Skinner Shipping

[B. Milan]

As the topic says, the E.M. Skinner is now shipping, so there will be no delay from ordering to having it shipped. All current orders were sent out today as well. To everyone who has waited thank you for your patience. Also included with the sample set is an extra "bonus" gift. I hope everyone enjoys their new organ set!

[gingercat]

Just received my Skinner today, so that's pretty quick service USA->UK. Can't wait to try it out, but may not get a chance 'till the new year now what with visitors, Christmas etc. Ah well, something to look forward to.

Very professional looking DVD case, and I particularly like the colourfully printed DVD.

Pleased with my "bonus" gift too - won't detail it here as that will spoil the surprise for others.

Thanks for the great service Brett 8)

[B. Milan]

Hi Gingercat. Your quite welcome! Thank you! Even the discs are somewhat virtual reality!

[Jim Reid]

Aloha,

And my pair of colorful CD's arrived in today's mail here on Kauai.
Tomorrow afternoon, after church, will be the first loading and
playing here!! I won't say what else was in the pack either.

Best,

[Jim Reid]

The Skinner was loaded and played here for the first time
this afternoon.........WOW !

This will be my practice and playing organ of preference! Yes,
I will venture over to one of the Silbermans for Bach, and always
enjoy Franck on the Cavialle'-Coll, and of course from time
to time the others I have.

But, the Skinner by Brett Milan will be the one of choice for now!!

Am really pleased with that French Horn in the Choir!

The entire organ is up and playing via HW 1.23 in the x64 Microsoft
"Preview 1218" operating system.

Best,

[B. Milan]

The Skinner was loaded and played here for the first time
this afternoon.........WOW !

This will be my practice and playing organ of preference! Yes,
I will venture over to one of the Silbermans for Bach, and always
enjoy Franck on the Cavialle'-Coll, and of course from time
to time the others I have.

But, the Skinner by Brett Milan will be the one of choice for now!!

Am really pleased with that French Horn in the Choir!

The entire organ is up and playing via HW 1.23 in the x64 Microsoft
"Preview 1218" operating system.

Best,

Congratulations Jim! Thanks for making the Skinner your instrument of choice. I have to say, you've made a good decision! How does it feel to be the only one in Hawaii (so far!) to have a virtual Skinner?

I hope you continue to enjoy the sample set and may you have a great holiday season even without some snow!

[Jim Reid]

Yes, Christmas under the palm trees swaying in the trade breeze.

As for the only Skinner out here, I have wondered if anyone
on Kauai, or one of the other islands for that matter even has
Hauptwerk? There are some theatre organ buffs down on the
Big Island of Hawaii; one of them is assembling a small Wurlizer
in his home (having just added a room for it). And a group in
Hilo is putting in a Robert Morton machine which used to be
in Honolulu in the Waikiki Theatre, now gone. For info about that see:

http://hometown.aol.com/organservice/

And a wonderful Holiday Season to ALL,

[Jim Reid]

Bret, I have a question.

Only the Swell and Choir are shown to be on expression pedals.
I hope that without using these, as I do not have them via midi,
that those divisions are at max volume already. That is, some of
the stops seem very "soft" compared with those on the Great and Pedal
division. But that is no matter, can live with that, UNLESS, they
are set at minimums now, and one must use the expression pedals
to bring those stops up to volume.

Hope I don't have to come up with a way to increase the loudness of
those divisions.

Best,

[B. Milan]

Jim, if the Hauptwerk screen shows that the Swell and Choir "Pedals" are all the way up, then the volumes are at the max. If you are not using the expression at all and you have no MIDI channels controlling them, then they will default to fully open and therefore are at the maximum volume. The softer stops are meant to be that way, especially the Dulciana. Spend some time playing them by themselves and you should get used to a pleasant quiet sound that you may not have dealt with before in Hauptwerk. I stated elsewhere on this forum that the recording session was done without movment of microphones, so the sounds and balance you hear is exactly how the organ should sound. As a matter of fact, this organ has fairly extreme dynamic contrasts. This is also apparent in the Swell box alone with the use of the Swell pedal from fully closed to fully open, although it is not able to be accurately represented in HW 1.2. The HW 2 upgrade will really show how extreme the swell control can be.

So, if you want to have a faithful representation of the organ in your home, then you should leave the settings as they are in the organ file, ie. Amplitude=100. However, if you have the Hauptwerk Output set to a low amount, then you may feel that for softer playing it could be a little too much on the soft side. If you plan on only playing quiet music, then you could easily raise the volume of Hauptwerk's Output and experience a more suitable level to your ears. Or.... you can simply raise your amplifier's volume levels. I personally would not prefer this as it will not give you the experience that you would actually have sitting at the organ. Due to the location of the console and the location of the few quiet stops, even playing the organ live gives you a feeling of "is this box shut?". Mr. Skinner however knew what he was doing and I'd say he did a darn good job of creating some really contrasting colors and dynamics with his organs.

Hope that answers your question.

Brett ;)

[Jim Reid]

Aloha Brett,

And I apologize for the miss-spelling of your name, should not
have happened!

And am learning how best to play the big Skinner; takes some
getting accustomed to it after the smaller more baroque types.
Charles Braund's Romantic organ 1 is all dry samples and
with the mike right up and personal with the pipe mouth, so
needs some added reverb or to be in a fairly large room, I guess.
Have been playing it quite a bit, but probably will less so now
with the Skinner sitting here in all of E.M.'s masterful voicing.

Yes, he knew what he was doing. I am sure you must have been
through the absolute terrific read of the letters between he and
Henry Willis III as presented in Charles Callahan’s book, "The
American Classic Organ." Of course, the book contains letters
through the same period, roughly the Spring of 1924 through to
Skinner's last letter to H. Willis of Feb. 18, 1958. There are also
letters of G.Donald. Harrison, Sen. Emerson Richards, Lynwood
Farnam, Carl Weinrich and W. King Covell--talk about an insight
into the American organ building scene of the first half of
the 20th century, just fascinating.

And it so rewarding to now have and play one of Skinner's best.

Thank you Brett for all the time you spent to produce this, the
sample set is MORE than worth your price!

Best,

[B. Milan]

No problem Jim! It's a common mistake.

Another good book is The Life and Work of Ernest M. Skinner by Dorothy J. Holden available through the Organ Historical Society. This will give readers a very good insight on E.M. Skinner as a person, musician, and organ builder. I would suggest that anyone interested in learning more about Skinner to go out and get this book. There's quite a bit of information about Skinner's correspondences with Willis and how he was influenced by Willis' voicings, especially those of the Mixtures. There are also many pictures included for those that get bored easily!

[PeterD]

Dear Hauptwerkii

Anyone wanting a quick take on Skinners' philosophy might go to

http://www.ondamar.demon.co.uk/echoes/cemetery.htm
where there is an extract from the "Diapason" 1931.

Best wishes for Christmas and New year to all

Peter

[PeterD]

Sorry to get cultural on everybody - but here's another little Christmas Cracker - interesting appraisal of the influence of Willis on Skinner.

athttp://homepage.mac.com/glarehead/amb ... inner.html

Regards

Peter

[PeterD]

Sorry chaps - should be

http://homepage.mac.com/glarehead/ambro ... inner.html

Peter