A beautifully-voiced English Pipe Organ in your pocket
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PIPE ORGAN for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch brings all the classic tones of a small English Pipe Organ to mobile devices, and offers an instrument that can grow with your budget and your abilities. It doesn't matter if you are a learner musician, a skilled pianist with no organ experience or a virtuoso pipe organist, you will find the huge range of tones available from Pipe Organ's 21 ranks of simulated pipes extremely rewarding. You can begin playing with a single 49-key USB MIDI keyboard, and progress from there onto a full Pipe Organ experience with 2 61-key manuals, 32-note pedalboard, Swell Pedal and Crescendo Pedal - or any combination inbetween.
Automatic bass pedal - helps pianists create an authentic 'organ' sound
When played with a single keyboard the Auto Pedal feature adds an automatic bass note in the pedal division. When playing with a single USB MIDI keyboard - you may be at home, in the studio, or a remote, infrequently-used church without a pipe organ - the combination of the Swell to Great coupler and Auto Pedal means that every sound the organ can make is at your fingertips through a single keyboard.
Support for Crescendo makes life even simpler for the beginner organist. Designed for use with a single manual and making extensive use of Swell to Great to maximise dynamic range, the 16-stage Crescendo takes you from a whisper-quiet flute through to the glory of the full organ. All stages of the Crescendo can be made expressive through the use of Swell pedal, which is mapped by default onto the Mod Wheel, MIDI CC 1. For advanced users every stage of the Crescendo's travel can be modified to give your own sweepable palette of registrations - Crescendo uses Piston Banks F and G, so reprogramming the Pistons in those banks gives you a fully customised, individual Crescendo.
Combining the best of traditional pipe organ sounds with MIDI convenience
Modern MIDI controller keyboards contain useful sliders, rotary controls, modulation wheels and drum pads. If you choose to use a Novation LaunchKEY keyboard (49 or 61-key model), everything you need is at your fingertips without having to set up anything inside the app. The LaunchKEY's Mod Wheel by default acts as a Swell Pedal, the first 4 rotary controls operate to control the in-app reverberation chamber, the fifth rotary control acts as a Crescendo pedal, the volume slider changes the application's overall volume, and the 16 drum pads operate the apps' Pistons and Piston Banks. 7 banks of 8 pistons give you the ability to access 56 programmable registration presets at the touch of a button.
NOTE THAT THE LaunchKey MKIII IS NOT GUARANTEED BY NOVATION TO WORK WITH iOS UNLESS EITHER AN EXTERNAL MIDI ADAPTER OR A POWERED USB HUB IS USED. WE RECOMMEND A POWERED HUB TO GIVE A SEAMLESS ROUTE TO MULTIPLE MANUALS.
Automatic bass pedal - helps pianists create an authentic 'organ' sound
When played with a single keyboard the Auto Pedal feature adds an automatic bass note in the pedal division. When playing with a single USB MIDI keyboard - you may be at home, in the studio, or a remote, infrequently-used church without a pipe organ - the combination of the Swell to Great coupler and Auto Pedal means that every sound the organ can make is at your fingertips through a single keyboard.
Support for Crescendo makes life even simpler for the beginner organist. Designed for use with a single manual and making extensive use of Swell to Great to maximise dynamic range, the 16-stage Crescendo takes you from a whisper-quiet flute through to the glory of the full organ. All stages of the Crescendo can be made expressive through the use of Swell pedal, which is mapped by default onto the Mod Wheel, MIDI CC 1. For advanced users every stage of the Crescendo's travel can be modified to give your own sweepable palette of registrations - Crescendo uses Piston Banks F and G, so reprogramming the Pistons in those banks gives you a fully customised, individual Crescendo.
Combining the best of traditional pipe organ sounds with MIDI convenience
Modern MIDI controller keyboards contain useful sliders, rotary controls, modulation wheels and drum pads. If you choose to use a Novation LaunchKEY keyboard (49 or 61-key model), everything you need is at your fingertips without having to set up anything inside the app. The LaunchKEY's Mod Wheel by default acts as a Swell Pedal, the first 4 rotary controls operate to control the in-app reverberation chamber, the fifth rotary control acts as a Crescendo pedal, the volume slider changes the application's overall volume, and the 16 drum pads operate the apps' Pistons and Piston Banks. 7 banks of 8 pistons give you the ability to access 56 programmable registration presets at the touch of a button.
NOTE THAT THE LaunchKey MKIII IS NOT GUARANTEED BY NOVATION TO WORK WITH iOS UNLESS EITHER AN EXTERNAL MIDI ADAPTER OR A POWERED USB HUB IS USED. WE RECOMMEND A POWERED HUB TO GIVE A SEAMLESS ROUTE TO MULTIPLE MANUALS.
Mapping of controls for Pipe Organ onto Novation LaunchKEY controller
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Integrated Player Organ - huge Hymnal storage, flexible playback options
Pipe Organ contains an integrated Hymnal and music playback system, driven by ultra-compact 'hymn' files. The in-app hymnal can store up to 1024 different pieces of music, yet retains a very small footprint on your device by utilizing a custom file format that delivers complete timing and performance accuracy, yet is typically 2.5 times smaller than a MIDI file of the same piece of music.
A recorded performance of a single piece of music can use up to 8 different registrations of stops during the performance (a single Bank of 8 Pistons), and registration changes are captured during recording so that the played back music is as close as possible to the recorded performance*.
5 separate 'Services' or Recitals can be stored in the app, and can be freely shared between devices**. You can choose to share single hymns, an entire service or your entire hymnal.
When played back as part of a Service or Recital, playback options allow the key of the song to be transposed up or down by up to 5 semitones relative to the recorded key, and the playback speed can be modified to be up to 2x or down to 0.5x the recorded speed.
Think of what you can do with a gorgeous-sounding Pipe Organ that can play itself - choir practise or a church service can still go ahead, even when your organist is indisposed. Best of all, with a small battery-powered amplifier you can take an organ and organist with you when you go Christmas caroling ...
*Reverberation settings and temperament settings are not captured within recordings, allowing you to customise tuning and reverberant space
**Musical performances purchased via In-App Purchase will not be shareable
A recorded performance of a single piece of music can use up to 8 different registrations of stops during the performance (a single Bank of 8 Pistons), and registration changes are captured during recording so that the played back music is as close as possible to the recorded performance*.
5 separate 'Services' or Recitals can be stored in the app, and can be freely shared between devices**. You can choose to share single hymns, an entire service or your entire hymnal.
When played back as part of a Service or Recital, playback options allow the key of the song to be transposed up or down by up to 5 semitones relative to the recorded key, and the playback speed can be modified to be up to 2x or down to 0.5x the recorded speed.
Think of what you can do with a gorgeous-sounding Pipe Organ that can play itself - choir practise or a church service can still go ahead, even when your organist is indisposed. Best of all, with a small battery-powered amplifier you can take an organ and organist with you when you go Christmas caroling ...
*Reverberation settings and temperament settings are not captured within recordings, allowing you to customise tuning and reverberant space
**Musical performances purchased via In-App Purchase will not be shareable
Advantages over pre-recorded 'Worship CDs' of organ music
Those worship CDs are very useful, and definitely have their place, but they are so frustratingly limited.
Worship CDs are an audio recording, so they are immutable. They have a fixed key and can't be transposed. So if they are in a key that is too high for your congregation to sing, there is nothing you can do to fix it. And you will just have to suffer either creaky noises or silence during the high notes.
Worship CDs have a fixed tempo that can't be changed. So if you find them a bit ponderous and would like them sped up, there is nothing you can do about it. If you are bringing a service into a care home and the recording on the worship CD is just too zippy and sprightly, you can't slow it down.
The recordings on worship CDs often have WAY too much reverb, which is often used to disguise the unpleasant, artificial nature of the 'organ' used to create the sounds. A huge reverberation simply isn't suitable for a small space, which is exactly where these worship CDs, and Pipe Organ, are likely to be used. Because let's face it, a giant Cathedral can afford an organist.
Our hymn files are performances, not audio files - it's as if we have a recording of exactly where the organist put his fingers and feet when he recorded the piece, but - and here is the cool thing - we can ask him to put his fingers and feet in slightly different places, and at slightly different times. We can tweak things as the files are played back, because they are NOT audio files, and YOU are in control of the playback. It's like having the organist in the room with you, under your control. If you want faster, you dial in faster. If you want slower, dial in slower. If you want to raise of lower the key, fine. If you want LOTS of reverb, if you want almost no reverb, fine and fine. You can even control the temperament of the organ, to give it a more 'Bach period' sound.
Worship CDs are an audio recording, so they are immutable. They have a fixed key and can't be transposed. So if they are in a key that is too high for your congregation to sing, there is nothing you can do to fix it. And you will just have to suffer either creaky noises or silence during the high notes.
Worship CDs have a fixed tempo that can't be changed. So if you find them a bit ponderous and would like them sped up, there is nothing you can do about it. If you are bringing a service into a care home and the recording on the worship CD is just too zippy and sprightly, you can't slow it down.
The recordings on worship CDs often have WAY too much reverb, which is often used to disguise the unpleasant, artificial nature of the 'organ' used to create the sounds. A huge reverberation simply isn't suitable for a small space, which is exactly where these worship CDs, and Pipe Organ, are likely to be used. Because let's face it, a giant Cathedral can afford an organist.
Our hymn files are performances, not audio files - it's as if we have a recording of exactly where the organist put his fingers and feet when he recorded the piece, but - and here is the cool thing - we can ask him to put his fingers and feet in slightly different places, and at slightly different times. We can tweak things as the files are played back, because they are NOT audio files, and YOU are in control of the playback. It's like having the organist in the room with you, under your control. If you want faster, you dial in faster. If you want slower, dial in slower. If you want to raise of lower the key, fine. If you want LOTS of reverb, if you want almost no reverb, fine and fine. You can even control the temperament of the organ, to give it a more 'Bach period' sound.
Turn an old, unloved iOS device into a wonderful musical instrument
Pipe Organ runs perfectly on any device capable of running iOS 10 and above, meaning iPad 4 or later, iPad Mini 2 or later, iPhone 5 and later, or iPod Touch 6G or7G.
However, Pipe Organ runs remarkably well on even older hardware that can only run iOS 9.3.5. On devices that are not powerful enough to run iOS 10 - e.g 2011 iPad 2, 2012 iPod Touch 5G - versions 1.1 and above of the app feature a "High Efficiency Synthesis" setting, which when turned on sacrifices a tiny amount of quality in order to save around 30% of CPU performance, making everything we have tried play seamlessly.
However, Pipe Organ runs remarkably well on even older hardware that can only run iOS 9.3.5. On devices that are not powerful enough to run iOS 10 - e.g 2011 iPad 2, 2012 iPod Touch 5G - versions 1.1 and above of the app feature a "High Efficiency Synthesis" setting, which when turned on sacrifices a tiny amount of quality in order to save around 30% of CPU performance, making everything we have tried play seamlessly.
VIDEOS - watch, learn about Pipe Organ, and enjoy the music
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Download the User Manual
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This user manual is embedded within Pipe Organ as in-app help, but it can sometimes be more convenient to have the manual within your Books app, on your e-book reader, or just printed out on paper. So here it is. Also, we can keep this updated more frequently than the in-app help, so check here for updates.
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DOWNLOAD
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Be part of a global musical family - grow our hymnal!
Do you want a hymn, a voluntary, a piece of liturgical music or just a beautiful old folk tune that you have performed to be made available around the world to users of Pipe Organ? If you record a piece using Pipe Organ and are proud of it, let us know, and send it to us. We will be hosting a collection of community-generated pieces of music here, and will make a point of including a collection of them into every future release of the app. If you would like to join our global community of players, please send tunes to us HERE.
Thanks to Piotr Grabowski for permission to use his 'Friesach' samples as the basis for these wavetables
Our wavetables were derived from the beautifully-recorded sample set of the 'Friesach' organ, recorded by Piotr Grabowski in Friesach, Austria. For more details about the Friesach Organ, and to download the sample set to play on a PC-based Virtual Pipe Organ, go here. Our process took a selection of Piotr's Friesach samples, extracted the harmonic fingerprints from the sounds, reconstructed the pipe's attack and decay dynamics, and rebuilt them into this lovely organ, of much smaller scale and very different sound to the orginal, but retaining the pipes' characteristic harmonic content.
Our wavetables were derived from the beautifully-recorded sample set of the 'Friesach' organ, recorded by Piotr Grabowski in Friesach, Austria. For more details about the Friesach Organ, and to download the sample set to play on a PC-based Virtual Pipe Organ, go here. Our process took a selection of Piotr's Friesach samples, extracted the harmonic fingerprints from the sounds, reconstructed the pipe's attack and decay dynamics, and rebuilt them into this lovely organ, of much smaller scale and very different sound to the orginal, but retaining the pipes' characteristic harmonic content.