THE MIGHTY WURLITZER!!!

[B. Milan]

And now for something a little different! The Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois has allowed us to record their historic Wurlitzer organ from 1921!

This sample set will be available with Hauptwerk 2 when it's released. The recordings contain samples of ALL stops and ALL notes PLUS ALL the percussion and toys that you could ever want in a theatre organ! The organ contains 8 stops which are unified throughout to make a total of nearly 50 stops!

You can view the stop list and some pictures at

www.milandigitalaudio.com/wurlitzer.htm

More information will be provided soon on the theatre and the Wurlitzer organ.

For your listening enjoyment, I've uploaded a recording that we did while in the theatre of organist Warren York playing. This recording was done outside the chamber for a more ambient sound, but the sampling was all done close INSIDE the chamber. Here is the link:

www.milandigitalaudio.com/wurlitzerdemo.mp3

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Very cool!

Great Stuff Brett - many closet admirers of the tonal eccentricities ( some say atrocities) of Robert Hope-Jones out here. Looking forward to the release of your samples. I think the Champaign Organ should have "second touch" - will Hauptwerk 2 enable this ?
Regards
Peter Dyson

[B. Milan]

I think the Champaign Organ should have "second touch" - will Hauptwerk 2 enable this ?

Hi Peter! Yes and yes. Both the Wurlitzer and HW2 support second touch. More details on all the features of the organ will be posted soon. Thanks for your support.

Just what I've been waiting to hear, thank's Brett. I can't wait for version 2 woohoo : )

This is great news! Here is some additional information on that organ from http://theatreorgans.com:

Wurlitzer opus 0490 was installed in the Virginia Theatre shortly before it opened on December 28, 1921. Originally a Style 185 2/7, it was upgraded in 1924 to a Style 185 Special with the addition of the Tibia. The theatre currently seats 1,600 and the organ is played prior to and during intermissions for many of the performances.

Rank List:

Open Diapason , VDO, VDO Celeste, Vox Humana, Tuba Horn, Concert Flute, Clarinet, Tibia Clausa

Chrysoglott, Chimes, Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Sleigh Bells, Assorted traps and percussions

Tremulants: Tibia, Vox, Tuba, Main
---------------------------------------------------

Brett, were the ranks sampled both with and without tremulant or will tremulant be performed by Hauptwerk?

[B. Milan]

Hi David! Thanks for the info. You hit it straight on. The Virginia Theatre is also home of the yearly "Overlooked Film Festival" hosted by film critique Roger Ebert. Each Friday and Saturday movies are shown and thier organist Warren York plays for 1/2 hour before the start of the movie! I sometimes will buy a ticket just to go hear him play then leave before the movie begins! (if it's not a movie I like!)

Martin has been working on a new trem modeler for HW2 which is how the trem will be performed for this and all other organ samples. The problem with sampling pipes while the trem is on is the alignment during playback. Each pipes starting point would have to be captured precisely at the right point in the cycle and that's nearly impossible. When several ranks are playing together it would really become a big mess if the cycles of the trem do not line up. So the pipes were sampled only without trem and HW2 will do the rest. Recordings were taken from each trem of various stop combinations so that I can accurately model it in HW. There will also be many new features in HW2 that will enable all the possibilities of the real organ to be virtually simulated like a sustain pedal and second touch to name a couple.

Another great feature about this sample set is that it will require less than 1 gig of RAM if you load the samples in 16 bit. I'm estimating 900-1000MB. The samples will be on cd in 24 bit format, although HW2 can load them in 16 bit and therefore take less memory. A great advantage of the unification process!!!

Hope that answers your question David.

Thanks, Brett! I will be extremely interested in hearing Hauptwerk 2's tremulant. In my opinion, Hauptwerk will only be useful for theatre organ simulation if the tremulant works well. In particular, what I believe is critical is accurately capturing the timbre variations that occurs as wind pressure changes. My understanding based on exchanges with Martin a few months ago is that version 2 has the capability to switch waveforms during different phases of the tremulant. Specifically, on 8/11/03 in this forum in response to questions I posted, Martin said:

"Version 2 will include wind supply modeling, which will affect the pitch and amplitude, and also allow for wind pressure-determined cross-fading between layered samples (this simulating periodic harmonic changes)."

Is this what you were referring to when you said "Recordings were taken from each trem of various stop combinations so that I can accurately model it in HW"? I'm assuming one would need to sample each pipe with tremulant on to obtain "pressure determined" samples, correct?

This sounds like a lot of work on your part!

Since you recorded the samples "dry" (in the pipe chamber), I assume these are single channel (not stereo) samples? Dry sampling seems to me to be the only way to go for theatre organ. Otherwise swell control would also control reverb. Do you have any thoughts on the ideal reverb hardware or software for this application?

I'd also be interested in knowing recording details like mic selection and positioning within the chamber. That may be asking too much, though. :)

[B. Milan]

Hi David. I'm not exactly sure what Martin had in mind from the last part of that quote. I'll need to talk with him about that. To me it would imply that each note would have a separate sample recording with a slightly different wind presssure. I'd ask that you direct that question to Martin.

The recordings are in stereo. This organ has one single chamber, not two separate ones as is the case with many larger theatre organs. Therefore the recordings are all both left and right channel. However, if an individual has multiple audio outputs, then one could route certain stops to a selected channel/speaker for a division of solo and accompaniment, as HW2 will allow multiple audio outputs. However, this is up to the user. It is not an original aspect of the organ so we won't try to replicate that with a two channel output system.

Reverb is entirely up to you. I *think* that Martin is working on incorporating a built in reverberation mode with HW2. If not with the initial release then later on. Again, Martin can give you more details. I've got several different reverb plug-ins. I'll have to wait and see which sounds the best for this organ before comitting to anything. So far my choice would be the Waves Renaissance plug-in. It capable of almost limitless settings and has a very nice natural warm sound to it. Also a good way to go is with impulse responses. You would then need something like SF Acoustic Mirror to load an IR. This can give very realistic results if you wanted to go that way. My opinion is that theatre organs are generally a bit dryer in sound, so probably minimal reverb should be used. Entirely up to you though! Of course a built in HW reverb would be ideal for playing on the fly with reverb. Otherwise you'll need to record it dry then process it later. That could also affect how you play.

Mic set up and choice....If you can let me know the 11 secret herbs and spices of KFC then I'll tell ya! :)

Thanks for your interest David!

Brett,

2 T. paprika
1 T. onion salt
1 t. celery salt
1 t. rubbed sage
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. ground allspice
1 t. ground oregano
1 t. chili powder
1 t. black pepper
1 t. sweet basil leaves, crushed
1 t. marjoram leaves, crushed fine

from http://www.askyourneighbor.com/recipes/265.htm

My take on Martin's comment is similar to yours in that one would create samples (perhaps a single waveform) at several different wind pressure levels and hauptwerk would cross-fade between them. I also assume hauptwerk could do this based on a wind pressure variation simulation for both tremulant and non-tremulant modes. So, for example, one would record each pipe with the tremulant on and then extract several samples at various points in a tremulant cycle. At the very least one would want waveforms that occur at the peak and dip of the pressure cycle. I have no idea how many samples would be enough.

Hopefully Martin will chime in and let me know if I'm full of beans which is quite likely.

I don't blame you for not disclosing your trade secrets. I doubt it would make much difference to your business, though. The rules of chess can be explained to someone in a few minutes but that doesn't make them a chess Grandmaster. :)

Thank you you info and help, Brett. For theatre organ enthusiasts like me, your sampling of an actual Wurlitzer TO is very exciting.

[B. Milan]

That's 11 Secret herbs and Spices LIKE KFC, not the original!!! Sorry! :)

I think what you describe is certainly possible with the waveforms but highly unlikely. HW2 will have a wind pressure system that "simulates" the fluctuation in pitches. This does not require any extra samples, but rather detunes notes on the fly as you play. Theatre organs are generally on very high wind pressure, so the fluctuations and dips in pitch would be very minimal if even noticeable at all. The layering issue may be something different all together. I can't speak from experience on this one, I'm sure you can guess why! Soon enough anyway.

Thanks for your compliments!

As to convolution reverb there is a freeware program at www.knufinke.de/sir (in English). Even if it is not full-fledged it allows some extrapolation of future possibilties.
Take the Ott organ an put it right in the middle of the Vienna Musikvereinssaal. This gives a picture what can be done with a dry theater organ.

Hello Calcant,

that is very interesting to me. Do you know a site with an introduction to VST? Downloading SIR, i only get a dll and don't know where and how to install it. Is VST something supported by Microsoft (XP), or is it something special only working on special audio hardware?

Also Martin Dyde is speaking from making Hauptwerk a VST plugin. Where can i get some information?

With best regards - Martin Dümig

Martin,
either you have an audio software wich can host VST plug-ins (for example Steinberg WaveLab, but also many others in the meantime) or you have to use a stand-alone host software which has been made to support VST.
At any rate SIR works almost realtime (a 6000-and-something sample delay is said to be reduced soon). Perhaps other forum readers using VST supporting software could add to my post.
HW2 will be supporting VSTi which means instruments, not effects.

[B. Milan]

Thanks Calcant! The Sir seems like a promising program. It would be nice to have more variety of IR's to test it with, but the two provided (cathedral and theatre) sound OK. You can probably find some downloadable IR's as well.

Downloading SIR, i only get a dll and don't know where and how to install it.

Hi Martin, you need to install the .dll file in the folder where your other VST plug-ins are located. For example if you have Steinberg's Wavelab then go to C: (or whichever drive has your programs on it), Program Files, Steinberg, vstplugins. Or Sound Forge, C: program files, Sonic Foundry shared plug ins. Then upon opening either application you should see the SIR as a choice for a VST plug in. Which program are you using? You should be able to find a folder similar to one of these if it is different. VST should work on any PC that can run audio applications. Hope this helps!