Yes....but it took me weeks, and I bought the interface boards - Sam got his organ up and running quicker AND built the interface from scratch himself. Points go to Sam, I think! :)
@@simonthill Credit where credit is due though, fantastic effort! Wish I was able visit yours, and Sam's museums. Thanks for letting Sam have a tour of the inner beast for all of us to see :)
@@simonthill The Wurlitzer organ MIDI interface was probably created before cheap off the shelf microcontrollers, online PCB manufacturers and open source software took off. It's probably not very different to Sam's approach. We had long discussions on Discord to find ways to improve Sam's MIDI conversion of the Joan Church organ and the biggest issue we faced was the bandwidth of MIDI that is very low (like 31Kbits/s). Maybe the bandwidth between the console and the pipes (where we don't really need standard MIDI) could be raised ot the max Arduinos can do and slightly reduce latency but Sam's actual implementation is very finished.
the Mills Violano Virtuoso is the type of thing that really made robots being everywhere feel like our future. So glad that people have spent so much time preserving these things so we can still observe them. Also, having recordings (embedded in paper rolls) of performances that would otherwise have been lost is so amazingly cool.
I can remember that from the 60s in the UK. A friend used to play at 2 cinemas. He once asked me if I like to see the pipes and said follow me. He climbed up a vertical ladder behind the curtains right up to above the proscenium. Worst part was at the end stepping onto the ladder from the hatch in the floor of the pipe chamber. Health & Safety today would ban that without a full risk assessment! There are about 4 cinemas in the UK that still have organs: Plaza (formally Odeon) in Weston Super Mare, Curzon in Clevedon (ex Regent Poole), Plaza in Stockport & Odeon Leicester Square in London. None are played regularly though. PS The Granada, Tooting has one. After lying dormant below a boarded over stage it was uncovered and restored in 2007 but unfortunately was flooded weeks later. The Granada is Grade 1 listed and an Art Deco spectacle.
The pipes and percussions are great, but that Style of the Wurlitzer console is out of this world. Accompanied by that style of music it hardly can get any better.
In the late 1970s I used to go to the Sunday morning matinees at the Leicester Square Odeon in London. I stlll remember the organist rising from the depths and playing before the main feature started. Priceless.
It's still there, one of 4? cinemas in the UK that still have organs: Plaza (formally Odeon) in Weston Super Mare, Curzon in Clevedon (ex Regent Poole), Plaza in Stockport & Odeon Leicester Square in London. None are played regularly though. I think the Odeon LS is played for film premiers.
THANK YOU! and HUGE thanks to the people letting you record in there! Chances are I will never make it over there, so it was amazing to see at least like this. If I ever get out there, I will be on a musical museum/tech tour, has to be amazing in person!
I was told that Wurlitzer organs are among the rarest pipe organs you can find! And sadly I saw a video here on youtube of a small Wurlitzer in an abandoned house that was completely destroyed and vandalized... Wurlitzers are the finest theatre organs, followed by Morton and Kimball
What a beautiful Wurlitzer. I got to hear the wonderful Wurlitzer at the Paramount Music Palace in Indianapolis, IN for many years. After it closed, the organ went to another place in Ellenton, FL and I got to hear it there as well. After that place closed, it was moved back to its original theater, The Paramount in Oakland, CA. One of the organists followed the Wurlitzer through the years, but when it left Ellenton, he became the organist at my parents church. What a treat it was to hear him play hymns on Sundays.
@ When we visited your fantastic museum on a visit to London earlier in the year, I was thinking “if only Look Mum could do some sort of collaboration”… and here it is!
@@simonthill only slightly?! I've spent enough time hanging around with Cinema Organ Society types to know he's batshit even by their high standards of lunacy! ;-)
What a fabulous place! Loved the Wurlitzer pipe room, I was fortunate enough to see one myself just a few days ago, absolutely astonishing technology from the 1920s and 30s. No sound like it. Great video!
I was allowed right into the guts of a travelling Wurlitzer to help make repairs about forty years ago. It was only for about a week, but I was absolutely mesmerised by the sheer ingenuity of the construction. It was all made of string, leather, and small brass bits. I can still remember it well. Also the decorative work at the front was super. Well worth bunking off school for* I'm not sure how old it was, but it was a good 15-20 feet long and on big cart wheels. I'm sure it was meant to be transported by cart-horse or a traction engine, so I'm guessing it was from around the start of the 20th century. Maybe it was older? *Don't bunk off school, kids!
Yes. In my experience it is the Compton organs that often have the jelly mould surrounds with Wurlizers having white gilded wooden surrounds. I think Wurlizers thought the jelly moulds with their changing colours a bit too flashy!
Thanks so much for the tour!! It's one thing to have all those antique player pianos and such, but quite an achievement to actually have all of them in working condition! The Wurlitzer sounds amazing. One of the best theater organs ever built. The sound of their reed and brass sections set them apart from every other pipe organ out there!🎵🎶😄👍👍👍
To imagine that over one hundred years ago, they’d have the physical capacities alongside the other electromechanical resources available to move so much air through those pipes, respond to those quick fingerings and in such a tiny portion of time? Its amazing.
We have a place called Organ Stop Pizza has a Wurlitzer built into the building or the other way around it's huge. Not sure if it's still open it's in Arizona. I was told it cost around a million dollars
The Organ Stop in Mesa, is still open and the organ is still working! I was there once back in the late 1990's, and it was amazing! It's supposed to be the largest Model 260 Wurlitzer Theater Organ in the world, with 4 manuals and 82 ranks (over 6000 pipes). It's also one of the only Wurlitzers that features a true 32 foot diaphone bass rank!
May not be the Wanamaker organ, but I love the playing mechanism. Totally dwarfs the player pianos! Sam, you really need a Monotype typesetting system. It's a fascinating pair of machines, a joy to learn and a great conversation piece for nerds. And if you're into industrial music, it sounds dang good too!
The wurlitzer brought back a forgotten memory. I remembered as a kid watching a lady playing one and not understanding what she was doing with her feet. Good health.
We often think we have some catching up to do when we watch Sam's channel :) if we could work at half the pace Sam seems to, we'd have no space for visitors left!
8:20 that is cool as hell I never knew about that... That's an amazing invention. Say you like the sound of your particular piano you can just slide that thing right up... Genius invention
I remember as a kid going to a place thats sadly gone now called the Bygone Village and that had a full silent movie theatre with an organ just like that and the bloke would demonstrate it along with showing the movies too, quite missed it so I shall try and have to get myself transported to the museum.
I went there in the late 80s or early 90s. I got chatting to the organist and got a tour of the organ chamber. Really cool. I seem to remember it was 2 organs joined together - a 3 Manuel Compton, and a 2 Manuel Christie
Very different vibe, but the Edinburgh musical instrument museum is one of my favs for its brass and keyboard collections, The Horniman (in South london) has a brilliant instrument collection too!
no wonder Wurlitzer became THE name in electro-mechanical jukeboxes. that thing is a beast. the theming is on point to. anything you want to go have a look at Sam, Im along for the ride. not even music related, if you rekon its cool, I think I'll probably agree with you.
I once went to a concert of Liszt expressive piano rolls played by a digital pianolat type device on a Steinway grand in the Canberra school of music. It sounded incredible. And knowing Liszt recoded his music was very special. .
Here in Phoenix AZ we still have a Wurlitzer Organ that sees almost daily use. A pizza shop in downtown had one from a theater in Hollywood. It was such a success built a second location around one in Mesa AZ that used to be in the Denver Theater. They expanded it from the original 15 ranks to 23. The original location was eventually sold and it's organ went to a couple who wanted in their home. Look up Organ Stop Pizza. They have a whole history section about it on the website.And of course, stop by the place if you are ever in the Phoenix Metro Area.
Brilliant place, equally brilliant video, thank you. The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, South London. I haven't been for years, but it also houses a large collection of weird instruments from all over the world, as i recall.
Playing one of those Wurlitzers must be a weird experience. On the one hand, you have so much musical power at your fingertips you would feel like you rule the world... and on the other, you know that no matter how skilled you are at playing it, the real star is the machine itself and you're just an interchangeable part.
That's a great museum, they have several of my favourite instruments there like not just one but what I did see in the video two Welte orchestrions, and the Wurlitzer is so great as well, probably the most versatile instrument in existence.
Thanks for drawing my attention to this museum! Have you been to The Grange music collection at Palgrave in Norfolk? It's a farmer (Jonny Ling) who got the bug for mechanical instruments and filled his barns with those (including an 8-rank Wurlitzer, fully enclosed, with a grand piano) instead of cows! If there's anything you didn't see in London, it'll be there. He's also one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.
The Wurlitzer there also has a Wurlitzer roll player unit to shame they didn’t demonstrate that, however there is another Wurlitzer with with two roll player units that can both play it , that’s a very impressive set up
i saw the violano virtuoso many years ago and it's probably the instrument that made me want to buid my own orchestrion with "modern" tech to play any song with a midi file ... with all the instruments i need to build, it's a long and expensive job; but i'll do it !
I really enjoyed that video. Thank you. I think there are 4 cinemas with a working organ plus quite a few venues have transplants. A couple in London that you could easily visit.
There used to be an amazing museum in Cornwall, "Paul Corin's Magnificent Music Machines". You could hear Rachmaninov play "live" via a roll on the same piano on which he cut the roll. The museum closed but rumours of it reopening pop up from time to time.
I once visited in the 1990s a historical house museum in Covington, Kentucky (USA) that had at least two of these instruments dating back to the mid-to late1800s. The museum called them "vorsetzers" (from setting before an instrument) and they were from Germany. It's interesting that you refer to them as a "Pianola" which in the USA is a registered trademark for Player Pianos of the Aeolian Company of New York City, USA (see the article of February 27, 2024 by the BBC Music Magazine). This specific house museum (which may now be gone or now a part of the Behringer-Crawford Museum) interpreted a number of its rooms as being restored to the style of a "fine home" from the late 1850s until the 1870s, including gaslight chandeliers and gaslight table lamps.
There’s a museum here in Michigan called the Music House Museum in Acme, near Traverse city. Lots of self playing instruments including band organs, pianos that play Gershwins rhapsody in blue (by Gershwin himself) a violino virtuoso, and a small Wurlitzer organ.
That was bloody amazing! - I did think of This Museum Is Not Obsolete when I was at the London Science Museum last year and saw the cool telephone exchange set up they got overthere, that somehow was very familiar... Yeah, I would not have noticed it if I had not been a regular viewer 😉 - Maybe they got more stuff that needs to come to everyones attention? You should go there!
I guess MIDI 2.0 would come in especially handy for such gigantic tasks. Imagine what 16bit velocity and 32bit controllers could do with this. Blows my mind!
So far I've always associated Wurlitzer organs with "fake" electric reincantations. I also kinda dreamt up a world in which I could poetentially outfit my own house with a decent organ, starting from zero as of now. Nope. Both entirely wrong. To go anywhere close to a good sound, you'll need basically thrice the house you already have and then some (if you already have a decently sized house), and what just looks like some janky console is actually the mere beginnings of a journey to electrical and pneumatic nightmares. Whow! Thanks!
Lots of organs have had their electrical switching systems replaced by electronics as they became unreliable with age. Also in the cinemas the switching relay system was next to the pipes but the console could be 20m away connected by a cable of 1,000 of wires. Too difficult to extract and rewire at another location.
There’s a short video on the BBC Archive channel from the midcentury featuring a man (professional organist) who built a Wurlitzer pipe organ into his house for practice; it’s possible but you basically need to put it in the middle of the whole house and build the rest around the organ! Not really one you can shove in a pre-build 😅
NAME AN ORGAN
lung
Heart, but if u mean Musical instrument, reed organ
Push rod ?
Jim!
Midmer-Losh
Can we appreciate for a second just how much sheer knowledge Simon possesses. I get that it's his job but still huge respect.
That's very kind; I'm simply one of the Museum's volunteers, they are an amazing team and most of them know far more than I do!
@@simonthill YOU ARE AMAZING! Definitely a visit for my bucket list!
He's like do you see how a proper museum does a MIDI interface?
hahaha
Yes....but it took me weeks, and I bought the interface boards - Sam got his organ up and running quicker AND built the interface from scratch himself. Points go to Sam, I think! :)
@@simonthill Credit where credit is due though, fantastic effort! Wish I was able visit yours, and Sam's museums. Thanks for letting Sam have a tour of the inner beast for all of us to see :)
Oh, but you are mistaken, midi is serial and paper rolls play the notes in a parallel (other than the midi one!).
@@simonthill The Wurlitzer organ MIDI interface was probably created before cheap off the shelf microcontrollers, online PCB manufacturers and open source software took off. It's probably not very different to Sam's approach.
We had long discussions on Discord to find ways to improve Sam's MIDI conversion of the Joan Church organ and the biggest issue we faced was the bandwidth of MIDI that is very low (like 31Kbits/s). Maybe the bandwidth between the console and the pipes (where we don't really need standard MIDI) could be raised ot the max Arduinos can do and slightly reduce latency but Sam's actual implementation is very finished.
Nothing like getting a private demo from one of the best cinema organists in the entire world!
the Mills Violano Virtuoso is the type of thing that really made robots being everywhere feel like our future. So glad that people have spent so much time preserving these things so we can still observe them.
Also, having recordings (embedded in paper rolls) of performances that would otherwise have been lost is so amazingly cool.
My father used to tell me that in the cinema the organ would rise up and play at a movie evening out. What an amazing view behind the walls.😮❤
Yup, mine too. Must have been about 100 years ago in Melbourne, Australia
They still do in some cinemas in north America
I can remember that from the 60s in the UK. A friend used to play at 2 cinemas. He once asked me if I like to see the pipes and said follow me. He climbed up a vertical ladder behind the curtains right up to above the proscenium. Worst part was at the end stepping onto the ladder from the hatch in the floor of the pipe chamber. Health & Safety today would ban that without a full risk assessment!
There are about 4 cinemas in the UK that still have organs: Plaza (formally Odeon) in Weston Super Mare, Curzon in Clevedon (ex Regent Poole), Plaza in Stockport & Odeon Leicester Square in London. None are played regularly though.
PS The Granada, Tooting has one. After lying dormant below a boarded over stage it was uncovered and restored in 2007 but unfortunately was flooded weeks later. The Granada is Grade 1 listed and an Art Deco spectacle.
My father took me to a cinema like that in the late 1950s in Rotterdam. The organ rising was like magic. And the loudest music I heard up to then.
Holy moly, that Wurlitzer organ is a gorgeous instrument inside and out. That console is beautiful!
There is nothing better than the sound of a Wurlitzer or other organ of the type being played well such a shame so many have been lost.
Amazing museum. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Fascinating, I would love to visit. The wurlitzer room would sound incredible.
I love to see one generation of music collector talking to another generation of music collector this is an amazing moment.
totally blown away by the attention to detail in this place, congrats on the hard work, what an achievement
The pipes and percussions are great, but that Style of the Wurlitzer console is out of this world. Accompanied by that style of music it hardly can get any better.
Yes classic art deco
I love that behind all great museum pieces there’s some PCBs screwed to a piece of wood
Thank you for this! Huge shout out to the museum and Simon for being so awesome.
It’s always amazing looking at someone so passionate about what they do
Outstanding! The best video I've seen in ages! Congratulations! 🏆
Music machine wonderland that is.
Dude you live an amazing life. Thank you for sharing it.
In the late 1970s I used to go to the Sunday morning matinees at the Leicester Square Odeon in London. I stlll remember the organist rising from the depths and playing before the main feature started. Priceless.
It's still there, one of 4? cinemas in the UK that still have organs: Plaza (formally Odeon) in Weston Super Mare, Curzon in Clevedon (ex Regent Poole), Plaza in Stockport & Odeon Leicester Square in London. None are played regularly though. I think the Odeon LS is played for film premiers.
THANK YOU! and HUGE thanks to the people letting you record in there! Chances are I will never make it over there, so it was amazing to see at least like this. If I ever get out there, I will be on a musical museum/tech tour, has to be amazing in person!
my head is spinning! I need to go to that museum. Excellent video
I was told that Wurlitzer organs are among the rarest pipe organs you can find! And sadly I saw a video here on youtube of a small Wurlitzer in an abandoned house that was completely destroyed and vandalized... Wurlitzers are the finest theatre organs, followed by Morton and Kimball
Oh no, now I’m wondering if that’s the same house with a Wurlitzer that was featured on the BBC 50 ish years ago… sad if it’s gone to rot.
Cool museum. I was in Kew last year, wasn't aware of this museum. Well, another reason to do another UK trip
What a beautiful Wurlitzer. I got to hear the wonderful Wurlitzer at the Paramount Music Palace in Indianapolis, IN for many years. After it closed, the organ went to another place in Ellenton, FL and I got to hear it there as well. After that place closed, it was moved back to its original theater, The Paramount in Oakland, CA. One of the organists followed the Wurlitzer through the years, but when it left Ellenton, he became the organist at my parents church. What a treat it was to hear him play hymns on Sundays.
I've been to this museum briefly and absolutely loved it - great to see more detail
I got the impression that that guy was extremely happy to have someone genuinely interested to share the organ nerdery with. Heartwarming to see
I was! Sam is a delight (and slightly mad) - and so is his Museum in Ramsgate. Visit both places if you can - totally worth it.
@ When we visited your fantastic museum on a visit to London earlier in the year, I was thinking “if only Look Mum could do some sort of collaboration”… and here it is!
@@simonthill only slightly?! I've spent enough time hanging around with Cinema Organ Society types to know he's batshit even by their high standards of lunacy! ;-)
They really were not afraid to dream big back in the day were they.
Now a days we only get stupid apps 😢
@@murdoch483 Well I have the actual pinnacle . . a Casio VLtone
12:19
„I really hope he doesn’t play while we’re in here cuz it’s gonna be really loud“
Sam: „THAT‘S AWESOME“
Richard is the only man who holds his own beer when someone says "play me in".
Now I finally understand Martin's obsession with tight music
What a fabulous place! Loved the Wurlitzer pipe room, I was fortunate enough to see one myself just a few days ago, absolutely astonishing technology from the 1920s and 30s. No sound like it. Great video!
I was allowed right into the guts of a travelling Wurlitzer to help make repairs about forty years ago. It was only for about a week, but I was absolutely mesmerised by the sheer ingenuity of the construction. It was all made of string, leather, and small brass bits. I can still remember it well. Also the decorative work at the front was super. Well worth bunking off school for*
I'm not sure how old it was, but it was a good 15-20 feet long and on big cart wheels. I'm sure it was meant to be transported by cart-horse or a traction engine, so I'm guessing it was from around the start of the 20th century. Maybe it was older?
*Don't bunk off school, kids!
IT'S BEEN YEARS??? Dang yep
"TWENTY THOUSAND?", "yea". Hahaha love the energy
WOW that Wurlitzer sounds awesome! I bet you can really feel the bass notes vibrating your whole body!
What a beautiful video. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful experience with us. ❤
This video gave me so much joy I couldn’t stop smiling. The passion you and others have for music and technology is rare and beautiful. Thank you
Splendid Art Deco design on the Wurlizer
Yes. In my experience it is the Compton organs that often have the jelly mould surrounds with Wurlizers having white gilded wooden surrounds. I think Wurlizers thought the jelly moulds with their changing colours a bit too flashy!
Thanks so much for the tour!! It's one thing to have all those antique player pianos and such, but quite an achievement to actually have all of them in working condition! The Wurlitzer sounds amazing. One of the best theater organs ever built. The sound of their reed and brass sections set them apart from every other pipe organ out there!🎵🎶😄👍👍👍
To imagine that over one hundred years ago, they’d have the physical capacities alongside the other electromechanical resources available to move so much air through those pipes, respond to those quick fingerings and in such a tiny portion of time? Its amazing.
We have a place called Organ Stop Pizza has a Wurlitzer built into the building or the other way around it's huge. Not sure if it's still open it's in Arizona. I was told it cost around a million dollars
The Organ Stop in Mesa, is still open and the organ is still working! I was there once back in the late 1990's, and it was amazing! It's supposed to be the largest Model 260 Wurlitzer Theater Organ in the world, with 4 manuals and 82 ranks (over 6000 pipes). It's also one of the only Wurlitzers that features a true 32 foot diaphone bass rank!
@@danw1955 The late 90's was the last time I went too. I'm go t have to stop in for some pizza and a pint.
We have the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. The end 😀😀👍
May not be the Wanamaker organ, but I love the playing mechanism. Totally dwarfs the player pianos!
Sam, you really need a Monotype typesetting system. It's a fascinating pair of machines, a joy to learn and a great conversation piece for nerds. And if you're into industrial music, it sounds dang good too!
The wurlitzer brought back a forgotten memory. I remembered as a kid watching a lady playing one and not understanding what she was doing with her feet. Good health.
This place is amazing! Sam, you've got some catching up to do.
We often think we have some catching up to do when we watch Sam's channel :) if we could work at half the pace Sam seems to, we'd have no space for visitors left!
@@Musical_Museum Sam gets distracted easily by music stuff. You still have a chance...
8:20 that is cool as hell I never knew about that... That's an amazing invention. Say you like the sound of your particular piano you can just slide that thing right up... Genius invention
It coordination of organ players like Richard that really blows my mind. Right hand, left hand, feet, and changing instruments in the gaps!
I remember as a kid going to a place thats sadly gone now called the Bygone Village and that had a full silent movie theatre with an organ just like that and the bloke would demonstrate it along with showing the movies too, quite missed it so I shall try and have to get myself transported to the museum.
I went there in the late 80s or early 90s. I got chatting to the organist and got a tour of the organ chamber. Really cool.
I seem to remember it was 2 organs joined together - a 3 Manuel Compton, and a 2 Manuel Christie
Very different vibe, but the Edinburgh musical instrument museum is one of my favs for its brass and keyboard collections,
The Horniman (in South london) has a brilliant instrument collection too!
Thank you, great stuff.
no wonder Wurlitzer became THE name in electro-mechanical jukeboxes. that thing is a beast. the theming is on point to. anything you want to go have a look at Sam, Im along for the ride. not even music related, if you rekon its cool, I think I'll probably agree with you.
Such an amazing instrument! 😮
So glad it's been preserved. 🙏
I once went to a concert of Liszt expressive piano rolls played by a digital pianolat type device on a Steinway grand in the Canberra school of music. It sounded incredible. And knowing Liszt recoded his music was very special. .
We need more organ music in the world. Nowadays its either scary movie territory or church music
10:08 with that console, that's an ideal theatre for a Monty Python like live comedy show
Here in Phoenix AZ we still have a Wurlitzer Organ that sees almost daily use. A pizza shop in downtown had one from a theater in Hollywood. It was such a success built a second location around one in Mesa AZ that used to be in the Denver Theater. They expanded it from the original 15 ranks to 23. The original location was eventually sold and it's organ went to a couple who wanted in their home. Look up Organ Stop Pizza. They have a whole history section about it on the website.And of course, stop by the place if you are ever in the Phoenix Metro Area.
Brilliant place, equally brilliant video, thank you.
The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, South London. I haven't been for years, but it also houses a large collection of weird instruments from all over the world, as i recall.
Playing one of those Wurlitzers must be a weird experience. On the one hand, you have so much musical power at your fingertips you would feel like you rule the world... and on the other, you know that no matter how skilled you are at playing it, the real star is the machine itself and you're just an interchangeable part.
Thanks for this video from one of the biggest theatre organ fans in the world !
That's a great museum, they have several of my favourite instruments there like not just one but what I did see in the video two Welte orchestrions, and the Wurlitzer is so great as well, probably the most versatile instrument in existence.
Thanks for drawing my attention to this museum! Have you been to The Grange music collection at Palgrave in Norfolk? It's a farmer (Jonny Ling) who got the bug for mechanical instruments and filled his barns with those (including an 8-rank Wurlitzer, fully enclosed, with a grand piano) instead of cows! If there's anything you didn't see in London, it'll be there. He's also one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.
I can’t come up with any other words than lovely when I watch this. So amazing!
The Wurlitzer there also has a Wurlitzer roll player unit to shame they didn’t demonstrate that, however there is another Wurlitzer with with two roll player units that can both play it , that’s a very impressive set up
i saw the violano virtuoso many years ago and it's probably the instrument that made me want to buid my own orchestrion with "modern" tech to play any song with a midi file ... with all the instruments i need to build, it's a long and expensive job; but i'll do it !
That was amazing. Thank you. What a treat.
Thank you Sam that was amazing! I could spend hours in there.
That cinema organ is amazing 🇬🇧🇬🇧👍👍
Amazing instruments.
The factory where that Wurlitzer organ was made is about 45min from my house. Its a neat place in North Tonawanda.
Yay! Finally you get in a proper Theatre Pipe Organ! 🎉🎊🎼🎹🥳
I really enjoyed that video. Thank you. I think there are 4 cinemas with a working organ plus quite a few venues have transplants. A couple in London that you could easily visit.
There used to be an amazing museum in Cornwall, "Paul Corin's Magnificent Music Machines". You could hear Rachmaninov play "live" via a roll on the same piano on which he cut the roll. The museum closed but rumours of it reopening pop up from time to time.
Absolutely brilliant!
Music machines forever!
What a magnificent place!
Once I'll travel to London one day that'll for sure be a place to visit, how fascinating
I once visited in the 1990s a historical house museum in Covington, Kentucky (USA) that had at least two of these instruments dating back to the mid-to late1800s. The museum called them "vorsetzers" (from setting before an instrument) and they were from Germany. It's interesting that you refer to them as a "Pianola" which in the USA is a registered trademark for Player Pianos of the Aeolian Company of New York City, USA (see the article of February 27, 2024 by the BBC Music Magazine). This specific house museum (which may now be gone or now a part of the Behringer-Crawford Museum) interpreted a number of its rooms as being restored to the style of a "fine home" from the late 1850s until the 1870s, including gaslight chandeliers and gaslight table lamps.
I've always loved electro mechanical music machines and instruments.
Holy that was a lot of pipes. Sounded beautiful
There’s a museum here in Michigan called the Music House Museum in Acme, near Traverse city. Lots of self playing instruments including band organs, pianos that play Gershwins rhapsody in blue (by Gershwin himself) a violino virtuoso, and a small Wurlitzer organ.
LOVED THIS!!!!!!
Love what you are doing, if I lived near, I'd be visiting a lot (and maybe even helping out now and then)
Keep it up!
That was AWESOME!
That was bloody amazing! - I did think of This Museum Is Not Obsolete when I was at the London Science Museum last year and saw the cool telephone exchange set up they got overthere, that somehow was very familiar... Yeah, I would not have noticed it if I had not been a regular viewer 😉 - Maybe they got more stuff that needs to come to everyones attention? You should go there!
That was both gorgeous and incredible.
I guess MIDI 2.0 would come in especially handy for such gigantic tasks. Imagine what 16bit velocity and 32bit controllers could do with this. Blows my mind!
The side panels of the Wurlitzer console give very strong Bioshock vibes
i think it would be more correct to say bioshock gives very strong wurlitzer vibes haha
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Hahah true! Well done on them :D
Its hard to beat a Wurlitzer rising onto the stage, Blackpool Towers ballroom Wurlitzer is fantastic.
this is mindblowing tbh
Wow! Well that place is on my list for sure
Wonder what happened to the land speed record Wurlitzer that fell to bits while Neddy Seagoon was making his record attempt at Daytona?
Mandatory obligatory Goon Show Reference!🤣
Very cool! I hope to make my way across the pond and visit someday.
I want to go to that museum you visited so bad!
Martin Molin (Wintergatan) would love to visit that museum
I think he has.
But it's full of instruments that work😂
That was a nice tour!
Excellent!!
So far I've always associated Wurlitzer organs with "fake" electric reincantations. I also kinda dreamt up a world in which I could poetentially outfit my own house with a decent organ, starting from zero as of now.
Nope. Both entirely wrong. To go anywhere close to a good sound, you'll need basically thrice the house you already have and then some (if you already have a decently sized house), and what just looks like some janky console is actually the mere beginnings of a journey to electrical and pneumatic nightmares.
Whow! Thanks!
Lots of organs have had their electrical switching systems replaced by electronics as they became unreliable with age. Also in the cinemas the switching relay system was next to the pipes but the console could be 20m away connected by a cable of 1,000 of wires. Too difficult to extract and rewire at another location.
There’s a short video on the BBC Archive channel from the midcentury featuring a man (professional organist) who built a Wurlitzer pipe organ into his house for practice; it’s possible but you basically need to put it in the middle of the whole house and build the rest around the organ! Not really one you can shove in a pre-build 😅
This makes audiophile 100, 000 dollar systems seem tame😅
Wow ... very nice !!!!
Would love to hear some Nancarrow thru some of those beauties. Anybody thats never heard Nancarrow player piano music, dig in! Mind blowing stuff.
Wow what a museum. #Goals haha