Easterhegg 2018 - Open Source Orgelbau

EasterHegg 18 preroll music

Benjamin: Yeah, my name is Benjamin Wand
and I wanted to talk about organ building.

Why do I do that? First of all I like
musical instruments in general, and

then I noticed that it is
actually a cool nerd topic

because it connects two things that,
or it has two things that

always are present with nerd-things,
first of all making things available,

that is, musical instrument making still
gets passed on from master

to disciple and it is not so
greatly publicly documented and is

just cool to reverse-engineer things.
And the other thing is that with

nerd-things one always likes to
absurdly optimize, and that is in any case

given as well for musical instrument
making, they are very, they work

very precisely and have very exact ideas
about what they do

so to speak musical instrument making
is all in all a perfect

nerd-topic. Yes, everyone has seen
an organ, they look like that, and what

you see here only the facade,
there are many more

organ pipes inside, one takes
just a bunch that one finds pretty and

attaches them in the front, such an
interior designer person does that. And

behind that, that thing is called positive
when there are organ pipes in the middle

of the gallery, behind that is the
console, that is so to speak the

user interface. But I thought I'd first
say some general things, well

laughter
somewhere data has to get in, one

pushes buttons and stuff and then
somewhere comes air. A big church organ

runs at something like 0.1 bar but it is a
lot of volume, that is why there are those

bellows. Organ builders indeed still put
stones on their bellows for the weight

nowadays. Somehow data has to get from
A to B, therefore many organ builders have

thought out many things, mostly they have
to do with mechanical transmission

or with pneumatic transmission and of
course nowadays also electronic.

And then we have organized air, that is
what actually happens with

wind instruments, it goes to the pipes
and tones come out. Like I said, there are

very many kinds of organ pipes,
they all sound a bit differently.

Those are common models
that someone has kindly

drawn for the Wikipedia, and then it is
like that that of every kind of pipe

which is present there is one keyboard
full of pipes available,

very small to very big, and they are called
something with foot and that is the

length of the lowest tone, when for instance
a row of organ pipes is called '8 foot'

that means that the longest pipe is
eight foot long, 2.40 meters

This one could call the cockpit of a
romantic organ. Organs were, ...

there is a big period in the
Baroque Music and a big period in the

Romantic Music. There are the keyboards,
at organs they are called

manual and then down there there is a
foot-keyboard, called pedal, then it has

stuff to set dynamics here, down there
are things to operate by foot,

a lever can be operated like that
there are also some to roll

there are here on the side, and there are
displays for the status

And then there are all those
toggle switches, they are the

stop tabs, they make whether
a row of organ pipes is on

one can imagine it like that, given
you have these kinds of pipes, they

stick to a keyboard, there is always
a set of organ pipes per keyboard

this is only one octave but virtually
in every box would be a pipe

of every kind one, of every size one,
four and a half octaves for

one keyboard and two and a half for the
pedal. And they stand in a

toe board, it is not necessarily
rectangular but they mill-cut around the

corner if that fits better
and when one chooses pipes

now those both rows, so to say
they are on, and then pushes

one tone, the yellow sketched in pipes
receive air and it toots.

Yes? That is how it works. Ok, and what
now? Like I said I like musical instruments

and last summer I had an internship at an
organ maker and

unfortunately I found it terrible, but for
me the result was that I wanted to try to

build an organ with real dynamics like
on a piano. Now I'm

one too far but that doesn't matter.
Like that, that is a recording that I

... electronically ... doesn't sound well,
but just that you see

what I mean by dynamics, because there
aren't always only musicians.

It still has to work.
electic piano

That is so to say 'piano',
if you push hard

loud and soft tones come.
electric piano

If you do that with an organ it doesn't
work, no matter how hard you push, ok?

Hammond organ

Not hard to see.
Hammond organ

That is an old thing, trying to teach
dynamics to keyboard instruments,

the piano emerged that way, regarding
the harpsichord people complained

that it sounds like 8-bit music and people
wanted more resolution.

laughter
Exactly. And for the organ it still

doesn't really work. There are several
reasons for that. First of all,

keyboard instrument in general have
a focus on music theory. If you

imagine a band, the dude at the keyboard
is the nerd. Not always but that's a thing.

And that a tone on a keyboard instrument,
that it is one state,

a digital state, buys polyphony.
One can play many tones at once

and do complex things on the piano
and that is possible

because one tone is always one thing,
otherwise it would be crazy. There are

those seaboards where you can slide the
finger, but I haven't seen

decent music for it, at least no
polyphonic one. That is the classic

that keyboard instruments are connected
with music theory and polyphony

Then this is the case with organs:
they are expensive and very

conservative people pay for it,
churches and alike, they don't like

experiments. And if an inventor
builds something, he builds a prototype

with three tones, and then a musician makes
sung: doo doo doo doo doo doo

'What is this?
I can not do anything with it'

And then, there are two types of organ
pipes that were on the picture,

labial pipes and lingual pipes, and those
are labial pipes. They look like

a recorder and work like it,
and are limited in their ability to

perform dynamics because
the pitch changes, like that

labial pipe Do you hear that?
It goes a bit higher and lower

and that makes many things in music

complicated. Not impossible but it is
a disadvantage

Like shown in the picture of the cockpit,
there were attempts to get

dynamics on the organ. The first one was
the swell box, there is a set

of organ pipes in a box
and it has doors in he front that

can be closed and opened and
depending how open they are

the louder or softer it is. And then,
in the Romantic Organ one invented

a thing called crescendo pedal,
there you can't only switch on

and off organ stops with a toggle switch

but thee are presets where you can
choose loudness and it works

on its own, switches stops on and off

depending how 'loud' you make it. But
then it still doesn't influence how

much you push on each key, right? The
volume adjustment ist always for

the entire keyboard.
And then in Romantic Music some organs

had the feature that when
you depress a button only half way

the pipe only gets half air.
Thats nice, and you saw with the pipe

it is a bit complicated but possible.

This technology had the problem that

when you depressed a key
you always had to lift each valve

that belonged to all the used pipes,
meaning that if you used

many stops you had to push very hard
with your fingers, that's why

it was hard for musicians.
And now one can

replicate that with electronics,
one measures

how deeply the key is depressed,
with a hall sensor, and then one moves

the valve on the other side,
like the input was.

There is this yummy talk, they explain it
thoroughly how this company Heuss does it,

that is one of their employees,
they programmed it.

The problem though is, and that is why
I don't consider it a solution:

one can't play with half depressed keys.
Imagine writing code and some shortcuts

are on half depressed keys.

laughter

Nice thing, I call it 'expressive play',

it is still not dynamics but
expressive play.

Not bad, actually quite cool,
but still not dynamics.

What have I done until now?

First of all I looked into this problem
that pipes have this property

to change the pitch with the air pressure.
Or rather

I didn't do it but 25 years ago someone
invented a new type or organ pipe.

I have to go to FreeCAD.
This is a reed of a harmonica

or any other free reed instrument,

the thin sheet is fixed on the
thick sheet with a rivet, and if you

blow on it from above a tone comes,
approximately like that.

harmonica-tone
And the interesting thing he invented,

his name was Ernst Zacharias,

is that if you put such a thing
the wrong way around

into a tube, it shouldn't work but it does.

And that is a not so good pipe

but I made one myself.
Like I said, it has the lovely property

that you can change the volume a bit

without changing the pitch.
Zacharias-pipe

Though one can see in the spectrogram
that the partials change a bit.

Zacharias-pipe

When one blows more there are more
overtones, it isn't entirely

free of side effects but that is
quite cool.

Then, I 3d-printed many organ pipes
and brought some.

Those, there is a list how to do it,

how to do the proportions
if you have different sizes of organ pipes.

I've made a standard set
with different diameters of tube.

The reason for the tubes is: organ pipes

are large, they don't fit into the 3d
printer, I didn't want to do wood working,

led isn't that good in the kitchen.
laughter

Organ metal is a great material
but not so accessible for private people.

Those are pipes that should belong
together, that are made according to

standard measurements.

labial pipe
Maybe we should go back to

the spectrogram, that is interesting
as well. And the meaning of the matter

is supposed to be that the overtone-stuff
looks somewhat similar.

labial pipe

I'd say that is alright, for other pipes
it looks very differently,

that is a flute.
labial pipe

See it, right?
inaudible question from the audience

Yes, maybe I should talk a bit about this.

The lowest tone is the one you hear,
for example that one, and then it is the

case that in a resonator not only the
basic frequency vibrates

but also multiples of it, and depending
what shape the pipe has, like

how big this hole is in relation to
the length and diameter

these proportions influence the sound

and that is how there are different kinds
of organ pipes.

inaudible question from the audience
'How many partials do I want'

was the question,
I should repeat the questions. That is ...

I'd love to have such recordings from
normal organ pipes but I don't have them.

inaudible question from the audience
Printing those things once

in different sizes was the goal here,
to see whether if the

proportions are similar, do they sound
similar enough to be called one organ stop.

What one can see with them is that they

sound funny in the beginning,

always when I start to blow,
instantly really, I get the tone you saw.

labial pipe

But when I blow little you see
a funny effect.

labial pipe Great (not).
But here in the beginning one could see it.

labial pipe
Before it had a little swerve.

That means, I wouldn't print a whole set
of them, as they are now, for

an organ with dynamics,
that would be rubbish.

I'll talk about the file now.
These FreeCAD files can be found on GitHub,

and when one look at one,
one first has to go to the spreadsheet,

put in values for the thickness of the
tube, outside and inside, how wide

and high do I want that opening.
And the block chamfer, honestly

I don't know what it is good for
but it exists in recorders,

it is this edge here, one can switch it
on and off in the FreeCAD file.

And this is such an organ pipe.
I've always slices them at a 45° angle,

like that, with the goal to not have

to remove support structure from inside,
one always tries to get the labium smooth,

and also this tube where you blow through

if you have support structure inside
it is not so nice to get out.

So, I always printed them on 45°,

and then I had the idea
to rotate the interesting part 45°

and designed those.
I've tried printing but it didn't work.

There is a 3d printer in the hackcenter
but it is clogged.

I'm very curious how it'll sound, whether
this is useful.

I've also made other experimental things
like traverse flutes

and funny things where you can stick
a tube in on both sides.

One can design the wildest things in 3d.

inaudible question from the audience
I do't understand the question.

Wait, there is a microphone for you.
Audience: The result is,

if it sounds at all it should sound with
a wide spectrum, with a washed-out tone,

right?
Benjamin: I'm curious.

I've made fun things,
for instance files with

a curved labium. I'm interested in this
because it limits the effect

that the pitch changes, it is less in those.

labial pipe
It is there but very small, much less

then with those. I don't know why.
And curved labium is also new, I haven't

seen musical instruments with that feature,

because if you build from wood it would
be complicated but with 3d printing -

no problem. laughter

I'm curious how it sounds,
I have no idea, none at all.

But if it would work that would be cool.

inaudible question from the audience
Yes, when I'm home I can do this

but if someone could print it now that
would be cool, sure, then we can try

it here at EasterHegg.

Another thing I've changed is the thing
is the thing at the bottom, for the case

to stick a tube inside because I thought
a good next step would be

a small instrument with pneumatic action

and no or almost no electronics

in order to test pipes on a keybord

because so far I can only blow inside,

would be cooler to play on a keyboard.
That is an image of a pipe I've played

so that you can imagine it better.

So far I've just fixed it with tape.

That is another folder, also on GitHub,

it has those inverted free reed pipes.

A thing that I find particularly
interesting with those pipes is

playing Shepherd tones. Like that,
imagine that the red tones are 'f's,

one would play 'f's of all octaves at once,

in the middle louder than outside.
That is a popular toy in film music,

one can do fun psychoacoustic tricks
with it and this would be the first time

to play Shepherd tones
on an acoustic instrument.

It would be either possible to build
a stop of Shepherd tones,

which would be plausible as well because
one needs eight octaves, which is

more than a normal organ has, or one
does it with proportional air supply,

that the pipes that play the Shepherd
tones can be used as normal tones.

Thoughts about keyboard expression.

I had mentioned before that there are those
Romantic organs that measure what

gets replicated as electronic, how deeply
the key is depressed. That isn't the

only possibility how to do that.
If one builds an electric piano,

the speed, in which the keys get

depressed, gets measured, that is

another input, and a third way is the
pressure on the key, that is when one buys

a keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch,
it measured the pressure

on the depressed keys. And in the long
run I'd prefer that, becauee

then one can change the volume of an
already pressed key, other than when

measuring the speed. On the other hand

you don't have the problem of not being
able to play with half depressed keys.

How ever, it will be a new instrument and
I'm assuming that it'll take a pianist

two or three months to get used to it, to

this new way, that the pressure gets
measured. Most pianists can't play

on the clavichord. At the clavichord the
pressure gets measured and

influences the pitch. Usually it sounds
terrible at first but

some pianists can already do it,
one can learn it.

How ever. There is one thing I need
and not having it keeps me from

progressing with the project, and I'm
hoping for a miracle in the form of

a person, and the problem is the actuator.
An organ with electric direct action

would use an actuator that looks like this

there are two magnets and this thing here

can be moved up and down, proportionally
how deeply the key is depressed.

The problem is that this is fairly
expensive and I'd like to have one for

each pipe, I'd like to get rid of the
matrix, also for example

for performing Shepherd tones.

If each pipe gets their own actuator,
that is a point where I can't continue

at the moment, why I would build

a small thing with pneumatic action
because that is easier.

If someone had an idea about
fluid dynamics, that would be cool

to figure out why the pipes with

the curved labium change the pitch
less than the others.

That would be cool.
And i've told the thing with the

actuator to many people, and then they
reply 'use a servo'. But that won't work

because they are either too slow
or too noisy. You've probably seen

on YouTube someone play the
Super Mario theme on

stepper motors. They are really noisy!
Or they are expensive.

Less noisy servos exist but somewhere
in this triangle it is not getting better.

Pneumatics, same problem, also
expensive.

inaudible question from the audience
Question: what does the actuator do?

The actuator does that a thing can move
between two points, and also in-between.

And I'd say that the illusion of it being

continuous would be at at least 20 steps.

inaudible question from the audience
Exactly, I need a proportional valve.

Like I said, at the moment I'm planning

to build a small instrument with pneumatic
action in order to continue working

on my pipes. The whole stuff in on GitHub
if you're curious, and I'm looking

to hear from other builders of
musical instruments.

Are there more questions? There is a
microphone, than the questions will

be on the stream, that would be cool.
There is one.

Audience: Hi, I'm Max and I play organ.
Hello Martin. And I work at a university

that has measurement technology,
and we do a course,

so far I'm officially responsible,
for the Cultural Studies, what

was it called? Digital Sound-synthesis.
There we have some measuring devices and

the university does have an organ.
You've said

you'd like to do acoustic measurements
of some stops,

Possibly you can be helped.

Benjamin: Oh yes, that sounds great, we
should do it. The files

are called '0 - something', and
that is very undetermined,

I thought I'd go '1' once I've figured out
how I want to do it with the toe board.

So to speak what is there on the right,

organ pipes have certain diameters
that have to fit, one can exchange

the pipes, and I haven#t figured out
how I'd do it because I always used to

blow in with the mouth and I thought
I'll call it '1-something' after deciding

how the lower side should look like,

the interface to the outside. Yes,
I'd have to do that in order to

put the 3d printed pipes into a toe board,
right? You don't know either.

inaudible question from the audience

That would be cool, because it is badly
documented until now, I rarely

find spectrograms like this.

inaudible question from the audience
Yes, we'll talk afterwards, looking forwards.

There, another question.
Audience: In Stuttgart at ...

Benjamin: ... Fraunhofer ...
Audience: ... am Fraunhofer Institut,

okay, you know them.
Benjamin: I've tried to contact them

but nothing happened.

Audience: Ok, that is unfortunate because
coincidentally

I know that they have a tool for
parametric design of organ pipes, where

one can choose partials and they also do

fluid dynamics and stuff.

But I don't know either how happily
they give it to people but they

certainly have cool things.
Benjamin: Ja, that was what I found as

well, but like I said, they didn't want
to talk to me. Good, there is

another question next to you.
Audience: I can make contact,

my cousin is professional organ builder,

who usually does restoration and new
construction of classical pipe organs,

but I could imagine to make contact and
one could visit his workshop

that should be easy.

Benjamin: Where is it?

Audience: Siegen.
Benjamin: Mh, like I said, I did an

internship at an organ workshop, that
wasn't delightful.

Audience: That wasn't my cousin.

Benjamin: Yeah ...
laughter

Benjamin: But sure, I don't think that my
3d printed organ pipes are that supreme,

right? Rather it is a toy for prototyping

and trying things out, like

curved labium, that would be a lot more
effort with wood, and metal would

but someone would have to pay for it.

I don't know what exactly metal pipes
cost but more than this.

Audience: At a restauration sometimes

some pipes are left over.

Benjamin: Yes, cool, thanks.

Are there more questions? You can also
try all of them, for instance this

where one sticks it in the middle, oh,
ask your question.

Audience: What do you want to determine

with your proportional valve,
the pressure or the volume of air?

Benjamin: The volume. The pressure is even
per stop, different stops can have

different pressure but the pressure

is even within one stop, and then the

actuator moves right-left back and forth,

to move the valve.

inaudible question from the audience

That is really a bit odd.

This looks like a recorder, right?

And in a recorder, German: Blockflöte,
there is the block inside. But here

nothing alike is inside. I found it funny
that that works and thought apparently

the labium doesn't need to be at the
end of the pipe, it isn't

necessary, and then I made one ...
or several ... where one can plug in a

tube on both ends. But I can't make sense

of the pitch that comes out.
labial pipe, several pitches

laughter Interesting, but
I don't have an explanation.

What? Ok.
labial pipe, several pitches

inaudible question from the audience
Yes, that is plausible but why so high,

the length if the pipe doesn't
match the pitch.

Yeah.
inaudible question from the audience

What do I do when I cover what?
Oh yes, let's try.

labial pipe, changing pitch
laughter

music
There are several ways to tune

organ pipes, this is one of them. There is
a piece of sheet metal attached on top

and you can bend it onto and away from the
pipe. I've also tried 3d printing items

for tuning organ pipes but that was
all rubbish, the only thing that worked

was t stick another tube onto it, or a lid

in case of a stopped pipe, and to
move it up and down, things with

folding din't work in 3d printing.

Weird. There, a question in the back.
inaudible question from the audience

Audience: Oh, once again with mike.
If you do the finger on it, you're

making a half stopped pipe, which means
the tube gets longer.

Benjamin: Yes.
Audience: It makes sense that

is gets lower.
Benjamin: What exactly make sense, that?

No. That?
labial pipe, different pitch

But why is it a fifth? For a stopped pipe
it should be an octave.

laughter

Audience: They have different length.

Benjamin: Yes, should we, do I have two
of identical length? Yes, If I take this

and add that. So, same length now, ok?

labial pipe, different pitch
It wants to overblow, that doesn't fit.

I don't gat the basic frequency.
labial pipe, different pitch

That tends to happen when a tube is
too thin relative to the length. If one

wants to have a sound with lots of
partials, one makes a thinner pipe but

when one overdoes it one doesn't get
the basic frequency anymore.

inaudible question from the audience
Yes, brass instruments.

laughter
inaudible question from the audience

Exactly.
inaudible question from the audience

laughter
Ok, then not, don't know. There is a limit

to how much I can recommend blowing
into them because I was very sick last week.

laughter
But apart from that you are invited to

try them all. They all look a bit
differently. I've also made

traverse flutes.

traverse flute
I just wanted to try it.

Makes a tone.
Cool, thanks.

applause

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