Bericht zu Consolo-Spieltisch
I've been the owner of a Consolo 372, the three-manual version, for
more than two months now, and I'm very satisfied with it. It is a
first class console, fit for professional use in every way. It would
fit right in in any church, cathedral or concert hall (it even has a
lockable roll top). Yet at €6,550 (or for the two-manual Consolo 260,
€5,850), the price is competitive enough to allow it to be purchased
as an ideal practice instrument.
The console includes everything you need: three manuals, pedal, 72
illuminated stop switches, three swell pedals, keyboard pistons, pedal
lights, organ bench and music stand. The craftsmanship is of the very
highest quality, throughout, from the solid oak of the console and
bench, to the professional-quality manuals and pedals. There is
nothing provisory or makeshift about the Consolo - it is a real church
organ console.
The Consolo 372 and 260 have been designed by SakralorgelWelt of
Germany, owned and operated by the A-Diploma organist Peter Voitz, in
cooperation with Content Organs of Holland. Content have been
manufacturing and selling digital organs worldwide for over 25 years.
The Consolo units are very similar in design to their D5600/D5800
organs, but are designed to operate solely as MIDI consoles, which of
course is ideal for driving Hauptwerk (but they could also be used as
an extra console for any MIDIfied church organ).
The Consolo 372 is about the size of a large upright piano (120x143x98
cm) and it weighs about 200 kilos in all, including the bench and
pedal. There is a "split console" option to allow it to be transported
even easier.
The keyboards are made by the well-known Italian company Fatar. They
all feature tracker-action simulation (Drückpunkt) and the keytops are
made of a plastic material which is similar in look and feel to ivory.
The feel of the action is completely professional. The basic price
includes the TP60LF; optionally you can get the TP60LW (wood kernel
keys) or TP64LW (wood kernel and wooden tops), or UHT keyboards.
The pedal board is 30 notes, straight and parallell. Optionally, you
can get it with 32 notes, curved and/or radial. The pedal is
maintenance free (as are the keyboards) and uses reed switches.
The stop switches are 72 in number (or 60, for the Consolo 260), and
of the manubrium variety. You push their bottom or top half to control
the stop, and they illuminate to indicate which state they are in. At
€52 extra, you can order magnetic strips with the stop names of your
preferred organs, to be affixed above or below the stop switches.
Changing organ stop names takes only a few seconds.
The Consolo 372 comes with tree swell pedals. These are freely
assignable to any manual that has swell expression. Furthermore, this
assignment can be set or changed at the console and doesn't need to be
done in Hauptwerk. You can also use one of the swell pedals as a
General Crescendo, even if the virtual organ you have loaded doesn't
implement it - you can program the crescendo yourself, for each organ
(more about this further on).
The basic version also comes with 10 combination buttons, used to
control the built-in Setzer combinations, Set, HR, 0 and Automatic
Pedal change (AP) thumb pistons and five freely programmable
reversible thumb pistons (F1-F5).
Playing the Consolo 372 is in all respects like playing a real
instrument: everything you need is within easy reach and operates the
way you are used to as an organist. In fact, it is easy to forget that
you're not sitting at a real pipe organ console. The key and pedal
action is actually better than that found in many real organs and
organ consoles.
The Consolo units are designed to run Hauptwerk without an attached
screen or screens, if you so wish. You can safely forget about the
computer and just play as usual: the organ console looks like an organ
console and not as a computer workstation. However, there is ample
space on top of the console for computer screens, should you wish to
use them for some special purpose (there is only one that I can think
of, but more about that shortly). There is a LCD control unit which
allows you to load different sample sets, adjust the tuning and
temperature, assign swell pedals, and so forth.
The fact that the Consolos are designed to allow Hauptwerk to be run
headlessly means that the Consolo is a pure MIDI control unit. Almost
all communication goes from the Consolo to Hauptwerk, not the other
way around. As a consequence, there is an independent combination
system built into the Consolo, which supersedes that of Hauptwerk. All
combinations are stored in the Consolo unit - normally, Hauptwerk's
combination system isn't used at all.
There are a total of 880 Setzer combinations, organised in 8 lots (one
for each fast-load slot in Hauptwerk) of 10 banks of 10 combinations
per organ slot, plus the General Crescendo (which is programmable per
organ). Thus each organ loaded has 100 available combinations plus an
individually tailored General Crescendo.
These external Setzer combinations make the General Crescendo and
Automatic Pedal Change possible (even for organs which do not have
these features), enables combinations to work exactly the same way for
all sample sets, and allows combinations to be stored and recalled
very quickly using the thumb pistons. You can also add +/- pistons
(thumb and/or foot) to move from combination to combination across
each of the ten banks.
The disadvantage is, of course, that the Setzers are limited in
number. One hundred combinations may not take you through an entire
recital, if the programme consists of romantic or contemporary music,
but there is an easy workaround: simply store the same organ in
multiple Hauptwerk slots. Loading a sample set is much quicker now.
Alternatively, you can still use Hauptwerk's combinations: just
connect one or more of the F1-F5 buttons, or a couple of foot pistons,
to Hauptwerks combination sequencer and you're set. You won't see the
stops change on the Consolo, but you will have an unlimited number of
combinations, should the 880 Setzer combinations not be enough. (Peter
Voitz reports that We might someday see a firmware upgrade which will
allow the Consolo to follow stop changes originating from Hauptwerk.)
After ten weeks of use, however, I find that I'm only using the
Setzers, without any problems at all.
Options include extra combination foot pistons and hand buttons, extra
foot pistons to be assigned to any Hauptwerk function, an adjustable
bench and music stand. Brass swell pedals and foot pistons are also
available as options.
It has been a great pleasure ordering from SakralorgelWelt. Peter
Voitz has shown great professionalism and has been very helpful far
beyond what one would expect. A couple of questions I have had
regarding servicing the unit has been answered with detailed
explanations including photos of how to proceed. The Consolo 372
arrived exactly on time, was extremely well packaged and was easy to
set up using the detailed Owner's Manual in English and German.
In all, I warmly recommend the Consolo 372 to anyone interested in a
stylish, professional organ console at a very competitive price. The
Consolo 372 and 260 are in my opinion eminently suitable for any type
of public venue or for home use.
Video auf Youtube: Der schwedische Konzertorganist Peter Bengtson spielt das Finale der 3. Symphonie von L. Vierne auf seinem Consolo-372-Spieltisch mit dem Sampleset der Mutin-Cavaillé-Coll - Orgel zu Metz. Wir danken Peter Bengtson sehr herzlich für dieses exzellente Video!
