The William Hill organ at Wesley Methodist Church, Cambridge UK.

I rarely turn down the opportunity of recording a church organ and was thrilled to have the privilege of recording the 1844 William Hill organ at Wesley Methodist Church in Cambridge (UK). Unlike so many church organs, this one isn't stuffed into a small alcove in a chancel, but is a splendid feature of the building itself. Its full story can be found here www.wesleycam.... but it is what I think of as a 'performance' organ, rather than one simply there to accompany hymns (not that there's anything wrong with that!)
The music being played here is a Prelude on Hubert Parry's tune 'Jerusalem' by John S. Wilson. The organist is David Rowland, Director of Music at Christ's College, Cambridge. We had a short window of opportunity to record this piece, just before the restrictions imposed due to the Coronavirus in March 2020.
The organ possesses some very forthright reeds, and David Rowland has used these in a very pleasing way. There is full energy in the sound, right down to about 34Hz, so if you don't have a sub-woofer in your loudspeaker system, you will miss something.
For the technically interested, the recording was made using two AKG cardioid small-diameter condenser microphones in the usual 90-degree X-Y configuration. The ORTF configuration, which I generally prefer, was just too wide on this occasion. The mics were almost at the opposite end of the nave from the organ and only about 2.5m high. The nave is carpeted, which helps dampen early reflections. The M-S configuration was also considered but probably wouldn't have worked well, being so far back. Maybe another time …
In post production, some bass-lift was applied in order to overcome the usual bass-droop of cardioids at a distance (the inverse of bass tip-up). Some mid-high EQ was also used to compensate for HF absorption by humid air over a relatively long distance. I have to confess also to applying a cathedral's worth of reverb to the recording! Wesley Church doesn't have a particularly lively acoustic and, although unrealistic, the reverb seems to place the organ into an acoustic space more suited to its size.
Noise from the blowers was quite prominent on the recording. This is a forgivable consequence of having such a powerful instrument. Again, in post production, the spectral noise reduction in iZotope RX7 was used to almost eliminate the blower noise without, I think, too much adverse effect on the sound of the organ. The same editor was used to remove just a couple of the loudest clunks of action noise.
Three Sony FDR-AX53 camcorders were used to do a 3-camera edit in DaVinci Resolve.