Step 2: Acquire money, reveal the plan
Note: these are my personal thoughts and not representative of the views of any clients or employers.
As promised, today’s blog post outlines the plan for the VPO in its major components: Console, Sound System, and Computer/Networking.
Console:
Every organ needs an organ console, and this VPO is no exception. The console from the original organ in the church, built in the 1950s by the Johnson Organ Company in Montclair, NJ (never heard of them? Neither had I!) is in bad shape. Years of deferred maintenance and substandard installation techniques led to it nearly becoming a fire hazard, and after the replacement of seven bypassed fuses (which I’m sure would have upset the church’s insurance carrier) I found out it needed to be completely rewired as well. Add to it the desperate need for major repairs to the manuals (keyboards for those of you who are more piano-based) and it doesn’t make sense to overhaul a substandard piece of equipment.
The solution? Build a new one with components from Classic MIDI Works, a small Canadian company who specialize in DIY VPO components. The cost is significant but once compared to what it would cost for even another builder to put it together it’s worth rolling up the sleeves and putting in some elbow grease.
Sound System:
In the constant quest to learn new things, I took a look at and subsequently completed the Dante Level 1 certification from Audinate. This free course (which isn’t something one can say often anymore) was more than enough information and training to bring a level of confidence in choosing Dante as our VPO audio framework.
What does this mean for us? In our case, that means we only need two Ethernet cables (one per organ box) to send information to what is planned to be a total of 8 speakers and 2 subwoofers per side. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of speakers knows that’s already going to be a large amount of sound. Here are the specifics:
Main Speakers: 16 Behringer 2031a (active powered monitor speakers with a peak of 265W each)
Subwoofers: 4 HSU Research VTF-TN1 (active powered subwoofers with no dropoff until 13hz with the correct setting)
Audio routing will be through two Tascam SB-16D boxes (one in each organ box)
Computer/Networking:
At the heart of most VPOs is a program called Hauptwerk which takes sampled audio of pipe organs and through the magic of software reconstitutes it into a functional sound profile. With roughly two decades of development, it’s become the primary software choice for VPO builders and enthusiasts.
To run Hauptwerk, I’m planning on custom building a Windows PC for the job, bringing in years of experience from building PCs for myself while ensuring that it will be more than powerful enough to handle any sample set. We’ll also be procuring a dedicated Dante card to offload that task off of the CPU and lead to better latency performance across the board.
Summary:
Building a rock-solid and stable system from the beginning, while expensive, will ultimately save time, money, and effort going forward through the life of this organ.
