RETURN

    ELECTRONIC ORGAN 
    CONSTRUCTORS' SOCIETY

       VIRTUAL ORGAN PROJECTS - 1
      Various systems can be developed, 
    some using free software and other using 
    commercial software. There is also a 
    system produced by one of our own members, 
    Dr Colin Pykett. The software for many of 
    these systems is available free to members 
    on a CD.
      The word virtual, when applied to computers, 
    means something that only exists in 
    software.  A virtual organ is a piece 
    of software that runs on a PC and via 
    keyboards and/or pedalboard equipped with 
    a midi interface, can simulate a pipe organ.
    This s a fairly new field for a home 
    computer, as it is only recently that the 
    increases in processing speed have made 
    it possible to play a musical instrument 
    in “real time” on a reasonably priced 
    computer. 
      Even now, latency, the time from when 
    you press a key to the time the note 
    starts to sound, can be an issue on some
    systems.

             SOUND FONT SYSTEMS
       For those of you who are not familiar 
     with the SoundFont concept, these are 
     all organs that are designed to use 
     the sound card in a PC to generate 
     the various organ stops.  SoundFont 
     is a trademark of Creative technology 
     who make the SoundBlaster series of 
     sound cards.  
       You will need one of their sound cards 
     and the software that goes with it in 
     order to implement one of these systems 
     easily. You would normally use either a 
     midi enabled organ, or separate midi 
     enabled keyboards and pedalboard to 
     control the system.  However, Colin 
     Pykett’s system offers an alternative. 
       One of the best things about all these 
     systems is that they don’t need a very high 
     power computer or Gigabits of memory 
     and in all of the three systems 
     available, THE SOFTWARE IS FREE.

    So why would you want to do such a thing 
    anyway?  Cost is one reason as some 
    systems can be downloaded from the 
    Internet at no charge, and provided you 
    have a reasonably up to date and well 
    specified computer, equipped with a 
    suitable sound card, your only costs 
    will be to upgrade the tiny (and tinny) 
    little speakers that the computer came 
    with and buy a midi keyboard.  Five 
    octave keyboards from the likes of 
    Yamaha and Casio can be obtained new 
    or less than £100 and second hand, 
    for much less.
    A midi pedalboard is more difficult, 
    but we’re still talking less than £500.  
    When you compare this with the £3,500+ 
    of a new electronic organ, you can 
    begin to see the point. If we look in 
    detail at the systems available, they 
    can be split into two groups.
                                NEXT

Copyright © 2006 

The Electronic Organ Constructors Society. All rights reserved.

This site last updated 20th June 2007

RETURN