Skinner nameplate.jpgZion Lutheran Church,
Millwood Washington

Virtual E.M. Skinner Organ

 

The organ at Zion Lutheran Church is a virtual E.M. Skinner 3-manual and pedal organ controlled by the state-of-the-art Hauptwerk™ virtual instrument software developed by Martin Dyde – from Milan Digital Audio. The incredible realism of the organ is attributed to the multi-channel audio system which splits the digitally sampled pipe ranks amongst many different speaker systems.  The organ boasts 16 channels of audio - output to 24 channels of amplification.

By using the Hauptwerk™  system, the organ is able to replicate the complexity of swell enclosures, tremulants, air flow turbulence, and tuning drift – making the instrument sound convincingly like a real (and costly) pipe organ.  The computer, with its Intel Quad-Core processor and 8 gigabytes of system memory is able to provide the very high polyphony necessary to model this very large pipe organ.

The organ has 3787 “virtual” pipes, 54 ranks in 4 divisions.

 

About the digitally sampled pipes:

Most of the ranks in the organ are digitally sampled from the 1928 E.M. Skinner, Opus 719 – at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the few E.M. Skinner organs that remains in nearly all of its original state.  The samples are taken from inside the pipe chambers with microphones moving closely from pipe to pipe. Sample recordings were originally done in stereo at 24 bit, 96KHz direct to disk with the highest quality microphones and preamplifiers.  The final sample resolution was converted to 24 bit, 48KHz.  All pipe samples are 8-9 seconds with multiple sustain loops.

- Samples provided by Milan Digital Audio

 

The specification of the organ at Zion Lutheran

PEDAL ORGAN

SWELL ORGAN

COUPLERS

GREAT ORGAN

CHOIR ORGAN

Untersatz 32

Open Diapason 16

Contra Bass 16

Bourdon 16

Gamba (CH)16

Bourdon (SW) 16

Octave 8

Gedeckt 8

Cello (CH) 8

Super Octave 4

Flute (CH) 4

Flute (CH) 2

Trombone 16

Tromba 8

 

Bourdon 16

Diapason 8

Rohrflute 8

Salicional 8

Voix Celeste 8

Flauto Dolce 8

Flute Celeste 8

Octave 4

Flute (triangular) 4

Flautino 2

Mixture V

Waldhorn 16

Trumpet 8

Oboe d'Amore 8

Clarion 4

Vox Humana 8

Tremolo

 

Great to Pedal

Swell to Pedal

Choir to Pedal

Swell Super to Pedal

Choir Super to Pedal

 

Swell to Great

Choir to Great

Swell to Choir

 

Great Super

Swell Super

 

Swell Sub to Great

Swell Super to Great

Swell Sub to Choir

Swell Super to Choir

Choir Sub

Choir Super

Choir Sub to Great

Choir Super to Great

 

Double Diapason 16

First Diapason 8

Second Diapason 8

Harmonic Flute 8

Gamba 8

Stopped Diapason 8

Octave 4

Rohrflute 4

Twelfth 2 2/3

Fifteenth 2

Harmonics III

Tromba 8

Clarion 4

Tuba Mirabilis (CH) 8

 

Pedal to Great Bass

 

 

Gamba 16

Concert Flute 8

Gamba 8

Gamba Celeste 8

Dulciana 8

Unda Maris 8

Flute 4

Gambette 4

Nazard 2 2/3

Flute 2

Tierce 1 3/5

Larigot 1 1/3

French Horn 8

Orchestral Oboe 8

Clarinet 8

Tuba Mirabilis 8

Tremolo

 

14 Stops;

9 unenclosed,
5 expressive

(no unification)

16 Stops plus Trem

Expressive

 

 

14 Stops;

13 unenclosed,

1 expressive

 

16 Stops plus Trem;

Expressive

 

14 Drawknobs

17 Drawknobs

18 Tilting Tablets

15 Drawknobs

17 Drawknobs 

 

Computer System:

 

Windows XP/64

InWin IW-R400 4U rackmount server chassis

Corsair Professional HX650W modular power supply

ASUS P5QL-PRO motherboard

Intel Q8400 Quad Core 2.66 GHz processor

ASUS Radeon HD3450 512MB 64bit video card

8 GB RAM - Kingston HyperX 1066MHz DDR2 Non-ECC L5 (5-5-5-15) DIMM Memory (4 x 2GB)

Hard drive – Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 - 80.0GB 7200RPM SATA

Internal DVD-RW Drive - Sony

APC 1400VA rackmount Uninterruptable Power Supply

 

Audio Interface:

 

EMU 1820 Digital Audio System

v  Sample Rate: 48kHz

v  Bit Depth: 24-bit, 32-bit processing

v  Eight channels - 1/4" Balanced Outputs

v  Eight channels – Optical ADAT

 

Behringer ADA8000

v  Ultra high-quality 8-channel A/D & D/A converter

v  Optical ADAT® interface

 

Audio System:

 

Great, Pedal: Six channels / 17 ranks

 

6-speaker output group: (64Hz-20KHz)

v  (6) Behringer B2031  225-watt active studio monitors *

 

*Great Double Open Diapason 16' bass octave routed to Pedal/Swell/Choir speaker group

 

Pedal, Swell, Choir: 10 channels / 37 ranks

 

2-speaker output group (16Hz-20KHz)

v  Behringer CX2310 2-way active crossover

 

Ø   16Hz-80Hz -> NADY XA-1600 amplifier (1600watts@4ohms) – (2) 18” 400-watt full-range woofers

        - plus additional Velodyne ULD-18 sub-woofer

Ø  80Hz-20KHz -> (2) Behringer B2031A  225-watt active studio monitors

 

4-speaker output group (32Hz-20KHz)

v  (2) Behringer CX2310 2-way active crossover

Ø  32Hz-128Hz -> (2) Behringer A500 amplifier (2X160watts@8ohms) – (4) 15” full-range woofers

Ø  128Hz-20KHz -> (2) Behringer A500 amplifier (2X230watts@8ohms) – (4) Infinity 9623i 3-way 6”X9”

 

4-speaker output group (32Hz-20KHz)

Ø  32Hz-80Hz -> (2) Behringer 2092A Truth active sub-woofer

Ø  80Hz-20KHz -> (4) Behringer A500 amplifier (Bridged Mono,500watts@8ohms) – (8) Behringer B2031P passive studio monitors*

 

*Each channel = (2) B2031P wired in series @ 8ohms