How I Built My Pipe Organ: Project History - Part 2 

I have certainly played around with VPO software, and I connect a virtual instrument to headphones when I want to practice quietly. Some of the background music in the history videos was recorded on GrandOrgue.

What is the point of this comment? I have seen you comment before, and while it is true you do not sugar coat matters, this comment is coated with gall and wormwood; a surefire way to make someone spit your advice out. If your point is for him to tune it better or for him to hire a tuner- say so. If you want to denigrate him or discourage him... well, that speaks for itself.

There’s one on every site it seems.

Well, Jim, that wasn’t helpful. An organ IS a box of whistles. Let’s talk about living with a pipe organ in a small room. I have 36 ranks in a two-car garage. I’m a retired professional musician. It takes a good ear to be able to hear the nuances needed to tune an organ. First, it’s not totally easy to set the temperament. You can use a strobe tuner, get as close as you can visually, and you still won’t have accurate equal temperament in all keys. It has to be done iteratively by ear until the “wolves” are gone. Second, when tuning the remaining octaves you have to be able to tune the beats out of the overtones, not just the fundamentals. Most musicians are not proficient at aurally isolating a single overtone. Third, some timbres are difficult to tune against the reference pitch. They just don’t work together to produce clear beats. The “woolier” the organ’s voicing, the more difficult this is. Fourth, consistent temperature is essential. A degree or two of change is enough to foul up a tuning. Fifth, the tiny pipes of high-pitched ranks and mixtures are extremely touchy. With a speaking length as short as a half inch, it’s very difficult to physically manipulate the pipe into tune. It’s been said that ”the room” is the most important stop on the organ. I can certify that a tiny, acoustically dry space makes tolerable tonal results very difficult to achieve. Finally, any recording made in such a room will always sound worse than the instrument sounds live. Perhaps you know these things already. If so, a helpful comment would be more useful.

... thus the "in progress temperament" comment he made in the first part, no?

Perhaps you would be willing to share the videos you’ve made of the instrument you’ve created as a labor for your home? That way we would all be able to learn from your expertise and be inspired by your accomplishments.