Don Leslie invented the rotating-speaker system, to give electronic organs more animation in their sound, for the purpose of better emulating the pipe-organs they were trying to replace. (It didn't work quite as expected: while hugely popular, the upshot was it sounded even less like a pipe organ.)

Turnabout's fair play.

We can take a real pipe organ's Flutes sections, mount them on vertical shafts (like branches on Xmas trees) and whirl them around to produce the Doppler effects similar to that of rotating-speakers.

Since some of those pipes are over 30 feet long, it is suggested to either stick with the higher registers or wear plate armour while attending concerts.

And yes... it's an... organ orrery :D (not to be confused with the butcher shop mobile)
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 13 2010

A pipe organ to try this on http://www.youtube....watch?v=Oceb7Uf4ucQ
the Large Hot Pipe Organ is powered by explosive gases [Vernon, Mar 15 2010]

[+] for the effort to do something radical in pipe-organ design. A little casual googling suggests it's a rather conservative field.
-- mouseposture, Mar 13 2010


I was going to say... this idea stands on its own without the o**ery curse.
-- wagster, Mar 13 2010


fair enough... also fair warning: I still have one stuck in my midbrain for near-future posting.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 13 2010


You could mount the entire organ on railway tracks and have it racing around inside the cathedral
-- pocmloc, Mar 14 2010


I love Orrery Ideery.
-- Mustardface, Mar 14 2010


Multiple ranks could produce doppler-gangery.
-- csea, Mar 14 2010


This would give vibrato. Perhaps one could also do tremolo (is that what I mean?) by feeding the entire air supply for the organ through a single truly enormous organ pipe with a resonant frequency of a few Hertz. Then, the air delivery to the acoustic part of the organ would be pulsed at low frequency.

Indeed, one could have a whole bank of these meta-pipes, and a whole new keyboard (perhaps hip- or nose-operated) to control them.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 14 2010


//This would give vibrato// also tremolo (rhythmic attenuation) since the pipe is pointing away from any given direction half the time.

Your tremolo system truly deserves a post of its own, IMHO.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 14 2010


Ah yes, you're right about the the attenuation. But I'll leave the meta-pipes idea here as a small tribute to your scheme, which is wildly impractical and therefore more attractive.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 14 2010


I think we're drifting dangerously close to the reef of impracticality here, bigsleep.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 14 2010


well your tremolo would require a 100'ish foot pipe (or possibly 50): run it under the floor and have the tremolated pipes at the other end of the hall.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 15 2010


Jerichorerry?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 15 2010


[ft], pipes don't have to be straight, they can be coiled up or zigzag like a trumpet
-- pocmloc, Mar 15 2010


I'm liking the suggestion of having a mechanical air-controlled analogue synth using oscillating pulses of air at different frequencies to populate the organ tubes - and since you'd have to mount everything within/under the foundations that would be a good excuse to build an entire cathedral around the synth - entire towers could house resonant tubes, pipes and the bellows powering the beast could be repeatedly pressed by waterwheel.
-- zen_tom, Mar 15 2010


//coiled up// the "Princess Leia Earmuff" Pipe Organ Stomp Box. (visions of organists checking out the stock at a music store, a sign on the wall "No playing Smoke on the Water or Beethoven's Cantata and Fugue in D Minor")
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 15 2010


yahbut there's radius and velocity restraints on a rotating speaker horn for a doppler effect. A handheld unit could only get enough frequency shift of the program to be noticeable by spinning very fast, but that would bring the dopplering frequency into the audio range.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 15 2010


So, a large platform orrery with a fully kitted out regimental piper standing on each planetary position playing a correspondingly sized set of bagpipes?
-- pocmloc, Mar 16 2010


//You have a point for bagpipes//

Yes, that would probably stop them.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 16 2010


I believe Maxwell Buchanan has invented the pipe-organ FM synthesizer. [link] Even less like a pipe organ, but capable of some truly astonishing sounds, no doubt.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Mar 16 2010



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