Another organ recording, of a 300-year-old instrument

[d_fu]

From contemporary music to the 15th century...

This is a 300 year old, single manual organ in a cemetery chapel (apparently it was built for a larger church originally and moved there around 1870).

I had to set up my "control room" in the mortuary (with that unpleasant sweetish smell of you-know-what).
And we recorded until well after midnight...

I set up three rows of mics. My new pair of the twelve-year-old digital Beyer MCD 100 close up, a pair of KM 131 with spheres further back, and a pair of Beyer MC 801 diffuse field omnis even further back, facing backwards. Had my Audioengine 2 speakers with me, which sounded nice.

The organ was pumped by foot, no electric motor here. But there are some sounds from the bellows.

I'm posting two short pieces, one by Scheidt, the other by Adam Ileborgh, composed 1448. This will be a commercial CD, anyone who's interested can let me know, I'll post/mail details or ship CDs, if required (hope this isn't an all-too-shameless sales pitch...). The instrument and repertoire are quite special, I would say. The mix here may not be final, and these clips are unedited.


Daniel

[Corran]

Sounds very good! The high-end spectrum is very clear and vibrant.

Maybe it's just the range of playing on these two samples, but the recording seems to lack a little low-end. Might just be the stereotypical organ sound in my head with thunderous bass notes though.

[NorseHorse]

I doubt that organ has any 32' foot pipes or 18" subs!

Nice pictures, BTW.

[d_fu]

Originally Posted by Corran

Maybe it's just the range of playing on these two samples, but the recording seems to lack a little low-end. Might just be the stereotypical organ sound in my head with thunderous bass notes though.

It's the instrument itself - it simply doesn't have a thunderous bass, as Norse observed correctly. There's only one manual and no pedal to add bass, nothing below 8'... The entire instrument is quite small, look at it compared to my mic stand...

[Corran]

Yeah I figured. Don't destroy my perception of organ!

[d_fu]

Originally Posted by Corran

Don't destroy my perception of organ!

Just tryin' to expand it...

[d_fu]

Hm, very little feedback - hope it isn't because of my blatant sales pitch...
Would love to hear some opinions on the sound.

Daniel

[Matti]

Sounds good, lovely instrument!

Matti

[Berolzheimer]

Sounds great! You captured the instrument & room very nicely. Are you doing a surround mix?

[d_fu]

Originally Posted by Berolzheimer

Are you doing a surround mix?

The setup would allow it, but I think this would be just for fun, not for release. I don't even have a proper surround monitoring setup..

[brle]

Very nice and convicting overall sound and quite rare opportunity to deal with this sort music and instruments thumbsup. Only thing, if I may say would be to include more room in your mix and maybe even to add some reverb
tastefully .

Sascha

[JazzPipo]

Sounds very nice! Nice balance of the room sound... Lovely organ by the way.

Good work!

[bove]

Thanks for posting the photos, what a nice looking organ and cool little chapel. Sounds very nice too... clean and simple.

[big country]

couldn't you find were the bass lingers in the room .
capture it , get it to time

rad recording , fun stuff

[d_fu]

Originally Posted by big country

couldn't you find were the bass lingers in the room.

Not sure what you're referring to - there really isn't much bass coming out of this organ...

[mljung]

Originally Posted by d_fu

Not sure what you're referring to - there really isn't much bass coming out of this organ...

I really liked this recording [only listened on my HD650 headphones though].
Crisp cold air atmosphere. Not usually a term I would use positively - but in this case, it is!

**

As a comment to Saschas comment I cannot understand why anyone would even think about adding artificial reverb "tastefully" to this recording.

Mads

[Matti]

Originally Posted by MATTI

Sounds good, lovely instrument!

Matti

Matti