Residence Organ Mr F. Rumsey, Guildford

I was looking for a new practice organ to replace the ageing Compton 365 I had been using for a few years. After some serious homework lasting some six months I narrowed my decision down to a couple of options based on different methods of tone production. In the end I decided to go for an organ based on the Wyvern WPX system as it represented the best compromise for me between price and the pipe-like sound quality I was looking for.

I decided that I needed a three manual instrument in order to be able to practice most of the mainstream repertoire, and I wanted a Positiv-like third department. It turned out to be possible to have two entirely different specifications that could be selected – one a traditional English romantic specification and the other a German classical specification. The English spec has the typical cathedral full swell sound and a solid Great department with a sparkly four-rank mixture. I’ve got a very nice Open Diapason on the Great which is remarkably realistic. The Choir on the English spec is somewhat more mellow than the Positiv on the German spec (which has more chiffy attacks and a three rank Scharf mixture). These specifications are based on entirely separate pipe samples, so they sound quite different. You can have mixtures with any combination of ranks, so if you need a 15.19.22.26 Fourniture on one spec and a five rank 19.22.26.29.33 in Silbermann style on another, that’s entirely possible. I was able to specify all the stops myself and have it built to my requirements, including a console with enough knee room to fit my six foot five height! The console is very nicely made, with a lovely wood finish and the pistons are of high quality, including proper brass toe pistons and solid expression pedals.

Experimenting with the voicing is fun, using software that enables modification of each note of each stop in a fairly flexible way. If you don’t like the sample for a particular stop, you can swap it for another one, and there is quite a range of choice on the sound cards. You can usually find something that works, then modify it a bit. You can calibrate the swell pedal so that the treble disappears rapidly as the box closes, which makes for quite a realistic-sounding swell. Having spent quite some days getting it sounding as I want, it is really satisfying to play. (You don’t have to do this all yourself of course, but if you have a technical interest and some time it may be worth it. This is particularly true in a small room where, because you are close to the loudspeakers, you become very aware of minor issues with tuning and sound quality that you would probably not notice so much in a church.)

I specified the audio on this organ, as I wanted to be able to use my own loudspeakers and it’s in quite a small room. I built a large subwoofer to get right down to the bottom of the 32 foot Contra Bourdon (16 Hz). Three pedal speakers are built into the console, then I have two for the Great which are high above the console on the wall, two for the Swell, which are between the Great and facing backwards to give a more diffuse sound, then two for the Choir which are behind me in true Ruckpositiv fashion. There are two additional speakers carrying only reverberation, which are to the sides, creating an immersive effect from the artificial reverb built into the organ. The other speakers also carry some low level reverb to spread it around the room, particularly at the back. The result is a cathedral in my study!

Francis Rumsey
6th July 2006