Organ Resources
Below is a list of organ resources I have found. This is neither definitive nor endorsed and will be expanded over time. Where I’ve made purchases, I have indicated what I’ve bought. Your results may dffer from mine so no warranty or commercial interest is made. Don’t sue me.
Contents
Keyboard
Where to get keyboards, assembled or parts.
EbayThis is an excellent place to search for keyboards, either from an organ, already MIDI-fied, or synthesiser. You can also find complete organ consoles for reasonable prices that have MIDI ports. Pipe organ keyboards will require a fair amount of effort to make suitable for home use.
John's Organ Works
John makes keyboard stacks and modifies pedalboards for MIDI. The keyboards are based on M-Audio Keystation 61 or Behringer UMX610. The prices are reasonable. I’ve not bought from him but there are a number of people on the net that have. He responds will full and frank information to email queries.
Fatar
This link has information about all the Fatar keyboards. Fatar are a well known supplier of quality keyboards.
PAUSCH-e
They sell Fatar keyboards in a variety of styles, plus assorted parts.
UHT Keyboards
Gorgeous keyboards, really high prices. People report them to be the best; they were well outside prices I could afford.
Viscount
Viscount make consoles and several ‘portable’ keyboards that have MIDI and sound generation. The keyboards are mostly from FATAR and are of good quality. The prices are not cheap but are reasonable. Have a look at the Cantorum line for keyboards.
Viscount Portable Keyboards
Viscount make portable organs, with one or two keyboards. They are equipped with built-in sound generation but also have MIDI interfaces.
Johannus Organs
Johannes makes a single manual keyboard with 76 keys and built-in voicing. I’ve never heard it but it is reported to have some pretty good sounds built-in. The larger keyboard wasn’t what I was looking, however.
Content Organ
Content are a very reputable company that very nice organs. They only make one keyboard-only model (compact 224) which I have played. My impressions.
Dexibel Classico L3
A single keyboard with 76 keys, it has a range of organ sounds from samples. I’ve not experienced it or heard it but there have been reports that it is high quality.
Pedalboard
Pedalboards, plans, and companies that sell either MIDI-ready pedalboards oe ones that can be modified.
Viscount MIDI PedalboardsViscount make pedalboards that are MIDI encoded and have input for expression pedals. Thse are not the cheapest options but are ideal if you want a complete ready-to-use pedalboard.
Organ Parts
OrganParts sells various components for organs. They are based in Hungary and respond fairly quickly to email queries. They have complete kits for a wide variety of pedalboards.
Stuart C. Blanchard's pedalboard project
DIY information on how one person build his pedalboard from scratch
Software
Various software vendors that support virtual pipe organ setups
GrandOrgue ProgramGrandOrgue is a complete virtual pipe organ program that runs on Macs, Windows and Linux. It includes a demonstration organ in the package and is fairly complete. While it isn’t quite as extensive as Hauptwerk, it is free and there are plenty of samples that can be used with it.
Hauptwerk Program
Hauptwerk is considered, by many, to be the premier VPO system with extensive capabilities. It allows encrypted organs to be used, which you buy separately. There are currently two versions available, lite and advanced, and you can pay monthly or buy a perpetual license for the advanced.
Organteq
Organteq is a completely computer modelled organ with no samples to load. It is commercial but you can download a free trial version that will run for 20 minutes. It is certainly worth playing with to see if it will suit your needs. I prefer a sample-based system, but have considered buying this because of some of the flexibility in the way the organ is configurable.
jOrgan
This is a JAVA-based virtual pipe organ that is sample based. I haven’t tried it so have no experience, but it has been mentioned by people and it may fit your needs.
MusicRack – A Digital Sheet Music Display System
MusicRack is a simple yet flexible digital sheet music display system that was developed for the Raspberry Pi by Stefan, but which can also be built on other Linux systems, and probably Mac and Windows too. The main application is implemented in Lazarus/FreePascal, and the image processing engine used to prepare music for display is written in C.
MusicalPi - Linwood Ferguson's program to handle digital sheet music
A program that runs on a PI, or other LINUX-based systems, for displaying music. The program has some clever features and is certainly worth a look. The code can be found on Github. Initially for the Raspberry Pi 3 he later moved to Intel systems.
Samples
Various sources of organ samples - most for Grandorgue. Note that some sites ask for a donation, which I would encourage you to consider. Making organ sample sets is not a trivial endeavour.
Piotr GrabowskiFirst stop should be this website. He has some excellent sample sets and files for Grandorgue: Oloron-Sainte-Marie, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Erfurt Büßleben, Bégard, and Obervellach. For the free sets he asks for a donation, which while optional, is encouraged. His organ samples are high-quality and certainly worth it. I’d also encourage you, when making a donation, to indicate you are using GrandOrgue.
Piotr Grabowski - GrandOrgue ODF files.
You’ll find organ definition files for GrandOrgue available here.
Lars Virtual Pipe Organs
This has a number of virtual samples available. My favourite is the Bureå Church, an excellent source.
Jeux d’orgues 2
Stiehr and Mockers were famous organ builders who lived in XIXth century in Alsace (France). This organ was built in 1843 for Romanswiller. The recording session was done on Sept. 30th 2000 on the Stiehr-Mockers organ of Romanswiller, without any modification of the original sound.
Maltese Historic Pipe Organs
Grandorgue compatible sample sets.
PBRD - Netherlands language sample sets
Several sample sets. For English version, see next entry
PBRD - English translation using google
Several sample sets. Download from the Netherland’s language site first
Vendors
Secrets of Organ PlayingI’ve ordered several things from this site. Dr. Vidas Pinkevicius and Dr. Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene post videos, sell a wide variety of annotated sheet music, and have online resources for you to learn to play the organ. I’ve bought several things from them and it is all delivered as a PDF download - very convenient. I’ve mentioned them before but feel they should get another mention. Have a look at their website; there is a lot of information there.
Thomann
I’ve ordered several things from Thomann, a German company, that has always been prompt, packaged as if sending using Hermes (they don’t), and updates on status. Very good service.
Viscount Organs
This was a great outing for me and the people in the shop were really nice to deal with. They have a fairly large selection of console organs in a variety of sizes and styles. If you have the extra cash, you can get a console organ and use VPO. Every experience with them has been positive.
Promenade Music
I bought my Viscount keyboard from this company. Promenade had both Viscount and Content keyboards. I think I played for about an hour comparing sounds from both. John, the owner, is extremely low-key and easy to deal with. If you are close, drop in. They also sell synth keyboards if you prefer to go that route.