Organ

Johannus Opus 30 Digital Computer Virtual Pipe Organ

Another stroke of good fortune came our way when Sue Alberts learned that Schmitt music had a new church organ floor model they were closing out at a reduced price and asked organist Dan Kaufeld if we might be interested in it.  This was a state-of-the-art 3 manual Johannus organ.  Our organ at that time was a Baldwin electronic.  It was aging and had recently needed repair — some notes had quit working. It was old enough that Baldwin was no longer supporting it, they were out of the organ business. Dan was able to diagnose the problem, locate parts for it (replacement integrated circuits), and repair it.  We recognized at that time that the handwriting was on the wall for the Baldwin. So Sue’s discovery was quite timely. Dan was familiar with the Johannus organ, he had played it several times at Schmitt and was very impressed with its sound quality and overall capabilities. Computer technology has revolutionized the way electronic instruments produce sound – for this organ, they digitally recorded the sound of each pipe in a pipe organ.  These are stored in the organ’s memory and when a note is played, the sound produced is that of the corresponding pipes, as recorded. The result is sound quality that is very close to an actual pipe organ. This is a great improvement over the older oscillator/filter-based technology used in the Baldwin.  A proposal to procure the Johannus was submitted to and approved by Session. We did a quick fund-raising drive and were able to purchase the organ.  It has been a great asset to the church’s music ministry, again we’re very lucky to have it! To put it in perspective, the organ has the electronic equivalent of 51 ranks of pipes, equivalent to 2,821 individual pipes.  An actual mechanical pipe organ of this size would occupy a space the size of our fellowship hall, and cost more than 20X what we paid for the new Johannus!  A last note: we were able to donate our previous Baldwin organ to an area church which was destroyed in a fire, including their pipe organ. They welcomed it as a substitute, for the short term anyway!

Johannus Opus 30 Organ Detailed Information

• Organ is voiced and configured like a pipe organ. Sounds are actual digital recordings of pipe organ voices, played back with better-than-CD quality.  The voices are authentic – with air sounds and articulation.
• Organ has three keyboards. Why three? More keyboards give more flexibility for rapid transitions in varying the sounds for different musical parts as you play the instrument.
• Swell manual (upper keyboard) – 12 stops, would equate to 854 pipes. (Some stops have more than 1 pipe per note.)
• Great manual (middle keyboard) – 11 stops, would equate to 1098 pipes.
• Choir manual (lower keyboard) – 7 stops, would equate to 549 pipes.  Plus synthesizer module with 8 additional sounds.
• Pedals – 8 stops, would equate to 320 pipes.
• Thus a comparable pipe organ would have 2,821 pipes. Such an instrument, new, would cost in excess of $300,000. And would not fit in our church! Modern technology is amazing!
• Additional other controls and features like combination action, crescendo pedal, and MIDI capability (can connect to and control other MIDI instruments like our electronic synthesizer keyboard.)

Another feature is that this organ is really two in one – it contains two distinct voicings – one corresponding to “American Classic” (warm and mellow), and another
corresponding to “North European Baroque” (brighter, more strident). A switch lets you choose.

Johannus Opus 30 – Stop list and controls

* Synth voices are specifically associated with the organ voicing choice

Swell	Great	Choir	Pedal
8’ Principal	16’ Bourdon	8’ Bourdon	16’ Principal
8’ Rohrflute	8’ Principal	4’ Flute	16’ Subbass
8’ Viola di Gamba	8’ Stopped Flute	2 2/3’ Nazard	8’ Octave
8’ Vox Celeste	4’ Octave	2’ Flute	8’ Gedackt
4’ Octave	4’ Open Flute	1 3/5’ Tierce	4’ Choralbass
4’ Koppel Flute	2 2/3’ Twelfth	Mixture III	Rauschpfeife III
2 2/3’ Flute Twelfth	2’ Octave	8’ Vox Humana	16’ Contra Trumpet
2’ Waldflute	Cornet IV	Tremulant	8’ Trumpet
1 1/3’ Nazard	Mixture V	Swell-Choir	Swell-Pedal
Scharff III	16’ Trumpet	Midi Choir	Great-Pedal
8’ Cromorne	8’ Trumpet	7 stops, 9 ranks, 61 notes/rank	Choir-Pedal
8’ Oboe	Tremulant		Midi Pedal
Tremulant	Choir-Great	Synth module	8 stops, 10 ranks, 32 notes/rank
Midi Swell	Swell-Great	Chimes/Chrysoglott
12 stops, 14 ranks, 61 notes/rank	Midi Great	Harp/Harpsichord
	11 stops, 18 ranks, 61 notes/rank	Strings/Orch Strings
		Gospel/Tibia Organ
		Tremolo
		4 stops, 8 voices*

• Two voicings: American Classic and North European Baroque. (Like having two completely different organs in one!  But you can select only one at a time!)
• Console conforms to American Guild of Organists specifications
• 38 speaking stops plus 8 synthesizer tones. Some stops have more than one rank.
• 51 independent digital “ranks” of pipes, 2,821 total.
• Separate Swell/Choir and Great/Pedal expression pedals
• Capture Combination with 8 levels of memory – allows saving and recalling registrations at the push of “piston” buttons or the toe studs.
• Mean Tone and Werckmeister historical tuning options
• Pitch and transposer controls.
• “Cathedral” reverberation effect.
• Other accessories like Crescendo pedal, “Chorus” effect (slight detuning for warmer, more realistic sound), “Cantus Firmi”, “Manual Bass”, “Reeds off”, “Couplers off”, etc. Plus MIDI, headphone, and external amplifier connections.

5-Channel sound system, both internal to console and external. The internal and external speaker systems can be used separately or together. We’ve also added an external subwoofer with its own internal amplifier to augment the subsonic bass notes of the organ.