How to Choose a Used Pipe Organ for your Church
We’ve put together a Concise Guide to Choosing a Used Pipe Organ
to help you start off in the best direction for your situation. Selecting
a Pre-Owned Pipe Organ involves many choices, as there is a lot to pick
from (the options are nearly endless). The price may range from a few
thousand dollars to tens of thousands.
Organ Features
Keyboards
More keyboards (or manuals) allow for more variation in sounds within
a piece and added complexity and fullness to the overall experience.
Each keyboard is called a “division” and will play the “voices” you
set it to play. Thus, the Great keyboard will have one set of “voices” playing,
while the Swell will have a different sound. Most pipe organs will have
Great, Swell, and pedal, while some will also include Choir and/or Positiv
(resulting in a 3 or 4-manual organ).
Full Pedals
Classical literature and some hymns require all 32 pedals, so with fewer
you would have to compromise or skip those pieces. The pedals are another “division” of
the pipe organ.
Stops
Each stop supplies its own sound or “voice”, so the more
you have the more sounds you can combine.
Pistons and Toe Studs
General pistons each pull up pre-specified groups of stops for each
division. Divisional pistons do the same for that division only. For
example, you can change what the swell keyboard sounds like without impacting
the other divisions by using a swell piston. Toe studs are pistons for
the pedals that can be activated by your toe. With some pipe organs you
can choose to make a divisional piston perform as a general piston if
you wish.
Expression and Crescendo Pedals
Expression pedals adjust the volume of one or more divisions (by changing
how much air flows through the pipes), while crescendo pedals add stops
to all divisions, increasing the volume of the whole organ.
Builders
Pipe Organs by different builders sound different. Ranging from German
to French, some of the main brands are Flentrop, Art Scnitger, Schlicker,
Moller, Wicks, Skinner, Austin, Gabriel-Kney, Cavaille-Coll.
Pipe vs. Electronic
Generally, actual pipe organs are far more expensive to buy, install
and maintain and offer less flexibility. New Pipe organs can be over
a million dollars, but many used pipe organs have become available for
much lower cost. Since pipe organs require maintenance, many of the available
used pipe organs are in need of substantial, costly repair. Moving an
organ to a different building involves planning where to put the divisional
pipes as well as the console - which often involves remodeling the building.
Not planning this properly can be disastrous. Thus, getting a used pipe
organ is quite often much more involved than initially expected.
Electronic organs vary dramatically, but the newer ones offer stunning
realism that matches or even outdoes pipes, in part because they can
add acoustics that your building does not have. Additionally, it is far
more likely that you’ll be able to achieve balanced sound between
the organ’s divisions (keyboards) than with a pipe organ that is
moved into your building. Generally voicing will be much easier with
electronics. Today’s Electronic Pipe Organs accurately reflect
specific organ builder’s pipe organ sounds.
Electronics also offer a variety of other benefits.
Electronic Organ History
Hammond Organ started making theatre organs, working with popular music
rather than classical. They were able to add electronic sounds that traditional
theatre organs did not have. Reproducing the sound of pipes, however,
was a challenge, so the early electronic organs did not sound like real
pipes.
By the early 1990’s electronic organ builders
produced “sampled” organs. They recorded samples of a real
pipe organ playing a specific stop, and made their organs play back these
samples. This greatly increased the realism, to the point that even experts
seldom could correctly identify the pipe vs the electronic just by hearing
it. As technology marches on they keep improving on this.
Electronics also open up various other possibilities that empower the
organist. Electronic organs are built on MIDI, which represent as electronic
signals the actual keystrokes, piston and stop changes, and expression
pedal changes.
Electronic Features you may want
Key Transposer
Easily transposes what you are playing to a different key.
Headphone Jack
Allows you to practice in private, usually cutting off sound to the
speakers.
Memories
Remember your piston capture settings, so that you can recall the setup
you had for a particular musical piece (or set of pieces). By recalling
a specific memory, you’re all set to play those pieces. When you
use your pistons, they produce the results you want for that set of pieces
(see “Pistons and Toe Studs” above).
Expanders
These devices make it possible to add more voices without modifying
your organ console. This “expands” your organ into a larger
instrument at a relatively low cost. In addition to more organ stops,
these often include orchestral instrument and other sounds.
Midi Recording Devices
Allow you to record your performance and play it back at will. Be aware
that recording devices may not be able to remember what capture memory
you were using or what expander voices you were using. Some devices can
remember your capture memories and load them back to your organ.
Channels, Amplifiers, Speakers
Electronic organs with more channels allow for placement of the sound
from different organ divisions in different parts of your church. For
example, a 5-channel organ will normally allow placement of Great speakers
in one place and Swell speakers in another. Amplifier and speaker quality
will impact sound volume and quality.
Acoustics
Reverb can be added to your organ, making it sound like your building
is more “live”. This feature is being refined, to the point
that on a new Allen you can pick what kind of room’s acoustics
you may want, from a dead small room to a large cathedral – with
amazing realism.
Delivery, Installation, Voicing
If you are on a tight budget, you may be able to buy an electronic organ
and install it yourself with reasonable success. In many cases, professional
delivery, installation, and voicing are indispensable. They will nearly
always make things easier and may cause your organ to sound better (especially
for electronic organs from the early 2000’s on, which have more
substantial voicing capabilities).
Electronic Organ Brands
Allen has been the leader in sound and construction quality, as well
as repairability of older organs. Buying another brand of used electronic
organ increases your risks.
Summary
If budget is an issue and you want a realistic-sounding organ, a used
electronic organ from the 1990’s or later will be sure to please
you – especially if it is an Allen. Just look for the features
that matter to you, and you can’t hardly go wrong.
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