Wonder Morton 4/23 for Hauptwerk in Wet and Dry versions

Audio Demos: See the Wonder Morton 4/23 Audio Demos page for wonderful demonstration tracks.

The Robert Morton company had its origins in the Murray Harris Organ Company of Los Angeles. The company passed through various owners, business names and locations between Murray Harris and Robert Morton, including the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, the Johnston Organ Company, and the California Organ Company. Despite all the corporate change and upheaval, the output in terms of high quality and tonal character was remarkably consistent. Several Robert Morton key personnel were veteran organ builders who had served as apprentices with major English organ building firms. Tonally, Robert Morton organs had a reputation for being powerful, while at the same time refined and "symphonic" in character.

Five Wonder Morton consoles were built for the "Wonder Theaters". These theaters were the top of the line in terms of looks and functionality, and hosted a 4 manual 23 rank Robert Morton Theatre organ. In producing this sample set we have kept this specification as our base, and so hope to present an authentic re-creation of the sound of these wonders.

Specification for an original type Wonder Morton 4/23

Also see the websites of some of the surviving Wonder Mortons:

• The Bob Balfour Memorial Wonder Morton
• 4/27 Robert-Morton, Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara, California
• Wonder Morton Organ at the Balboa Theatre Facebook Page
• Van Der Molen 4/26 Robert Morton
• United Palace And The 4 Other Loew's Wonder Theaters

The majority of the samples used for this set come from the Robert Morton Opus 2401 that now graces the home of David Billmire, a beautiful 3/17 instrument. David was kind enough to make sample recordings of his theatre pipe organ and make those recordings available to me in order to create a VTPO version. The samples were recorded in 16-bit 48khz Stereo, and uses recorded tremulant samples. The organ samples are quite dry and will benefit from added reverb. You can play a virtual reproduction of David's Robert Morton Opus 2401 by ordering the Robert Morton Opus 2401 Series for Hauptwerk. A couple of ranks used in the Wonder Morton come from another Robert Morton organ (the owner wishes to remain anonymous).

The hours and hours of work that go into something of this size mean that the Wonder Morton 4/23 sample set for Hauptwerk is released as a commercial sample set. The samples have been encrypted, and will work with any edition of Hauptwerk. We recommend that you purchase the Advanced Edition of Hauptwerk for this sample set. The Wonder Morton 4/23 Wet download version is US$249.00, the Wonder Morton 4/23 Dry download version is US$199.00. A Wet + Dry special deal is available for download at US$399.

To order this organ, go to the Wonder Morton sample sets order page.

Thanks go to Tom Hoehn for the use of his photos (with his permission) to create the console view, to Olivia Nagioff - for her programming work on the Left/Right screens, the crescendo, and the final incorporation of the combinations, and to Misha Stefanuk - for creating the base combinations that were then tweaked a bit, and for providing the demo MIDI file for this release. Thanks also to the Alpha and Beta testers, for your feedback and comments that have improved the final product!

The semi-dry version benefits from adding external reverb. See the following links for some ideas on how to add reverb to your Hauptwerk system:

• http://stephenschaub.org/hauptwerk/ReverbSetup.php
• https://www.hauptwerk.com/news/tutorials-sequencing/2015/06/08/hauptwerk-with-reaper/

We have created an extended specification for this organ, expanding it to a 4/32. See The Wonder Morton extended 4/32 for Hauptwerk 4.2 for more information.

Advanced Options:

If you are running a MIDI console, or have some spare MIDI controllers that you can use with your VTPO, there are some extra hidden Stops that have been added to the Wonder Morton 4/23. You will find the list of Xtra Stops in the Organ menu.