If Thou Art Merry, If Thou art Sorrowful: I'm Finally Satisfied (aka The Battle is Over for Now)

Pre-pandemic, my MacMini updated to iOS Catalina. Apparently, Hauptwerks, the software that powers my organ wasn't supported for the new OS. I tried to upgrade from Hauptwerks 4 to Hauptwerks 5, but found out I would have to buy a new "perpetual" license as my old "perpetual" licensed dongle had lost its perpetuity. I decided not to upgrade because I am ever cheap. I grabbed the old PC tower that used to run my organ software and voila, I was up and running again.

Having a full size practice organ in the home is not as standard as I once believed. I grew up in a home with two pianos and a Hammond organ. That was what "normal" was to me. Upstairs, my mother taught piano lessons on a Baldwin Spinet, but downstairs, I practiced on a Hammond with accompanying tone cabinet (rotating leslie speaker) and an Steinway upright grand with ivory keys. I had no idea how spoiled I was.

Last week, as I was telling my mother I had put upwards of $4,000 into my organ upgrade, she told me that in 1967 she purchased the Hammond plus the Steinway for $1999. In 1967, that was the price of a car.

Early in my married adult life I've mustered along with several "fun organs". The small organ pictured here is an old Whirlitzer I owned. These were my desperation organs. I was able to use them to practice hymns, but I had to transcribe as I played to keep the pedals within the single octave available on the short pedalboard.

My husband hated having an organ in the home (to be fair I also had the upright grand and a digital keyboard). He even convinced me to let him take a small organ to the dump once when we were "rearranging the furniture". It broke my heart to see it thrown in a bin. Once I was divorced I realized "my house, my rules" and I vowed to make room for a full-size organ. The problem then wasn't space, but money.

My search for a practice organ led me to an older woman who, along with her husband, was preparing to go on a full-time mission. She had to let go of her organ and I was able to buy it for $150. I got it for Christmas in 2011.

With a full size organ in my home, I was able to enroll in organ lessons at the local university. It was through organ lessons that I learned about the midi driven Hauptwerk Software. I was super intrigued. My new-old organ (which was built in the 70's) had electronic components that were past their prime. Stops and notes gave up the ghost regularly. As much as I researched, I could not find parts or professionals to repair the organ. Certain stops and keys just wouldn't work. The organ had been manufactured before midi technology. But (due to my IT background) I figured, if I could find an organ capable of running Hauptwerk, it would, in the end, be just another computer I could maintain and repair. I began looking for a computer with midi capabilities.

In July of 2012, I had a bit of money and a bit of an opportunity. Someone had listed a Hauptwerks Organ on ebay for $500. I rented a small U-Haul and my teenage boys drove six hours to a rural town in Northern California on sketchy backroads, got trained on how to set up the organ, drove it home and set it up for me.

This organ was exactly what I was looking for. I downloaded all of the free Hauptwerk sample sets I could that would run on the free version of Hauptwerk, and I soon had German, French, English, Modern, Romantic, and Baroque virtual organs. Not only had the seller set up the manuals as midi inputs, he also had set up mechanical keypistons and stops as midi controllers. He had Frankensteined parts from at least two old organs. Based on wood coloration, the bench and keyboards came from one organ, and the console and pedalboard from another. My organ lessons took on new hope. I was able to practice three hours a day while being happy with the sound and touch of the organ.

Ok, full disclosure, the more I practiced, the more I noticed -- things. The upper manual had keys that would stick, and the pedals would sometimes sound two notes instead of one. But what did I expect? This thing was literally soldered together with thin wire and ribbon cables.

Then came the pedalboard issues. The pedalboard band springs had been screwed into the old, compromised wood of the pedalboard. Three hours a day of practice took its toll. The screws began to pull up. I replaced all of the screws with bolts that I threaded through the bottom of the board and capped with a locking nut.

When the pedals started double sounding, I tightened the nuts. I also reinforced weak wood (where the bolt would pull through) with any metal I could find. A couple of band springs lost their spring. At one point, I shoved a kitchen knife under a band spring to keep the note from sagging and sounding eternally.

I had to resolder manual keys whose wires had come detached. And four or five times a year (usually after a power outage) I would tear the whole organ apart and pray that God would show me how to get the midi controller boards working again. I kept sockets and a socket wrench in the organ bench. The organ and I kept up this battle for 8 years.

Eventually I gave up on the thumb pistons and stops ever working again. As long as I had my keyboards and pedalboard, I could continue to practice. In the midst of the pandemic, shortly after I started back to work, we had another power outage. I spent the good part of two weeks trying to get the organ working again. I was able to get my Greats back, but no swell or pedal board. I had been trying to buy midi controllers that accommodated the 34 pin ribbon cables since the pistons and stops had gone out. I tried again. No luck.

I figured I could learn to rewire the all the boards to fit newer midi controllers (and still have the sticky keys and a decaying pedalboard) or I could finally put real money into my instrument. Even God knows you can't rely on miracles forever. He also wants us to work and sacrifice. Prayers helped me realize that I now have money and it's ok to spend money on nice things for myself. Not only could I buy quality parts, I could buy the parts I'd been drooling over for the last decade - the ebony and cherry wood manuals from Midiworks.ca as well as a fully midi pedalboard. Thinking everything would be plug and play, I anticipated my organ would be back up and playable within a week. Since I was working on hardware upgrades, I decided to focus on software as well as upgrade my speakers and recording capabilities.

I hate to make this post overly long, but I think maybe it might help some organist somewhere? I want to mention that since Easter, I have been trying to record weekly Sabbath prelude music. Playing the organ is my job at church. With the pandemic, and not being able to attend church in person, recording and posting prelude helps me with my personal worship. And while I realize that neither man nor God need my prelude, I need it. My home needs it. I practiced for quite a while for my Easter prelude. It was my first and only time doing a Facebook live and while it was not perfect, I was happy with the music selection and my performance.

I was unhappy with the recorded sound, however. I was recording using a webcam, a pc and a microphone. I have found that Hauptwerk sounds better on a Mac. But I was still avoiding the inevitableness of having to purchase Hauptwerks 5. But since I was upgrading the organ, I figured I would fix everything. I had been using a PA system as speakers for my organ. My kids were desperate to get the speakers out of the living room, due to their size and "ugliness". They suggested getting a soundcard for the PC and connecting to a soundbar with woofer.

The keyboards arrived and fit snuggly into the cabinet where the older keyboards had sat. I had a beautiful manuals only computer and recorded prelude written for manuals only that week. Then the pedals arrived and sorrow set in. Apparently the full pedals I had before were not to AGO specifications. And the new set was too wide for my organ console. I set everything up on a table so I could practice while I pouted and considered my options. I would have to cut into my organ console (cabinet) - the one thing I loved about my old organ. It's antiqueness. It's history of being a console for a pipe organ in a church.

But it couldn't be helped. The cabinet would be useless without the components and the components needed somewhere to go. The kids and I gutted the console, sanded it down, refinished with Sedona Red stain so that every piece matched. And then we made the heart-wrenching cuts into the cabinet. Once everything was back together, I felt better. The organ looked good - but I still wasn't done.

The sound blaster improved the audio coming from the PC computer, but the soundbar and woofer combo could not handle the range and polyphony of the organ. If I played the pedals too low or played too many notes, the woofer rattled. I purchased a Scarlett 2i2 external sound mixer, but it wasn't compatible with Windows 7. So many trials and errors.

I went back to the Catalina OS MacMini and installed a trial version of Hauptwerk 5. I routed the sound through the Scarlett 2i2 to a Fender bass amp I had sitting around. It was a great sound for practicing. For recording, I looped from the Scarlett 2i2 back into the MacMini mic input jack and was satisfied with the results.

I have a touch screen monitor that I use for pressing virtual stops and pistons. This monitor works for a PC but not for a Mac. I purchased a program that allows Macs to use the touch capability of a monitor. I paid for the upgrade to Hauptwerk 5. It was slightly cheaper than I anticipated as they gave me credit for having already purchased the perpetual license for Hauptwerk 4. Hauptwerk is pushing users to upgrade to Hauptwerk 5, not for increased functionality, but for increased security for the developers of sample sets. I guess some hacking was going on. New encryption is used with the virtual organs, so several of my old organs don't work with the new version.

I am just finishing up with the process of loading organs. The only organ I am sad about losing is the Composite English Organ that Les Deutsch of nightbloomingjazzmnen.com assembled. It has the best Diapason stops. He indicates that it will work with Hauptwerk 5. I just haven't been able to get it to go as of yet.

Still I have plenty of organs to play. I am listing them below as well as resources where they can be found.

One final shout-out. In the midst of all this upheaval and revision, I attended the BYU Organ Workshop online. I was uplifted, inspired, and encouraged. I've tried adopted a few tips I picked up. One that involved technology, includes the app ForScore. I have been using iPads to read music for years, but what I didn't know was that if you pay $10 a year, you can get the pro version of ForScore which includes gesture page turns, meaning, all I have to do to turn the page is turn my head. This is amazing and has been a great tool. I've been using my daughters 12.9 inch iPad 11 pro as my iPad mini has a rather small screen. Maybe Santa will bring me my own large iPad?

Below is the list of reliable Sample Sets I have installed. I have three relatively cheap organs that I have purchased (Schantz 3-manual-$150 ,St. Eucaire-$150, and Menesterol-$70). The others are available free of cost.