Large Church Installation - Greenwood UMC - Greenwood, IN

For anyone interested in hearing the Armley Schulze (with yours truly at the helm), there are a few new videos on YouTube. Like many churches, we are recording our services and putting them on YouTube until we make it through this COVID-19 business.

https://www.greenwoodumc.org/services

I took the Paramount 341 for a spin for - can you believe it - the very FIRST time this weekend and did this recording with my fiance, Sarah (on piano). I have never actually played a real theater organ before, and aside from just poking around at the 341, I had never really played it either. So, here is my very first theater organ performance....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIk1elcRgaU&feature=youtu.be

The piece is Joel Raney's "In His Hands" from his Keyboard Excursions book.

Maybe should call it "A Hidden Treasure" now revealed. All around great job, mixed with artistic fun.

Rgds,
Ed

Many thanks to Matt Arnold of Custom Organ Works for the 4 new manuals and piston rails!

The backlit pistons came from eBay and are powered by a MGB mddp128u.

A new faceplate for the MINILCD displays had to be made to fit the new keyboard stack.

These manuals are SOOOO much nicer to play than the old Allen's. I knew they would be. Having an additional 70 pistons (for a total of 90) should keep all visiting organists satisfied. (Just as soon as this pesky pandemic is over.)

Matt just provided the piston rails and you, the lighted pistons? And the lighted pistons were labeled how? Via Cricut?

Rgds,
Ed

Matt provided all the wood parts and keyboards. I did the staining and finishing and wiring.

The pistons are the old Rogers style from eBay.

Bob Arndt engraved them for me (forgot to mention that in the previous post).

The pistons have the incond lamps, correct? And what are you using for the piston encoder and power supply, if I might ask? I'm looking to do an expansion and upgrade on a friend's instrument

Looks really great. Your comment about the feel on the keyboards is interrelating. Usually a hard to describe quality.

Rgds,
Ed

The pistons have the incond lamps, correct? And what are you using for the piston encoder and power supply, if I might ask? I'm looking to do an expansion and upgrade on a friend's instrument

Looks really great. Your comment about the feel on the keyboards is interrelating. Usually a hard to describe quality.

Rgds,
Ed

Piston encoder is HWCE from MGB. Power supply is a 5v power supply from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/PHEVOS-Universal ... 546&sr=8-4

I kept the incandescent lamps. LEDs would definitely last longer, but this took 4 months or so on its own - I couldn't imagine dragging this out longer to replace the lamps.

I know you are using the same Behringer speakers I'm using at home, which are great, but in your research of speakers, was there a passive option you would consider to be good. I'm researching and prepping my church to consider converting to HW. However, I don't know if we could get power lines to where the speakers would go, so would like a good passive option.
How do you control the outlets to your speakers? Do you have a switch relay at the console or do the speakers just stay on?
Thanks
John

I know you are the same Behringer speakers I'm using at home, which are great, but is your research of speakers, was there a passive option you would consider to be good.

Hi John:

I know your question was for Drew but I'd like to respond.
First off I heard a few of Drew's DIY build in person in the sanctuary of Greenwood UMC. I was most impressed with the Parts-Express Tritrix build -
https://www.parts-express.com/tritrix-mtm-tl-tower-speaker-components-and-cabinet-kit-pair--300-702

Another choice would be the older DefTech BP-10B which are patterned off the speakers Marshall & Olgeltree used for their Trinity church install. Arnold Organs sells these on his website so they've passed the Hauptwerk test.
I've heard a nice residential Hauptwerk install with 8 GoldenEar Tritons. These were used by Martin Digital Organs when they were in business -
https://www.goldenear.com/products/triton-series
Bjorn's Audio & Video in San Antonio has these if you'd like to audition them. To be honest when I heard them in the store there I was disappointed as I thought they lacked clarity but then again it was their music selection. I couldn't hook up my phone to check out some HW recordings nor adjust the EQ. They were somewhat reserved with me wanting to hear the various speakers. I guess I should have known better than to walk into high end stereo shop with t-shirt, shorts, and skateboard.

Danny B.

Thanks Danny, that is a great help to get started.

What Danny said is all accurate from my vantage point as well.

My reason for the Behringer's was ease of use. Even when hiring an electrician, it was just all around cheaper and easier for us.

I did build the TriTrix, and I do really like them. The flat-pack kits from Parts Express (currently out of stock) are really easy to build, in my opinion. Very reasonably priced for the performance. I have a pair of them that I built for this and I keep them on my desk at work - love them. They aren't quite as capable as the Behringer's - a little less powerful. Depending on your situation, this may not be an issue. If you're up for building them entirely yourself (which, by the way, I am considering doing out of solid Walnut in the near future), you can get the build plans here:

http://www.speakerdesignworks.com/Tritrix_pg_3.html

Factoring in the cost of good amplification is what tipped the scales in favor of the Behringers. In my case, buying 56 channels of amplification was going to be astronomical in terms of cost, AND real estate. Having that many extra amps in a rack, taking up space, which even then would have required specific power considerations.

So in the end, I just had the electrician run the 48 main Behringer's on 6 circuits - 8 speakers on each circuit - and to turn them on/off I just flip the breakers in the dedicated breaker box. It's not a "one button" organ startup by any means but it's not rocket science either. Since I'm not a licensed electrician, I felt I should leave the high voltage to the "pro" simply due to liability. If it were my own HOME, I'd have done it myself. I did, however, work out a deal with him. I pulled all of his wire (MC cable) for him and mounted all of his J-Boxes. This means all he had to do was the actual connections. This made his job MUCH easier and therefore cheaper. It also meant I controlled everything - I put the J-Boxes where **I** wanted the receptacles to go. I ran his MC cable in a totally different pathway than the audio signal cables. Even when you ask nicely, people will try to take short cuts. This way, I made sure all of the high voltage and low voltage cables are completely isolated - and it greatly reduced the cost because it took the majority of the physical work (and all of the 2-man work) out of the equation and saved us a lot of $$$.

Be on the lookout - August 1st - for a full recital/concert on this organ, given by Héctor Salcedo. Hector is currently the Director of Music at St. Malachy in Indianapolis, and the former Organista titular at Catedral de Guadalajara. The concert will be "virtual," and will be shared to our YouTube page at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2v98Yw5vWslQEmcDB7_P3A/playlists?view_as=subscriber

The concert will be recorded, not live-streamed, so you can watch and listen at your leisure. This is Héctor's first Hauptwerk organ experience and should feature several different sample sets. I had the great pleasure of sitting and listening him "figure it out" for a few hours one evening last week, and it was superb! Héctor is a great improviser and asked me to have a hymn tune ready for him to improvise on at this concert. It will be a great hour or so of music, and I hope you'll check it out.

Hi Drew,

For the benefit of we Hauptwerk "students", have you ever taken a picture of your present (physical) speaker arrangement?
You'll notice that I didn't say final arrangement because I don't think things are ever totally final when it comes to HW.

Rgds,
Ed

Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of the speakers behind their grill cloth frames. In the rush of, "let's get this thing installed and over with," I forgot to take pictures.

I can, however, confirm that there are three horizontal rows (on each side of the sanctuary), that are 16' long, spaced about 16" apart.

Each 16' long row has 8 speakers on it, spaced roughly 2' apart.

Each speaker is "aimed" randomly. Some are straight to front. Some are as much as 45 degrees left or right of center, some are on their sides...

Each speaker also got a dense carpet tile to sit on. This helps isolate some vibration and also helps to slide and turn them around more easily when needed.

There was no scientific approach to how these ended up getting laid out.

The most important thing I learned (along these lines) is to NOT have them all flat to front, closely packed together.

Spread them out. Give them room.