Victorian Chapel Organ
a gorgeous little church organ with a truly massive sound
The Victorian Chapel Organ is a simulation of a small church organ, typical of those found in small English Victorian churches. It is playable by externally attached MIDI controllers. The organ can use a single keyboard, two keyboards or two keyboards plus pedals.
Victorian Chapel Organ is available exclusively on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
The organ presents a very simple single-screen interface, showing the organ's console of 17 stops, 3 couplers, 7 pistons and a button to program the pistons with registrations. Apart from a quick link to the app's settings page, this is all there is to learn - you can be playing in seconds, just attach a USB MIDI keyboard and off you go.
Victorian Chapel Organ does not use samples for synthesis. This allows the app to have a tiny footprint, very fast load time, and zero background noise. The voices are synthesized by 'wavetable' technology, every pipe containing a unique set of 4 tables, with no sharing within or between stops. The wavetables are computed from a detailed harmonic analysis of the sounds of real instruments.
So even though the synthesis is pretty scientific and complicated, there really is an Oboe deep down underneath the Oboe stop, and there really is a human voice underlying both the Vox Soprano and Vox Celeste stops. It is very much an 'imitative' organ.
Victorian Chapel Organ does not use samples for synthesis. This allows the app to have a tiny footprint, very fast load time, and zero background noise. The voices are synthesized by 'wavetable' technology, every pipe containing a unique set of 4 tables, with no sharing within or between stops. The wavetables are computed from a detailed harmonic analysis of the sounds of real instruments.
So even though the synthesis is pretty scientific and complicated, there really is an Oboe deep down underneath the Oboe stop, and there really is a human voice underlying both the Vox Soprano and Vox Celeste stops. It is very much an 'imitative' organ.
Device compatibility
Victorian Chapel Organ runs on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, requiring iOS 9.0 or above. The use of wavetable synthesis means your device's CPU is very lightly loaded when synthesizing. The Victorian Chapel Organ runs perfectly on a 2011 iPad 2, a 2012 iPod Touch 5G or even an iPhone 4s. If you have an old, unloved device and want to turn it into a fantastic musical instrument, this is the app for you.
MIDI hardware requirements
At minimum a class-compliant USB MIDI keyboard controller is needed to play the organ. The app has been tested on controllers by Novation, Miditech and M-Audio, but any controller should work fine. For best results use a 4-octave or 5-octave keyboard - the organ will respond on the keys to MIDI notes 36 upwards for 5 octaves, and the pedals respond to MIDI notes 24 upwards for 32 notes.
Expression Pedals
The M-Audio EX-P is a very effective, affordable expression pedal that can be used as a swell pedal, and Victorian Chapel Organ has been tested with that pedal on an M-Audio Axiom 49 (discontinued, nearest replacement Code 49).
Drum pads for pistons
A controller keyboard with 'drum pads' (pads that emit MIDI NoteOn / NoteOff commands on MIDI channel 10) will let you get instant access to the pistons without having to touch your iPad / iPhone screen. This is a really great feature for live performance, and particularly good when using an iPhone with a small screen - no need to squint and poke, just hit a drum pad on your keyboard.
Pedals
I really wish I could recommend an amazing set of USB MIDI organ pedals for under £400. However, as far as I can tell, no such thing exists. But if you need pedals, there are options.
Alessandro at http://www.pedamidikit.org makes some lovely-looking boutique pedals at non-boutique prices - under €1000 - and I should be getting a short demo of his pedals working with Victorian Chapel Organ real soon. Handmade in Italy - how cool is that? Watch this space.
Alessandro's pedal kits may require some assembly. For fully-assembled off-the-shelf units at rather more 'difficult' prices, Thomann have a selection of pedals on their site. As of today (March 21st 2018) none of these pedals have been tested with Victorian Chapel Organ.
Even without a set of pedals you can get a lot of mileage from the organ's 'AUTO-PEDAL' feature, and in fact the intelligent choice of couplers on the organ allows the entire sonic palette of the instrument to be enjoyed using a single USB MIDI controller keyboard.
Next up - some background information on how real church organs work.
Expression Pedals
The M-Audio EX-P is a very effective, affordable expression pedal that can be used as a swell pedal, and Victorian Chapel Organ has been tested with that pedal on an M-Audio Axiom 49 (discontinued, nearest replacement Code 49).
Drum pads for pistons
A controller keyboard with 'drum pads' (pads that emit MIDI NoteOn / NoteOff commands on MIDI channel 10) will let you get instant access to the pistons without having to touch your iPad / iPhone screen. This is a really great feature for live performance, and particularly good when using an iPhone with a small screen - no need to squint and poke, just hit a drum pad on your keyboard.
Pedals
I really wish I could recommend an amazing set of USB MIDI organ pedals for under £400. However, as far as I can tell, no such thing exists. But if you need pedals, there are options.
Alessandro at http://www.pedamidikit.org makes some lovely-looking boutique pedals at non-boutique prices - under €1000 - and I should be getting a short demo of his pedals working with Victorian Chapel Organ real soon. Handmade in Italy - how cool is that? Watch this space.
Alessandro's pedal kits may require some assembly. For fully-assembled off-the-shelf units at rather more 'difficult' prices, Thomann have a selection of pedals on their site. As of today (March 21st 2018) none of these pedals have been tested with Victorian Chapel Organ.
Even without a set of pedals you can get a lot of mileage from the organ's 'AUTO-PEDAL' feature, and in fact the intelligent choice of couplers on the organ allows the entire sonic palette of the instrument to be enjoyed using a single USB MIDI controller keyboard.
Next up - some background information on how real church organs work.
