Barton 3/7

To order this organ, go to the Donationware VTPOs Order Form page to fill in your information, and we will send you the link to download the sample set. 

The original Redford Barton theatre organ has 10 ranks (see http://redfordtheatre.com/organ/). As we had six ranks processed in November 2011 we decided to release a sample set based on a smaller specification – but with as many stops as we could fit into the single screen requirements of a small computer screen. This specification is the result of the input and discussion of the members of the VTPO group. In the end I had processed one more rank, so the 3/7 was born.

The Redford Theatre is closed due to Covid-19 Pandemic restrictions - please go to Donate to the Redford to send them a donation to help them cover their monthly bills.


Donation and Order Forms:

This project, although free for personal and non-commercial use, will be donationware based and released by Melotone Sound Productions. Your donations to the project will help us to continue to develop new sample sets and improve the equipment and techniques used in their creation.

Projects like the Barton Series and the Freedom Morton Series are time intensive and are released on the understanding that users will donate towards the time spent on creating them. Please go to the PayPal Donations page if you are able to make a donation. 

Then go to the Donationware VTPOs Order Form page to fill in your information, and we will send you the link to download the sample set.  

Please Note: This is a SEMI-WET theatre organ sample set. Some of the acoustics of the Redford Theatre are part of the release portions of the samples, so if you are using additional reverb you will either need to use Hauptwerk's truncate release settings to make the ranks more dry, or you will need to reduce your external reverb.

The samples are in 16-bit 48khz Stereo, and the set uses recorded tremulant samples, not the Hauptwerk tremulant model.

Specification : Barton 3/7 Specification

Audio Demos:

Por Una Cabeza

Played for us by Iain McGlinchey "Por Una Cabeza" - a lovely piece from 1935 by Carlos Gardel. It tells of a man who loves the ladies, and also betting on the horses, but in both aspects he always seems to loose "by a head" ... or ... por una cabeza!  It brings back memories of the Al Pacino film "Scent of a Woman" where he dances with a charming stranger to this music.

Por Una Cabeza - YouTube


You're The Cream In My Coffee

A typical Neighbourhood Theatre style music from the golden era "You're The Cream In My Coffee" is a 1928 song by Ray Henderson and Buddy DeSilva played in the style of the time. Played for us by Iain McGlinchey.

You're The Cream In My Coffee - YouTube

History of the Barton VTPO Project:

The original instrument was built by the Bartola Musical Instrument Co. of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The following ranks were recorded by and are the property of Joe Hardy:

Diapason, Tibia,Tuba, Viole d’ Orchestre, Vox Humana,Chimes, Auto Horn, Steam Boat, Chinese Gong, Thunder, Traps, Xylophone.

The microphones (AKG 414 BULS) were positioned about twenty feet into the auditorium, these recordings were done in 2007.

The following ranks were recorded by and are the property of Lynn Walls:

Flute, Tibia 16' Extension, Tuba 16' Extension, Chrysoglott, Bell, Siren, Bird Song, Fire Gong. These recordings were done in 2011.

Paul Jacyk and Lynn Walls provided the photos that were used to create the Hauptwerk Console, Stop Tabs, and 2nd Touch views. Graphic editing was done by Graham Goode. The Noise Reduction was done by Graham Goode using Nick Appleton's free Noise Reduction application. The looping and placement of release makers within the Hauptwerk sample set was done by Graham Goode. The Hauptwerk CODM and rank extensions within the Hauptwerk sample set were created by Graham Goode.

14 members from the Yahoo VTPO group volunteered to be part of the Alpha testing phase of this sample set. Many thanks to all of you for your feedback.

The samples have also been made into a soundfont, created by Les Knoll, and a jOrgan disposition has been released that uses the soundfont. Another jOrgan disposition, with a similar skin to the HW set, is in testing at the moment.

We will also create and release the samples in GigaStudio (GIG) format.

This sample set is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) License. Which basically means you are free to use it and share it, so long as the license and attributions remain with the sample set.