Interesting Developements - GAS Reference Recording

Scott F. · « **on:** 15 Mar 2007, 04:06 am »

Hiya Guys,

By now, most of you guys have heard that stunning recording of Bach's Toccata and Fugue that Adrian brought by at the Christmas Bash. The recording was done by John Blaine and was performed by Dennis Bergin at Christ Church Cathedral on their awesome sounding AEolian-Skinner 1435 pipe organ.

Well it just so happens I've been talking to Adrian about getting John Blaine to come by and visit our group and talk to us about his recording techniques. As you might know, John has several recordings on the series of Stereophile Test Disks (that should let you know the quality of his work). Adrian happened to be playing a concert over in Belleville last Sunday that John was recording and asked if he'd be interested in coming by and talking to us and also possibly share a few more of his recordings with us. Adrian said that John wholeheartedly said yes, but it doesn't stop there.

John also mentioned that Dennis Bergin (the Organist) would probably be thrilled to get involved too. Adrian mentioned that Dennis is a die hard, large pipe organ enthusiast just leaps at the chance to play them for anyone who is interested in pipe organ music. Now, that wasn't a full commitment since John hasn't approached Dennis yet but there is a strong likelihood that Dennis would perform a concert for the GAS group. And to top that off, John has offered to record it for us.....as in GAS.

Everything is very preliminary right now since no one has talked to Dennis yet. Based on Adrian's description of John's relationship with Dennis (sounds convoluted doesn't it?), I'd say within a month or two, we could all be treated to some seriously fine pipe organ music on one of the many old pipe organs around the city (we're not sure which church yet either).

So keep your eyes open for further posts in this thread for more developments as they happen. And a HUGE thanks goes out to Adrian for making the contacts. This should be extremely cool for everybody.

jedi35 · « **Reply #1 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 08:33 am »

Yep, this is a wonderful possibility. I was really surprised that John even suggested this. It's a great chance to see the whole creative process from performance to recording. I'm hoping that it'll get done in Christ Church Cathedral. Say, did you guys know that John owns the original pair of Martin Logan speakers? That's right, the first Monoliths, serial numbers 1 and 2. Right now they're hooked up to the monster Pass Labs X350 amp, and his new X1 preamp. Beefy sound and extremely delicate sweetness at the same time. I may be able to babysit his former amp coming up this summer, which is no slouch either...a Threshold Model 4000, and his Threshold preamp as well. I remember marveling at those electronics for years, and now I can't believe that I'll be enjoying them in my own home through my Martin Logan Quests. I'll put the 4000 on the panels, and then move my Krell monoblocks to the woofers. That should be lots of fun.

I'll stay in touch with John about getting the recording setup, so check back here for more info. I'm performing again this weekend, so check the concerts thread!!

Adrian

steve k · « **Reply #2 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 10:57 am »

What a wonderful opportunity guys!

I'm excited and honored that John and Dennis are willing to do this for us. Just the concert would do it for me but to be a fly on the wall in the recording of one of the most difficult instruments to record!!!!There are lots of wonderful pipe organs around town, one of which is in my old grade school church--St. Francis de Sales. I also had the opportunity of hearing the Christ Church organ back in the 60's for my sister's wedding there and in 1985 during the 24 hour pipe organ marathon celebrating Bach's 300th birthday (please no age jokes)

--a different organist played each hour for 24 hours straight.

Adrian, thanks bunches for the arrangements here. Everyone I've shared that recording with agrees it's the best pipe organ recording they've ever heard. I wish I could catch your concert Sunday but have a prior commitment. Nice score on the Threshold amp too. Any chance a few of us geeks could catch a listen then?

John and Dennis get my vote for honorary GAS members. Bryan, any chance we can come up with some GAS shirts for them by then???

This is an awesome opportunity, mates!

steve k

bpape · « **Reply #3 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 11:48 am »

Wow - what a great deal. Thanks to all for working this.

My person doing shirts has kind of dropped off the map - will need to get back in touch.

Bryan

kirch · « **Reply #4 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 11:52 am »

Hey Guys - Should there be any sort of issues whatsoever in getting the Christ Church Cathedral to get on board with this, my wife Betsy is on their board, is hugely involved in that church, and does a ton of work down there. We (I should say "she") are tight with all the major players down there, including the music director Pat Partridge, - a terrific guy, and an amazing musician in his own right. I'm sure there won't be any problems arranging whatever it is we want.

Just let me know - by email at brian@vo-pro.com if there is anything I can do.

A quick addition to this - just talked with Betsy and she said it would be NO problem to set anything up at the Christ Church Cathedral.

kirch

electricbear · « **Reply #5 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 01:52 pm »

Excellent. I've known John for about 9 years now and have had the chance to hear his Logans. He is a super nice guy and highly talented. This should be a night to remember.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #6 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 02:04 pm »

Very cool!
On the way home from work last night I stopped by the library for a few CD's.
One of them happen to have Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D. I love hearing the various 'renditions' of that piece.
Regretably, I didn't stay long enough to hear the famous track at the GAS Christmas party

I was thinking this morning, as a matter of fact, about the logistics of properly recording a pipe organ. Also was thinking how nice it would be to actually HEAR a real one in a church as opposed to the synthesized organ usually found in churches.
I'd love the opportunity to hear this first hand.

Bob

Scott F. · « **Reply #7 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 02:07 pm »

Brian,

Tell Betsy THANK YOU! for the use of the church and their organ. We (GAS) may want to come up with some sort of donation amount for the use of the facilities.

Quote from: steve k on 15 Mar 2007, 10:57 am

Nice score on the Threshold amp too. Any chance a few of us geeks could catch a listen then?

It just so happens, sometime in April I'm headed over to Adrian's to operate on his Martin Logan's. He wants to bypass the passive crossovers and use an active XO and power the panels direct. The operation shouldn't take more than an hour or so. Not sure what day in April it will end up being.

kirch · « **Reply #8 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 02:12 pm »

Will do - One thing though, be sure and get a few options regarding dates. There are often activities scheduled at that church, they always seem to have something going on. When you get a few possible dates, forward them to me and I'll see which will fly.

Obviously, the sooner the better.

Brian

seadogs1 · « **Reply #9 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 03:44 pm »

Can the recording be made available to those of us who unfortunately will not be able to attend?

Scott F. · « **Reply #10 on:** 15 Mar 2007, 10:56 pm »

Hey seadogs,

Well, we haven't worked out all of the details yet but my hopes are make it available to everyone. We should know more in a month or so so watch this thread

jedi35 · « **Reply #11 on:** 16 Mar 2007, 02:28 am »

steve k,

Sure, I'd love to have you over to hear the Threshold when I get it. It needs to go back to the factory for some work first, but it shouldn't be a problem getting it fixed up again. The amp change will be my summer project, but you're welcome to come over when Scott operates on my Quests as well. I'll keep you posted.

kirch,

Thanks for your help. John is pretty well connected down at Christ Church as well, and he's known Pat Partridge for a long time. In fact, I've even played a wedding or 2 with Pat. Still, it's nice to know you can help if we need it. I fist met John back in 1985, and he invited me to tag along with him to the Cathedral to do some organ recording. Pat may have been playing back then, I don't remember. John let me go up and play a few chords on the organ, and that was such a blast!!

Scott,

Thanks for agreeing to come over and operate on my Quests. I think this is going to be really good for my sound. Running from one external XO into an internal one has got to be robbing me of so much. I'm looking forward to several improvements, beginning with the removal of the internal XO. Next, I'd like to have my external XO calibrated for matched response between the channels. I don't think that the dials that tune in each frequency point are exact enough, and the XO is a bit old. Later this sumer I should acquire the Threshold amp and preamp, so I can move my Krell monoblocks to the woofers. Awesome. Then, Martin Logan has replacement panels for my speakers that use more updated and better technology. It's been 12 years since I got mine, and they still sound great. But it may be a good time to go ahead and have the stators replaced anyway, as I might have lost some response over time that I don't realize. Dust has settled on the diaphrams, and that could be a problem later on. I can't wait to get all this done.

Adrian

steve k · « **Reply #12 on:** 16 Mar 2007, 09:30 am »

Adrian,
Thanks for the invite. Us planar guys need their fix every now and then too.

What did you decide on for an active crossover?
steve

jedi35 · « **Reply #13 on:** 16 Mar 2007, 04:23 pm »

Steve,

Oh, I've been using a older Crown VFX2A. It's the same one I'd had since the last time we talked about it. Zaw at Alph Tech modified it with new chips and installed level controls for the low pass for better amp matching if you use different brands. I've been running from this into the speakers' internal networks. This XO doesn't have exact markers for the frequencies, so I don't trust the knobs. I'd love to find something with click stops on specific numbers, like the Bryston 10B. Please remind me of what planar speakers you have.

Adrian

bprice2 · « **Reply #14 on:** 16 Mar 2007, 04:43 pm »

Do y'all remember the episode of the Simpsons when Bart swaps out the church organist's sheet music with Iron Butterfly's Inagodadavida? It is imperative that this happens at your get together and that it be recorded and shared with the rest of us.

electricbear · « **Reply #15 on:** 17 Mar 2007, 12:14 am »

That episode had to be one of the funniest. I loved it when they all waved the candles in the air.

electricbear · « **Reply #16 on:** 17 Mar 2007, 12:17 am »

Hey Adrian,
You are serious about letting Scott near your Logans with a Soldering Iron. By the time he's finished the panels will have been replaced with Lowthers

Make sure he's had at least half a bottle of Oban, that's when he does his most creative work

Scott F. · « **Reply #17 on:** 17 Mar 2007, 03:19 am »

Actually I was thinking about tearing into the high voltage power supply that feeds the panels. Bet I could make it sound better......that or kill it, one of the two

jedi35 · « **Reply #18 on:** 17 Mar 2007, 11:11 pm »

You guys are funny!! Tim, you might have been joking, but the guy on the Martin Logan thread who posted the schematics that I need also ran a thread where he showed everyone how he needed a "super" center channel to match the sound of his ML Monoliths. So he took a single ML SL3 and positioned an open baffle array next to the panel(after pulling out the internal XO ofcourse). I'd bet some of you guys might find this interesting. Here's the link:

http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=2018

Scott, at this point I'd certainly be interested in trying some tweaks to the high voltage power supply if you think you can make it better. The speakers are well out of warranty anyway.

jedi35 · « **Reply #19 on:** 28 Apr 2007, 08:02 pm »

OK, finally a long awaited update to this topic. Our recording engineer, John Blaine got back to me awhile ago and I just haven't had much time to get on the board and post this. Sorry. Everything is looking quite good at this point. John, who has since joined GAS, was successful in getting Dennis Burgen to agree to a private organ recital for us, and Dennis is quite excited about the project. He's ready to go. In fact, John told me that Dennis took a look at our site, and was rather impressed with the fact that we support live concert attendance so much.

I'm hoping that we can all settle on a date in late May or early June, as I'll get rather tied up with Lion Kong later on in June. Let's start kicking around some dates. Dennis would like to do this at Concordia Seminary, in the chapel that's on campus there(St. Titus or something?). Concordia Seminary is located off Clayton Road not too far away from Big Bend, and Classic 99 FM is also on the grounds. Dennis plays at the chapel regularly, and has easy access to it just about anytime he wants. The organ there is smaller than the one in Christ Church Cathedral, but it suits the room well. Some of you may know of the Bach at the Sem concerts that are held there.

Yep, this is going to happen. So, "pipe in" with your ideas for dates, and we'll narrow it down. John has some great ideas for future projects as well. This is the beginning of a very good thing. John and I will both be out at Tim's house tonight. Later...

Adrian