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But along the way I realized my tiny bell-playing keyboard appeared so ravishingly charming perhaps via another all-but-forgotten ancient obsession, the SoloVox, a lovely Hammond accessory I must’ve seen somewhere in my childhood; they were old-technology even then, tube-based in an increasingly-transistorized age. They were attached below the keyboard of one’s piano — presumably I dreamed of attaching one to our piano — and produced lovely electronic-organish tones through a beautiful Hammond tone cabinet I saw just now on YouTube. I believe in my childish dreams I didn’t understand the tone cabinet part: it’s the brains of the thing, as well as the amplifier/speaker, and the tiny keyboard I incoherently lusted-for would’ve been totally useless without it. ... Comparisons with my current follies will be studiously evaded....
Anyway, after hours of search and even test, I’ve learned some things about silver bells (at least as they were ~ 2012) and how to play them within my Reaper DAW maybe:
And The Winner is Cakewalk’s free “SFZ Player”, which initially could only produce “Not Enough Memory” errors which as usual, translated from mumbo-jumboese, means “mumbo jumbo fault”. But the internet is awash with reports on how it plays SF2 and SFZ soundfonts, so after a few months I installed it again and it still didn’t work, but then I tried installing it on a 32-bit XP system and it did, so I googled “sfz 64 bits” and got a cakewalk forum where someone said a different more expen$ive product’d work good with the magical PR32 or PR16 “modes”, but SFZ was happy, too, when I set it that way and who knows. ... Such things may be file-dependent, at least my lovely general MIDI “Chaos_V20” produced the memory error with PR32 but worked good with PR16. THE WINNER, therefore, was SFZ Player, once I set its “mode” right (to PR16 or PR32?). ... It plays all the sound fonts I played with VSTSynthFont (next), but without weird screens and nonsense. ... But I got my sound fonts from VSTSynthFont links. ... Sadly Cakewalk is feeling poorly these days (2/18); this appears to be a page where you might be able to download the exciting 32-bit SFZ player. And here I’ve zipped-up sfz.dll & sfz.exe....
So, obviously, I grovel in ignorance, but I must report further joyous investigations into Miditzer revealed soundfonts are an integral part of the adorable virtual organ’s sometimes elusive charms. ... And for further pointless delving, you may share my deep thoughts on editing the Miditzer soundfont....
4. I’ve used an E-MU “midi1x1” MIDI/USB cable ($40? Amazon), for various MIDI gadgets, including connecting the Nord’s MIDI-out to the computer running Miditzer, until it was superceded by my obsolete EMU 0404. ... While using a lesser brandx MIDI/USB cable, although it probably applies to them all, I’ve discovered it works a lot better with the sequence (1.) connect-up the MIDI cable to a machine on one end and the converter on the other; then (2.) plug the converter into the USB. ... I think I was trying to plug the MIDI cable into the converter after it was connected to the USB and the machine was powered-on, but whatever I was doing, it worked very poorly, producing weird behavior on an antique CZ-101, which symptoms vanished into the mist when I did things the better way: plug in PC end of USB cable last.... 5. Note that in my Miditzer / Hauptwerk system the beautiful Nord C2 functions as a collection of MIDI keyboards + buttons. Which could undoubtedly be replaced for far less money — without the Nord sounds of course....
Most of these hwerk organists were presumably imprinted in a formative year or so with “The Mighty Organ”. ... I, on the other hand, wallowing in snooty progressive Nueva York, was led somehow to “The Tracker”. Which Wikipedia disappointingly describes merely as a mechanism, omitting entirely the modern religious movement with E. Power Biggs as its prophet. The cult encouraged related devotions, to baroque stops and low wind pressure, but mechanical “tracker” organ movements were at the heart....
Which limitation, indeed, was the reason
for the pneumatic and electric systems of the Age of Progress, so like
everything else organs could become vast and amazing. The tracker
philosophy
was a post-modernist rejection
of all
that, and they doted on lovely small organs you could easily
put in a shed,
at your charming summer place you could somehow afford on a professor’s
salary. ... I associate “chiff” with these organs — a
brief
lovely
sibilance when the pipe first speaks — and that’s probably
something
to
do with the low wind pressure which, of course, would be part of the
anti-progress package. I’m surprised they didn’t demand manual
bellows-pumping; although I believe there are
experiments....
HEAVY METAL Both Behringer EQ devices appear to be subsidized for our amusement by the rock and roll industry, which uses them to control microphone feedback at concerts. ... If you are blessed, you’ve never heard the appalling howling that can occur when a microphone or other transducer is afflicted by vast quantities of amplification, a typical rock concert health threat. ... The cheaper BFD parametric EQ supposedly can fix that automatically; I suppose the graphic version is still favored nevertheless by the old school — but then again, apparently my FBQ3102 had a manual feedback suppression feature I never knew about. ... BFD documentation is filled with dire warnings about turning-off the automatic mechanism by accident after it’s adjusted; i.e., the gargantuan concert amplification feedback could presumably explode your head.... + BROKEN WINDOWS PROGRAM
THE SACRED TONE CONTROLS I should note that parametric EQs — which includes the BFD — are not ideal as general-purpose tone controls. The bass / treble / mid controls on the Nord, and my mixers, are far more convenient. ... But I was raised in a progressive household and my parents, like the other intellectual beatniks, had a hi-fi with an enormous speaker. Later in life, my father was bitter, betrayed by stereo, and he played everything with cheap tape players and worse, and loudly scoffed at hi-fi pretensions. I, however, grew-up in the faith, and retain an atavistic horror of touching the tone controls. ... Hi-end stereo today is increasingly a staged evocation of my father’s and friends’ hi-fis, down to the tube technology, but they are also very negative on tone controls, except when something expensive comes with some, but most don’t. And I still tremble to touch the forbidden dials, and somehow doing it with a higher-tech gadget like the BFD isn’t nearly as troubling. ... I should be in a 12-step program. ... And then it turns out, inhibitions or not, the BFD is often a better tone control; more precise. Of course. ... But definitely less easily-adjustable. MORE EXPENSIVE? The Absolute Sound 2/13 p 88 puffs “DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 DualCore Digital Signal Processor” $1200 which might be a high-quality version of the BFD. The only web source has prices strictly in euros....
Not to be outdone, Stereophile 1/14 mentioned a “miniDSP” which has a stereo version on the web for a $140? or so; I have no idea if it’s any good but the Stereophile article puffed its more expensive sibling. The miniDSP web site does not inspire confidence, all aglow with childish electronic hobbyist enthusiasms and lack of specifics. ... After idle months of lazy contemplation, I finally figured-out that by “plug-in” they seem to mean “the software user interface(UI) used for control/configuration of the DSP from a PC/Mac environment” — well actually they said so somewhere, but mostly it’s just “plug-in”, which is an ignorant/illiterate usage when what they mean is “PC software”. ... And I’m an expert.... And then I felt a lack of bass in my beloved Miditzer and installed a hifi graphic EQ which remedied the fault and included a defeat switch, so I could turn it off easily for the bass-adequate Nord baroque and the other organs. ... But the hifi EQ will tune no wolf note forever. ... But then I had time to reconsider and reflect — after the chaotic period of the Imperium’s resurrection — and as far as I can tell now, in this room, Miditzer’s OK and Hauptwerk’s got too much bass. And after all, it all changes as I adjust levels, including the speakers and the sub-woofer. ... But my puerile pro-Miditzer prejudices pan-out at last.... OBITER DICTUM: THE KID’S ALL RIGHT ... And then at last I felt that, if I was going to hook-up a hifi EQ, I might as well get back to the hard stuff, and so I did, and gloriously concluded the DSP1124P wasn’t noisy despite previous delusions. In the interim I’d improved various signal-to-noise ratios, most recently discovering the mysterious hidden (to my eyes anyway) Miditzer “Master Gain” control, but before that I’d installed clouds of HD400 gadgets. And now the DSP1124P runs again, and will crush newly discovered Nord wolf-notes and/or push a little harmless EQ here and there as I see fit, and is without blemish. ... Especially that now there’s ...
My DSP1124P dreams were considerably enhanced by discovering this fellow who has a free (donations solicited) “Room EQ Wiz” (henceforth “REW”) which I downloaded and installed, and it does indeed send EQ settings to the DSP1124P, which makes setting the thing up considerably easier than the hardware interface and my spreadsheets. Sadly it doesn’t upload them (i.e., back from the DSP1124P to the PC), which would’ve been nicer; the fellow says Behringer never documented that part. The REW software includes much extraneous — for me — stuff with which you can “tune” your listening room using various arcane arts, and his site is not so copacetic although to be sure far better than many and showing numerous signs of life, including the guy responding to questions.... His acronym for the DSP1124P is “BFD” although he goes to considerable lengths to insist the Keepers of Room EQ will not be using the feedback destruction feature. I think it’s an ironic tone thing so to speak, so I am happy to adopt it for my further frenzied delvings and endless notes. ... Which now include a work flow of preparing an EQ curve on a comfortable desktop PC, saving it in a file using an REW function, copying the file to my organ laptop (through my ridiculous network), and then, on the laptop, loading the file into REW and downloading it to the USB/MIDI-attached BFD. ... REW can even save a jpeg picture of the curve you concoct. ... However, even in REW I must prepare the EQ by adjusting 12 filter numeric parameters, just like the BFD itself — except it’s immensely easier in REW. The software is complicated, particularly since I have to thread my way through the room EQ parts which I don’t use; but it’s still much better than my spreadsheet and manual system. At the very least, REW takes care of the ridiculousy-intricate BFD frequency adjustment, which on the actual hardware requires two adjustments, one of which is a number representing 60ths of an octave! ... And at last a new wolf note popped-up in the duck reserve — i.e. after months and months I noticed it — and the BFD fixed it good....
10. The Hauptwerk-despised Windows “System Restore” is a popular and beloved feature of the Windows operating system, which operating system is so likely to get itself tangled in knots after installing some wacko program, which includes Windows’ own updates. After which “system restore points” provide a mechanism by which such disappointing contretemps can sometimes be undone. Indeed, before installing the esteemed-but-menacing Hauptwerk, and Miditzer for that matter, or almost any interesting software or even some boring stuff, I set a system restore point in anticipation of cranky programs wreaking havoc. Your modern up-to-date software is supposed to do that for you but I of course never trust them.... At the very least, Hauptwerk’s dubious system restore prohibition implies that you will dedicate a PC to the beautiful virtual organ, which I’m sure would be meet and right so to do, but perhaps inconvenient, and costly. ... And reeks of the apparently latter-day pro-Macintosh bias exhibited by the once-Windows-only software, i.e., because Macs never go wacko. ... And always cost more. My very own OwenShow
directory/file viewer
also has a restore problem I never fixed, because I’m lazy and my
vast
following hasn’t complained, but it has something to do with file
names. Windows apparently restores files in any and all directories
based on the name
of the file, probably mostly the extension, and if
your program happens to use one of these 4,000 magic extensions for
something
Not Approved, shame on you! ... For mortals, which
extensions/names are
involved is forbidden knowledge; but Microsoft probably has it
documented somewhere in the Endless Caves of Knowledge & Folly,
and Hauptwerk
should go and find it and fix it, instead of foolishly suggesting we
just stop using an essential operating system feature because they’re
too lazy.
... That’s my
job.... The Two-Drive Solution? One approach to working-around
Hauptwerk’s crotchets might be to somehow install the thing on an
extra
drive, and then I believe it is
possible to exclude that drive from the
restore system. But Hauptwerk
for some bizarre reason won’t let me install the program
anywhere
but
on drive c: — I say bizarre because lots of other software doesn’t
have
this restriction — but the “custom” installation option
let me install
everything else
— the bulk
of Hauptwerk’s vast samples and who knows what — on another
drive, as I have verified. I guesstimate that the “c:\program files”
Hauptwerk doesn’t have Windows-restore-averse files in it, and you
can
exclude a particular drive from Windows restore. So that should work
perfectly! With a laptop, one would “partition” a drive out-of whatever you got, which is an intricate dangerous process and could easily destroy your equipment, if not your entire local ecosystem + beloved pets, so only the mad and the dangerous undertake it. ... When I did it on my trusty Windows 7 / 2010 laptop, first I “shrunk” the existing partition by 100 gigabytes, then I made a “simple” partition in the freed-up space, called it “drive d:”, and it was good. ... But really, this is a ridiculous amount of dangerous tinkering for mortals to go through, just so that a wacko virtual organ’ll have a chance of surviving in a restored windows system. ... And this just in: I tried restoring such a partitioned system, and it didn’t explode; Hauptwerk continued its beautiful virtual effusions. ... Conclusive random evidence! ... The next time I did this, I used an actual external USB drive....
11. HAUPTWERK DONGLE CONSIDERED STUPID. ... This is all so yesterday, since my version of hwerk is dead long ago, and the current versions have graduated so far beyond tedious dongle hardware to tedious software mechanisms of surpassing beauty I’m sure. But in an effort to clog this site and the web with obsolete useless information, I will leave my exciting adventure documented anyway.... So I paid my fare and bought the $250 “Basic” Hauptwerk and got the dongle, and first in the Stupidity Hit Parade is SECURITY. The dongle isn’t shipped ready-to-use. The user — me — must go through one of these wonderful computeristic rituals to make the thing work the first time. This was not clear from the web site, at least in my casual perusal. ... I can just see them, lounging around the Milan Audio & Trucking foozball game, “Well, they’re computer organists; it’ll be easy!” ... I will not describe the details of the procedure since these things have a tendency to change with whim and moon phase — the little multiple-language cardboard in the Hwerk box, which I didn’t trust, had different instructions from http://www.hauptwerk.com/forms/license-updates/, which I found by googling “Hauptwerk license update file”. But following the cryptic orders, I did a procedure in Hauptwerk which created a file — you computer organists all know how to save files, and then find them later, right? — which I then uploaded to the web form, whereupon the next day Hauptwerk sent me a return email with an attachment, which I saved, and then followed another procedure in Hauptwerk to get the thing and “activate” the dongle.... This annoyance — me doing all this stuff, instead of them — is probably to promote “security”: presumably theirs, from thieving low-rent employees who would otherwise be tempted, as they pushed the buttons on some PC robot, to appropriate the odd dongle or two. Hauptwerk’d have to control this, which usually means higher salaries or other forms of annoying monetary impact, hence the obvious simple solution, universally adopted by software vendors everywhere: torment the user. ... Well actually I’m undoubtedly overstating the security problem; probably it’s any salary at all they’re trying to avoid.... BELOVED SOCIALISM OK, I’m ranting like a socialist here; someone’s got to pay the freight, and if not I, thou. That’s why Milan Audio keeps it in dark obscurity. I would suggest codifying and publicizing the ordeal; a cheaper, uglier, larger dongle would be nice, but I suspect that’s not part of the modern technical landscape.... THE GOOD NEWS is the dongle worked on two test machines. ... That is, the ridiculous ritual to get it to go, after paying $250, made me suspect they were pulling a single-machine installation scam, whereupon I would’ve had to rise in wrath and despair and dispute the credit card charge, just for the sake of the right and good. ... But thankfully, for the peace of the universe and the NY State Attorney General, this was not the case, and aprés activation the dongle seems to enable Hauptwerks on different computers without qualms. Obviously, one at a time.... STUPID DONGLE ANNOYANCE SCREEN However, THE BAD NEWS is the dongle appeared to cripple the free Hauptwerk so it had an additional startup annoyance delay. ... That is, after my $250 and the intricate activation ritual, the Hauptwerk installation worked good — in my case, with the free Paramount 310 and St. Anne’s, indistinguishably from the pay version — except I don’t have to press a key to clear the free/evaluation screen at startup. But removing the USB key and starting Hauptwerk, as well as restoring the free/evaluation screen, roused a new annoyance screen, which waited 30 seconds for me to plug in the dongle with a censorious air of “what are you trying to pull now?” ... Amusingly, this frolicky new screen would often get “lost” as I jiggled windows around, desperately clicking the Hauptwerk icon and “stealing” the “focus” as we computery guys might put it, so there’d be no window, just the delay. Well, anyway, the next step of our Stupidity Sweepstakes is me, the stupid user, not carefully reading the new annoyance screen, every single syllable — well, on one of those occasions when I hadn’t hysterically managed to click-away the focus — where it says right there in black and white that I could “change or disable this delay on Haupterk’s general preferences screen”. ... I never did actually manage to read that in my struggle to defeat the thing; I perused the manual where the same information is available or at least hinted-at — or I vaguely-remembered it going-by while option spelunking? — but, indeed, “General preferences” / “Advanced preferences” tab / “Maximum time to wait for Hauptwerk USB key on start-up (seconds)” was set to 30 seconds — before the dongle, it’s set to 0 seconds — and restoring it to 0 cleared the newly-hatched annoyance screen. ... So all is well, and what was I so excited about, anyway?!?!  ... THE BOTTOM LINE: if you’re using the free Hauptwerk with the St. Anne’s Moseley classical organ that comes with it, or my beloved free downloaded Paramount 310 theater organ, there’s almost no incentive to buy the official Hauptwerk product with its annoying dongle, and some disincentive. ... Well unless you got in during the version 4.1 annoyance feature. ... Before that, I did feel morally-elevated for paying the freight, and now that I’ve figured-out how the dongle’s supposed to work, I’ve even deployed it at the beautiful Nord.... But I must not omit the final stage in the March of Stupidity: the Hauptwerk dongle is a tiny tiny little thing; not quite the smallest USB key I’ve seen, but only, apparently, so they could print a tiny “Hauptwerk” logo on it. And it costs — not counting user agony — at least $250. So I immediately put a lanyard on it, one of which I fortunately had left-over from some adorable obsolete video camera probably, and I would advise others to do likewise, enhancing the chances it won’t blow-away forever when someone slams a door while you’re distracted or something. ... Hauptwerk, of course, includes no such accessory, which is too bad for you non-lanyard-collecting dullards; but there is at least a tiny hole to attach one.... And then the earth made a couple of whirls — well, probably one — and I got the Paramount 320 upgrade for $100, and the new required procedure may have calmed down a bit. But probably it was just more familiar. ... But it worked, and my hwerk dongle got itself upgraded to certify the new organ and all was calm in the virtual garden....
13. The Grand Eb Excuses: Reverb & Moon Phase. In the beginning, the Hauptwerk Paramount 310’s low Eb was weak. I was playing I’m Getting Sentimental Over You and the Eb was gone; it was not there, MIA, unheard-of! The “Beatle change” at the end of the arrangement was kaput; I started playing an Ab or something for the chord, just so there’d be a bass note! ... Since I’m an expert on standing waves, I was certain that was it: that is, I had a vague suspicion that somehow whatever was making my pedal F too loud, also discriminated against the nearby Eb. And with the DSP1124P, I could tune the wolfy F down and the Eb right next to it up! ... But time passed and I entertained various novel delusions, including the precise Eb octave whereabouts — it was the low Eb1 I’m almost absolutely certain — and/or that the FEX800 reverb suppressed the Paramount 310’s Eb, and to a lesser extent the Miditzer’s, but barely molested the Nord pipe organ pedal — so appropriately for “cathedral” reverb! — but also the frequently-secular B3; possibly, I conjectured, because neither indulges in the throbbing theater organ tremolo which somehow clashes with the delay time and the pitch or something, and which might well happen in a real cathedral. ... I actually went as far as buying and installing (and returning) a replacement Lexicon MX200 reverb; a disappointment, producing an obviously unsatisfactory cathedral as compared with the cheaper FEX800, apart from any Ebs.... And as the world turned and the dust settled, and the era of True Loudness commenced, the Eb crisis subsided. The Paramount 310 Eb is still weak; but not so much. Conceivably, I could’ve missed the whole thing, in its current milder incarnation, depending on how often I play I’m Getting Sentimental on the 310, and my affections have shifted in the interim back to the Miditzer. In the grand summation — well, I finally read something on the web about room effects, and my ignorance simply expands in ever larger widening waves. ... And anyway, it was probably the warts in some POW pedal notes, which other vtpoers have eventually complained about.
14. Virtual testing sadly requires real hardware, demonstrating once again the beautiful free organs aren’t really. ... I of course bought my ridiculously-costly Nord C2 before I even discovered Miditzer and Hauptwerk, but most people are cheap. Searching for “88 key keyboard” @ amazon.com turns-up numerous 88- and 76-key devices @ $300 or less, which probably emit MIDI although I didn’t actually check. Or you might already have a MIDI-emitting keyboard around the house. Then, at least in Miditzer, you can split the keyboard to play one or two manuals and the pedals; Hauptwerk docs say it’ll do that too — and by golly, I tried it and so it does! ... This is probably the cheapest route to virtual testing, and actually might be an appropriate performance strategy for certain purposes, i.e. maximum portability. ... Of course you still have to have speakers and a computer and a MIDI interface and an audio interface maybe and 5 million cables.....
15. The Miditzer versus Hauptwerk hardware hookup story: if you’re planning on wiring-up one of these ambitious three- or 4-manual consoles and MIDIfying it along the way — something far beyond my hopes & dreams & competence — the MIDI-related software challenges of Miditzer versus Hauptwerk’s admirable “auto-learn” feature won’t make much difference, because the console is so much work it dwarfs the VTO configuration. Through assiduous promotion and perhaps even merit, Hauptwerk has convinced the virtual organ enthusiast community — at the VTPO forum anyway — that it sounds better, and the console projecteer is seemingly obliged to choose — to match the engraved stop tabs to the virtual organ’s voices, at least? ... Or I’m probably delusional, and if the console has a more-than-adequate supply of tabs the voice matchup isn’t such trouble. And is seemingly an inevitable issue in a software product, with the Paramount Organ Works’ endless parade of new models, and even Miditzer has an assortment. And I have seen at least one VTPO posting lamenting too many virtual organs versus too few tabs. ... For someone who doesn’t care about giant consoles and tab engraving and somehow obtains an already MIDIfied organ, then Hauptwerk definitely is easier to install. Before the Nord C2 I didn’t know of any such wondrous devices, at least retail below $20K — but I was ignorant; of Hammond/Suzuki, and Ebay treasures which are occasionally referred-to in the VTPO forum with below-$500 prices....
In my completely non-partisan sniping-at-the-rich-and-powerful role, I recommend trying the free Miditzer first, just because it’s much easier to download and install. And don’t forget to investigate using the PC keyboard to control Miditzer combos buttons — which is probably the only way, excluding extreme technical measures. ... With the free Hauptwerk you can probably set-up the combos to be activated by almost any MIDI instrument key/button or PC key. ... As compensation, Miditzer never had annoyanceware....
The feasibility study was conducted entirely on the Nord’s 2nd Christmas, using attractive wood from somebody’s some-assembly-required kitchen furniture found @ the curb, which I disassembled months or years ago but still retained for a project just such as this, the result being immensely enhanced by the lovely plastic real-wood finish although still obviously the work of an enthusiastic and destructive amateur — just like my organ performances! ... And I played the Nord on its new shelf, and it seemed as lovely as ever, and I got the 3rd keyboard and tried it out. ... I’ve already ranted about how this kind of tinkering can be self-defeating because of the inevitable “breakiness” it introduces into my up-to-now mildly-reliable home organ — but I was still curious how nice it would be, whether it’ll be better than without, and I’ve cunningly done the mutilation so it can be reversed without serious harm; or so I jejunely hoped. Whether the mutilation reversibility includes the re-heightened organ bench wasn’t tested. The new height of the Nord swell up on my shelf was tiring, so I 3’’-wallboard-screwed the pieces I shaved off from the bench — which I hadn’t saved carefully, but found cowering amongst random scraps in the garage, alone and afraid — and it hasn’t fallen over yet! ... I got a little extra height back, since I left the slider felt thingeys on the bottom of the previously-shortened surface. And, oddly, it really doesn’t look like an atrocity unless I examine it closely. ... And the increased height is definitely nicer. ... But then my feet are a little too far from the pedals again, so I propped-up the pedal board a bit, which is not quite as silly as it sounds since the alternative’d be lowering both the table + bench and a lot of trouble. But it was silly-enough; my pedal glissandos rattled, so I put it back....
But then behold the third keyboard! ... It was exactly as I’ve dreaded: plug-in, configure, chaos! ... It is the way of the future children where all is beauty and nothing works. ... And I’m an expert. ... My M-Audio interface got power-starved when I plugged-in the M-Audio keyboard and was exceedingly unhappy, making little LED-meter blips of pain which, fortunately, I had anticipated and left unamplified and unheard. This when I foolishly tried to turn my system off, including the USB hub power, which my USB devices don’t like at all. So I rearranged things wildly, no doubt making some unknown future crisis worse. ... And the keyboard seemed to be just a little taller than advertised, which is unfortunate since it barely fit under my ridiculous shelf, and required the application of beer coasters (kept in plentiful supply for tasks such as these). But then again, I want it to be close, since everything barely fits, so it’s all probably for the best.... And then I got the stuff working for an
hour or two. ... And I still
only
have two
arms! ... And whatever is the Mitz
260 solo manual for?
I’ve
sort-of
noticed previously, but now it’s obviously
a lesser manual, even with its authentic Wurlitzer stop list. ...
Indeed
most
of my combinations worked OK, even ’though I contrived them in those
innocent days when the
Nord
swell controlled both great and solo — because the solo
just
duplicates
some
of the great stops, so I
didn’t bother using any
solo voices anyway
Later I was inspired to play my traditional year-end Das Alte Jahr Vergangen Ist on the Nord pipe emulation with Hauptwerk’s St. Anne’s Moseley free demo classical organ. Actually I could’ve done this any day, third keyboard or no, but I hadn’t which I could tell ’cause I had to tune the St. Anne’s up eight cents to match the Nord. I mapped the third keyboard to the St. Anne’s swell, and the Nord great/pedal to St. Anne’s. So now I have an imitation 3-manual baroqueish organ with enhanced great/pedal + two comparable swell manuals, but each quite lovely and unique. ... The St. Anne’s by itself is not quite “all there”, but has some lovely stops, and so it’s all so beautiful now. ... Actually regardless of the third keyboard, the combination really fills-out the Nord baroque organ, particularly the pedal section. I suppose I could’ve coupled the Nord great to the pedal to get a trumpet for chorale prelude Bach polyphony, but it seems easier with the “spare” St. Anne’s.... The Third Arm: A Hosa FSC-501 “latching” foot switch for Paramount sostenuto. Sadly my beloved Miditzer doesn’t do sostenuto/sustain, except on the wacky 160C, but Hauptwerk does it good! — at least on the Paramount 310/320. Both the Nord and the new 61ES keyboard have a sustain input for an add-on foot switch, but I totally misunderstood how it works, or at least for some reason I thought the 61ES’d work differently than the Nord and hold-up the MIDI note-offs coming from the keyboard. Which might be nice; but in fact it just emits a MIDI code, and whether you get sustain/sostenuto or not depends entirely on the gadget receiving the code, in this case, mitz vs. hwerk. ... Anyway, another theory not yet obviously fallacious is that a latching foot switch’ll work better for three-arm simulation: I’ll hit some chord and use the foot switch/sostenuto feature to hold it while I amuse myself with the other two manuals. The “latch” is better for this because otherwise I’d have to hold-down the foot switch, thus depriving myself of a foot which could otherwise help make more noise, like banging a “toy counter” gong. ... The Paramount has sostenutos only on the great, and maybe I would’ve preferred something else, but I’m sure it’ll all work out wonderfully.... SOSTEUNTO HOW-TO In the Hauptwerk 320 “Organ settings / stop/coupler[...] / sostenuto” somewhere in the middle of the giant list. I clicked it, and then in the configuration form on the right clicked “auto detect”, tapped my Hosa FSC latch once, then again, and then clicked “DONE” and now it works gloriously. KEYBOARD WIDTH
CONCLUSIONS
& EXCUSES:
At $150 + the usual ridiculous unpaid labor, it was still worth it: it
amuses
me enough. ... A “must-have” for the home
electronic
organ? ... I guess not. ... When the USB works, and it’s
worked
for months,
it’s
fun, but mostly for playing the odd bell in otherwise two-manual pieces
— alternate right-hand lead voices seems
like a likely advantage, although I can’t say it’s panned-out
so well,
i.e. as opposed to just poking a combination button to change the
sound. ...
My
finest achievement so far was
rendering a slam-bang ending to Auld
Lang Syne with chimes as clanging New Year’s bells on the
solo while holding a closing chord on the accompaniment/pedal, +
repeated smashing of the “toy counter” gong with my right foot
via a Nord pedal + software trickery Competent organists presumably get more out of extra keyboards; actually you can see one here with the Paramount 450 and his 4-manual gadget and a sostenuto pedal; also spare-finger-on-another-manual technique, which I suppose I couldn’t do with combination buttons. ... But at my skill-level, the third manual mostly amuses me because of its convenience; it enhances my ad-hoc amateur arrangements, and makes it more fun. ... A feature of modern times and vicious global free markets: a home organ with three manuals, just for the sake of my idle amusement — i.e., as opposed to a profes$ional performance (or practice) instrument, for the historic silent movie theaters of yore or contemporary restorations. ... The home organists of the ’60s and ’70s were lucky to have two manuals, mostly those truncated offset things, not the opulent five octaves of our ridiculously wealthy era, where I can get a three-manual digital home organ with incomparably better sound for half the price of those ancient electronic things. ... But without the historic real-wood-tone furniture, to be sure.... And I still only have two arms....
... And then I got around to checking-out the crescendo pedal at wikipedia, and as I suspected its steps were “built-in” in by the organ maker, at least before the computer debacle in the later 20th century, confirming the device’s amateur status — although apparently an earlier 19th century variant was actually written-for in some romantic organ pieces, although its steps were still fixed by the builder....
Wednesday 5/1/24 10:28 am
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|
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SOME 
![[20]](twenty.png)
informative,
inspiring and 
is
a relatively
subdued Hammond — a model or so up from my late-lamented 
![[13]](thirteen.png)
12.
After
idyllic months of organizing I got to the 
16.
I resisted the third
keyboard with scornful indifference and
mockery
of the 
![[23]](twentythree.png)
... But
another morning still
brings the occasional
unspeakable imbroglio, and I fight with the
