• mxnoodles [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    There’s such a thing as “home organs”, but they don’t really come close to the feeling and sound of a church or concert organ. I know some folks swear by hauptwerk though as a relatively “less expensive” route, especially if you can DIY it by scrounging up your own MIDI keyboard/pedalboard setup: https://www.hauptwerk.com/ (Though even dropping $1.5k instead of scavenging equipment off craigslist etc is still much cheaper than a full-on organ of comparable sound quality, but I assume at any given moment I’m speaking with fellow broke bitches here.)

    • happybadger [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      I've got a pretty good keyboard but it's like a double-bass for me. The big appeal is the gravitas of so much energy in an instrument. With the real thing the size of it adds a visceral feeling to the music and dominates the room.

      • mxnoodles [she/her]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Oh yeah, in terms of sheer Presence, nothing comes close to the real deal. The size, the sound, even just the way the detail-work on the facades of a lot of organs draw the eye like a gravitational pull - it touches on that idea of the Sublime not just as beauty, but as being wholly taken in by a force that could utterly destroy you.

        I used to daydream about a common space or some sort of public studio I guess, something large enough to house those kinds of instruments, with the responsibility of their use/care/maintenance spread out over as many musicians who want access to them. I can see how it’d be more complicated logistically than a dorm common room with an old standup piano, but a girl can dream.