FEATURE REQUEST: Reverb Wet/Dry Adjustment Per Stop

This is an idea I would obviously support, as it would resolve most of the problems I have so far encountered whilst trying to emulate “reeds en chamade” within a particular organ. If a single manual, or a number of stops, could be configured with their own Settings (including reverb), then, as you say, they could be aurally positioned anywhere within the virtual edifice and at any virtual orientation.

However, can I offer a small caveat on this idea. In the late 1980’s I worked with the initial installation of Ventura Publishing in my Government Department. After years of working with primitive word processors and text editors, one was given the choice of using hundreds of different fonts, each in a range of sizes, styles and colours, all in a single document and so one did. Some of the early reports produced by DTP systems would give a dog’s breakfast a bad name. Then one learnt that less is in fact more, as professional typesetters had known for years, and documents henceforth became paragons of elegant simplicity; or at least I thought so.

If one has the ability, to independently vary the Settings and reverbs for each of the four manuals and each of the forty stop positions, then initially one will and ranks and mixtures will be scattered with virtual gay abandon all over the edifice, simply because one can. The resulting organ virtual architecture will certainly produce a unique soundscape, but whether it is a pleasant or an edifying aural experience one would beg leave to doubt.

It may be that we would find that configuring the Settings for a single manual, in comparison to the rest of the organ’s configuration, could produce the effect of a solo manual with its ranks of pipes in a different virtual position within the edifice, or that single ranks of pipes could be virtually placed in answering batteries around the edifice. Aural simplicity is probably going to work better in most situations compared to a plethora of contrasting and competing sound sources.

I will admit that, trying to accurately model the relative virtual position of differing ranks of pipes, by manually altering the various Settings, is both a laborious effort, and an arcane art. It is very much a case of trial and a lot of errors.  The professional applications that allow you to position your sound sources within a 3D space give you the ability to drag and drop your sound source within a circle/sphere surrounding the listener, or allow you to enter the dimensions, geometry and physical qualities of the 3D space and to then move your sound sources accordingly. The important point to note here is that the reverb settings required to simulate each virtual position are calculated and applied by the application itself, as are the interactions between the various sound sources.

If Modartt could provide the functionality that would allow me to drag and drop divisions and/or ranks of pipes within a virtual 3D space and to then calculate the relevant alterations to the Settings, within the application, one would be extremely happy. I suppose that this is the conceptual reverse of allowing a user to position the microphones around a single piano in Pianoteq. Here we would like the ability to position various parts of the organ around a single listener in Organteq. It would, for instance, allow the user to alter the architecture of the organ from French to German and back again, as well as to all geographic points between.

However, as a consequence of the work that this may require, I can see this functionality as a major release rather than a minor, if extremely useful, functional addition.

In the meantime, I would be more than happy to support your suggestion of being given the ability to manually alter the Settings for manuals and/or stops myself, and I promise that I will attempt to maintain some semblance of aural simplicity in the process.

Michael