ

5-04-2011

I am really enthusiastic about this theatre organ. The sound is so 'alive.' I need to explain why it's worth posting this info here.

I make use of the Hauptwerk multiple speaker capability to drive over 80 speakers in my organ room. The result, I feel, is a very fine, clean, powerful sound, very much like playing a real theatre organ. For example, based on my experience with the 'real thing' I have the tremmulant air sound coming through as I actually hear it from our local Wurlitzer.

The two computer screen shots above detail what's going on (click on one to expand it). One is an EXCEL table showing how I have connected the outputs from my four MOTU (Mark of the Unicorn) audio interfaces to the many speakers (driven by HW and the Mac Pro computer). The layout gives a diagramatic view of how the speakers are positioned. It also shows how I've routed outputs to form various groups. As shown there are two Left, Center, and Right groups with 12 speakers each. The speakers intermix within the left, center, and right groups. This is done to blend the sound. The celesting one gets when pipe sounds mix in the air is a better sound, IMHO, to the sound of mixing electronically.

The other screen shot shows which ranks go to which groups. I mostly oriented things according to the Main/Solo TO type grouping. But the speakers mix so well in the not-so-large room that it's difficult to get very much of a left/right feeling. In some cases I put a Main rank in the Solo section, and visa-versa, in order to balance the rank types (as I think of them). Also, to further clarify the sounds, I routed the pipes below midi #48 from most ranks to the five groups of two speakers (as shown by an 'x') since one mostly plays only one note there per rank at a time.

Another thing to note is that all of the tuned percussion ranks are also going to 12-speaker groups. This includes the piano. The result is a more clear piano sound, however, one can hear the notes move about in the center area rather unlike a linear piano would do.

Below is a table that will contain various MP3 files to listen to or download. So far (5-03-2011) the one file is a narrated demo of what the TO sounds like using the above described set up.

5-04-2011
I have added two more demo's of the Paramount 3/32. Here the various individual ranks are shown. This is really meant to be one demo, but it ran so long, that I cut it into two parts.

Something to be aware of: I voice this organ from my seat at the console, which is over to one side of the organ room. But, the microphones are directly out front of the speaker array. The result is that certain pipes come through louder or quieter than I hear them from my console. An example is in a note of the Solo TIBIA. Also one of the tremmed TUBA pipes is too loud from out front. The CONCERT FLUTE sounds too loud to me on the recording, but not at the console. The same is tru of the HORN DIAPASON. The PIANO suffers a bit from this too. If I were to ever need to make better recordings, I would need to use one of the additional HW start-ups and re-voice the organ from out front. That's a big job. . . but perhaps one day.

I expect to add more. . .