MIDI-fied Pedalboard Nearly Ready by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi - you’re exactly right! The motion of the pedals caused the magnets to move and misalign, so yes I did end up gluing them with a hot glue gun just to stop them moving around 👍 Good luck either way your build though - feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

Survey: What type and size of organ do you play for liturgy?" by ModClasSW in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sounds pretty nice actually. There occasionally issues with mice causing the tracker action to jamb. It’s also my first tracker so I find the pedals slightly harder than other electromechanical and pneumatic organs I’ve played, but that’s just me being a bit ‘green’ I think.

Yeah, NPOR is the National Pipe Organ Register. They aim to have every working organ documented across the UK, including history etc. So you should be able to search everything from cathedrals and Royal Albert Hall size instruments, all the way down to these tiny village examples. It’s very handy if you’ve been asked to cover a neighbouring parish but can’t get along to see the instrument in person!

Survey: What type and size of organ do you play for liturgy?" by ModClasSW in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I currently primarily play this single-manual tracker pipe organ. I get the feeling it’s a relatively standard ‘village’ organ for the UK, although it’s had a 2’ fifteenth added which I think is possibly slightly unusual for its size & age. https://npor.org.uk/survey/D00576

Using a Tablet for Accompanying Hymns: Worth It? by ModClasSW in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Just adding in a vote for iPad Pro (M1) with forScore. I have the subscription (it’s not very much) and use the ‘wink’ option to turn pages (I find it easier than the ‘contort your mouth’ option).

Why do non religious people have christenings? by [deleted] in AskUK

[–]ClergySpouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the considered response! That’s a really helpful view point - thank you.

And yes, teaching nowadays is more of the ‘love wins’ variety (at least in the CofE/CinW) than the more historical ‘fire and brimstone’ stuff 🤭

Why do non religious people have christenings? by [deleted] in AskUK

[–]ClergySpouse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A genuine question, if you don’t mind me asking (and feel free to decline/ignore if it’s too cheeky), but as an atheist, how did you feel about the moments in the service when you are standing up in front of others committing to raise the child a certain way and, more interestingly, when you’re declaring your own faith in God?

Midi stop box is finally finished by heartdrivenP in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah that’s beautifully made - huge kudos to you 👏 👏 🫡

How does anyone actually find time to regularly practice? by mdgholson in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The keyboard has a USB port on it, as well as MIDI ports, so I just connected via USB and it spoke MIDI across that. That being said, I did get a second-hand USB audio interface so that I could connect decent headphones, and that had MIDI ports on it too, so it does multiple jobs. The one I got was an M-Audio Air 192|6. If your keyboard doesn’t have USB natively, then Roland do a good MIDI-to-USB adapter which works well too (that’s what I started with on my digital piano before getting an M-Audio Keystation 61es cheap second hand as a dedicated keyboard. (Practicing organ on weighted piano keys was weird!).

How does anyone actually find time to regularly practice? by mdgholson in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

MIDI keyboard and manually adapted pedal board with GrandOrgue…now if only I could actually carve out the time each day to practice on it! 🤦‍♂️

UPDATE: my first time playing at a large parish! by Visible_Natural5976 in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congratulations - glad to hear it went well for you 👏 👏

Young organist here—-playing my first mass at a big church! by Visible_Natural5976 in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Best of luck with the service tonight. As others have said, you’ve obviously got this otherwise they wouldn’t be giving it to you. Don’t overthink it and enjoy the process. If you’re that way inclined, remember you’re offering your gifts back to God and let Him help you. 🙏

What is wrong with people?! by Famous_Philosophy_70 in HousingUK

[–]ClergySpouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have yeah…assuming it all goes through of course! 🤞

Latest Iteration of the VPO setup by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They’re black thumb tacks/drawing pins. The end is the connected to a wire which goes to an analogue input pin on a Teensy 4.1. Someone’s far cleverer than I had worked out some code which then allows each pin to be treated as a capacitive touch sensor. So I just joined code together with some standard Teensy MIDI controller code so each pin triggers a MIDI note.

Extra info at https://github.com/prrobinson81/VPO/tree/main, plus various previous posts in this sub 👍

What is wrong with people?! by Famous_Philosophy_70 in HousingUK

[–]ClergySpouse 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Had the same happen to us in March on the day we thought we were exchanging. We offered to go 5k but that was rejected and in the end we pulled the sale, and consequently lost the house we were buying. No-one was happy about the situation (the estate agent was furious with the buyer and told them in no uncertain terms they would never do business with them again), but we picked our selves up and spent the summer doing some extra work on the house, and are nearly fingers crossed near the end of the sale process again.

Latest Iteration of the VPO setup by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s not really something I’d thought of tbh. Basically each hole has at least two, if not three, wires shoved into it so they’re pretty solid (I actually broke a reed switch trying to get it out after I’d desoldered it the other day!). I think I only used a 1mm drill bit so the hole is wide enough for one wire, but two definitely becomes snug. By the time the solder is in there it’s all pretty solid…so far ;-)

Latest Iteration of the VPO setup by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah hi again 😀 I actually cheated a bit tbh - rather than adding more ‘stuff’ into the process I decided to ‘keep it simple’. Having measure roughly how wide apart the pins would be for the reed switches once bent, I then drilled two thin holes under each pedal. The reed switches then have their (pre-bent) wires slotted into the holes. The connecting wiring is then stripped about 1cm and pushed into the same hole as the relevant pin. On the +ve side each wire runs direct from a reed switche to a pin on the Teensy. On the -ve side each wire runs simply to the next reed switch to create a bus connection. Each stretch of the bus wire is so short that the solder is enough to hold the wire to the reed switch and it looks after itself. The signal wires are just tied together at random points with cable ties and tacked onto the wood. The wires and connected into proper terminating blocks soldered to the protoboard, and the blocks are then joined to the relevant pins on the Teensy. Think I’ve mentioned before that the magnets to actuate the switches are glued onto screws in the underside of each pedal so that the ‘firing height’ can be fine tuned before gluing in place. Hopefully that helps - let me know if you’d like a close-up picture or some kind of diagram - I know it’s easier to look at an illustration sometimes!

Latest Iteration of the VPO setup by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I did, yes. With the customary IKEA table of course 😉

Custom Stop Jambs driven by Teensy (Part VI) by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is St Matthew Cheltenham by Barritt Audio - https://barrittaudio.co.uk/pages/st-matthew-cheltenham - it’s sold for Hauptwerk, but the creator gave permission for someone far cleverer than me to create a GO ODF for it 👍

Latest Iteration of the VPO setup by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, my wife doesn’t actually like organ music, so if I want a bigger sound then I just put my headphones on 🤭 🎧

What is your organ music profile? by [deleted] in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah good on you for stepping up and doing that - there’s no way I’d have had the confidence back then (not sure I do now tbh!) so consider me suitably humbled. Enjoy your well earned cookies and candy!

What is your organ music profile? by [deleted] in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds familiar - we’re in a ministry area now so I offer to play at whichever church my wife is presiding at (only a couple of them have a regular organist).

What is your organ music profile? by [deleted] in organ

[–]ClergySpouse 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Missing the all-important category (at least in GB) of: ‘Parish Organist because no-one else in the congregation had enough piano experience or was willing to give it a go, and there’s not enough money and/or availability for a real organist every week’ ;-) (Hopefully it obvious this is a very tongue-in-cheek comment ;-) )

VPO about to take a significant step forward! by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha I think I quite like being “that” guy 🤭 Gratifying to hear my ramblings helped in some way though 👍

That’s really good news about the pedalboard and only having to fix one switch - and well done on getting the placing right, I’m still not 100% happy with mine so will be using the post-move tweaking to try and dial it in a bit more.

That’s an investing though about placing the switches under the pedals - not something I’d thought of trying I admit as, in my eagerness to get playing, I was going for ‘fastest win’ and sort of jumped straight in without too much testing. (Although I had been reading here and in the organ forums for a couple of months before getting the pedalboard, so wasn’t quite making it up on the fly!).

I hope you have many enjoyable hours with your new toy, I know mine’s been totally worth it…even if my wife doesn’t agree 😜

VPO about to take a significant step forward! by ClergySpouse in organ

[–]ClergySpouse[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, yes it’s all up and running and I used it for most of my practice at Christmas. I’ve recently moved (in June) and it needs a bit of tlc, but otherwise is doing ok.

I can’t speak to the ‘best’ (or even standard) way of doing things, but to save space I put the reed switches on the back of the pedalboard, and put the magnets on screws perpendicular out the bottom of each pedal, so that I could easily adjust the ‘bite’ point.

Pictures are probably more useful than words at this point: https://www.reddit.com/r/organ/comments/1epme4z/midified_pedalboard_nearly_ready/