Technical
We present to you, the organ lover, a more extensive, in depth technical explanation, so that you may understand what an extraordinary instrument the JOHANNUS organ really is.
You may know that the link between the organs found in churches and cathedrals and their modern digital successor consists of the conversion of digitally recorded sound to audio. Digital Recording derives its name from the fact that it consists of sound, converted into numbers (digits). You need a special chip to convert these back into sound. Such a chip is called a Digital-to-Analogue Converter chip; abbreviated to DAC. When you are planning to reproduce the digital recording of an organ sound, this is one point where things can go wrong in many ways. Consider first the processing power. Even present day DACs are limited. This means that if you want to have a realistic sounding digital organ it needs many such DACs. If it has only one such DAC it might sound good when using only a solo voice, but if you want to add many more registers to your playing, you will find that the quality of the sound of your music diminishes rapidly.
This is the main reason why so many organs sound 'shrill' whenever you try to make some serious music. If you do not want this to happen to your playing, you must limit the number of 'instruments' every DAC handles to only two. Therefore, every Johannus organ contains a full 24-bit Digital-Audio Converter for every two registers. Moreover, all DACs are 24 bits, 48 kHz which is something you will not find elsewhere for this price.
JOHANNUS applies a minimum sample frequency of 96 kHz. CD-quality consists of 16 bits, 44.1 kHz. 24 bits is 8 bits more, which means a 28 = 256 times more precise representation of the contour of the waveform. Moreover, we have found that 96 kHz is more than adequate for a high level in quality in the way we apply it.
Some boast to have a higher sample frequency. What they fail to mention is, that because they only use a few DACs, they are in desperate need for the higher sample frequency to compensate. If you use composite samples, or if several samples (registers) are processed by the same DAC, and these have the minimal frequency of 44.1 kHz, then the use of just a few DACs results in a worsening of the sound. We limit the load to no more than 2 manual registers per DAC (a unique feature!), which is why the sound of the JOHANNUS organ does not worsen when adding more registers.
The process of sampling consists of converting sound into numbers by scanning the waveform. The sampling frequency indicates how often the sound of a pipe is scanned and measured The number of bits determines how precisely this is done. But there is more to consider.
A church organ has a pipe for every register, and every key. This means, that the number of pipes is a multiple of the number of keys and pedals. Now if you want to make a digital organ, one way to do this is by recording every pipe connected to every key separately, and storing this into memory. If you switch on a stop, and press a number of keys on your digital organ, you will hear the sound of the pipes of the original organ. But this is not what is usually done. For starters, there is the problem of the time you press the key. Secondly, it takes a lot of memory to store every pipe of every register of even a small organ.
If you compare the sound of two pipes of the same register of adjacent keys, they are virtually identical. This means, that the sounds they make have many characteristics in common. They may only be different in pitch. In fact, this is what the builder of the organ aimed at, but there are always small differences. However, the similarity makes it possible to use one recording to play at different pitches. In this way, you can use only one sample to make the sound of several pipes. Some organs even make the sound of a complete register from only one recording of one pipe. This trick makes it possible to use less memory, but it makes the sound very much less realistic.
JOHANNUS deploys Real Time Sampling. This means that we do not make use of this trick, but use as many recordings as there are pipes. We do not hesitate to use lots of memory. As far as we know, this makes the JOHANNUS organ unique. Every sound of every register you hear is a real recording of a unique pipe. This guarantees that the JOHANNUS organ sounds amazingly real.
Then there is the matter of the attack and decay of the pipe sound with the pressing and releasing of the keys. Pressing and releasing keys opens and closes valves, which make a distinct sound in the pipes. In between, you only have the sound of the vibration of the air in the pipes, modified by the movements of the pipe itself. You can play notes of every length on a digital organ by either shortening this middle section, and attaching the release, or lengthening it by 'looping', i.e., replaying the middle part again and again as long as is necessary, and then attaching the release. If the sample of the middle section is too short, you do hear less of the modulations of the sound caused by the movements of the pipe and other natural variations, and the tone will sound 'sterile'. Only when you take a middle section that is long enough, will the modulations of the movements of the pipe also be audible, adding to realism. We, at Johannus, have taken care to deploy 'Long Loop Samples' - meaning, that we have made the middle section long enough to ensure that you can hear a living sound, not a sterile one.
New s the American Classic, Symphonic, and the Baroque dispositions, selected by the stop piston. It consists of distinct samples. It is not simply a difference in intonation and you will actually hear three really different organs.
The Opus 17, 27, and 37 are provided with no less than 4 audio channels. This gives a wide spread of the sound. You will have a kind of surround effect, which we have named choir-building. This is why the Johannus organ sounds so broad and therefore stands out explicitly from other organs that employ only 2 audio channels, making the sound 'pass through the middle'.
The pedal voices sound marvelous on the JOHANNUS Opus. JOHANNUS has achieved this by deploying a 300 Watt Woofer for the bass channel, and that is something you can definitely hear!
JOHANNUS has developed a fantastic internal reverberation system. It is 24 bit, full stereo and contains two full band equalizers. Because the unit is 'true' stereo, you will not have any of the dreaded 'phase-effect'. You will also not flood the acoustic when you work towards a tutti in your play.
Have you taken a close look at the casing? Don't you agree that this is a beautiful piece of furniture of very high quality? No cheap plastic roll lid, but a real wooden Venetian blind lid and keyboard blocks of hardwood, not veneer.
A JOHANNUS organ also has a very beautiful pedal clavier. The pedal sticks are made by professional carpenters from hardwood of high quality. The pedal operates through a wireless contact system, which prevents wear and tear. Then there are the half-tones; these, too are made of hardwood, not plastic that is so easy to damage!
We hope you now know enough to judge the real value of the JOHANNUS Opus. You might agree with many others about the following statement: "it is amazing that a JOHANNUS organ does not cost much more!"