James Atherton talks about voicing the Leeds Town Hall organ

James Atherton, Head Voicer at Nicholson & Co. Ltd Pipe Organ Builders, talks about the voicing process for the new Leeds Town Hall organ.
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[@johnwilson-mr6pw]

Interesting. As some large cathedral organs have thousands of pipes I have often wondered if there is a combination of pipes that has never been sounded or heard? There are millions of lottery numbers that have never come up so why not a new sound from a new selection of pipes? Just the idle thoughts of an idle fellow.

[@ChrisGJohnson]

At Leeds town hall, there are about 40 stops on great and pedal. To get through all combinations of those, trying one combination every second, would take about 35,000 years, so indeed only a tiny fraction of the possible sounds have been heard.

[@ds1868]

@@ChrisGJohnson I suppose you could take it further with the Royal Albert Hall organ, which is much larger than Leeds. 36 stops on the pedal, 32 on the Great, 68 in total. The Swell alone has 25 stops. As you say the combinations are virtually endless.

[@elgar57]

So Glad it is not being built by Harrison and Harrison, the most arogant and boring organ builders in the uk.