Paramount 310 and 320 Preminary Specs and Screen Shots

[toplayer2]

Alan said "With luck maybe by the end of September. Without luck, certainly by the end of December."
OK! Today is the end of December!
I am sure that MANY people are waiting for this project.
Any news, updates?

Steve,

I apologize for the amount of time it has taken us to get the Paramount 310 and 320 ready for shipment. There has been a lot more work involved than either Alan or I had anticipated. At this point I honestly believe we are very close. Thank you for your patience.

A current screen shot:



Joe Hardy

[ten87]

There has been a lot more work involved than either Alan or I had anticipated.

Organ projects, whether they be real or virtual, always seem to take way longer than anticipated. After 25 years in the business, I can still relate to this. Good things take time, and this project will be well worth the wait, I'm sure!

Keep up the good work Joe and Alan!

Terry

[engrssc]

We can wait. No doubt it will be well be worth it. If you need a beta tester . . . .

Rgds,
Ed

[OPUS1883]

Hi Alan / Joe. I am very interested in you work... It's nice to see some other theatre organ sample sets available. Although the 3/31, 3/35 and Virginia Wurlitzer are fantastic, i don't believe you could have too many sample sets available, as every sample set producer will put their own spin on things. I love the fact that you have put some good fun traps on your sample sets ! Do you have any plans to add second touch to the great manual and pedal board on any of your sample sets ? I have this function on my organ and it would be a shame to leave it un-used... As for discussion on the mutation couplers... i love the fact that you have included them. I know that some people love them and some hate them, but at-least you have the option to use them or not on the sample set. I'm sure that everyone in the UK loves the Blackpool sound...

As mentioned previously, is there any indication as to which installations the ranks were sampled from ?

Good luck with the Sample Set project, i'm sure everyone will be eternally gratefull

Chris

[gingercat]

Bump

[toplayer2]

Hi Alan / Joe. I am very interested in you work... It's nice to see some other theatre organ sample sets available. Although the 3/31, 3/35 and Virginia Wurlitzer are fantastic, i don't believe you could have too many sample sets available, as every sample set producer will put their own spin on things. I love the fact that you have put some good fun traps on your sample sets ! Do you have any plans to add second touch to the great manual and pedal board on any of your sample sets ? I have this function on my organ and it would be a shame to leave it un-used... As for discussion on the mutation couplers... i love the fact that you have included them. I know that some people love them and some hate them, but at-least you have the option to use them or not on the sample set. I'm sure that everyone in the UK loves the Blackpool sound...

As mentioned previously, is there any indication as to which installations the ranks were sampled from ?

Good luck with the Sample Set project, i'm sure everyone will be eternally gratefull

Chris,

Thank you for your interest and your patience. This thread is now nearly seven months old - my how time flies. According to the latest news from Alan, he is fixing a handful of minor issues with the ODFs, so I can't imagine it being too much longer before the Paraount 310 and 320 make their debut.

The 330 and 440 will include second touch on the Great and possibly the Pedals as well. The Jensen and Milan organs are indeed very fine offerings. As you said, each producer puts his own spin on things, so while all are based (mostly) on WurliTzer samples, each organ has a very unique personality. Probably the most important distinction for the Paramount is the use of sampled trems (two complete sets of samples, one with no trem and the other with trem).

We are not publishing which ranks come from which organs, only that a number of public and private WurliTzers were sampled and the best examples of each rank selected.

Alan has lined up a well known British artist to record some demos tunes. I am hoping to recruit a similarly talented US artist to do some demos as well.

Best Regards,
Joe Hardy

[Ben Jackson]

Hi Joe,
Is there any more news on the Paramount 310?
Ben

[toplayer2]

Dear Friends,

The latest word I have from Alan Baker is:

"I'm still working on finalising the Piano Sustain and removing stop noises from the Crescendo and Sforzando and I need to make the new pedalboard image, but it shouldn't be too much longer now."

My hope is that we will have the limited Beta out to selected TPO pro artists in March and release the 310 and 320 by the end of April. Alan's associate Martin has been working on the artwork for the packaging. Below is a draft of the DVD cover.

Again, thank you for your interest and patience!

Joe Hardy

[Ben Jackson]

Thanks for the update Joe,
I'm looking forward to downloading the 310 to use with Hauptwerk and play some of the music I normally play on my Yamaha organ and on the two VPO organs on Hauptwerk (via my Yamaha organ).
Ben

[edonmusic]

"Good things come to those with patience". I've heard than many hands were involved in developement of the other two Hauptwerk VTPO sets. The work is difficult and time consuming, I understand. The anxiety, however that something which excells is forthcoming, puts us on the edge of patience. It's a natural response.

Good luck Joe, and Alan, in this venture, and may you both be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor, in good health.

[TheOrganDoc]

Hello Joe & Alan,

I also am quite anxious to be able to play your sample sets !

Mel, "TheOrganDoc"

[Ted Williamson]

Thanks Joe,
Glad to hear things are progressing. Thanks for the update!!!

Ted

[kiwiplant]

Joe,

If you need more beta testers to push the ODF spec hard I'm sure there are many of us here that would be happy to help.

Paul

[TheatreOrganNo1]

I have a good friend who many in the TPO world/ business have said he's good, he can really play.
If you do need any beta testers, he has a 2man ped organ. He would definately put the odf to the test! I'm sure I could get him to do some demos too! I guess if ya want I could have him do something on his MidiTzer and send ya a mp3. You can PM if you want

[wurlitzerwilly]

Hi all.

Just to put everyone in the picture. I believe that Joe has not published details of my health issues a matter of courtesy.
I had major spine surgery 6 weeks ago and last Friday I had further surgery in the area of my situpon, returning from hospital Saturday afternoon. This has meant that apart from the current pains and dressing changes (hopefully only lasting a few days) I have not been able to sit for too long in one session and of course, physio cuts into my daily time allocation. This means that computer time has been curtailed, so I'm a bit slow at finishing the last parts of the 310/320 project. However, the light is well and truly on at the end of the tunnel.

I won't go into full detail of what is required to complete as it would probably end up with an hour long lecture. Suffice to say that Hauptwerk uses a complex array of simple switches for its control functions and this requires some brain power and planning.

The Piano was not in the original spec, but was added due to popular demand and of course took time to implement. The Piano Sustain is not one of the easier tasks, as it doesn't just involve sustaining one or more keyboards as with a general sustainer and it is necessary for subsequent key presses to retrigger the samples and the sustain function for that note, for complete authenticity. Currently it works, I'm just working on refinements.

I have noticed that other Hauptwerk sample sets make stop action noises when Crescendo is used. With St Annes' this is probably correct because it would be using slider chests which would operate with the Crescendo function. However, for a Theatre Organ this is completely wrong, so a method has to be devised to allow virtual stop switches to be actuated, without triggering stop noises when Crescendo or Sforzando are used. All of this stuff takes time. OK, some folks will turn off stop noises, so won't notice, but others certainly will.

The third issue involves me travelling about 20 miles, to take more pedalboard images, because I am not happy with what we already have. I should be able to travel quite soon, so that won't take too long, although there will be some image editing to complete.

One of our cats has decided to assist with computer work, so that should speed things up.

Best,

Alan.