Salisbury at last!

Around four and a half years ago I decided that I wanted to get some sort of electronic organ that sounded as much like a pipe organ as possible. I had just about decided on a small, two-manual portable instrument which ran about $2,500, with pedal board an extra $2,000 or so. A friend who is a professional keyboard musician suggested that I might look into some sort of midi system because he said that it could "grow with me," and I wouldn't be forever tied to one instrument that could never be expanded or improved. I was pretty sure I had made my decision but went along and did a search for "midi" and "organ" on YouTube. It was thus that I discovered Hauptwerk. After watching only a few videos on YouTube I knew that Hauptwerk was the way to go and decided that I was going to spend that $2,500 on two manuals from Classic Midi Works and the Hauptwerk basic edition. That's one decision that I've never regretted for a moment! I connected it all to my computer, with it's small speakers, and haven't stopped since!

As I continued to watch videos on YouTube I came across many recordings of the Salisbury set and fell totally in love with it. To my ears, no other set compared to the Salisbury in majesty and grandeur and I dreamed of owning it. I told myself that, however long it took, by doing it in baby steps I was one day going to have a four manual and full pedal console in order to fully utilize and appreciate the Salisbury.

Step by step, then, I've been building my system and the physical console is now complete. Along the way, when I had fewer manuals, I picked up the medium edition of the PAB and the first of the three part Hereford. Both are beautiful instruments; however, neither had that sound that I dreamed of hearing.

I still have a long way to go. I'm running the system on my general purpose desktop computer with an unexpandable 8Gb of memory and am using two speakers with four inch "woofers" connected directly to my computer as my sound system. I've begun the next step, which is to build a dedicated computer with 32 Gb of memory and a solid state drive, and after its completion the installation of a 16 channel audio processor and eventually twelve speakers with 8" woofers for the front, two more for the surround, and a subwoofer. That will probably take the next four and a half years!

I tell all the above to say that a few days ago I received part 1 of the Salisbury set. I thought it sounded so wonderful on YouTube but it's twice as good on my system even with the little speakers. It is truly everything that I've dreamed of and wished for these past four plus years. Both of my thumbs are sore because I can't leave that console for more than a short time. Unless there's a major catastrophe, one day I will have parts 2 and 3 and the sound system to do them justice.

As to Hauptwerk, itself, when I think of the many hundreds of hours of pleasure I've been blessed with in the last four years of my life, all because of Martin Dyde and Brett Mylan, I truly wonder if they even begin to realize just how much they have improved the lives of so many of us.

[mdyde]

Thanks! Very kind of you to say so, and glad to hear your set-up is giving you so much pleasure.

Some years ago now, nature reminded me that I was not going to live for ever. My response was to buy volume 1 of Salisbury and a four manual stack to play it on!

I was slightly disappointed with having a spare manual because volume 1 has no choir stops but I quickly realised that if I coupled the solo and swell down to the choir adding a 4' coupler to retain some brightness, I then had a quite useful 4 manual organ. I still play some pieces using that configuration.

Eventually, when all 3 volumes arrived I found that I liked playing the choir all by itself.

It is a wonderful instrument but as an amateur I realise that its full capabilities will always elude me.
I am pleased you are enjoying it too.

Regards,

Richard,

I do quite a bit of hymns and church music and a number of songs ("God Of Our Fathers" comes to mind as a perfect example) have sections that just about demand trumpets. By using "great reeds on choir" I can use the Choir for the trumpet calls and that still leaves me the remaining three manuals for creating variety in the various verses of the songs.

I do look forward to the day when I'll have additional stops on the Choir (as well as the others, of course), but you're not going to hear me complaining about things as they are, right now!

Now, the one thing I WOULD love to see is a surround sound version, because, one day...!

-Chris

"great reeds on choir"

I first heard a particular Purcell Trumpet Tune when Brett played it on the Mt Carmel Skinner as a demo. When I acquired Salisbury V1 I wanted to play it but I wanted to use the Great trumpet as solo and the Great as accompaniment as well.

When I eventually discovered the "Great reeds on Choir" coupler I began to realise just how much thought goes into specifying a pipe organ.

I do play all my stereo sets through a surround set up. I play the left and right channels through both front and back speakers. It does make a slight difference to the feeling of the reverb. It gives it more depth, somehow. I don't pretend to understand why.

It does make a slight difference to the feeling of the reverb. It gives it more depth, somehow. I don't pretend to understand why.

I certainly don't understand it, either, but am very pleased to hear about it. I so look forward to finding out for myself!

The greater soundstage you imagine results from the time delay the signal from the back speakers reach your ears later than from the front. These are only milliseconds, but our ears can recognize them.

I have routed Great and Swell of my organs to the front speakers and Choir and Solo to the rears, it sounds great! Just a suggestion ...