Headphone enhancement

When I disassembled the giant Rodgers speaker cabinet it had two very large conventional speakers in them. They were not horn speakers. I disagree that they didn't handle 32' notes very well. This particular setup actually sounded more real than my Focal sub-woofer. Of course, it was totally impractical for a home since it was monstrously large and weighed 300 lbs, but it did work.

The Rodgers 990 I had, had one 32' Contra Violone and this cabinet was dedicated to just that one stop.After I converted it to Hauptwerk it sounded 1000% better.

Antoni

Horn-loaded just means that they have a radiating horn-like enclosure, not that they contain horn-like speakers.

I guess I'm a bit cynical (or is it sin ical) to ask why would someone want to do that ultra low stuff in the first place, just to prove that it could be done?

My take is that Martin, Brett and others have striven for realism and by golly, they've come pretty durn close here.

Rgds,
Ed

My take is that Martin, Brett and others have striven for realism and by golly, they've come pretty durn close here.

Rgds,
Ed

I'd agree, but is that durn or darn? Maybe it's just that "way down south" IL accent?

Marc

"Durn" it (is).

Rgds,
Ed.

why would someone want to do that ultra low stuff in the first place

I think simply because it's there to be reproduced if possible.

Assuming of course (though I haven't checked) that the low frequency components are preserved in the wav files for the lower notes. This would depend on the microphones, interfaces and post processing used to record the organ in the first place.

Nick

I guess I'm a bit cynical (or is it sin ical) to ask why would someone want to do that ultra low stuff in the first place, just to prove that it could be done?

In my case, it was just a matter of economics. I got the Rodgers Sub-woofer for free. In 1970, when Rodgers built the organ, I don't think they had the sub-woofer technology they have today so their solution was an ultra large cabinet with ultra large speakers. This speaker arrangement did work, and it worked very well. If you got up close to the opening of the speaker cabinet when it was playing, you could actually feel the vibrations, just like being up close to the mouth of a 16' Bourdon.
One of the exciting things about playing a pipe organ large or small, is to add a nice 16' Bourdon sound to the pedals. The AKG 701's just didn't give that "feel" of a real 16' stopped or open pipe in the low registers.

Unfortunately, when I moved , it wasn't practical to take the sub-woofer with me. In fact, I couldn't even give it away ( now I know why I got it for free). I had to break it up so that the trash people would pick it up.

Most decent analogue audio systems will have a frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz, but they generally won't just stop dead at the lower (or higher) limit, but rather these are the frequencies where the response begins to fall off noticably. Typically, if the response is 'flat' to 20 Hz one might expect the voltage output to be 1/2 at 10 Hz (and the power 1/4).

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the digital outputs (SP/DIF) may have a much lower frequency limit.

Nick

I think simply because it's there to be reproduced if possible.

Assuming of course (though I haven't checked) that the low frequency components are preserved in the wav files for the lower notes. This would depend on the microphones, interfaces and post processing used to record the organ in the first place.

Belated thanks Nick, for your explanation, it makes it easier for me to understand!

Your point of digital vs. analogue is also quite important to check, since the audio signal is being transformed as well. The infra bass have to be checked in the WAV files, in the way it is handled in Hauptwerk, then transformed to analogue sound through DACs, and handled in the amplifying unit. Not taking into consideration it can be transformed several times between analogue and digital in the process...

At the end of the day, I'm wondering how much remain of the very low frequencies in the final steps of the audio rendering process...

I find it very strange, that nobody mentions the enhancement that can be reachted when using a binaural mixing facility for headphone use.
My Pianoteq software has this standard. Because the almost complete isolation between L and R when using phones, needs a processed stereo signal ( where there is a frequency dependant crosstalk added between de stereo channels) in order to mimick the speaker situation.

One gets used to the headphone reproduction; but as soon as you can switch between true stereo and binaural stereo, you will find out that the latter is more realistic. It can be accomplished in hardware, but also in software with a proper plug-in in your DAW.

Greetings,

Geert ( Netherlands)

Some have utilized "Tactile Shaker Transducers" mounted inside their Organ Bench,
I would truly appreciate comments from those that have tried this approach,
as when using headphones, as I do most of the time in our Condominium,
I would really like to feel those "Low Notes whilst playing" !