Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site hound.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!hound!rfg From: rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) Newsgroups: net.audio Subject: Re: Random stuff... Message-ID: <1343@hound.UUCP> Date: Wed, 4-Sep-85 09:20:21 EDT Article-I.D.: hound.1343 Posted: Wed Sep 4 09:20:21 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 5-Sep-85 08:19:02 EDT References: <253@decwrl.UUCP> <1238@teddy.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 56 [] Re: quiet organs (If they are loud, the organist is using the wrong registration Tell us about the SPL of the state trumpet at St. John the Devine. Measured on the floor of the Nave at the rear. Funny. I thought many composers wrote passages (now and then) for full organ or thereabouts. I guess they just didn't know their registrations either. Last time I saw John Bach I took him to task for the registration of his Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. It lets all the wind out. He said he intended it to do just that. If an organ had "good lungs" it wouldn't run out of breath. It is certainly true that many organ pipes are not terribly loud. But pipe organs are like cars. They come in all sizes, colors and horsepower. It is certainly possible for someone to consider anything but a VW Beatle as too large, overpowered and vulgar. But to represent that as a universal opinion is somewhat mistaken. Many pipes are individually quite loud - especially those designed for high wind (air) pressure. Then, when they are played together, you are going to get power law addition. Many classical organs contain groups of pipes designed to speak (play) together as one note. These are called "mixtures" and "mutations." It is easily possible to play dozens of pipes simultaneously, whether some people like it or not. Many people like it and that's why the organ was built that way. Large organs are capable of generating, are intended to generate, and generate when played by competent organists very large quantities of sound, much of which comes at high sound pressure levels (spl). I have heard organs so loud that the inner ear mechanism would "decouple" in an effort at self preservation. I have heard bass notes so loud that you could hear the non-linear distortion generated in your own ears. The loudest such I recall hearing was a demo of an electronic organ at school many years ago. It may not have sounded good, but it was certainly loud. Reminds me of the famous Hammond Organ story. Now most organ people always considered the old tone wheel Hammond Organ to sound like sh*t. And no one ever thought one would be mistaken for a pipe organ. During the '30's someone challenged Hammond to a test. A Hammond was installed in a church with a good pipe organ and an audience of dignitaries was convened to judge which was the pipe organ just by listening. Guess who won. Hammond hired a genius performer and installed huge amplifiers and zillions of speakers. The audience concluded that the Hammond was the pipe organ, mostly because it was louder. Now the information in this note will not be news to the gentleman who said that organs were really quiet. I don't know why he chose his extreme position. I don't carry spl meters in my pockets, especially to church services. But when I used to attend Riverside church just to hear Virgil Fox play the organ, I know it was beautifully loud. When the chord sort of picks you up and moves you gently back and forth on the floor, there are spl's at work that would cause the man from osha(sp) to get all sweated up, and it takes more than 85 db to do that. -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg