Hauptwerk Virtual Pipe Organ

Hello all.

A few months ago, I purchased a 1958 Moller 3-manual console from a church in Maryland, with the intention of using it to drive a few ranks in my home. After I discovered Hauptwerk, I've been converting it to be as close as possible to the E.M. Skinner Mt. Carmel Organ console. After working on it for a while now, I decided it might be nice to post a few pictures of its progress.



The console sitting in the shop, still under construction. The original setup had 8 generals, I added 4 more to bring it up to 12. The organ used to operate by air driving mechanical stop and piston action, so I completely gutted all the mechanics, and added the 'set' and 'general cancel' pistons.



Sorry for the whiteout, but here's the right stop jamb. I took out the old drawknobs, and had new stems and faces made to duplicate the stop list of the Skinner. The stop magnets are made by Syndyne, the coupler tilting tab assembly is made by Harris.



The left stop jamb, with the faces more visible.



After I tore out all the mechanical guts, there was plenty of room to put all the new components in. Those are the two computers I'm going to use to drive Hauptwerk. One will control the Great and Pedal divisions, while the other will control the Swell and Choir divisions. Each computer will have a digital out connection to its own amplifier, which will drive seperate speakers for each division.



That's the Classic Console Control Computer, the solid state system. It will control all the keying, coupling, stop magnets and pistons on the console, and will transmit key and stop on/off messages to each computer. It comes with a faceplate (not yet installed) and 99 levels of memory.

That's all for now, I'll keep posting more on its progress if people are interested.

Steve

Steve,

This looks fantastic. I'm just setting out on my own conversion (details posted on another thread). I too intend to drive the skinner organ, although mine will be a two manual version.

I'm interested to know why you opted for two PCs and whether you anticipate any issues with synchronising the output? Even on identical hardware, I can imagine the OS having an impact on when sound is produced which may in a regular situation be unnoticable, but might be highlighted when using two PCs in tandem. I've not had chance to look too closely at the proposed spec for HW2, perhaps it is the case that it provides for running across multiple machines?

Anyhow good luck with your project, and please keep us informed.

James

No console photos came through; all blanked out.

Is there some setting to be able to post/open .jpg or
.gif images on the forum?

Sorry, sometimes my image host gets a little overloaded from bandwidth. If all else fails, right click on the little icon, and hit 'View Image'. That should work.

Steve

Stevel

Ok, and very nice work! Envy the real stop knobs with the Skinner
voices on them!! You will love the French Horn should you not

already heard it. I am practicing a bit on Le Cygne, was able to,
at last get the music. Of course, my problem is not the left hand
"melody" line on the French Horn, it is that accompaniment part
for the RH! Those French players must have had really huge hands!
Frank's hands must have been the largest of all, however.

Anyway, a great project. And yes, HW2 will provide for multiple
PC's. As long as you buy the more expensive "Concert Edition"
as Martin plans on calling it. For now, I believe I will be quite
happy with his lesser "Practice Edition".

Best to you on your great project,

Oh my, that console does look familiar! I learned to play back in the 1970's on a 3 manual Moller built in 1964. Does it have the real ivory over wood keys? I used to love the way they felt under my fingers, totally unlike plastic.

Jim: About the large hands of the french organists... A few years ago I bought several volumes of the Bornemann edition of the works of J.S. Bach that were edited and fingered by Marcel Dupre. The salesperson at the music store told me that there were a number of Asian congregations in the area and that some of their organists had bought the Dupre editions only to return them shortly afterward because they found his fingering impossible with their small hands!

Steve