18/10/2023
This new 63-stop Viscount organ is being installed at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Maryland. The Church's present Moller Pipes will be incoprporated into a well-rounded pipe digital combination hybrid instrument that will serve for years to come. The Viscount organ is unique in that this company is the only organ comapny that employs patented 'Physical Modeling' for generating the sounds of some of the world most famous pipe organs. Like Viscounts first generation Physis, Physis+ is their latest patented series which actually PRODUCES the sounds as opposed to digital playback of frozen samples. Physis+ sports 2-1/2 times the processing power than 1st generation Physis. To our knowledge evey other church organ being made today uses the decades-old technique of recording pipes and playing back those recordings (using the very same identical sample for as few as 3 notes or up to 3 or 4 octaves). The probelm with sampled organs is that there are audible 'breaks' where one sample ends and the new one begins (as you play up and down the keyboard). The idea of sampling is decades-old begining in the late 1940's using recorded sounds on tape-replay keyboards (Chamberlin). It wasn't until the advent of digital audio that companies could record in the more reliable digital format without the problems of tape or optical mediums. The trouble is there really hasn't been much advancement in sampling technology, higher resolution, longer samples, etc ., but it's the same technique with nowhere to go - the very reason why Viscount has invested millions in Physical Modeling research. They took sampling about as far as it could go. Physis+ is Physis modeling plus MORIS Deep Machine Learning using A.I. No scary robots here, A.I. is just intense analizing of the live pipe sound to produce a 'Voice Model', one that the Viscount organ can use to PRODUCE a LIVE pipe sound - not playback a frozen sample that cannot be voiced. Many realistic 'defects' or barely perceptable imperfections that make up the sound of a real pipe organ are now included in the Voice Model. Mixture "swarm', note-by-note timbre change going up or down the keyboard, windchest 'jitter' and wind sag, as well as each note being produced with very small differences every time it's played, and different than it's neighbor.
Obviously because this installation is incomplete, the recording you are hearing in this video is NOT this organ. It is a pipe-combination instrument by Viscount (with custom console) installed in St. Thomas Aquinas, Charlottesville VA. Dr. Carol Williams is playing "Introduktion und Passacaglia d - Moll" by Max Reger track number 14 on her latest CD "Rejoice" available at -- https://drcarolwilliams.hearnow.com/rejoice-with-dr-carol/.
Viscount built approximately 2,000 organs last year, and they are passing other brands of organs with increased sales each month. The president Loriana Galanti leads the company. Alhborn-Galanti, Rodgers, the Global Organ Group, Walker Technical, Allen Organ, Johannus, etc. are all sampled organs and are not connected with Viscount, and never were. Viscount is a multi-generational Italian company. Viscount is Viscount! Viscount is THE ONLY ORGAN COMPANY using physical modeling and advancing that technology.
Like a friend in the church organ business said to us when we were looking to represent a new organ company -- "...you should seriously look at the Viscount Organ - they are the only ones that are doing something new and differnet"
Interested? Then please call The Music Merchant 020 823 3832 or 024 571477
