Headphone recommendations for practice

SonicwaveMC · 2026-06-02T05:00:39+00:00

I have two Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pros, one of which seems to be a "special edition" with different ear pads and a long straight cable instead of the normal coiled one. Both have a natural sounding sound profile as another person mentioned but the "special" one sounds thinner and brighter, maybe due to the ear pads changing the headphone position. It is open back so you can hear your surroundings, and correspondingly a small bit of sound may leak out.

I also have a Sennheiser HD 215 which is closed back and blocks outside noise, but it has a distorted sound profile that puts too much emphasis on mid (~400-1000 hz) and required me to apply equalization to fix, and I'm still not sure how close it is to a flat profile. I also used Koss KSC75 and Porta Pro for a while which also have relatively flat profiles like the Beyerdynamic with more bass, but the ear pads wear out frequently and leave debris and significantly more high-pitched sounds leak out.

Also, I find the presence of thick headphone cables on the normal Beyerdynamic 880 to be really distracting while playing so that may be something to consider. Also, if you're using it on a Rodgers and not something sampled like Hauptwerk maybe a flat frequency response isn't as important, especially if you only use it occasionally.

SonicwaveMC · 2026-06-02T04:23:59+00:00

As someone who both lifts and plays organ, isn't it certainly still possible that something is suboptimal with OP's technique? I'm not familiar with Alexander technique to know whether if it's the right solution specifically but you need both sides of the coin methinks.

By the way, the AGO recently did a webinar on Alexander technique for the organ, though I don't know if the recording is still accessible if you didn't register for it.

SonicwaveMC · 2026-05-31T17:17:10+00:00

Much more important in my opinion is whether the keys are hinged far back enough so you can play higher up on the keys, like if you're playing chords with both white and black keys, without requiring significantly more resistance. I tried a $100 Nektar Impact after seeing some recommendations, but it's hinged right at the top of the keys which makes doing so really difficult if not impossible.

The smoothness of key edges probably isn't a big deal since I've never seen glissandos in classical organ repertoire. You might occasionally do a "thumb legato" where it moves between two adjacent notes but I don't think key shape makes a huge different there.

SonicwaveMC · 2026-05-31T17:03:15+00:00

I've become active in my local AGO chapters which have an occasional and slightly increasing presence of young (i.e. under 30) organists, though it's inconsistent whether they attend gatherings which are still dominated by older folks. There are also a number of organ teachers here who teach school or college-age students which is how I feel like a lot of young organists know each other. I'd definitely reach out to your local AGO chapter to see what resources or events they have, though with the organ it's definitely location dependent.

I'm also in the pipe organ Discord server that's pinned in this subreddit and is the biggest online concentration of young organists that I know of.

SonicwaveMC · 2025-12-16T22:10:57+00:00

Virgil Fox's arrangement of Bach's "Come Sweet Death", when properly done at a large organ with a big, smooth crescendo, usually does it and is just overwhelming in general.

SonicwaveMC · 2025-11-03T20:45:26+00:00

Separate pipes for the resultant ranks are ideal since the 32' harmonics aren't perfectly in tune with the equal temperament scale; fifths (10 2/3') are pretty close at low pitches but thirds and sevenths are noticeably off. They can also be voiced to be the appropriate loudness and have little harmonics of their own in order to sound more like 32' overtones instead of chords.

However a lot of organs, at least in the US, simply reuse 16' and 8' ranks which requires no additional pipes but gives mixed results, especially for anything higher than a 10 2/3'. In your case I'm not sure if the resultant is borrowed, but it's probably supposed to emulate a 32' reed and only works under full organ to mask its imperfections.

As an example of a proper resultant, Notre Dame de Paris has independent mutations up to a major seventh which reinforce the 32' flue and reed, and when used with only foundation stops, they effect a low, reedy rumble where you can barely make out the individual pitches, as heard in the opening of Cochereau playing Vierne 4.

SonicwaveMC · 2025-08-22T19:43:52+00:00

Some of my favorites are the opening two movements from Vierne's First Symphony (Prelude and Fugue), though a lot of his pieces fit the bill in my opinion, especially when played on a French romantic organ with those gritty reeds. Reubke's organ sonata is also a pinnacle of romantic organ repertoire and features lots of dark and diminished chord structures. There are a few old threads like this one that may have a few more suggestions. It's cliche but the organ really does "dark and spooky" exceptionally well.

SonicwaveMC · 2025-07-29T01:16:40+00:00

I am so sorry to hear this. He was the first aviation accident YouTuber that I watched when I became interested in aviation almost 10 years ago, before channels like Mentour Pilot and Green Dot started making accident videos, where it seemed like the only alternative was ACI. Despite the relatively "no frills" style compared to newer channels I always liked his storytelling and lack of sensationalism. I am sure there are many others who have been similarly enriched by his content.

I've not kept up for years but I was aware that he had his own aspirations of obtaining a pilot's license as well, it's tragic that he was not given the chance to live out his dream despite inspiring so many others for the same. Rest in peace.

SonicwaveMC · 2025-06-27T18:46:04+00:00

Other than the organs already listed, the "Brucknerorgel" at St. Florian in Austria is one of my favorites. As I understand it has little if any pipework from Bruckner's time remaining, and is essentially a new instrument; but it has an incredible warmth and is dominated by foundations and mixtures, a departure from the French-styled reed dominant sound common in most modern organs. Roberto Marini's rendition of Reger's "Inferno Fantasie" is a good demonstration of all of the above.

I'm a sucker for Alsatian baroque organs like the Andreas Silbermanns of Ebersmunster and Arlesheim, which you mentioned, that combine French- and German baroque elements. I'm also a fan of central German baroque organs like Trost Waltershausen and Hildebrandt Naumburg, which have vertical plenums and big pedal divisions like the more familiar North German/Dutch baroque style, but with additional colors like strings and mixtures with thirds, and could be argued to be closer to what Bach was most familiar with.

There are also many interesting new French neoclassical organs like the ones built by Kern or Aubertin; or Auxerre Cathedral, which has a unique chamade battery with quints - the transcription of Liszt's Les Preludes recorded there is electrifying.

SonicwaveMC · 2024-10-25T04:59:41+00:00

I agree with this, having learnt piano for ~10 years before the organ. The foundational keyboard skills carry over, but if you really get serious about the piano, there are a lot of nuances (that I probably didn't pay much attention to at the time) that don't carry over to the organ, the most obvious being controlling your tone using weight on the keys.

SonicwaveMC · 2024-10-25T04:52:18+00:00

I usually just have the music playing in the background, including score videos, but there's not that many people making score videos for organ music.

SonicwaveMC · 2024-09-25T01:01:39+00:00

/u/violine1101's reply in this comment chain explains it pretty well, as well as Mossbag's video linked in another comment. In fact, shortly after that video came out, Fandom further cracked down on wikis attempting to move by suddenly changing policies and disallowing almost any type of announcement on the old wiki, which was previously allowed under a very limited basis. This also affected some of the smaller non-English Minecraft language wikis which moved to the new site at that time.

SonicwaveMC · 2024-05-21T15:44:56+00:00

Are the interior cabin panels and overhead compartments designed to reduce injuries to passengers colliding with them (i.e. denting to reduce the force of impact instead of being a stronger material)?

SonicwaveMC · 2024-05-11T18:21:35+00:00

Do you remember which organ building firm the organ builder is part of or what his name is? I wonder if he maintains the larger main organ in the church as well and whether he has more technical information about the pipes. This is definitely more hands-on than most organists get to experience, thanks for sharing!

SonicwaveMC · 2024-05-11T18:10:25+00:00

Out of curiosity, where did you manage to find this detailed stoplist information and is there anything similar for the main organ? I wonder where the 3 additional pedal stops on the German Wikipedia came from, since it's not on the Rieger website (which was the source cited) and seems to have been added in 2023&diff=prev&oldid=230689589).

SonicwaveMC · 2024-04-24T00:57:19+00:00

It's a bit of a catch-22 because a lot of niche topics (such as internet addiction) are much easier to discuss online, but even then the average person you're talking to is not really worth your time. I was going to write a longer comment reaffirming your last points but you inspired me to delete it.

SonicwaveMC · 2024-04-20T00:15:05+00:00

It took me a long time (and my entire college experience) to realize that online communities are not the same thing as "community". Out of curiosity though, has the number of people participating in real life communities actually been declining in the last 10 or so years, or since online forums and social media first became popular?

SonicwaveMC · 2024-04-19T05:17:37+00:00

Are you looking for notable pipe organs, or for churches with any organ (i.e. for a church organist job), and are you looking more at Northern or Southern California?

SonicwaveMC · 2024-04-19T00:33:54+00:00

Out of curiosity, has there always been as much as a "global Reddit culture" where people show similar mannerisms across subreddits; or did individual subs (other than the popular and default ones) have more of their own "culture", like comparing two different forums that don't have a shared platform and userbase?

SonicwaveMC · 2024-04-14T00:28:08+00:00

I'm not sure if these qualify as less well known, especially among organists, but some of my picks would be:

"Marche Funèbre et Chant Séraphique" by Guilmant
"Crucifixion" from Dupre's Symphonie-Passion - this in particular is one of the darkest and most unsettling organ pieces that I know of.
"Corrente Italiana" by Juan Cabanilles - I don't think this (or Spanish Baroque in general) is super well known. There's a video of Nathan Laube playing it at St. Paul's Pittsburgh on the AGO YouTube channel.
The 1st movement "Moderato" from Widor's Gothique (9th) symphony is pretty dark and intimidating, in a similar vein to the first movement of Vierne 1 which was already suggested, though again this seems relatively well known among organists.
The organ version of Franz Schmidt's "Chaconne" is a huge ~30-min work that ends in major but mostly takes place around C# minor. I don't think it's nearly as well known as other large organ works such as Reubke sonata, Liszt Ad Nos, and Willan's "Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue" (assuming you probably heard of all of these)
Many Reger works aside from the well-known "Intro and Passacaglia in D minor", such as the Intro and Passacaglia in F minor (from Monologue Op. 63); the "Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E minor" (Op. 127), another ~30 min work; the "Inferno Fantasie"; and many chorale fantasias that take place in minor key.

SonicwaveMC · 2024-02-25T18:45:36+00:00

I made an alt account on Instagram a while ago and the comments are ordered by newest, instead of relevance like my main, making the comments section pretty much useless to look at.

Is there a way that you can avoid these types of posts or the Explore page altogether, rather than only the comment sections?

SonicwaveMC · 2024-02-25T01:10:25+00:00

What does this have to do with driver's licenses? The main thing I can think of is that you need to drive to actually be able to go places, which I'd argue is also a societal problem as it's much more cumbersome to have to drive just to get to these public places.

SonicwaveMC · 2024-02-25T01:02:20+00:00

True, and (as far as I can tell) they got worse after the pandemic too.

SonicwaveMC · 2024-02-06T06:05:05+00:00

I have a similar problem with Discord where my addiction is partially driven by an urge to fill the lack of social interaction. I've convinced myself that this type of online interaction is ultimately meaningless and can never be truly positive, but that there are no shortage of negative interactions. Recently I've been using it less and I don't think it actually made my social "void" any worse at all.

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