MusicSphere has recorded the sound of an ancient organ in Ilmenau, Germany, as part of their research and this was recently featured on a local news programme, Thüringen Journal by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR).
Researchers taking recordings of the organ
Watch the video on YouTube (in German with English subtitles).
Scientists from the Technische Universität Ilmenau are using cutting-edge technology to digitally capture the sound of a historic pipe organ. Inside St. Jacob’s Church in Ilmenau, researchers placed more than twenty microphones inside the organ and around the nave and deployed a mobile robot to record the individual tones of the organ pipes and the acoustics of the church with remarkable precision. The goal is to create a digital twin of the 115-year-old Walcker organ which is from the Romantic era and has outstanding acoustic properties. This digital model will allow researchers to analyse, preserve, and even reproduce the instrument’s unique sound in the future. Projects like this are becoming increasingly important for cultural heritage preservation. The devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral showed how fragile historic instruments and buildings can be, and why digitally preserving their sound matters. MusicSphere will be making recordings of other organs, all of which can also be used for research and training.
