Just got recently into jOrgan and have to say I begin to like it a lot. When I thought that there was no match for Hauptwerk‘s Paramount 310, the Barton 3-12 available for jOrgan is a great disposition that is lots of fun.
Also, discovering other pipe organs. It's not always in the sample set size but overall musicialty of an instrument.
I was a very early adopter of jOrgan, first using it back in the days of version 1.x when you had to do a lot of tinkering. To me it sounded great even back then, as I was using it mainly to supplement the analog stops on an old Rodgers I had MIDI-ed up. Once I moved up to a digital organ, I quit tinkering with it, though I always thought it had great possibilities. Haven't had time to do much experimenting with VPO software in years, but I'm sure it's come a long ways and has some amazing sounds to offer.
We do have some folks on the forum who are very big in the jOrgan world. Perhaps some of them will chime in here. You might browse through the VPO threads and of course check out the dedicated jOrgan website to connect with other users.
John
---------- *** Please post your questions about technical service or repair matters ON THE FORUM. Do not send your questions to me or another member by private message. Information shared is for the benefit of the entire organ community, but other folks will not be helped by information we exchange in private messages!
I have been using for many years and it has allowed me to construct a really fine 3 manual instrument. I especially like the fact that I can customize the organ to my liking and not be restricted to one created by someone else. In addition to the jOrgan engine my organ had access to a Roland SC8850 and now supplements the pipe sounds with a Roland Integra 7. It is a very fine sounding instrument and has brought me uncountable hours of enjoyment.
I discovered jOrgan about ten years ago, and have been passionate about it ever since. It has been a challenge learning to use most of its many excellent features, but the effort has been abundantly worthwhile. The pipe organ I learned to play on over sixty years ago was a small tracker, and most of the organs I have played since that time have been similar. This means that I am used to playing in close proximity to the pipes, and after searching for sixty years for a pipe organ substitute which would give me a close rendition of that fairly unique musical experience, I have at last found one that satisfies me as a player. jOrgan has delivered the goods! I am not saying that the alternative VPO programs would not deliver this result also. But I do think that jOrgan achieves this more easily for the VPO creator, as well as not requiring substantial computers for success.
Currently I am fitting out my two-manuals and pedals console with two Raspberry Pi's (latest 3B+ model) plus 7” touchscreens, as I find that this will be an excellent fit for my particular domestic circumstances. I am using optional DAC HAT's to ensure audio of the highest quality, and am finding that jOrgan works perfectly in this situation.
My practice is to use recorded, dry samples which I have made myself. I believe that 6 samples per octave, which is my preference, is an excellent compromise between musical excellence and the large amount of work involved in processing the recordings into sample files. I do not use batch processing at all, preferring a hands-on approach in crafting each sample, and I regard the resulting quality of sound to be exceptionally fine, certainly justifying all the effort. (Being retired helps!)
My jORGAN DISCOVERY website (http://jorgan.info) was created to help new users of jOrgan make a start. Its Gallery page has links to sound files demonstrating some of jOrgan's capabilities.
@JohnReimer : your Website indeed was my starting point. Without it, we wouldn't be talking jOrgan right now :)
samibe I also want to create a custom disposition down the road with sample sets I have purchased last year. It will be quite a super organ with voices from Technics, Yamaha, Eminent, Farfisa and perhaps other makes.
Now, if I could figure out how to route audio to my second speaker set, it would be quite something. Hauptwerk, in the free Edition, does use both speaker sets I wired to my sound card. It's not real multiple channel sound, but the stereo image coming from two speaker sets is quite a difference in immersion.
I have been using jOrgan for over 10 years now. I started using V2.3 when Kent Allman came out with his soundfonts and dispositions. Since then I have built my own custom dispositions and created soundfonts using pipe samples from many sources. jOrgan nicely handles all the custom specification work while 'Viena' customizes each individual rank right down to swapping out individual pipes and voicing them. While I do have Hauptwerk advanced version with several theater organ sample sets, I do not use them as my main instrument because of the complete customization available through jOrgan. Hauptwerk is 'locked in' as to ranks and specification based on what some other organist thought was ideal (for them), As a former pipe organ hobbyist I was used to being able to pick and choose my ranks and map out my specifications. I like what George Wright did with his Pasadena studio organ, being able to switch out stuff at will, and I want to be able to do that in the VirTual world as well. With the addition of Fluidsynth and available back end processors, I feel the sound quality is the equal to Hauptwerk, and I do not have some other organist telling me what ranks/stops I can have. I don't play like them, so why should I have to use an instrument they designed?
My instrument is a 3/23 VirTual Theater Organ, controlled by a pipe organ horseshoe console. In specification, it is like a 'Thinking Man's Publix I,' of course with the added Posthorn as well as several additional accompaniment ranks-minus the original Dulciana. Virtually every theater organ feature commonly used is included from 2 Second Touch manuals to Pizzicato stops and couplers, Register Crescendo, Sforzando, traps, percussion, sound effects, and a partridge in a pear tree! Its present specification was years in the development and nurturing. jOrgan.makes all this possible, and its programming capabilities are so versatile a user can come up with additional features not originally thought of when jOrgan was created.
I use the jOrgan combination action system to run a complete moveable SAMS-based combination action which works great, as long as I keep the stop action contacts clean! The organ specification is specially tailored to squeezing 23 unified ranks onto a single bolster console.(86 stops on the horseshoe and 32 on the front rail). I utilize amplexes and other devices to effectively do this, all programmed in jOrgan. The combination action has 'levels' directly accessible from illuminated latching pistons, which work like 'banks' on a synthesizer. This feature was custom programmed using various elements of jOrgan. The Piano on the Accompaniment manual has three levels of dynamics, controlled by latching illuminated pistons, all programmed using jOrgan.
This organ is a gas to play, and jOrgan/soundfonts makes it all possible. Since I am a great fan of versatility and customization, I would not consider using anything else. jOrgan is truly the Lego of VirTual organ creation.
Hauptwerk is 'locked in' as to ranks and specification based on what some other organist thought was ideal (for them), As a former pipe organ hobbyist I was used to being able to pick and choose my ranks and map out my specifications.
That is not so. You can create your own dispositions in Hauptwerk by creating a CODF (Custom Organ Disposition File) and using your own samples. There are many composite sample sets for Hauptwerk that were created in this manner. You cannot, of course, use the encrypted samples that comprise many of the commercial sample sets available for Hauptwerk.
I do not have some other organist telling me what ranks/stops I can have. I don't play like them, so why should I have to use an instrument they designed?
My response to that is, well of course you don't, but it should be pointed out that many of the organs available for Hauptwerk are instruments that were designed by master organ builders and have withstood the test of time. They're not just the whim of some unknown organist.
I know that I'm not a Silbermann, Cavaille-Coll, Skinner, Hope-Jones, or some other successful builder, so I'm perfectly content, and fortunate, to be able to play these great instruments in my own home as they were designed.
I digitized my organ a couple years ago and have only used jOrgan on it. It's been a true joy having an instrument of my own! There is a jorgan mailing list if you have any jorgan specific questions: [email protected]
I am astounded at what I hear on these tracks, in particular the "Stanford-Magnificat" recording. Almost impossible to believe all that gorgeous sound isn't coming from a massive organ and a massive choir in a massive church! You guys have certainly taken jOrgan to a whole new level since the days when my little setup let me add 6 or 8 new stops to the old Rodgers 660. And I thought I was hoeing in high cotton back then.
The "soundfont" concept is what first got me interested. Long before I found jOrgan, I'd been cobbling a way to play the voices on my SoundBlaster card with an attached MIDI keyboard, and I had tried installing various custom soundfonts, looking for sounds that were more like real organ stops. As I recall, I could play the soundfonts with my early version of Cakewalk, but it was very clunky, and of course they weren't true "organ" voices, just various instruments that I could sort of blend together to make organish sounds. So when I discovered jOrgan, I jumped right into it.
If I'd had more time to devote to it, I would've become more of an expert. But I was (and still am) having to run a business and try to work nearly every day, as well as practice and play at church. So I needed the simplicity of a hardware organ, thus my on-going search for the perfect home organ (which has led me through about a dozen or more practice organs in the past few years)!
I keep thinking that I'll actually "retire" and then have time to get back to tinkering. For me, the challenge of "building" my own organ with jOrgan would be as exciting as playing it, but time always gets in my way. One of these days...
John
---------- *** Please post your questions about technical service or repair matters ON THE FORUM. Do not send your questions to me or another member by private message. Information shared is for the benefit of the entire organ community, but other folks will not be helped by information we exchange in private messages!
I am so pleased that you enjoyed and were impressed by the demonstration tracks on the Gallery page of my jOrgan website, and that you were prepared to say so. It is high praise, coming as it does from you, and it may encourage some organ lovers interested in what VPO's have to offer, to investigate this third option, which certainly has come of age. All three of the main options are capable of giving superb results, and people can note their differing strengths and weaknesses and make their choices according to their particular preferences.
If I were to get back into VPOs, the appeal of jOrgan for me would be the ability to either install a ready-made organ from one of the leading developers, or to build a fully custom organ from scratch. Or take one of the ready-made organs and customize it freely.
I know that both Hauptwerk and GrandOrgue have the ability to mix and match stops and make custom dispositions, and to do a lot of voicing and customizing, within the limitations of the license agreements, but in jOrgan you can easily build an organ up one note at a time if you wish, as I recall. All kinds of possibilities in sample creation, filtering, panning, channeling, tuning, and so many other parameters. Truly a tinkerers dream organ.
And I suppose nearly all the available organs are still free of charge and not locked into a license or need for a dongle, making jOrgan accessible to anyone willing to invest the time and having only the necessary hardware.
@jreimer I, too, had a listen and especially your own recording is remarkable. The chiffiness of the stops together with low reverb does indeed feel like a tracker organ right in front of the player. I haven't downloaded your disposition yet but will do so.
@jreimer: do you happen to know how to route jOrgan/Fluidsynth to both stereo outputs (front&rear) under Windows 7? Hauptwerk does it in the free version by simply duplicating stereo channels.
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