Virtual Organs
A Virtual Organ is a program which runs in your computer and displays a full organ console on your monitor. It has keyboards, stops, pistons and pedals, just like the real thing. You can, after a style, play it with your computer keyboard and mouse and listen through the computer speakers or headphones. But, to be useful as a practice organ, you need to plug in a MIDI keyboard, or two, or three. If you want pedals, you'll need a MIDI pedalboard.
How can I try this out?
You just download the program, or programs, you want. Run them, and you will see the consoles. Later, I'll give you some info on how to get started and you can plug in your earphones, click around with your mouse, prod at the keyboard, and hear all the different sounds to get an idea if it is going to work for you. That costs nothing and you will be a wiser person for trying it out. If it doesn't work for you, or not well, then your computer is probably not up to the job. More memory may help or it may be a space problem with your hard drive. If the latter, you can maybe move files onto CDs or DVDs or uninstall programs you aren't using much. If it does work, you just have to plug in the right key/pedal boards to get a useable system.
Where do I get the programs - What do they cost?
Good News! You can download the programs for a full Wurlitzer, or St Anne's Moseley, over the internet for free! Each has two manuals and a pedalboard and a huge range of stops. The Wurlitzer has all the theatre organ effects you'd expect. St Anne's is a perfect replica of a classical church organ, recorded pipe by pipe. So, the minimum requirement is a reasonable computer, several GBs of hard disc space, lots of memory, a pair of good headphones, at least one MIDI keyboard, a MIDI to USB adapter (£7.50 from Amazon - one for each keyboard) and a broadband connection. If your broadband is slow, or you don't have it, Hauptwerk will post you a trial disc. Here is where you go for the programs:
Miditzer - The Wurlitzer
Hauptwerk - St Anne's Moseley -
I haven't got a MIDI pedalboard! What's MIDI anyway?
A MIDI pedalboard is similar to a MIDI keyboard, except that you play it with your feet! In fact, you can plug in a mini USB MIDI keyboard controller (£35 from Amazon) and it can be configured in the programs to work as a pedalboard. The trick then is to work out how to play a mini keyboard with your feet! The accepted way is to build yourself a pedalboard, put a switch on each pedal and wire these to the circuit board on the mini keyboard. Instructions will follow. It's what I'm doing. You can buy a commercial pedalboard ready to plug in for about £1500 -2500.
MIDI is just a way of connecting digital keyboards and other sound gear and computers together. Just make sure you are using a keyboard that is entitled a USB MIDI keyboard controller, or one that has a MIDI IN and a MIDI OUT socket. Use the cables as advised later, and you're off!
I haven't got a MIDI keyboard and I haven't got a computer!
Sorry, but you need both. You need a reasonably up to date desktop or laptop with 2GB or more of memory, though you may get away with less. The MIDI keyboard can be cheap and cheerful because you aren't going to use its own sounds at all. You just use it as a dumb keyboard. If it does have all the gubbins, just turn the volume to zero. Check out the web for MIDI keyboard controllers or MIDI keyboards. If it is called a USB MIDI keyboard, it saves you the cost of a USB adapter to plug it into your PC. The critical thing is that it must be MIDI compatible and have either a USB plug or MIDI IN/OUT sockets.
How do I make it all work
It's not hard. I assume you have downloaded the program you want, either Miditzer or the Hauptwerk free trial of St Anne's Moseley. You should have the icons for one or both of these on your computer screen. When you click on one, you get a console and when you use your mouse or keyboard, you can hear sounds. If not, click on the swell or crescendo pedals and see if it works then. It should if your PC sounds are working and you hear them. If not, take advice, you need the sound working, of course. If all is well, go to the next bit:
