By the way, your voice is slightly higher in German then in English. I can understand German, but cannot write it. That's why I comment overhere.

TBH, it's probably still one of my favourite sounds today. :-)

Only during lunch? You should have the videos running continuously all day!😂

@@FraserGartshore LOL - nothing like a good ad. Love your series...

Thanks for the offer - that would be right gradely! 😜

Welcome on board!

Thanks for asking that for me!. As a a former Hammond technician, I always fear exposing my ignorance about "real" organs. But switches should be my forte'. These leave me scratching my head.

I'll add my voice to both parts of this request too. Please. :)

The red and white switches are used so that we can preset stops to pistons below the manuals so we dont have to take our hands off the keys. Just a different way of doing it rather than a setter. It's often used when organs have stop tabs not stop knobs. In regards to the black-on-white and the reverse keyboard, again it's just another way of doing it that was more common in the past.

Hi Mike. Thanks for your comments! The red and white toggles are for registration aids - they are a bit old and knackered, so that's why I didn't feature them. The keypad is the hymn-projector for the church. Like in my place (and most German churches!) the organist gets the control over what the congregation sings, so they punch in the hymn numbers and verses etc. I'll show that in my church in a future video.

@@FraserGartshore Thank you Fraser. Over here the hymn numbers are individual number cards which are slotted into a board on each side of the church - the hymns are pre-determined by the minister.

Yeah, that's called "split keyboard.".. it's a workaround to having only one keyboard. Requires a whole different mindset to play.

Bill Martin Not split keyboard, just using “octave up or down “, and “transpose” functions. Changes of just one semitone, can brighten a major key, or darken a minor key. Try it.

Its a common technique to explore with small organs, especially those from the revivalist baroque period where some stops aren't where you expect to find them, such as a 2' flute on the great made mostly of principals and the 2' principal on the upper manual made mostly of flutes and a buzzy reed. The law of economy - get the most out of every stop you have even if you have to play it an octave or two above or below.

Timothy Salomon Oh! I see! Thank you for such a prompt reply.

Yep - that’s normal - you couple Manual II to Manual I, so both are playable on I but not the other way around.

It’s coming soon!

Good point. I prefer the open sound - 8, 2,2/3 and 1,3/5 gives that clarinetty character. With a 4’ it starts sounding more cornetty. Now there’s a pair of words you don’t hear every day!

It’s for the hymn numbers in services - it’s connected to a projector. The organist controls what the congregation gets to sing!

@Bradford Dale, organist thank you

Yep!

@@FraserGartshore Wow, that's more presets than you have stops!

There are only two presets - red and white. Each stop can then be selected for red or white or both and the presets are selected using the thumb pistons under the lower manual. It’s not as exciting as it looks!

Thanks for your comments. Regarding a melody for improvising - I try to stick to simple melodies with easy-to-remember passages or rhythms. This will be the subject of a future video! The idea is to keep the listeners’ attention by repeating parts of the melody - they’re always waiting for that moment of recognition!

You can flip those to create sort of a "preset" so that you can quickly change a lot of stops with the buttons under the manual.

Sort of a simplified 'preset'. You flip the switches on the stops you want to assign for a particular piston under the 'Hauptwerk' manual. I think there are 2 pistons (Fraser, correct me if I'm wrong), so the white switches coincide with one, and the red switches coincide with the other.😉

@@pepesilvia8365 ok cool . I'm guessing there will be a solenoid to actuate the stop rocker switch? I'm also guessing that the keypad thing to the right is for programmed playback with midi or something?

Soon!

Most organs are built to be able to cope with tutti registrations - some organs are noticeably out of wind if you play large chords on "the works" - it can sometimes be a rather charming effect!

@@FraserGartshore Gloucester Cathedral - even after the Nicholson rebuild in 2000 and further work more recently, big chords on full organ make it go noticeably flat. You can hear it on the recording of David Briggs' Mass for Nôtre Dame. Schwimmers will never be an adequate substitute for big double-rise reservoirs!

The 200 stop Woolsey Hall organ at Yale University produces its fullest sound using only about 20% of its stops. It's somewhat rare, but a good example of judiciousness in registration! Do you really need the Dulciana in full organ?...

@@virginiaorganbuilder probably not, but with a lot of organs, while the volume comes from relatively few stops, adding in the quieter stuff helps broaden it out.

@@richardharrold9736 True indeed.

I've known organists that LOVE them, on the other hand, and organ builders that don't like working on anything else.

@@MrJdsenior Oh sure. They definitely have their place. ...and arguably they give you more control over the way the pipes speak. They just aren't my cup of tea. I just like the consistency of the electronic actions...and the flexibility that gives organ builders. There are a number of fantastic organs that exist today that just wouldn't be possible with a tracker action.

@@MrJdsenior Actually, I just remembered! I met somebody once who was actually like "Ah, trackers! They belong in the past, those freakin dinosaur relics!" Now, I wouldn't go quite THAT far! Ha ha!

@@ryano.5149 Yeah, as a hobby I've been fixing up very old manual typewriters and selling them on eBay. Kinda the same thing. There's something sort of "romantic" about seeing the type bars strike the paper, hearing the click, and knowing you've committed something to posterity (so to speak), but if I have to type a bunch of words, I'd pretty much always go to a computer keyboard, much easier, much faster. We bought a "new" (tearout) organ at the small church we attended several years back to replace the horrendous calliope that someone had donated earlier, which my father and I went up into the midwest to pick up and bring back for installation. The guy doing the overseeing that they picked, and who did all the final tuning and voicing said, Yeah, it's not a tracker...but we'll get it in there anyway. ;-) He also said, one day when Dad was trying to finalize the connections on a little driver dad had made to actuate the chimes and was getting a bit frustrated "Does your dad drink?". I said "no". He said "Maybe he should start". I about rolled on the floor....like I said, good sense of humor.

I did! It was an improvisation!

@@FraserGartshore It was really good. It's no surprise though coming from you.

Thanks Andrew!

😂😂😂

I suppose it’s a question of budget. Back in the 70s the church boasted a large choir, that was the choir loft - they need space for choir and organ.

@@FraserGartshore fair enough - but then no Schwellwerk or any soft accompanimental stops?! You're not wrong about the Pedal Gemshorn, nicest stop on the whole organ.

That was the fashion back then. Nowadays it’s all French Romantic - who knows what it’ll be in 30 years’ time...

@@FraserGartshore I've seen some modern German organ specs that look distinctly English Romantic - three Open Diapasons on the Hauptwerk alone, full 16-8-4 flue and reed choruses in the Schwellwerk, enclosed Solo with strings and orchestral reeds plus unenclosed Tuba, enclosed Choir organs, big Pedals based around a 16ft Open Wood...

I’m guessing they would be imported instruments from defunct churches in the UK. It happens more regularly than your imagine...

Ähm... die ist eine echte Orgel in Weidenhahn... klein, aber fein...

Désolé, je ne parle pas beaucoup Français !

@@FraserGartshore Ah mais c'est pas grave c'est aussi bien 😄