I am organist in a new church with a Walker organ about 25 stops. The organ is about 20 meters from pipes. I see theres a slight delay after pressing key to sound. Is it normal?
I remember previous church where I playd was about 8 meters from organ to pipes without delays
20 meters is going to give you about 59 milliseconds of delay just for the time it takes sound from the pipes to reach you at the console. I don't know if there are additional factors, such as the action of the organ, but that delay alone WILL be noticeable.
20 meters is about 62 feet, and then with electric circuits there's the down and back runs too, I would EXPECT a slight delay here, especially since the electric has to get there and actuate a magnet that has to in turn open the valve or pouch, it all adds up. Organists playing with that learn to adapt to it, it can be very confusing to a student.
Worst thing I experienced was playing the organ at the Mormon Tabernacle briefly when I was a guest of one of the organists, the sound comes in one ear goes across the room, and comes back in the other ear seconds later almost as loud, it was highly confusing to me!
Getting used to the delay (or 'latency' as we'd call it on a virtual organ these days) is just part of learning to play organ. Most of the church organs I play locally have their pipes directly above the console, so the sound is almost instant.
I was brought up on the 'dark side', on a Compton theatre organ that could be kindly described as 'sluggish'. Most Wurlitzers were faster, though the biggest challenge set for me was to play one particular organ with the console down in the pit, with the trapdoor closed! Funny, I never had any problems with delay after that!
If you really want some fun, try an organ with multiple pipe chambers. One of my mentors described one organ (Fox, San Francisco, maybe) that had four or five chambers. Two were at stage level, so you heard those instantly. Then two more, one on either side of the screen - you heard those next. And finally one or two at the rear of the auditorium. You heard those last. Then you tried playing something that used a different chamber's sounds for left and right hands and another for the pedals. Try keeping in time when your melody comes in half a second after your accompaniment!
And these days, owners of 'virtual organs' moan about the delay! They should perhaps learn to embrace it. And we has a thread not so long ago where the member wanted to add delay to his home practice organ!
It's not what you play. It's not how you play. It's the fact that you're playing that counts.
Friendly tip on 'organ-speak': the organ IS the 'pipes'—the console is what you use to play the organ.
Delays are especially fun when you are trying to coordinate with, for instance, an orchestra—often it means anticipating the beat by the length of the delay, which can be tricky to negotiate with a conductor.
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