DIY Organ Gallery

[engrssc]

Very nice work congratulations. Easy to see much effort went into your project. Enjoy!

Rgds,
Ed

[MRGreenwood]

Nice job. Might even inspire me to get on and do some more work on my console.

Martin G

[eajohnson]

Very nice Attila! You have a very good looking installation there. Eric

[Raimund]

Hi,

after one year using HW with my clavinova, I'm happy to present you my DIY-Organ Console :D



This "low-cost Project" was a process in four steps

1. Buying a 2-Manual Classic MIDI Keyboards (CMK) from midiworks.ca



2. Buying and Midi-fying a used Pedalboard



3. Do-It-Yourself assembling an organ bench

I bought a cheap countertop in a Home-Depot (DIY-Store) Shop. The cutting was all-inclusive:



and mounted it with brackets and screws



4. Do-It-Yourself assembling an organ console:

I took again a countertop and some other parts like shelve boards, decorative batten



To stabilize the top cover I placed a flat-steel on top of the CMK





Mounting the music rest



Covering the keycheeks:






My Organ Opus No.1:
:D



Acceptance authority:





Thank you for your interest

Raimund

[philip77]

Very creative and innovative use of stock materials--an aesthetically pleasing and splendidly serviceable console uniquely your own! Thank you for sharing your completed project in pictures for the inspiration of many other Hauptwerkians. I wish you many countless hours of happy "organizing"!

[GDay]

Congratulations Raimund!
Nicely done

G'day

[mdyde]

A gentleman named Mark Williams has asked that I post the following information and pictures of his set-up on his behalf for the interest of others:

Description of the WILLIAMS ORGAN:

This is a 3-manual Hauptwerk organ designed and constructed by Mark K. Williams of Savannah, Georgia (USA) for his home. The organ utilizes a duo-core PC with 8GB RAM and WinXP64. MIDI interface hardware is from Largonet’s MIDI Gadgets Boutique of Bulgaria (really nice boards). The main goal in the design and construction of the organ was to provide a replica of the 67-rank Harrison and Harrison that Williams plays at Christ Church Anglican as the parish's Organist/Choirmaster. Therefore, Mark utilized Oberwerk as the best program from which he could choose and arrange stops that best mimicked the Harrison and Harrison. Williams also chose Dr. Yves Petit-Clerc’s Oberwerk (Milan Digital Audio) for the simplicity of the application's voicing controls for establishing balance within and between divisions and for its ability to employ treble ascendancy to the voicing process.

In addition, Williams copied the ergonomic design of the Harrison and Harrison console carefully--regarding bench height, height from pedals to bench, pedals to keyboards, and keyboards to the music desk. "The Harrison and Harrison console on which I play every day is the single most comfortable console on which I have played. I can play for several hours at a time with only a couple of breaks for a stretch and a walk around without any serious discomfort," says Williams. "So I took on the task of copying the ergonomics of the church console so that I could enjoy the nearly stress-free playing that I do at Christ Church as well as enjoy little to no transference difficulties when moving between the two consoles."

The secondary goal was to create an instrument that looked as good as it sounded and sounded as good as it looked. Therefore Williams employed two hi-end Sony Surround Sound systems for a total of twelve speakers and two 16'' woofers as well as two powered Behringer monitor speakers (nice matched speakers) to round out the sound.

The third goal was to convince his lovely wife, Tina (who is a lyric soprano and runs a large voice studio), that the instrument would fit into and look nice in the decor of their historic home in Savannah. Once Mark presented a photo of the case of the Bosch-Schnitger/Saint Nicolaas Kerk (Netherlands) organ to her, along with some CADD drawings of their living room space to show her that their grand piano and the newly proposed organ would indeed fit into one end of the room comfortably, she gave the project a green light.

Construction was begun in June of 2007 and voicing completed in March of 2008. The pipes are non-working. The two monitors are touchscreen from Elo Touchscreen Systems. Mark Williams may be contacted at <williams4950 [at] bellsouth.net> for comments or inquiries.

[Stefanussen]

very cool, screens as a music rack has lots of interesting applications. How about a piston for 'next page'? :)

[Sander]

which can be recorded into the sequencer ofcourse. It should be possible with a MIDI to key-pressure program.

[Stefanussen]

It would also be feasible to have MIDI sheet music coupled with an analysis algorithm that moves music for you based where you are in your performance.

[Sander]

If you don't make to many mistakes that is. Too bad the sheet music database closed down.

[Mark K. Williams]

Just to help out here....the music on the left touchscreen monitor is being displayed as part of the MusicPad Pro software loaded on the CPU. I have a MusicPad Pro from (freehandsystems.com) very cool tool, and have scanned much of my music into it. The MusicPad itself (not pictured) and the accompanying application on the CPU allow me to turn pages through a simple switch, like a synth sustain pedal or a 3-foot tape switch mounted under the key desk, which I have done both with my Hauptwerk home organ and the Harrison and Harrison at Christ Church. Also, with the software and the use of a touchscreen, you can turn the pages instantaneously by touching the screens on the left and righthand sides of the screen. In addition, you can zoom in on the music to make it larger, add and subtract notes and notations as well as hi-lite (in five colors and four marker widths), write on the screen for annotations, add dynamic markings, etc., and put pages in a repeated sequence to allow for repeats as you page through a piece while playing it. Learning to scan music into the MusicPad cleanly took me about a Saturday of testing, but once I got it down, I had 15-20 pieces on a thumbdrive in a couple of hours. So now I carry my organ music from work to home and back in my pocket and have no need of a page turner!

[deWaverley]

Wow...that's stunning! I recommend everyone have a look at that (MusicPad Pro).

I've been wondering (like many people, I should imagine) why nobody has done this yet...particularly in an orchestral context.

It could be amazingly useful for us piano teachers too, who currently have to lug several hundredweight of music around with us. Can you print out pages from it?

I only wish it could be a fraction cheaper though - would leave a bit more cash available for the next must-have Sample Set!

deWav

[Stefanussen]

Yes, very cool indeed, not cheap though...

[Geoff Lloyd]

There's a software only programme available here which is much more reasonable:

http://www.musicreader.net/

I've been trying the evaluation version this morning, using the same touchscreen as I'm using for Hauptwerk, and so far I'm very impressed.

Best regards,

Geoff Lloyd