...crafted with integrity and uncommon care.
Articles
Articles > Digital Sampling Technology
Digital Sampling Technology
by Don Anderson
Phoenix Organs America
"Phoenix Organs are a dream-come-true". I wonder how often we have heard this? As a teenaged organist in the 1960s I knew that electronic church organs did not sound as good as a pipe organ and I decided that the only way to reproduce the exact sound of a pipe organ was to record individual organ pipes and play back each recording instantly whenever a note is pressed. It was almost impossble back then but the closest thing available at that time would have been a series of tape loops. We needed something that would last much longer than recording tape because that is what is required of a church organ. By 1980 the new idea of storing very high quality music on a spinning plastic disk (CD) was a dream-come-true for music lovers who were tired of noisy LP records. My hopes were getting higher for electronic church organs and digital sampling technology made it possible to get the sound I was looking for. A Phoenix Organ stores recordings of organ pipes permanently on computer memory chips and each time a note is pressed at the keyboard the Phoenix computer instantly plays back the appropriate recording of the organ stop selected. Most electronic organ companies now use digital sampling. It is possible to record all of the pipes of a complete organ and have a computer play back those sounds. The Phoenix System is a computer dedicated to operating pipe organs as well as reproducing pipe organ and orchestral sounds. It does not rely on PCs, hard drives, nor RAM memory chips which are often not very dependable.
Phoenix engineers have spent many years making digital recordings of thousands of organ pipes. Individual pipes samples are separated and edited to remove unwanted background noise. Many older pipe organs have been recorded and some quite famous ones but we have found that many of the pipes are not perfect. They may all sound fine in a large church but using any defective pipe sounds in a small church or home is often considered unacceptable due to the close proximity of speakers. We use only the best pipe samples and the computer can fill in any gaps. Editing all of the recordings is a very time-consuming job, but after all of the samples are edited and assembled they are stored in the memory chips of the organ. Beyond this, the selected stops must blend together to build a fine cohesive instrument that suits a particular church and organist. This is all very painstaking work involving much skill that is reminiscent of the work of great pipe organ builders. It is no wonder that so many noted organists, even pipe organ purists, continue to be impressed with Phoenix organs. Most have certainly done their shopping and their homework. While the sound sources of all Phoenix organ stops originate from organ pipes, final voicing (tonal finishing) must be done in the room where the organ will be played. This tailors the sound to a new environment and a skilled voicer makes atremendous difference to the end result. While Phoenix normally records pipe samples in stereo, we have found advantages toward creating the broad ensemble and dimension of a pipe organ while using a limited number of loudspeakers by assigning mono samples to C-C# speaker sides. Each pipe sample can be assigned to any one of up to 8 audio channels. The Phoenix sample assignment feature also allows the voicer to select from a number of 'Virtual Pipe Chest Layouts'. Many hours of first-hand experience with our combination pipe/electronic organs have lead to Phoenix producing sampled stops that cannot be distinguished from their pipe counterparts in side-by-side comparisons. Listen to a Phoenix organ and compare the sound and quality to the other organs available. You will hear for yourself.
In North America, Phoenix uses our trademark Acousticube speakers. These are speakers designed solely for use in the production of church organ sound. They fill a room with sound and support congregational singing without being over-bearing or "getting on your nerves". Most people comment that Phoenix organs sound like actual pipe organs while our competitors' products sound like recordings of pipe organs.
The Phoenix organ computer was designed from the beginning to either control a pipe organ and/or produce sampled pipe sounds. Whether we combine pipes with sampled stops or not, you will be hearing pipes. Hearing is believing. Contact a Phoenix representative to receive a demonstration CD or, better still, play a Phoenix as soon as you can to see for yourself. The quality is obvious and we welcome side-by-side comparisons.