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A very basic registration question

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cvmoreau

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A very basic registration question

PostSun Apr 15, 2012 8:25 pm

What do you do when you find what you think would be THE PERFECT registration for a piece, but the great is too loud for the swell, and the swell is open all the way? This seems to happen to me far too often.

In my neophyte organist's dreams I dream of an enclosed great division! :(

-Chris
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josq

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Re: A very basic registration question

PostMon Apr 16, 2012 2:12 am

On a real organ you would have to choose a different registration.

In Hauptwerk you might go to the voicing menu and adjust the ranks that sound too loud (or too soft) to your taste.
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Rauschpfeife

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Re: A very basic registration question

PostMon Apr 16, 2012 4:31 am

With a little more information (piece / organ / registration) it might be possible to make a more informed suggestion, but a change of registration may be the only way to accomplish this. From a general point of view, I'd think about whether I could reduce the Great registration and couple the Swell (or another division, if you have it) to it. Whether this would work would depend on whether the tonal character of the two divisions' registrations was simillar, but you might be able to keep the Swell registration or something very close to it and use the Great flutes (which tend to be the softest stops on the Great) with the Swell to Great coupler to differentiate the two strengths of tone (and achieve dynamic expression on the Great).

Just a thought,

Adam.
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cvmoreau

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Re: A very basic registration question

PostMon Apr 16, 2012 6:22 am

Right now, my selection of stops is pretty limited because I have to choose between the St. Anne's, a few demo sets, and a crippled version of the PAB (down to "essentials" level) until I upgrade my HW in a couple of weeks (at which time I'll be able to load the entire medium edition of the PAB, which I just bought).

The most recent time that I had this problem was yesterday when I was starting to first work on the Largo from The New World Symphony. I imagined using a plaintif cor anglais or oboe on the swell for the melody and a soft string on the great. I had the oboe on the swell, but the only strings that were available to me were the gamba and salicional -- both much louder than the oboe. I wound up using a totally different registration, but if I had been able to lower the level of the gamba or raise the level of the oboe it would have been exactly what I had imagined.

I"m reminding myself that as I obtain other sets I'll find more and more of what I'm looking for. I feel like my playing is starting to get somewhat better, but I still have a huge amount to learn about registration.

Thanks for you suggestions, guys. Your answers were pretty much what I expected.

-Chris
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Rauschpfeife

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Re: A very basic registration question

PostMon Apr 16, 2012 4:04 pm

Thanks for the extra detail Chris - I'm glad you got a new registration sorted.

For what it's worth (and I realise that you may not be able to load all the stops for this), if I had the medium edition, I'd probably use the Bourdon, Gamba and Celeste on the Recit as the accompaniment, and combine the Positif Cromorne with an 8' or 4' flute and the tremulant with the box half to fully closed for the solo. That would give you a degree of expression with a mild reed against a string accompaniment. I should say that I don't know the piece, but I've tried to imagine it arranged for organ from reading the score, so if the above wouldn't work, please ignore me ;-)

Likewise, for what it's worth, I do think that the Grande Orgue of the PAB is a little overpowered. Part of that is probably due to the dry acoustic - less blending between the divisions occurs than might if the organ were in a reverberant cathedral - and often the best way to use it in quiet registrations is as a "mixing pot" for the other divisions where the combination of a Recit registration with a Positif registration gives a contrasting, appropriately stronger registration without actually using any of the GO stops. Their power makes sense when you're playing with plenty drawn across the instrument - they add a breadth to the overall tone which you wouldn't get if they weren't big, fat and foundational, but - for instance - as I've said elsehwere, the GO Principal 8' really can't be used if you're playing less than mf, which is very different from a Baroque instrument's Hauptwerk or even a Cathedral instrument's Great or Grande Orgue, where you would find at least some quiet, "accompanimental" stops.

Keep an eye on the forum over the next few days - I've heard a rumours relating to a project that might be of interest to you.

Adam.
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cvmoreau

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Re: A very basic registration question

PostTue Apr 17, 2012 6:53 am

Adam, I like your thinking. I believe your suggested registration might work quite nicely. Even though, as I said, I've limited in the total number of stops from the medium that I can use, right now, by picking and choosing I can create an organ that has the ones I need as long as they're in the medium edition and don't exceed 3 GB. I will give your suggestion a try.

As to your last line, you've raised my interest, there!

Thanks for your help,
-Chris
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Organduo

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Re: A very basic registration question

PostSun Jul 29, 2012 3:18 am

Perhaps this article will explain the main principles of organ registration:
http://www.organduo.lt/1/post/2012/01/w ... ation.html
Vidas Pinkevicius, DMA
Secrets of Organ Playing -
Down-to-earth tips and advice about how to play the organ
www.organduo.lt

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