Sam you need to work on your double entendres. Dave blowing into trishas hole and Trisha's strapons were funny though. Nothing compared to Stanley's big old pipe though.
you should graphite that old blower motor! I have one that belonged to my great grandfather (from the 1920's) and it has little copper ports for adding graphite :)
Sup homie, that big ass box that holds the pipes where each solenoid is check them plugs for each pipe on each solenoid, those should be air tight, and it will be way louder, you get to actually hold the air pressure in that box under the pipes, but yea the whole box and them pads on the solenoid gotta be basically air tight to be as loud and clean of a note as possible....im sure you knew that, but the weak sound is caused from an air leak in that big long box or then solenoid air flaps for each....the organ is absolutely mental, just what an epic piece of kit to own...
@@scottbattaglia8595 yep cheers scott. that was part of the job on friday was sorting out the valve tops to stoop letting air through, a couple are still being funny, ill get to em though, it seems that the more its being used thte better it is working also, probably down the the lack of movement over the past 20 years
That song at the end hit so hard. I love the defiance and determination, and I find it super empowering and inspiring to go and create and mess with instruments and technology I don’t understand yet to make music
You really can disassemble and reassemble everything! Probably the world's first organ transplant paid for entirely by Patreon and done without even a medical degree.
The (wise) choice to ditch all the existing electronics was what made it possible I reckon. Reassembling that spider's nest would have been a special hell.
I wonder if it was a buck transformer. 240V primary wired in series with a 30V secondary to either boost or buck the voltage by 30V. The blower makes me think of the big yellow bouncy castle blowers. I get surges of email that are totally unmanageable too. By the time you've given a technical reply to one another five have arrived.
Ha yes well it’s in a sealed chunk. I can send you to dismantle haha. Apparently Bristol was on 210v in the early 21st century hence the converter transformers. How funky
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Entire Europe was on 210-220V when I was young. Most of devices after change to 240V standed these +20V to +30V very well but apparently here somebody tried to be very careful. EDIT: I was wrong. England was 240V that time, rest of Europe 220V. That is probably the reason somebody used this stepdown to 210V as most likely the air blower was not British-made and they wanted it to last when installed once.
When the organ was built it was designed for a certain air pressure. 2-6 inches of air typically for a most organs. They have to run the blower at the designed pressure to maintain voicing and tuning on the pipes.
When I saw part #1, I was wondering how much time it would take to reassemble it, few months or so. Doing this in about a week, it's incredible. Keep up the good work, it's heartwarming seeing this organ saved again and in such good loving hands.
He knew what he was doing, after all, it's a simple instrument, all it does it is blowing air in some tubes through electric controlled valves. A lot of them, sure, but still not complex. Also he worked in the past on a similar project.
@@biomorphic cutting all the wires makes the project about ten times simpler, as well. Certainly if you don’t care about replicating the functionality of those nail-board “computers” (tracing what those actually did would be super complex, and not made easier by the rough cuts). The pneumatic-mechanical part of the organ is, in the end, not hugely complex - it’s a blower and then the bellows and valve assembly produces a constant pressure air supply. Very ingenious, but not excessively complex to refurbish. And the rest is just hoses to air chests, possibly with controllable valves to turn whole air chests on and off as leak control.
There's not much more straightforward than distributing the air, and a solenoid per pipe. Just put it together a section at a time, then test the section. Good thing he had a control box lying around! All those old wires were just so much red herring in an era where we can afford to put a cheap tiny computer into each box of pipes. It's all basic mechanics and electronics after you've separated out the individual note signals. Tuning it is going to be a lot of work, but still straightforward, and he's already done some before. They already sound lovely. The best part was trying to make a similar setting to the original house.
The more I find out about you, the more amazed I am by the sheer amount of knowledge you have pinging around in your head. The fact that you're willing to share that knowledge freely with the rest of us is the best part. Thanks, Sam.
Congratulations! As an organbuilder I was at first rather shocked and could not believe, that you could manage to put it back together, but I was fooled... Giving names to parts of organ just made me laugh really hard. Great job mister! I am really looking forward when you start to adding all voices back including many extensions this organ has. And then voicing and tuning... Plenty of work, but you started rather good and I am now SHURE the end of this is going to be glorious! Keep the great job and your enthusiasm, mate! Greetings from Czech republic!
Watching your content reminds me of the first time I saw Fred Dibnah, I was blown away by someone so humble, who knew how to make things work, and keep them relevant, and not only knowledgeable, but willing and capable of sharing that knowledge and making it accessible to others, in a way they could understand and appreciate, regardless of their understanding or level of skill. The world needs more people like you, thanks you, for being here, and sharing this with the world, you are appreciated.
@@Stevie-J I don't mind the mining. It's the "overly optimistic yelling" that gets to me. It's like he HAS to turn his "optimistic persona" to 11 all the time. Sigh.
I'm in the US so I've never felt the need to use the term 'chuffed'. I think I'm chuffed to see this happen. ; ) I can see why Albert Schweitzer spent hours bringing pipe organs back to life. So chuffed !!
It's not an 800-year old organ though Really old organs use a mechanical linkage between the keyboard and the valves. You could control one of those from MIDI, but you'd basically need to put a servo on each key of the existing keyboard (look at Mitxela's MIDI music box to see a tiny-scale version of that). This organ was built from the ground up to use electrical signals to operate the valves, probably in the 1950s. The box with all those electrical "cards" that we saw in the dismantling video is effectively a pre-electronic switching mechanism, the entire boards move physically to open and close connections between the keyboard and the banks of solenoids for each voice. The entirety of that could be replaced with a bigger version of his arduino and mosfet control box. I expect we'll see both done - a MIDI conversion for actual musical use, and at least a few of the old controller cards powered up for museum demo purposes. It won't even be the first midi controlled church organ - they actually install midi connections in newly built organs. They're intended for simple record/playback functionality so a church can still have live organ music when the organist is away (basically an enormous player-piano), but Rob Scanlon did a video where he got to play around with one. It's a wonderful project, and it's heart-warming to see an instrument like this being saved and given a new lease of life, but let's not go overboard and call it 800 years old! Like all of humanity's endeavours, it builds on layers of science and engineering
Throughout my obsession with buying strange and often large musical instruments including some organs, we often joked about me one day buying a real pipe organ and cutting holes in the ceiling to accommodate them. This mad man does it.
I am collecting parts for Wurlitzer theater organ. I currently have a 7.5hp blower, a 6 rank chest (flute, viol, viol Celeste, open diapason, clarinet and orchestral oboe), xylophone, glockenspiel, chimes, almost complete flute rank, open diapason rank and the bottom half of a 16’ tuba horn. Still have a long way to go.
@@craigbrown7929 Good luck. Where are you going to put all that? Doesn't a theater organ have like, 3 or 4 rooms like this full of pipes? Aren't they those big 7 to 9 keyboard monstrosities? Something like that?
@@PaulTheSkeptic the instrument I’m planning would not be that big. 3 manuals and 22 ranks tops. It would be in two chamber (main and solo) plus the old relays and blower would in another room. It would still take up a bit of space though.
@@craigbrown7929 Cool all the same. I have a thing for organs. I just like organs. Will you be uploading any of this to YT or anything? I'd love to see the end result.
Remind me of my daughter. Her entire life she comes up with an idea, rolls up her sleeves, then accomplishes it wonderfully. She has always amazed me. As you were working I thought, he’s like Izzy. No matter how complex, he’s going to find a way. Brilliant. Now, she and her husband are investing that same gifting into their daughter Clementine. Crazy beautiful. I sense you will not replicate what was. Think you are going to make it better. Now, about some Bach…..
Thanks for showing the world know that you don't need to know literally everything before starting a seemingly impossible project - if you're passionate about it, you'll find a way!
Did it ever really seem impossible? It's a big project for one guy but someone had to design these things and build them into cathedrals before computers were even invented. Impressive and super cool but far from impossible lol.
My favorite project yet! The last song is also comic gold too, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a grumpy old man sitting on my shoulder telling me what I can't do!
Organist here, I'm loving this build process! I don't know how much weight you've got on the reservoir but the air pressure isn't quite enough to make the lowest notes speak properly. Maybe once you've patched all the air holes that'll be enough. Can't wait to see the fully working organ, I'll have to organise a trip down once it's finished! I've got a mate who's building his own organ who's also following avidly.
The end got me rolling. This is one of the most incredible projects I've seen come to fruition ever. Your attention to detail and intuitive understanding of music and technology continues to astonish me. Thank you for publishing this truly quality content.
I have to say: I'm an organ nerd, a hugh on. I play the organ, I crawl through organs, I read and watch nearly everything that is there. Mainly I'm into the "classical" stuff: Church organs from baroque to romantic to modern, Bach of course and so on. I have to say: This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a very long time! The real organ connected to the Keystep sequencing it, it is incredible! I'm not only an organ nerd but a synth nerd (not as much as organ nerd, but still very nerdy) too, so seeing these two worlds connected here is a whole new thing to me. I wish now the organs I play had a MIDI-Port!
See the "Dunaharaszti" organ control in my youtube channel. It HAS a MIDI port, and the organist in the church uses it, mainly for extending the instruments with more stops.
Rob Scalion did a video of a pipe organ, while touring it he found it had a midi port, so he went back just to plug his computer into it :D Got a couple of videos on his channel about that.
before we had electronic analogue (and then digital) synthesizers, we had fully analogue synths, but we called them organs. I've seen organs that can slide valves in an out to synthesize the sound of other instruments like oboes, give resonance, overtones, etc. The organ truly is one of the pinnacles of human achievement and it's the highlight of any visit to a working cathedral.
One of my friends has been playing pipe organs for several decades. He has even written several pieces for the organ. I am glad to see that you are saving this one from going to the garbage.
@@philipgwyn8091 Yes is pretty common even in telecomms heritage. Large cables bonding large pieces of equipment in place need removing QUICKLY as its' often a last min rescue, and for large racks of modern computers, yep i can see it there too. BT used to do similar when cutting over exchanges... use cutover wedges in the Distribution frame of the new exchange, then rip the wedges out and power saw "die hard style" thru the cables to the old exchange to facilitate removal by non BT contractors
Wait till you hear several ranks of pipes playing together all tuned up. Strings and Celeste are a couple of my favorites. And then there's Brass and Reed pipes for the more aggressive sound. Each type doesn't sound like much on its own, but when you combine them properly, there is no digital substitute.
Volume control, don't organs use big flappy doors between you and the ranks? Or is that just Wurlitzers? ... You could add more bits until it's a Wurlitzer... 😍
@@MostlyPennyCat Adding parts doesn't make it a Wurlitzer. Wurlitzers, and theatre organs in general, have bigger scale pipework, and specialist voicing not typically heard/seen on typical church organs. They are also on much higher wind pressures, church organs are typically on 3-5" of wind pressure, with a maximum of about 7" for louder reed stops. Theatre organs are on 10 to 15" wind pressure typically.
@@OrganMusicYT the Fox special has ranks on 25” wp. And the Roosevelt memorial park Wurlitzer has some ranks on 50” wp. The Atlantic City organ has 4 reeds on 100” wp.
There's a TH-cam video "Pipe Organ, an Instrument the Size of a Building". A demo and behind the walls tour of the 2016 Quimby organ at the 4th. Presbyterian Church here. A follow up video shows it being controlled by the presenters laptop. They went through the technical manual, got some advice, crawled under the keyboards and found connections. They then had the way to "livestream" the organ. Both videos are fascinating. From Chicago, U.S.A.
I'm glad you included the short video making fun of the people who thought you couldn't get it working after having to rush so much taking it apart. It makes me smile every time!
I highly doubt it is even in the first 10. Musicians have tried everything, let alone connecting one of the world's most iconic instruments up to the world's most widespread digital music interface...
You should read about all the pipe organs that had piano roll players to play them! I think it was Skinner that did that first? I could be wrong...it has been a while since I fell down that particular rabbit hole... Anyway, the idea to automate a pipe organ even pre-dates midi by a good bit!
No, modern pipe organs often have midi port these days. Rob Scalion has a video from a couple of years ago where they found a midi port when touring a big organ.
Dude. It's absolutely mad you got this out of the house a week ago and have made this much progress... i would be absolutely overwhelmed, and you still have the mental capacity to worry about emailing people back! You're incredible.
Used to work as a sound engineer, touring gigs etc... Love my music loud and got to do work in some awesome churches and just loved the sheer power of the organs, such a majestic instrument. Always wondered if someone out there had hooked them up to a synth and here we are in 2022. awesome work sam, keep it up!
afaik most modern organs work with midi, though it's a bit of a job to hook it up. rob scallon did a video on it a couple years back, title of the video is "Controlling a MASSIVE pipe organ with my computer".
Hats off to you man you got that up and running way faster than i thought. but seems like you are missing half a van full lol. great job can't wait to see the progress of this
Funny story about church organ: I am an electrician and had a quick job to connect electrical and bus wires to a new keyboard system, which allows someone to play in front of church audience, instead in the back where the actual organ is. It was a little bit overkill for my taste, as it was made of industrial plc parts. When I got my stuff done, I told the organ service guys that we should test that new system. They checked some of their stuff and turn the new keyboard cabinet on. After few seconds of boot time, all the valves open at once and as the bellows were full and blower on a full blast, some underwear had to be changed :D For some reason, guy who had made the program for the keyboards, had the key states read backwards, so pushing a key would actually close corresponding valve. First 2 seconds of that sound were legendary.
Well done mate. You are both preserving and creating things worth preserving. I get a lol out of the constant musical lyrical ditties you do. That! is something you should keep in mind as you get older, and try to preserve that bit of happiness that you bring into the world. Its infectious.
The funny thing is the blower turbine is actually on the smallish size when compared to say a theatre organ , a med sized theatre organ would have something like a 30-50hp blower and they are gigantic !
@@ericlotze7724 the pipes wont every break due to pressure realistically. there's probably less than a psi flowing, a bigger motor wouldn't boost pressures that much but would increase the flow rate, the issue is quickly the air is moving to fast to make a proper note, think blowing a whistle or recorder too hard, it goes ear piercing then quite because the flow is to fast to properly move throw the whistle. so he could make it loader with a larger motor to a point but it kinda looses practicality. also these are just the bass line so the higher notes will be much louder.
@@ericlotze7724 the pipes would be fine but the voicing would be affected and you also wouldn't be able to control the volume of the organ . Theatre organs operate on extremely high static line pressure compared to a church organ however theatre organs have swell shades that open and close to control the volume of the instrument.
@@ericlotze7724 Not really. There's a whole bunch of physics (and artisan crafting) to the scaling of pipes, which is determined by the wind pressure and desired tonal characteristics for that rank. Increasing wind pressure does not increase "performance". All of the various bellows in these winding systems are reservoirs and pressure regulators. When you play only a few, high notes very little wind volume is needed whilst the pressure must be maintained; when large chords of low notes are played ,much more wind volume is need whilst again, the pressure must be maintained. These springy boxes of leather and wood take care of that problem. Raising pressure could also cause the pallet valves to leak (the note will 'cipher') and might require replacement of each electromagnet to one with more power to open against the wind pressure. More powerful magnets require more electricity and hence, a bigger power supply. Pipe organs are engineered on an individual basis and making one change will affect other aspects of the instrument.
WOW man. The demonstration at the end was a really amazing little piece. That must sound unbelievable standing in the middle of all of that sound. Really sounds beautiful.
I loved that sequenced piece at the end. Reminds me of Mad Rush a little bit. Excellent work! I’m going to have to come back to England and check out the museum someday.
I love Philip Glass' music and when the piece at the end started playing to the organ cinematics I was like holy this is beautiful and actually made my day. Please consider composing more of such music because it was amazing especially on the organs
And Naqoyqaatsi! Two winters ago I was OBSESSED with that soundtrack . Which is available on TH-cam. Yo Yo Ma and Philip Glass! What more could a guy want ? "Primacy of Number" and "Religion" are my favorite tracks but they are all good -
What a great job. I just finished equipping a full size pipe organ with MIDI in the theatre here in town and got to say, what a great instrument it is and a brilliant piece of engineering. It can do so much more than the Sunday morning service
This is amazing! It's going to be really something when it's all hooked up. Now I'm thinking of all the weird orchestral possibilities of this and the Megadrone working together.
This is so cool. I look forward to seeing your tweaks and optimisations as the project progresses. Presumably there is a lot of turbulence inside the system, given all of the large wooden boxes, couplings etc. I'm so glad that the organ isn't going to the scrap heap in the sky.
GENIUS!!! Sam, you are a hero for not only saving "obsolete" instruments and equipment from the scrap heap, but showing not only how they work, but also that these old pieces are fixable, upgradable and can be used today! Very inspirational.
Some Flex Tape might work really well to seal those bellows, just be careful to apply it so that you get the rest resistance from the tape itself. It's orientation and any pre-folded edges may help if you are to use it.
Sometimes I see people with incredible skills and humility. Every time it happens, I feel humbled and inspired. On your channel, you display so much talent, humanity and fun, that I can not fathom, how one person can know, make, and do so much, in a short time . Thank you for your videos, that always teach me something, one way or another, and for the Fun .
To think that this organ is gonna be able to play loops, and have a midi keyboard plugged into it is so cool. The little teaser at the end, such exciting things coming m.
Can’t wait to hear the finished product... pipe organs are fascinating instruments, it’s like they’re living, breathing creatures. That’s quite the project you took on there. Few people would have the knowledge and insight to reassemble it then do all kinds of interesting experimental things with it.
My father ran a business building, restoring and tuning church pipe organs. Brings back lots of memories. I am impressed with your progress. Glad to see you are going direct from your circuit board to each pipe . You would have had endless trouble with the old setup.
Wonderful that organ got saved again and got a third chance. You're a legend. I tried to buy a pipe organ years ago from a Presbyterian church. The lady was certain each part was worth a premium and I managed to get 9 lead pipes for the $450 I had. My next paycheck, I texted her and she said it was all gone. I'm looking forward to seeing you complete yours. What a feeling in the chest when those lows blow.
This old girl could have so easily gone to landfill. Your Philip Glass piece and response to your critics just show the soul and character she's got. Amazing!
This sort of video is encouraging to those who wish to take on a challenging project. It can be done, bit by bit, and it's possible to learn how stuff works.
As anxious as it made me seeing that old organ literally ripped out of a house, I knew that if there was anyone other than an organ builder who could make it work again it'd be you. Glad to see that I was right! This is impressive, really looking forward to seeing the finished product!
Its coming along!
This Museum Is Not Obsolete is open this weekend. info in the description
Sam you need to work on your double entendres. Dave blowing into trishas hole and Trisha's strapons were funny though.
Nothing compared to Stanley's big old pipe though.
you should graphite that old blower motor! I have one that belonged to my great grandfather (from the 1920's) and it has little copper ports for adding graphite :)
If i had few thousands to spend i would come over for a weekend! Daaaaaam its cool beanz!
Sup homie, that big ass box that holds the pipes where each solenoid is check them plugs for each pipe on each solenoid, those should be air tight, and it will be way louder, you get to actually hold the air pressure in that box under the pipes, but yea the whole box and them pads on the solenoid gotta be basically air tight to be as loud and clean of a note as possible....im sure you knew that, but the weak sound is caused from an air leak in that big long box or then solenoid air flaps for each....the organ is absolutely mental, just what an epic piece of kit to own...
@@scottbattaglia8595 yep cheers scott. that was part of the job on friday was sorting out the valve tops to stoop letting air through, a couple are still being funny, ill get to em though, it seems that the more its being used thte better it is working also, probably down the the lack of movement over the past 20 years
Loved the piece at the end, bravo!
Haha I enjoyed it!
"Silly Boy"
That's epic, it's worth living as a hidden track on a future LP !
The sass is real! xD
Philip Glass vibe. (Edit: Oh, he mentions that too. haha)
Holy shit I almost cried when that loop came on at 13:00!
Please please PLEASE make a full-organ album!
I need this in my life. Such a beautiful piece
Lets make a petition! That tune needs to be released!
@@NoMatterDesign Hahahha yes, lets!
Sounds like a part of the interstellar Soundtrack
Connect it to a smoke machine to find the leaks ))
Or submerge it
Use a feather
I don't think the wood is gonna appreciate all that smoke fluid condensation though...
You could do the inner tube thing, brush it with a bit of soapy water.
I had the same thought, but I think it will leave everything coated in glycol
That song at the end hit so hard. I love the defiance and determination, and I find it super empowering and inspiring to go and create and mess with instruments and technology I don’t understand yet to make music
≈ Phillip Glass
You really can disassemble and reassemble everything! Probably the world's first organ transplant paid for entirely by Patreon and done without even a medical degree.
The (wise) choice to ditch all the existing electronics was what made it possible I reckon. Reassembling that spider's nest would have been a special hell.
I wonder if it was a buck transformer. 240V primary wired in series with a 30V secondary to either boost or buck the voltage by 30V. The blower makes me think of the big yellow bouncy castle blowers.
I get surges of email that are totally unmanageable too. By the time you've given a technical reply to one another five have arrived.
Ha yes well it’s in a sealed chunk. I can send you to dismantle haha. Apparently Bristol was on 210v in the early 21st century hence the converter transformers. How funky
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Entire Europe was on 210-220V when I was young. Most of devices after change to 240V standed these +20V to +30V very well but apparently here somebody tried to be very careful. EDIT: I was wrong. England was 240V that time, rest of Europe 220V. That is probably the reason somebody used this stepdown to 210V as most likely the air blower was not British-made and they wanted it to last when installed once.
When the organ was built it was designed for a certain air pressure. 2-6 inches of air typically for a most organs. They have to run the blower at the designed pressure to maintain voicing and tuning on the pipes.
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER If it's potted then definitely not. Depotting is bad enough on dinky resin filled modules.
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER send it to me and il xray it😅 Doncaster 👍👍
Steve
When I saw part #1, I was wondering how much time it would take to reassemble it, few months or so. Doing this in about a week, it's incredible. Keep up the good work, it's heartwarming seeing this organ saved again and in such good loving hands.
He knew what he was doing, after all, it's a simple instrument, all it does it is blowing air in some tubes through electric controlled valves. A lot of them, sure, but still not complex. Also he worked in the past on a similar project.
@@biomorphic cutting all the wires makes the project about ten times simpler, as well. Certainly if you don’t care about replicating the functionality of those nail-board “computers” (tracing what those actually did would be super complex, and not made easier by the rough cuts). The pneumatic-mechanical part of the organ is, in the end, not hugely complex - it’s a blower and then the bellows and valve assembly produces a constant pressure air supply. Very ingenious, but not excessively complex to refurbish. And the rest is just hoses to air chests, possibly with controllable valves to turn whole air chests on and off as leak control.
There's not much more straightforward than distributing the air, and a solenoid per pipe. Just put it together a section at a time, then test the section. Good thing he had a control box lying around! All those old wires were just so much red herring in an era where we can afford to put a cheap tiny computer into each box of pipes. It's all basic mechanics and electronics after you've separated out the individual note signals. Tuning it is going to be a lot of work, but still straightforward, and he's already done some before. They already sound lovely.
The best part was trying to make a similar setting to the original house.
The more I find out about you, the more amazed I am by the sheer amount of knowledge you have pinging around in your head. The fact that you're willing to share that knowledge freely with the rest of us is the best part. Thanks, Sam.
Congratulations! As an organbuilder I was at first rather shocked and could not believe, that you could manage to put it back together, but I was fooled... Giving names to parts of organ just made me laugh really hard. Great job mister! I am really looking forward when you start to adding all voices back including many extensions this organ has. And then voicing and tuning... Plenty of work, but you started rather good and I am now SHURE the end of this is going to be glorious! Keep the great job and your enthusiasm, mate!
Greetings from Czech republic!
Your neighbors are so happy !
"you dont know what your dooinggg" is my jam!
That is AWESOME!
Now you actually made it:
You own the "Queen of Instruments", the "Empress of Sound", an Organ. Congratulations.
so cool that Sam is showing his massive organ on the internet, usually you cant find this type of content on youtube 😂
Yeah this is a great channel. So much interesting music stuff!!!
He is trying to get an organ the size of a house to fit.
Trish had hiuge flaps... You don't often see her pipework up close like this. Can't believe dave filled her box with such gusto.
Sam, is that a massive organ in your museum? Or are you just glad to see me? 😂
i was just asked by youtube for a feedback for this comment.....
Watching your content reminds me of the first time I saw Fred Dibnah, I was blown away by someone so humble, who knew how to make things work, and keep them relevant, and not only knowledgeable, but willing and capable of sharing that knowledge and making it accessible to others, in a way they could understand and appreciate, regardless of their understanding or level of skill. The world needs more people like you, thanks you, for being here, and sharing this with the world, you are appreciated.
Really cool that you painted it similarly to the house that it came from.
Yes. It will make the organ feel more comfortable in its new home.
Yes, always best to try hard to make your organ feel good.
The self-reflection at the end was hilarious. Amazing work and so cool seeing all the bits that make it work.
Truly the Colin Furze of musical gear.
M'y two favorites 😀👍
@@vape647I far preffer Sam, Colin gives me headaches with his constant yelling.....
@@ZapAndersson I get why Colin does it, but his sponsored videos have become a bit annoying as well, but both are awesome.
@@Stevie-J I don't mind the mining. It's the "overly optimistic yelling" that gets to me. It's like he HAS to turn his "optimistic persona" to 11 all the time. Sigh.
Sams music has been on furze a few times.
I'm in the US so I've never felt the need to use the term 'chuffed'.
I think I'm chuffed to see this happen. ; )
I can see why Albert Schweitzer spent hours bringing pipe organs back to life.
So chuffed !!
I just love that a huge instrument with an 800 year history and engineer is being controlled by the faithful arturia keystep lol. Incredible
Right? I was thinking the same thing.
Not even Dan Deacon would think of that--that's what I love about this channel.
It's not an 800-year old organ though
Really old organs use a mechanical linkage between the keyboard and the valves. You could control one of those from MIDI, but you'd basically need to put a servo on each key of the existing keyboard (look at Mitxela's MIDI music box to see a tiny-scale version of that).
This organ was built from the ground up to use electrical signals to operate the valves, probably in the 1950s. The box with all those electrical "cards" that we saw in the dismantling video is effectively a pre-electronic switching mechanism, the entire boards move physically to open and close connections between the keyboard and the banks of solenoids for each voice. The entirety of that could be replaced with a bigger version of his arduino and mosfet control box. I expect we'll see both done - a MIDI conversion for actual musical use, and at least a few of the old controller cards powered up for museum demo purposes. It won't even be the first midi controlled church organ - they actually install midi connections in newly built organs. They're intended for simple record/playback functionality so a church can still have live organ music when the organist is away (basically an enormous player-piano), but Rob Scanlon did a video where he got to play around with one.
It's a wonderful project, and it's heart-warming to see an instrument like this being saved and given a new lease of life, but let's not go overboard and call it 800 years old! Like all of humanity's endeavours, it builds on layers of science and engineering
Pipe organs date back to Roman times, when they were used for entertainment in large spaces.
no I'm curious to know how they did before solenoid valves and electricity
Such an impressive project!
Mixing "organic" instrument and a keystep is AWESOME, and i really loved the arppegio! Hopes there is a song with this!
(if you don't do it, i will sample that haha)
@@noirgoupil Haha, you're not the only one who loved the arpeggio. My head was grooving just like his in the video :D
Throughout my obsession with buying strange and often large musical instruments including some organs, we often joked about me one day buying a real pipe organ and cutting holes in the ceiling to accommodate them. This mad man does it.
I am collecting parts for Wurlitzer theater organ. I currently have a 7.5hp blower, a 6 rank chest (flute, viol, viol Celeste, open diapason, clarinet and orchestral oboe), xylophone, glockenspiel, chimes, almost complete flute rank, open diapason rank and the bottom half of a 16’ tuba horn. Still have a long way to go.
@@craigbrown7929 Good luck. Where are you going to put all that? Doesn't a theater organ have like, 3 or 4 rooms like this full of pipes? Aren't they those big 7 to 9 keyboard monstrosities? Something like that?
@@PaulTheSkeptic the instrument I’m planning would not be that big. 3 manuals and 22 ranks tops. It would be in two chamber (main and solo) plus the old relays and blower would in another room. It would still take up a bit of space though.
@@craigbrown7929 Cool all the same. I have a thing for organs. I just like organs. Will you be uploading any of this to YT or anything? I'd love to see the end result.
@@PaulTheSkeptic probably a long way off still. I still need a lot of parts. And it’s not exactly high on the priority list right now.
Remind me of my daughter. Her entire life she comes up with an idea, rolls up her sleeves, then accomplishes it wonderfully. She has always amazed me. As you were working I thought, he’s like Izzy. No matter how complex, he’s going to find a way. Brilliant. Now, she and her husband are investing that same gifting into their daughter Clementine. Crazy beautiful. I sense you will not replicate what was. Think you are going to make it better. Now, about some Bach…..
Proof that your naysayers don't know you at all. You're a hero for saving that instrument. Can't wait to see where this goes!
A pleasure seeing that instrument finding a new home, and a new owner that treats it with the respect it deserves.
Thanks for showing the world know that you don't need to know literally everything before starting a seemingly impossible project - if you're passionate about it, you'll find a way!
projects can be modular. just like synthesizers and like washing a big piile of dishes
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Absolutely! It's just that some people only have small ideas in the first place :D
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER
I mean, you could actually add a modular front end to it, to add to your synth.
Make quite a strange oscillator.
Did it ever really seem impossible? It's a big project for one guy but someone had to design these things and build them into cathedrals before computers were even invented. Impressive and super cool but far from impossible lol.
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!"
My favorite project yet! The last song is also comic gold too, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a grumpy old man sitting on my shoulder telling me what I can't do!
Organist here, I'm loving this build process! I don't know how much weight you've got on the reservoir but the air pressure isn't quite enough to make the lowest notes speak properly. Maybe once you've patched all the air holes that'll be enough.
Can't wait to see the fully working organ, I'll have to organise a trip down once it's finished! I've got a mate who's building his own organ who's also following avidly.
He is gonna build a new pump system probably as we now him by now.
Gonna be outside from this room. And gonna be 4 times stronger... or something :)
"Sam, You Don't Know What You're Doing" really made me smile. Reminds me of my Dad, except he is Portuguese.
There is nothing this man can't create or reassemble
I saw the dismantling video and thought that's never going to work again but I was wrong so I've subbed to see more progress on this organ
OK, so the world definitely needs more minimalist LMNC organ works. Because that was lovely.
Minimalist?? The things massive!
@@PhillipRaymondGoodman 😁
@@PhillipRaymondGoodman
Honestly, this is a baby one!
@@MostlyPennyCat oh I'm sure, but I'm not going to let that stand in the way of a silly joke.
@@PhillipRaymondGoodman What about the fact that a 300ft black marble monolith is minimalist. Doesn't mean miniature lol.
The end got me rolling. This is one of the most incredible projects I've seen come to fruition ever. Your attention to detail and intuitive understanding of music and technology continues to astonish me. Thank you for publishing this truly quality content.
I have to say: I'm an organ nerd, a hugh on. I play the organ, I crawl through organs, I read and watch nearly everything that is there. Mainly I'm into the "classical" stuff: Church organs from baroque to romantic to modern, Bach of course and so on. I have to say: This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a very long time! The real organ connected to the Keystep sequencing it, it is incredible! I'm not only an organ nerd but a synth nerd (not as much as organ nerd, but still very nerdy) too, so seeing these two worlds connected here is a whole new thing to me. I wish now the organs I play had a MIDI-Port!
This huuuge one does! th-cam.com/video/SQHdFAm7g7E/w-d-xo.html
See the "Dunaharaszti" organ control in my youtube channel. It HAS a MIDI port, and the organist in the church uses it, mainly for extending the instruments with more stops.
Rob Scalion did a video of a pipe organ, while touring it he found it had a midi port, so he went back just to plug his computer into it :D Got a couple of videos on his channel about that.
before we had electronic analogue (and then digital) synthesizers, we had fully analogue synths, but we called them organs. I've seen organs that can slide valves in an out to synthesize the sound of other instruments like oboes, give resonance, overtones, etc. The organ truly is one of the pinnacles of human achievement and it's the highlight of any visit to a working cathedral.
Maybe once it's finished, we'll be able to play it!
- A fellow organ nerd
One of my friends has been playing pipe organs for several decades. He has even written several pieces for the organ. I am glad to see that you are saving this one from going to the garbage.
Hahaha! Love the ending. Way to show the haters Sam! Can't wait for the next installment
Adding to this - using a hacksaw to cut through a bundle of wires is a common practice when removing or rewiring racks of computers.
The last bit was kind of mind-blowing. Because who could ever possibly hate on Sam?
@@philipgwyn8091 Yes is pretty common even in telecomms heritage. Large cables bonding large pieces of equipment in place need removing QUICKLY as its' often a last min rescue, and for large racks of modern computers, yep i can see it there too. BT used to do similar when cutting over exchanges... use cutover wedges in the Distribution frame of the new exchange, then rip the wedges out and power saw "die hard style" thru the cables to the old exchange to facilitate removal by non BT contractors
@@ToyKeeper I would hope it was people who haven't seen him work before. That was hilarious.
I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes. :)
That piece at the end was ominous, amazing, majestic, breathtaking. What a video. The thought of a goddamn organ engulfing a house is incredible.
Wish I was closer and could help out with the woodwork! Such a sweet series!
Dont you care about the haters 🤬 By curiousity, trial & error you WILL overcome! YOU are absolutely briliant! 100% support👍👍👍👍👍
Picking the same colour as the house it came from is a really nice touch
Just so fantastic , it's alive with the music . Where ever the bloke is that installed it in that house , I'm sure he's extremely happy .
That Philip Glass sound got me some goosebumps already. I can’t wait for the project to be properly connected.
Wonderful, my Grandpa who was born 1893 used to tune organs like this, Thankyou.
Wait till you hear several ranks of pipes playing together all tuned up. Strings and Celeste are a couple of my favorites. And then there's Brass and Reed pipes for the more aggressive sound. Each type doesn't sound like much on its own, but when you combine them properly, there is no digital substitute.
Volume control, don't organs use big flappy doors between you and the ranks? Or is that just Wurlitzers?
...
You could add more bits until it's a Wurlitzer... 😍
@@MostlyPennyCat Yes, that's the swell box. Not all pipes are necessarily contained in that, though.
@@MostlyPennyCat Adding parts doesn't make it a Wurlitzer. Wurlitzers, and theatre organs in general, have bigger scale pipework, and specialist voicing not typically heard/seen on typical church organs. They are also on much higher wind pressures, church organs are typically on 3-5" of wind pressure, with a maximum of about 7" for louder reed stops. Theatre organs are on 10 to 15" wind pressure typically.
oh thats sooo true, but he will not get it all up in that room tho, ae
@@OrganMusicYT the Fox special has ranks on 25” wp. And the Roosevelt memorial park Wurlitzer has some ranks on 50” wp. The Atlantic City organ has 4 reeds on 100” wp.
Holy crap that song at 12:58 is actually incredible; I didn't know organ music could be so cool and otherworldly!
I think this is the first time I've ever heard a MIDI sequence playing on a church organ. Amazing sound already.
If you search for "organ midi" there's a really neat video from Rob Scallon on the subject. And the organ used was massive.
There's a TH-cam video "Pipe Organ, an Instrument the Size of a Building". A demo and behind the walls tour of the 2016 Quimby organ at the 4th. Presbyterian Church here. A follow up video shows it being controlled by the presenters laptop. They went through the technical manual, got some advice, crawled under the keyboards and found connections. They then had the way to "livestream" the organ. Both videos are fascinating. From Chicago, U.S.A.
I'm glad you included the short video making fun of the people who thought you couldn't get it working after having to rush so much taking it apart. It makes me smile every time!
I cannot stress how cool it is that this guy will gladly go to the basics to explain everything more clearly to his less knowledgeable audience
Bringing an old organ back to life AND rigging it up to MIDI. Must be a world first?!
Just awesome mate ! :-)
Rob Scallon already did the MIDI thing with an actual church organ. Look up his organ video.
Many real pipe organs have midi input, and some consoles actually use midi to communicate to the actual organ. It’s far from world first 😉
I highly doubt it is even in the first 10. Musicians have tried everything, let alone connecting one of the world's most iconic instruments up to the world's most widespread digital music interface...
You should read about all the pipe organs that had piano roll players to play them! I think it was Skinner that did that first? I could be wrong...it has been a while since I fell down that particular rabbit hole... Anyway, the idea to automate a pipe organ even pre-dates midi by a good bit!
No, modern pipe organs often have midi port these days. Rob Scalion has a video from a couple of years ago where they found a midi port when touring a big organ.
Dude. It's absolutely mad you got this out of the house a week ago and have made this much progress... i would be absolutely overwhelmed, and you still have the mental capacity to worry about emailing people back! You're incredible.
"when Dave blows into Trisha"... so glad I'm watching this with headphones!
and when trisha gets too full trisha closes the hole 😂
@@hipinretku i didnt actuallly intend this. i shouldn't have used human names really lol
Please make an entire track of that last bit. LOVE IT ❤️😆
Used to work as a sound engineer, touring gigs etc... Love my music loud and got to do work in some awesome churches and just loved the sheer power of the organs, such a majestic instrument. Always wondered if someone out there had hooked them up to a synth and here we are in 2022. awesome work sam, keep it up!
afaik most modern organs work with midi, though it's a bit of a job to hook it up.
rob scallon did a video on it a couple years back, title of the video is "Controlling a MASSIVE pipe organ with my computer".
@@satibel yea the Rob Scallon video was good! I was going to mention it aswell. I cant wait to see Sam get this thing done and hooked up properly!
Hats off to you man you got that up and running way faster than i thought. but seems like you are missing half a van full lol. great job can't wait to see the progress of this
Funny story about church organ: I am an electrician and had a quick job to connect electrical and bus wires to a new keyboard system, which allows someone to play in front of church audience, instead in the back where the actual organ is. It was a little bit overkill for my taste, as it was made of industrial plc parts. When I got my stuff done, I told the organ service guys that we should test that new system. They checked some of their stuff and turn the new keyboard cabinet on. After few seconds of boot time, all the valves open at once and as the bellows were full and blower on a full blast, some underwear had to be changed :D For some reason, guy who had made the program for the keyboards, had the key states read backwards, so pushing a key would actually close corresponding valve.
First 2 seconds of that sound were legendary.
Must have been...quite a blast 😂Thanks for sharing, epic field story!
Always wondered how modern step sequenced music would sound on one of these. Now I know and I like it 🙌🙌
can't wait to hear it all working and playing toccata and fugue in full. whenever I've been into a church and it's playing it is truly amazing
If anyone can successfully pull an organ apart and then get it working again its you Sam. Well bloody done.
Well done mate. You are both preserving and creating things worth preserving. I get a lol out of the constant musical lyrical ditties you do. That! is something you should keep in mind as you get older, and try to preserve that bit of happiness that you bring into the world. Its infectious.
The piece played towards the end is positively gorgeous, haunting, mysterious, and something I'm going to be replaying for the next few months on end
The funny thing is the blower turbine is actually on the smallish size when compared to say a theatre organ , a med sized theatre organ would have something like a 30-50hp blower and they are gigantic !
Can pipes basically handle every flow within reason? Can we overclock these pipes lol !
@@ericlotze7724 the pipes wont every break due to pressure realistically. there's probably less than a psi flowing, a bigger motor wouldn't boost pressures that much but would increase the flow rate, the issue is quickly the air is moving to fast to make a proper note, think blowing a whistle or recorder too hard, it goes ear piercing then quite because the flow is to fast to properly move throw the whistle. so he could make it loader with a larger motor to a point but it kinda looses practicality. also these are just the bass line so the higher notes will be much louder.
@@ericlotze7724 the pipes would be fine but the voicing would be affected and you also wouldn't be able to control the volume of the organ . Theatre organs operate on extremely high static line pressure compared to a church organ however theatre organs have swell shades that open and close to control the volume of the instrument.
@@WillBilly. it would be more than just the blower , the lines , windchests, regulators and other components would need to be modified .
@@ericlotze7724 Not really. There's a whole bunch of physics (and artisan crafting) to the scaling of pipes, which is determined by the wind pressure and desired tonal characteristics for that rank. Increasing wind pressure does not increase "performance".
All of the various bellows in these winding systems are reservoirs and pressure regulators. When you play only a few, high notes very little wind volume is needed whilst the pressure must be maintained; when large chords of low notes are played ,much more wind volume is need whilst again, the pressure must be maintained. These springy boxes of leather and wood take care of that problem. Raising pressure could also cause the pallet valves to leak (the note will 'cipher') and might require replacement of each electromagnet to one with more power to open against the wind pressure. More powerful magnets require more electricity and hence, a bigger power supply. Pipe organs are engineered on an individual basis and making one change will affect other aspects of the instrument.
What an adventure! I still can't believe you've got yourself a real pipe organ Sam. You must be so...happy! I'm happy just watching!
Thoroughly enjoying this series holy crap. Never heard a church organ played like this, and it is so cool! Thank you so much for the content!
That lil price of organ music was healing to my soul. I could listen to a whole album of that
Just finished watching part 1 and here we are a minute later for part 2 !
errr... im sorry but what is this, literally the same thing for me!
I love when that happens. But also it makes me doubt how I spend my life.
WOW man. The demonstration at the end was a really amazing little piece. That must sound unbelievable standing in the middle of all of that sound. Really sounds beautiful.
You were in my recommended yesterday with the first organ video and now I have so much content to catch up on with your channel. This is awesome stuff
Oh boy, you're in for a treat if you like weird and interesting old instruments synthesizers, and old analog tech.
Honestly one of the best channels on TH-cam IMO
Its so awesome you brought this instrument back to life! This masterpiece of a musical tool is so often left forgotten
The first music you played as a demo (~ 13:50) has some strong Daft Punk - Tron Legacy vibes! I love it!
I loved that sequenced piece at the end. Reminds me of Mad Rush a little bit. Excellent work! I’m going to have to come back to England and check out the museum someday.
11:28
I want to be as happy about anything as you are about playing that one note. Such a cool project, man!
This is exactly what the Internet was made for. Absolutely love it ❤️
I love Philip Glass' music and when the piece at the end started playing to the organ cinematics I was like holy this is beautiful and actually made my day. Please consider composing more of such music because it was amazing especially on the organs
I watched KOYAANISQATSI for the first time in the mid 80’s, Philip Glass’ score is incredible.
P E A C E : )
And Naqoyqaatsi! Two winters ago I was OBSESSED with that soundtrack . Which is available on TH-cam. Yo Yo Ma and Philip Glass! What more could a guy want ? "Primacy of Number" and "Religion" are my favorite tracks but they are all good -
Philip glass is the world's most incompetent and stupid composers, how can you enjoy his repetetive, pretentious music?
What a great job. I just finished equipping a full size pipe organ with MIDI in the theatre here in town and got to say, what a great instrument it is and a brilliant piece of engineering. It can do so much more than the Sunday morning service
This is amazing! It's going to be really something when it's all hooked up.
Now I'm thinking of all the weird orchestral possibilities of this and the Megadrone working together.
This is so cool. I look forward to seeing your tweaks and optimisations as the project progresses.
Presumably there is a lot of turbulence inside the system, given all of the large wooden boxes, couplings etc.
I'm so glad that the organ isn't going to the scrap heap in the sky.
Beautiful sound with arpegiation. Awesome to see a MIDI controller do this magic.
Well done for someone "who don't know what they're doin'!" lol. Truly awesome project. Looking forward to the next vid.
I would have no idea how to begin a project like that, but I'm glad you are Sam, keep doing what you're doing!
This is just amazing! Always wanted to build some sort of MIDI-controlled organ...watching you actually do it is inspiring :-)
Man, Sam, you are a most wondrous and amazing person. You inspire and that is more noble than anything!
It's alive! Cracking progress, good work chap!
GENIUS!!! Sam, you are a hero for not only saving "obsolete" instruments and equipment from the scrap heap, but showing not only how they work, but also that these old pieces are fixable, upgradable and can be used today! Very inspirational.
I love that the first tune this organ has played in 25 years is the "You just don't know what you're doing Sam." ditty.
Wow Sam. What a gorgeous sound. Our Cathedrals bottom C breathes all on its own in warm weather. Its going to be amazing when your done
Some Flex Tape might work really well to seal those bellows, just be careful to apply it so that you get the rest resistance from the tape itself. It's orientation and any pre-folded edges may help if you are to use it.
That's a lot of damage!
Sometimes I see people with incredible skills and humility. Every time it happens, I feel humbled and inspired. On your channel, you display so much talent, humanity and fun, that I can not fathom, how one person can know, make, and do so much, in a short time . Thank you for your videos, that always teach me something, one way or another, and for the Fun .
Printer cables + terminals (D-sub connectors) might be a good idea for the final rigging.
It are called flatcables 🙂 And would be a neat option indeed.
Really good idea, has to be millions of old parallel printer cables cluttering up peoples attics with no use.
To think that this organ is gonna be able to play loops, and have a midi keyboard plugged into it is so cool. The little teaser at the end, such exciting things coming m.
Can’t wait to hear the finished product... pipe organs are fascinating instruments, it’s like they’re living, breathing creatures. That’s quite the project you took on there. Few people would have the knowledge and insight to reassemble it then do all kinds of interesting experimental things with it.
That is the greatest thing. Preserving a vintage instrument.
My father ran a business building, restoring and tuning church pipe organs. Brings back lots of memories. I am impressed with your progress. Glad to see you are going direct from your circuit board to each pipe . You would have had endless trouble with the old setup.
Wonderful that organ got saved again and got a third chance. You're a legend. I tried to buy a pipe organ years ago from a Presbyterian church. The lady was certain each part was worth a premium and I managed to get 9 lead pipes for the $450 I had. My next paycheck, I texted her and she said it was all gone. I'm looking forward to seeing you complete yours. What a feeling in the chest when those lows blow.
This old girl could have so easily gone to landfill. Your Philip Glass piece and response to your critics just show the soul and character she's got. Amazing!
This sort of video is encouraging to those who wish to take on a challenging project. It can be done, bit by bit, and it's possible to learn how stuff works.
A midi controlled church organ. Wow, a great idea and you have successfully pulled it off. Congratulations! What an amazing project.
This project is so cool!! This organ could not have found a better caretaker. Bravo!
0:48 Very satisfying how "the red and the gray" is on key and beat with the background music
Organs and organ music is very cool and amazing. A lot of people just don't know that. Well done on this project.
As anxious as it made me seeing that old organ literally ripped out of a house, I knew that if there was anyone other than an organ builder who could make it work again it'd be you. Glad to see that I was right! This is impressive, really looking forward to seeing the finished product!