Subject: Introduction for new list From: "Eric Sagmuller" <ess4@psu.edu <mailto:ess4@psu.edu>> Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 09:55:34 -0500 Hello friends, Well here's some information about myself and my project. As a child I always had an interest in electronic, electric and mechanical things. Growing up I built go-karts and mini bikes. Rebuilt car engines, etc. Built amplifiers and speakers for my stereo systems. Repaired TVs and other things. I've been an Electronics Tech. since out of high school. I'm 40 now and have been working as a Tech. here at Penn State Univ. for the past 8 years. I live near Bellefonte, PA. During my years growing up at home, my Mom tryed to get me interested in the piano. Unfortunately, not playing well herself, she tryed to teach me rather than getting me lessons with a teacher. This never went very far although I did learn the basics and learned to play some songs. When I became about 20 I gave my heart to the Lord. At this point my musical interests changed drastically from rock to classical and litergical music. Before then I could never see what my Mom saw was so wonderful about classical music. At this point I also really became seriously interested = in the piano. Also receiving a Bach organ record by Biggs, got me started on the road to a real passion for the pipe organ and it's music. During this time I started taking real piano lessons and got a couple of pianos including two real grand pianos I intended to rebuild. I ended up using = the one grand for about 13 years but never did get to rebuild it due to space limitations etc. In 1990 my wife and I started to literally build our own house from the ground up. At that point I had already decided I would get an organ some day. So we built the house with a fairly large combined living/dining = room. It is a saltbox style house and the (great) room is 13' wide x 30' long x 11 to 20' high. The 20' high side is against the two stories of the front of the house. Trying the quick route, in 1996 I bought a new Allen digital MDS organ thinking this would satisfy my craving for a pipe organ. The first night I played the organ at home I was very disappointed. I had originally tried one of these in a nicely reverberant room and thought it sounded nice. But I soon realized how a smaller room revealed the flaws of the digital = system. After a time a found an Alesis DSP that I connected which did a nice job = of reverb and helped alot along with facing the speakers towards the ceiling. I kept the organ for about three years but just wasn't satisfied with it. During this time I decided I had to go to pipes, and about a year and a half ago I bought a 3 rank Kilgen for a very good price. Then about a year ago I bought about 15 ranks of pipes and chests from Richard Schneider of Schneider Pipe organs. The pipes are from a 1958 Moller and are perfect = for the house. They have low cutups voiced on about 3" wind and light nicking making them sound very nice. I converted about 1/2 of one of the upstairs bedrooms into a Swell = Chamber. I have an all electric Reisner console and a 16' set of Subbass pipes on the ground floor of the Great room. All of the other pipes will be at the second story level of the house with the Great exposed. At this point, using the Kilgen chest, I have my 8' Holtzgedeckt and most of my 8' Principal playing. I have a 16' extension for my Holtzgedeckt I just hooked up, as I got my PVC flanges I ordered from OSI. I need to releather the Moller chests yet, but at least I have something to play = now, and boy does it sound nice! Even without reverb it sounds glorious, unlike the digital! The house still needs some work done in it. The main thing I need to = finish is the Great room. At this point I have one 1/2" layer of drywall on the walls and ceiling. I plan to glue a second 1/2" layer of drywall to the walls. On the ceiling I will either do the same or glue and fasten 1" interlocking pine boards. On the floor I'll use 3/4" oak plank flooring. Then coats of hard paint and varnish where appropriate. This should make the room considerably more alive. Even now though it is fairly alive sounding as is. Another thing I want to try for reverb is to mike the pipes. Then send the signal through the Digital Sound Processer I used with the Allen, and out of speakers placed around the room. I know this is artifical but I'm dying for some 2-3 second reverb. It really helped the Allen but I may be too much of a purist to be content with it. I wonder if anyone else has tryed this scheme, and the results? My completed organ will have about 20 ranks. Following is a preliminary stoplist. Great: (exposed) 8' Principal 61 pipes 8' Rhorflute 61 4' Octave 61 4' Harmonic Flute 61 2 2/3' Quint 61 2' Super Octave 61 Mixture III 183 Swell: 16' Lieblich Gedeckt 12 pipes 8' Holtz Gedeckt 61 8' Viole 61 8' Viole Celeste 49 ? 8' Trumpet 61 8'-4' Principal 73 4' Koppelflute 61 2 2/3' Nazard 61 2' Blockflute 61 1 3/5' Tierce 61 1' Sifflute 61 Pedal: 16' Subbass 32 pipes (exposed) 16' Lieblich Gedeckt (from Swell) 8' Bourdon (metal) 8' Flute (from Lieb. Ged.) 8' Trumpet (from Swell) 8' Principal ( 56 pipes exposed) 4' Choral Bass 2' Octave Also various couplers, etc. Also I hope to add 12 pipes below and above = the Trumpet making for a unified 16,8,4. If I have room I'd like a Gemshorn = and maybe a Spitzflute too. Well I guess that's probably more info. than most care to know so I'll quit. Many Thanks to David, Craig and Larry for starting this list. I = think it will be a great blessing to all of us residence organ builders/owners. I'll post my progress once in a while. Someday I hope to have a web sight with pictures.