“This 89 Keyless Gavioli replica band organ, built by Ken Smith, is based on those organs built in the Black Forest of Germany by the Gavioli company. The keyscale is the 89 key G4 scale and playes folding cardboard music. The quality of construction and materials, is of the highest level. Research was done by careful examination of antique instruments and making drawings from these. Ken was a highly skilled machinist, and the organ reflects his abilities.
In addition to all of the hand made organ pipes, valve chests, and other components, the organ has an elaborate hand carved facade with two figures and a conductor. The organ, as shown in the first photo, is 13 feet wide, 7-1/2 feet tall, and has a depth of 4 feet. There are 402 pipes and over 2,500 meters of music including many classical and popular tunes. Organ is in top playing condition.
This organ has appeared at many MBSI, AMICA, COAA and ABOA organ rallies for more than 20 years.
Organ is located in the Columbus, Ohio area. Buyer must provide all shipping arangements.”
Hello everyone (that I didn’t scare away with my last post).
Today I thought I’d do something a little different and turn you on to some organ sample sets, free as well as commercial. For the few of you that have no clue what I’m speaking of -A history lesson:
‘Samples’ are snippets of recorded sound used in musical composition. It technically started in the 1940’s with Pierre Schaeffer and ‘Musique Concrète’.
1948!
In the 1960’s Musique Concrète went pop with the birth of the Mellotron, a keyboard that played 8 second lengths of audio tape playing a signle note of an instrument (like a cello, or violin) per key. Certainly, you’ve heard it.
The strings? Mellotron.
Then came the 80’s and with it came digital sampling. The biggest name in the form was the Fairlight CMI.
Peter Gabriel explains the Fairlight! Yes, in English
Art of Noise with their ground breaking Fairlight track (and amusing vid) for “Close To The Edit”
As the decade wore on, the technology became MUCH cheaper and the data storage much smaller resulting in many different choices in the sampling realm. From the heavy duty:
The EMU Emulator II
To the down and dirty:
The Ensoniq Mirage (RACK VERSION)
Pete Rock wailing on the now legendary EMU SP1200 (among other things)
To the thing you wish you never bought your grandkid for Christmas:
What they sold you…
What you bought!
Replace “Hello My Name Is Herbert” with a fart, or “Billy Is Gay” and the tears, they did flow huh, Gramma? Yep.
Well, with the 90’s came the advent of computer recording and now, in the late Aughties, anyone with a half decent computer or smart phone (iPhone / iPad) has the ability to also run a top of the line sampler / sequencer through any number of DAW programs like Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper, Fruity Loops, Ableton, Pro-Tool, Garageband, the list is LONG.
Because some of you love organs, but don’t have the space necessary or means to have one in your home. Well, if you have a computer, enough space on your hard drive, and money to afford a USB MIDI keyboard controller, I think sampling is the solution for you! Once you understand the basics of sampling (terms like MIDI and WAV) and spend a little time with a simple program like Garageband (which comes loaded in most iMacs as far as I know) or Cubase lite, the internet will provide you with more sampled organ sounds than you could believe, often cheap, sometimes free!
http://www.forgottenkeys.co.uk/3_fe70.php A Yamaha FE-70 – exactly the kind of organ we love @ Organ *Pron! I’ve bought from Forgotten Keys numerous times, great stuff and SUPER CHEAP! I didn’t know about this until TODAY!! Plenty of classic Drumbox sample sets there, too!
Here are some VSTi (Virtual Studio Technology instrument), basically simulated digital versions of real instruments – no samples. Some are servicable, some are amazing, as far as organs go, there are TONS and the majority of them are FREE. So, please, mosey on over to KVR Audio check ’em out!
If you’ve noticed, I rarely update this page. Part of the reason is the non-stop deluge of comments from people making demands, trying to buy things that I’ve made pretty clear aren’t mine, and people trying to sell organs – which I can safely say are 99% scams. Well, congratulations dumbasses – no more comments. I am DONE with your laziness in finding out about things like:
A) Where you are.
B) What the purpose of the place you are is.
C) What a blog is.
Half of you people seem to think I’m running a store, even though it says RIGHT UNDER THE TITLE
“No. I don’t own them. Stop asking!”
And you run your mouth at me making demands like “I need this manual. I will pay five dollars. I need you to get it here by Friday.” without even checking to see if I have the manual in question or if you’re actually in a store!
And then there are you sad, sad old folks who are all to willing to give up your personal info, credit card numbers and all to a total stranger you’ve never even seen in hopes of getting the organ pictured.
Enough. I warned you months ago, but nothing has changed. You’ve just about killed what joy I had in doing this blog. When I get an email saying that a new comment awaits my moderation, I literally GROAN. I really wanted to just have a blog where people came and drooled over crazy organs, maybe talked about their experiences and shared videos etc. There have been a few of you that did just that. To you I say thank you and also I’m sorry. You were who I had in mind when I started this, unfortunately there are many more Archie Bunkersout there, ruining it for the rest of us.
It’s the 1970’s. Just the word ‘computer’ sends society into a fantasia of Kubrik-ian proportions. So it comes as no surprise that everything that could be even remotely identified as being a computer would have the term tacked on the product. Enter this mystery:
Baldwin Microcomputer Orchestra
The pictures are nice, but the enigma remains…
It has a preset called … wait for it… Fantomfingers!
Via this AUCTION P.U.O. in Scottsdale, AZ (whaaa? Another Arizona Organ!?!?)
“Authentic Orchestral Voices and Organ Sounds
All instruments have 292 sampled sounds in each of the orchestral sections. These include the standard 128 General Midi voices + ORLA XM sound library voices. Each manual has real time Flutebars for creating your own original organ sounds with Flute or Tibia voicing. Both Tremolo and Vibrato effects are available on the Flutes.
40 unique accordion samples can be found within the Orchestra sections.
A variety of features such as Reverb, 3D Sound Enhancer, Octave shift and Sustain can be used to enhance the sounds.
Built In Registrations and Automatic Set Ups
In order to allow you to sit down and play straight away using professional sounding registrations each of the 90 onboard rhythm styles has an Automatic Set Up. These convenient registrations, set up the whole instrument instantly using sounds appropriate to the musical style selected. The instruments allow the player to adjust these registrations to suit personal taste. The 16 Overall Presets also come preset with settings to get you started once again covering a wide range of musical styles including Organ Sounds, Orchestral, Jazz and Big Band.
Advanced Rhythm Orchestrations
Each one of the instruments has an extensive rhythm section featuring 90 different rhythm styles. These cover a broad range – from traditional dance rhythms such as Waltz, Foxtrot and Quickstep to modern contemporary beats and great Latin rhythms. Each style has 3 Variations, fully orchestrated Intros and Endings and Fill In patterns.
Built in Performance Recorder with Disk Drive
The built-in disk drive can be used to load and save musical data including registrations, rhythm styles and songs. The new Auto Save facility eliminates many of the problems people have previously encountered when using disks.
The performance recording side of the disk drive is for recording and playback of your own performances.
Once again the emphasis is on ease of use with a minimal amount of button pushing required to both record and save to disk.
90 Styles with 3 Variations (5 parts arrangements), 16 User Styles, MFC/OFC, Auto Bass, Auto Chord, Memory, Split, Intro/Ending, Fade, Fill 1/2, Auto Start, Start/Stop, Drum Volume, Acc. 1, 2, 3 Volumes
Organ*Pron 
You must be logged in to post a comment.