Pipe organ sound

[Couger Writer]

Hello, everyone. This is my first entry to this community.
I'm from Japan and currently studying music composition and pipe organ performance at BYU (Brigham Young University, UT).
I truly love GPO library and its sounds as well as all of your great works.
I haven't seen many works that integrates the organ sound. I was just curious about what other GPO users think about its organ sounds.
I feel that it needs to have more stop combinations for solo stops in order to accomodate variety of repertoirs in Organ. I'm hoping for an update for the new organ samples.
I'm really excited to get to know you all.

You guys are just amazing!!

sincerely,

Shinji

[Michael_uk]

Hello, everyone. This is my first entry to this community.
I'm from Japan and currently studying music composition and pipe organ performance at BYU (Brigham Young University, UT).
I truly love GPO library and its sounds as well as all of your great works.
I haven't seen many works that integrates the organ sound. I was just curious about what other GPO users think about its organ sounds.
I feel that it needs to have more stop combinations for solo stops in order to accomodate variety of repertoirs in Organ. I'm hoping for an update for the new organ samples.
I'm really excited to get to know you all.

You guys are just amazing!!

sincerely,

Shinji

Hello Shinji and welcome to the Garritan forums.

I have been writing and arranging for the organ for this past month or so both for works of other composers and a work of my own. As I am not principally an organist I have found the GPO organ sufficient for my needs for now. Perhaps an organist would need more.

Have you seen the two excellent tutorials for the GPO organ by Glen Rudolph and Terry Dwyer? They can be found here http://www.garritan.com/OrganTutorial.html and here http://www.garritan.com/tutorial/GPO_OrganTutorial.html

Terry's tutorial explains how to set up the GPO organ from a very basic organ to a more useful and fuller organ.

Good luck.

[rwayland]

Well, I have about 30 compostions for organ with mp3's using the GPO organ. I am quite conscious of the limitiations, but it is pretty good. If you want a few samples I can send you a few links via PM so you can get an idea of what can be done with it. Gary has plans for expanding the organ, some time this year.

Larry Alexander has quite a few organ pieces. Falcon 1 has a few also. There are more, but the three of us are the first "organic" composers that come to my mind.

If you have a chance, you should try the organ at the tabernacle in Salt Lake City. In times past, I was offered the opportunity to do so if I returned to Salt Lake City, but I have not been there since my first visit, 1952.

Richard

[cptexas]

Welcome to the forum!!
I am also a stydying organist, 15 years old. I've played piano since I was 6 but just recently took up organ last summer.

The GPO organ has a lot to offer with all of it's stop combonation patches, but sometimes a good solo patch is nice, and that's where the flutes, prinzipal, cornet, and scarf IV come in. Using these patches in octaves, partials and such and even pitch-bending for a nice flute celeste you can really come up with great sounds. You can also see Tom's tutorial on the organ's filter feature that can alter the sound.

The 'flutes' patch is an 8' and a 4' stop, so it's a little difficult to work with if you want to throw in a 2', which will make the 4' voice much stronger, but the overall effect is very pleasing. The prinzipal stop is a 4', so you are limited on the lower range but (I haven't tried this yet) I'm sure the transpose tool in the Kontakt player won't completely ruin the sound taking it down an octave. The scarf IV is extremely useful for generally widening any sound, however be careful you don't use too much as it can get sounding too bright. The cornet patch is a very nice addition. It's not too heavy of a reed stop like some organs have so it doesn't blare out, but adds a great texture (depending on your piece).

The only thing missing from the GPO oragn that I really wish were there is a string stop. String stops are so incredibly beautiful and I try very often to throw one together using GM2 sounds. I've gotten close, but not close enough to even sound good in a piece.

As for pedal stops go, there is a somewhat limited choice in the GPO organ, but pedal stops are very easy to throw together with GM sounds. Sonar has the Cakewalk TTS-1 which I use ALL the time for pedal stops. The piccolo, recorder, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon make good pedal stops. Use them in the right combonation and pretty much anything can be accomplished. I also do this often in the manual sounds. I often add a GM tuba to the full ogan for a more reedy sound because of it's brightness in the upper range. The great thing about GM patches is that they don't run out of range ever. They keep going up and up and down and down so you can use any sound in any range and get good pipe organ sounds. I often use this to get a 32' stop, which the GPO organ doesn't have. Some times just the plain 'sine wave' patch works well for the 32' stuff.


OK, I've rambled on enough now. I really like organs. I think they're so incredibly COOL!!!! BTW: if anyone is interested, I am including a pipe organ in my first symphony.

-Chris

[rwayland]

There is also an organ tutorial by Tom Hopkins, very good one, posted on the Tips, Techniques and Tutorial page here.

Incidentally, my strongest memories of Japan are: Railroad Station in Hiroshima, control tower in railroad yard in or near Tokyo, and a very large department store in Nagoya, where I bought a 78 rpm record. If I ever return, perhaps I shall dive to the bottom of Yokohama Harbor and search for my cornet mouthpiece.

Richard

[Couger Writer]

Thank you for your welcome and comments.
I'm really excited to hear that you are studying organ, Chris
I have read tutorials for the GPO organ by Glen Rudolph and Terry Dwyer as well as Tom's and tried them because I also use Cubas SX. However, As Christ pointed out, there is no way I can make a principal stop sound like a string stop, a flute stop or a hybrid stop. I have tried so many different setting for low and high EQs, but I was not really convinced. I also tried to create Celeste stops by using pitch-bend, but off-tune ratio is too great to be compound celeste stops when I combined two flute stops even if you use only one notch.
I also use GigaStudio3.0 for the organ sound, but I have been having some problems with errors and program conflict, so I'm using more GPO now.
I am writing some organ works that have solo parts for Flute(like Rohr Flute or Flute Harmonique), Reed (French/Spanish Trumpet), soft string, etc..., so GPO presets won't be sufficient, but I won't complain because of the sound quality of all the other instruments. Richard mentioned that Gary is planning to expand organ sample some time this year!! I'm totally excited to hear that!!
Oh, thank you for sharing your memory of Japan, Richard. It's nice to hear things like that. Yes, I have played the Tabernale Organ in SLC a few times. BYU organ program sets up some organ master classes in the tabernacle. We haven't had it for a while due to the renovation of the Tabernacle building this last year. I love that organ!! There are more than 200 stops available.
Anyways, thanks again for your inputs and comments. I will catch you later.

sincerely,
Shinji

[cptexas]

I also tried to create Celeste stops by using pitch-bend, but off-tune ratio is too great to be compound celeste stops when I combined two flute stops even if you use only one notch.

In the GPO Kontakt player, each notch is a 1/2 step, so you can't successfully make a celeste like that. I think if you hold down the shift key or something while you adjust the knob you can go up and down by tiny increments. But what you really want to do is, because the organ is sampled in minor 3rds, take one patch of, say, flutes and transpose it down 3 semitones so it hits the next sample. Then in your sequencer transpose your track up 3 semitones so that the pitch is absolute but a different sample than the other flutes track. Then simply use the pitch wheel in your sequencer and make one of the tracks slightly sharp. You have a celeste!

If you make the celeste using the same sample then you will probably get a terrible beating. Using a different sample should lessen this beating.

-Chris

[Couger Writer]

WOW. Chris. I never thought about that. I'm at work now, but when I get home, I will try that method. Thank you for your advice. Oh, one more thing to ask you. What organ repertoirs are you working on for your lessons and who is your organ teacher?
Talk to you later.

Shinji

[cptexas]

You can also use that method (without altering the pitch wheel for the celeste) to construct HUGE string sections. Great for adagios for strings.

I study with John Barrata in Sussex County, NJ. I'm currently working on the first of Bach's eight little preludes and fugues. Learning organ has renewed my love for Bach's music. It's SO great!!

-Chris

[stmain]

Hey Chris, I was just stopping by the site here as I often do, and I was so happy to read that you're an organist studying the Eight Little P/F by Bach! Congratulations! I'm an organ teacher, and I've taught them many times.

It's so heartening to hear about young organists still "getting big by the organ bug" these days. It's a great instrument, and the learning about it will never stop! You go!

Just wanted to spread some good encouragement between us organists!

Steve Main