Classical organs for home use -- can they be really satisfying?

[indianajo]

I love my old house. I only paid 1.3 years salary for it, and didn't upgrade in the "buy a bigger house refinance NOW" boom. This old design is great for music. The 1" thick plaster walls are not a problem either, against outside noise. I can play keyboard or stereo as loud as I want. I'm 25 feet wall to wall from the nearest other house. My neighbors are a window frame factory, an autistic guy on disability, and a factory shift worker and his bar maid roommate. They are probably not your wife's cup of tea, but they suit me. In this location 1 mile from downtown, I have HS internet from ATT, piped in natural gas, and real city sewers. No water well pump to dink with in the winter. I'm two blocks from a discount grocery store, a bank,a Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree stores, AND I have city bus service three blocks away. So If I go blind & lose my driver's license like my Dad and his father, no big deal. Now that I don't work, I'm memorizing keyboard pieces as hard as I can go, to give me something fun to do. Both before and after.

[davidecasteel]

Sounds as if you are well set. Bravo!

David
("If music be the food of love, play on!")

[j reimer]

John,

As Don60 earlier in the thread implies, an organ heard close up and the same organ heard at a distance are really two different experiences. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but could you try putting in some moderate low pass filtering ("top cut") as well as using the reverb? It may just produce the kind of sound you are after.

John Reimer

[Havoc]

Yes and no. I have a small pipe organ designed for a church in a small room and from an acoustics point of view it isn't very satisfactory. It is too loud, my ears ring when I pull more than 2 stops, and the total lack of reverb (*) is something I miss. On the other hand, the feeling of a manual action and the way the pipes speak and sound and interact with each other makes it all worth it for me.

(*)I do have an cunning plan to do something about that. When I have some time...

[Menschenstimme]

" . . . the way the pipes speak and sound and interact with each other makes it all worth it for me."

AMEN !!!

[AllanP]

My organ is separated from the listening area by a high ceiling entrance hall in to the house. The entrance hall has some natural reverberation which allows the sound to blend and gives it a little liveliness. Having the speakers or pipes in the same room as the listener did not work well for me in a previous installation, the sound was too immediate. Of course, a larger space for the sound to expand is best but not everyone has the space. Separating the organ from the console in the case where the principal listener is the player requires an electric action or an electronic organ.

[myorgan]

It's placed in our master bedroom, which is a generous 18' x 20' room, also holding a king-size bed, a dresser and chest, a studio piano, a couple of chairs, and assorted other furniture. So the room is not crowded, but not wide open either. I have it connected to a big Allen SR-5 subwoofer in a corner and a pair of small full-range tower speakers flanking the console. This is a full complement of speakers for this model, which has a 3-channel self-contained amplifier. It can be expanded to 6 channels by adding a Rodgers amp and more speaker cabinets, but there's not room for any more speakers and it plays adequately with what I have.

What does your wife do during those late-night practice sessions? Play the piano?

I have access to lots of organ speakers, amps, and other audio accessories. I'm just wondering what kind of setups others have done in their homes and how satisfying they find them. Anyone got any experiences or suggestions to share? Thanks.

I have my ADC-4300 in my garage (18'x20' w/vaulted ceiling), and am not completely satisfied with its sound. I've tried putting the speakers facing me, but that's too close. I've tried putting them to etiher side of the organ, facing directly out, but that's too close too--the sound doesn't mix well. However, I've opted for that placement out of consideration for the neighbors. I've also tried placing them on the opposite side of the garage, but that fails as well.

That said, however, in my frequent moves of the ADC-4300, I have discovered something that works quite well for me and the listener. I periodically move the organ to an old Civil War fort and play in their Welcome Center. The room is approximately 25'x40', and has stone floors and high, vaulted ceilings. When I place the organ, I place it at a 45° angle to the wall, and I sit facing the corner (approximately 10'-15' away). I place the speakers behind the organ (stacked, too), and they speak facing the corner as well. I've found this does a couple of things.

• There is no direct sound (it's all reflected).
• It helps provide the depth of sound that would be found in a pipe chamber. The speakers closest to the wall (at the foot of the triangle) reflect first, while those in the center reflect and blend last, providing some depth to the sound.

At this point, the only improvement I'd attempt to make is to place the speakers at a ±45° angle up toward the ceiling. That way, there would be more reflection points, and I believe the sound would blend better, the highs would be more clear, and there would be more depth of sound (Allen used to call it Delay).

John, I'm not sure if your bedroom has vaulted ceilings, but perhaps it's worth a try? If you have a reverb unit, that may make things even better.

Just my 2¢ worth.

Michael

[jbird604]

Thanks, Michael. I'd love to hear that 4300 in that big stone-floored room! Our bedroom unfortunately has a cramped 8' ceiling and I haven't come up with anywhere to place speakers except on either side of the console. I have recently tried cranking up the reverb (the built-in Rodgers reverb) and am finding that rather pleasing.

Of course, I may decide at some point to get rid of the Rodgers and bring in something else. The necessity of preserving the "stereo imaging" of the Rodgers precludes some of the more creative placement possibilities.

Maybe one day we'll find ourselves in some big roomy house with high ceilings and I can try some other placements. For now, I guess I'll be satisfied for a while.

[Stevieb]

...I'm lucky enough to have a Rodgers 790B that's ...placed in our master bedroom...

Ah, maybe I don't fit in, here. All I could think of was, "What does your WIFE think about that?"

[myorgan]

Ah, maybe I don't fit in, here. All I could think of was, "What does your WIFE think about that?"

My wife's response, His wife is definitely more tolerant than I am! At that point, he can have his own bedroom. Of course, in her defense, I should mention that we have at least 1-2 organs in every room of the house (including the other bedrooms) EXCEPT the bathrooms, kitchen, and our bedroom. I keep telling her, "They'll be a good retirement project." So far, it's worked!

Michael