Investigative Study
Fumie
Masuda
London Metropolitan
University
May
2004
© 2004 Fumie Masuda
Appreciation
to Richard Simpkins of St. Helen’s church for his kind permission to record the
organ. Also to Lewis Jones for his
help.
Abstract
The Hammond Organ was invented for
the purpose of substituting the expensive pipe organ at low cost, without
requiring large amount of space. The
instrument does not employ pipes, and the tones are electronically generated
and produced using a unique method of additive synthesis. The Hammond Organ produces many
pipe-organ-like tones without using pre-recorded pipe organ sounds other than
by combining sine waves of different pitches.
Is the Hammond Organ capable of fully imitating the
pipe organ sounds? If not, to what
extent is the instrument capable of, and what are the limitations? If the Hammond Organ successfully produces
the pipe organ tones, how is this achieved?
In search for the answers to these questions, the project has been
undertaken.
First, the mechanism and the tone production of both
the pipe organ and the Hammond Organ are explored in order to compare the two
instruments.
Secondly, various experiments, which involve with
analysis and synthesis of a selection of the pipe organ tones, were
undertaken. Selections of both individual
stops and combinations of stops are analyzed mainly in two areas, which are
tone characteristics and spectra. Then
the tones are synthesized on the Hammond Organ using its unique “harmonic
drawbars”. Whether the tones are
successfully imitated on the Hammond Organ, and whether the tones of the
Hammond Organ perceived as pipe organ tones are psychoacoustic illusion, the synthesized
tones are examined by human perception.
Finally, through the various research experiments,
the questions raised are answered, together with the overall verdict of the
Hammond Organ as a substitute for the pipe organ.
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