Tremulants

[voet]

I want to adjust the tremulants on my organ and was surprised that I could not find a discussion about them on this forum. I also checked the internet and YouTube, but not much came up there either. I am posting this in this thread because my interest is in playing classical organ literature.

Generally I like a gentle tremulant, however I have heard some organs in Europe where the tremulant is quite deep. So i thought it would be interesting to query the collective wisdom on this forum.

What do you consider an ideal speed? I am not sure if there is a standard for measuring this, but I thought if we equated it to metronome settings we could have a common understanding.

What do you consider an ideal depth? This would be more difficult to quantify, but perhaps we could use try to use a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is the shallowest and 10 is the deepest. If you have an alternative suggestion for this, please share it.

I have four divisions, Great, Swell, Positive and Solo. Would you set the tremulants the same for each division? If not what would you consider ideal for each division?

[toodles]

In my experience with adjusting trems on electronic organs, I find that the right speed is a sweet spot that just sounds right to my ears--faster sounds too fast and slower sounds like it needs to get moving.

Depth is far more flexible to my ears--heaviest on flutes, moderate on diapasons and strings, and lightest on reeds except the vox humana which can take a heavy trem especially if aiming for a theatre organ sound.

Generally, you never set two trems on the same instrument at exactly the same speed.

[voet]

Thanks for the response, Toodles. I plan to adjust the Solo division for the benefit of the Vox Humana because I want to use it with the celeste for Franck's Chorale No. 1. I think I will have a very gentle undulation on the Great, since I won't be using the tremulant on that division too often. This might be nice to use on flues for early music. The Swell will has the most "romantic" disposition, so I will have it a bit more prominent here to use with the reeds. The Positive has the mutations and cromhorne which are the stops I would use it with most in this division.

The tremulants listed from most gentle to most prominent will be Great, Positiv, Swell, Solo.

I really appreciate your sharing your opinion.