Grant Union High School Organ Page

I had just one practice session 2 days earlier but on April 13, 2006 I decided to try recording. Here's my first try:

New York, New York

I played the organ about once a week for practice, and then made some more recordings on June 12, 2006. Here are my next efforts. I know it's not recommended to copy others' arrangements, but I have always had the desire to at least TRY to play a George Wright arrangement. So, this is what I came up with. Of course, because of my limitations, it probably doesn't sound like George anyway, but it was fun trying!

I Know That You Know

And so on to something completely different, here is an original song I wrote in 1976, as I try it out on the King of Instruments (as with so many songs, it was written over a lost love!)

Why Can't You Let it Be Me

This next recording was done in August. I tried moving the mics closer to the chambers for this one. I would like to get even closer, but since they are so high up, my mic stands will not extend that far. But still I was pleased with the sound. I also experimented with the reverb settings a bit.

Marzy Doats

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The question has come up, "How did you record the organ?" So here goes:

The organ is in a high school auditorium which seats, I believe, about 900. But the chambers do not open toward the audience, they are over the stage on the left and right, about 1 story up, so the organ basically speaks toward the stage. I used 2 Marshall MXL 990 condenser mics (these are cardiod pattern). I put them on an adaptor plate (2 mics on 1 stand) about 20 feet in from the front of the stage and faced them at 45° angles toward the chambers. (However, starting with the August, 2006 recordings I have been putting the mics as close to the chambers as possible, which seems to eliminate the slight hollowness of the room.) I raised the mic stand to its full height, about 6 or 7 feet. The mics then fed into an M-Audio Mobile Pre USB preamp. This was plugged into my Dell laptop computer, and I use Goldwave as my recording software.

I record 15-minute segments (wav files), then, using the Goldwave editing software I extract individual songs and add just a touch of reverb since the auditorium is fairly dead (listen). I don't add any EQ. After that I use Windows Media Encoder to make the .wma files.

dfinger@sacranet.com

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