Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

[Guest]

Morning from Paris for my first post, and excuse me in advance for my english mistakes...

I have a question: I read posts only about Allen or Rodgers organs !
I mean, they're probably very good for typical american organ music, but not for me, cause i'm used to play only Bach's music and especially FRENCH organ music : Louis Vierne, Charles-Marie Widor, typical romantic French organ music !

So, for me, Allen or Rodgers are not good for this kind of music. I really love romantic music, even if for some of you, it is not "classical" music, because it is "romantic"!

So, what do you think about Johannus or Content organs ? They seem to be proper good to play "my" kind of french music, don't you think so ?

Tell me more about what you think, and please, don't think i'm a troll.

My purpose is to speak about organ music, not to fight in a ring...

Thanks to all of you who read me.

[Guest]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

Have a look at Hauptwerk web sites.

With Hauptwerk you can have a choice of the sound of many organs from around the world.
You don't have to "put up with" the sampled sounds that Rodgers, Allen, Makin, Ahlborn Galanti, Johannus, etc., "dish out to you.

You make the choice, not "them".

Bon chance!

Trio.

[fuguebwv582]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

jeanlouis92 said:
"I really love romantic music, even if for some of you, it is not "classical" music, because it is "romantic"! "

Americans tend to lump Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and even Impressionistic and Modern in the "Classical" basket. You could probably translate "Classical" as serious (vs. popular) music. If you take a dictionary meaning of "classic": Belonging to the highest rank or class. Serving as the established model or standard (Excerpted from American Heritage Talking Dictionary, Copyright © 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.) you can see that Vierne, Widor, Bach, d'Auqin, Mozart, Palestrina, Tchaikovsky, and all the rest are truly "Classic".

[soundboarddude]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

I think Johannus organs are absolutly wonderful instruments. A friend of mine, Mr. Burt, owns Dorian Organs, who sells Johannus organs. He has given me sample CDs and they sound absolutly wonderful. Even better than some Allens and Rodgers I have played.

I'll still prefer a good Allen or Rodgers, but a Johannus still is a wonderful instrument.

[Guest]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

I haven't seen a reply to the query about the Content organs. Does anyone have any experience with them?

[M1994]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

I've never heard of content....on that comment by rgenung, those both sound great, but I think I'm hooked on the phoenix sample CD....they sound good for a digital organ...but this thing...it's hard to tell the difference between it and the real thing. Go to www.phoenix.com, and listen to the recordings of the smallest model with baroque specification, as a pose to allen's neo baroque, and see what I mean.

[Guest]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

Hello

Widor, Vierne (oh yes, my favorite), Duruflé and Dupré undoubted need professional skills. In this case I think the right keyboard is more important than the tonal differences of the low cost organs. Forget the standard plastic stuff. It’s all the same. Luckily I could play the Johannus Monarke of a organ professor in Germany with UHT-keyboards. After some time of playing I found there is no alternative. Have a look at www.uht-tastaturen.de (also in English). Ok, 4000 Euro for two keyboards is a lot of money. But I am not sorry about that investment. But I’d not buy a Johannus again
(I have a Sweelinck 20). Very dissapointing. Instead I’d prefer a solution with the hauptwerk-software (www.hauptwertk.co.uk).

[Guest]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

My first post to the forum. Had to reply to the questions on Content Organs. Just got my 3 manual D 6800 delivered from the Netherlands a month ago and LOVE it. Been sculpting the sounds to "my ear" at least. If there's anything I can try to answer specifically about it, ask away. (It's quite different from my Conn 360 that I donated to a church in Argentina 18 years ago!) Better yet, if anywhere near Philadelphia, come try it out.
Colin

[RW]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

It seems to me that most differences in digital instruments (Allen, Johannus, Rodgers, etc) depend a GREAT deal on the following: 1) the skill of the person voicing the instrument 2) choosen options in the specification of the instrument, i.e. wooden keyboards, moving drawknobs vs. tilting tablets, etc, and 3) the quality and proper design of the amplification and speaker systems. I have heard organs of most every manufacturer that sound fabulous, and also organs of most every manufacturer that sound disappointing. I have a large specification Johannus that has given me several years of great service, and with the help of Artisan Instruments, has integrated seamlessly with my Kilgen pipe organ. I would not hesitate to purchase another Johannus as long as it included the options and up-grades that are important to me.

[radagast]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

> Go to www.phoenix.com, and listen to the recordings of the smallest model with baroque specification, as a pose to allen's neo baroque, and see what I mean.

Maybe Phoenix can do a convincing Baroque organ but they can't even come close to sounding like a Cavaille-Coll. Then again, the only digital organ I have heard than can sound like C-C is an organ built around Artisan's "Ranks in a Box".

Content is the supplier of Hammond's classical line, except for the 935.

[radagast]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

>>I don't own an Allen, but am still seriously considering either a 3 manual Rodgers Trillium Masterpiece T-968 (soon to be announced replacement for the T-967), or a 3 or 4 manual Allen Renaissance Quantum. <<


My church will be building a new sanctuary in about a year. I was hoping to get an Allen Quantum put in. However, after hearing Marshall & Ogletree, Walker Technical, and Artisan's amazing "Ranks in a Box", I can't see expecting my church to spend such a large amount of money on an Allen Quantum. The Rodgers TM series looks VERY INTERESTING to me now, because of the user specified stop lists. I can get a floating string section on a three manual organ. If I wanted that on an Allen, it would be a custom organ at a custom price. Plus Rodgers has been seriously upgrading their sample library with long samples. Their organs are sounding better and better.

Bill
(former) Allen enthusiast from 1971 to 2005.

[radagast]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

>I haven't seen a reply to the query about the Content organs. Does anyone have any experience with them?


They sound good at a budget price. They have adjustable chorus control that warms the sound up. I don't know about the quality of the consoles, however.

[M1994]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

On the Phoenix issue, I haven't played a French specification Phoenix (the only one around here doesn't have one) I personally like what the demo CD had to offer on that. It ain't no C-C I guess (although I know they do have C-C samples, although not sure which ones/how many) I'd still advise you to contact them on that matter, but otherwise, Rodgers wouldn't be a bad idea either. I didn't know you pay more for Allen custom....but I'm sure they'll get tipped off rather soon. Although I haven't seen a newer Rodgers console in person, in photo they look not bad. I still like the Phoenix ones better however (they look so beautifully massive...even the 22 rank 2 manual has thicker side cheeks than Allen's smallest 4 manual) A big advantage of Rodgers would have to be MIDI, since to my knowledge, they blow all others out of the water in this case. The thing I DONT lke about Rodgers, is (unless they changed things around lately) you have your voice palette to substitute single stops, but you can't select another whole specification. Although to be fair, a few stops can make all the difference. By price, Phoenix will win (yes I've checked) Does anybody know how expensive a Veritas might be? They're impressive. Otherwise Bill, good luck, and do try to hear and play as many brands as you can. You don't get to replace these every few years (usually)

[radagast]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

>The thing I DONT lke about Rodgers, is (unless they changed things around lately) you have your voice palette to substitute single stops, but you can't select another whole specification. Although to be fair, a few stops can make all the difference.

I said something to the Rodgers dealer about that and I think he had a good answer. He said he would rather use the memory for high quality long samples that for alternate specifications that many churches will never use. I had to agree. Furthermore, and I knew this already, changing from an American Classic on an Allen Quantum to a French Romantic doesn't give you a correct spec for a French organ. All it does it change the Amercan Classic stops to their French counterparts, rather than give each manual, a disposition that you would find on a Cavaille-Coll organ.

Having the ability to swap samples like Allen is pretty cool, although Rodgers now says you can swap chips to get new sounds on the Trillium Masterpiece series.

Allen is not cheap in price already, and when you want a design different from a stock model, the price goes up even more.

I saw a Cavaille-Coll type console on a Phoenix site. I wonder if they are going to try to duplicate the sound as close as possible? Raising the bar is always good for us consumers.

As far Veritas goes, I heard they are positioning themselves as a "high end" organ name, which sounds to me like "high price". Although the additive synthesis system they use sounds good initially, I wonder if it will still sound good to my ears over a long period of time.

If there was a Phoenix dealer close to Indianapolis, I would be happy to play their organs in person.

[M1994]

Re: Johannus and Content, they don't exist ???

With Phoenix, you can pick each individual stop however you want. The problem, is that the stop tab/knob has only 1 engraving on it. The one I played, had 2 of the 3 alternate specs on laminated paper in the bench (spec 4 was not there, since it was the english spec 1 with theatre organ tremulants. They were for the most part the stops counterparts, but this church's organist was a pianist, hence very basic spec. Gotta say though, easy to remember alternate specs if the spec is similar, but if you have 3 different specifications entirely, it may be hard to remember, and annoying to look at a sheet of paper all the time. But if you have a good memory, it all works. Also with Phoenix, it can automatically swap your great to the lower manual anytime you use the French spec. They are very customizeable. Although I will read up on the TM series to see what they have to offer, I haven't looked much into that yet.