Lyons, CO

"The Viscount Chorum 60 Dlx is a fantastic home practice organ. I am reminded of this every time I play it, and as I continue to discover more of its wonderful musical possibilities.

But it is also an excellent and affordable solution for churches and chapels where pipes or a larger digital organ would be prohibitive, due to space and / or budget limitations. The beauty, power and versatility of the Chorum 60 Dlx, with the addition of external speakers and amplification, make it a highly scalable solution for any situation, whether at home, in a church, or in an academic setting.

In 2013, I became the owner of a used, 2-manual digital Johannus Prestige 100 organ. In spite of occasional instability of volume and tuning, eventually requiring circuit board rebuilds, this instrument was useful and enjoyable for home practice. I certainly liked having a drawknob console!

However, a recent family gathering led us to realize that we needed to recover the living room space taken up by the Prestige 100. At first, our options for doing that seemed limited. Due to its size, weight and internal construction, the Prestige 100 could not safely be moved through the 45-degree turns of the basement stairs. We even considered building a “man-cave” shed for the organ in the back yard, or enclosing part of the garage, but neither of those options were practical for us. We needed an organ that could work in the basement.

Dan Bashor of Church Organ Works suggested that we consider the Viscount Chorum 60 Dlx. After reviewing the impressive stoplist, I played this organ at Dan’s shop and was truly astonished. Even with only its internal speakers, the Chorum 60 Dlx displayed a stunning degree of power, versatility and musical impact, all built into a compact console.

Dan’s son, Josh, built a mock-up of the organ, using its Viscount shipping box. With this mock-up, we were able to verify that the console would make it down the basement stairs safely, and fit well in the available space.

We began organizing the basement layout, and on move day, the Chorum 60 Dlx successfully made the trip around the turns and down the stairs. Dan expertly connected the organ to a new external amplifier, with me participating in parts of the wiring process. This amplifier drives the external speakers and subwoofer that we retained from the Prestige 100.

Over the following days and weeks, I adjusted the volume levels of many of the stops, as well as the speed and depth of the tremulants, and experimented with the various provided reverberation models. I was impressed with how easily I could adapt the organ to its basement space, as well as to my tastes and preferences.

With the organ installed and fully functional, I continue to be delighted by its many capabilities. The stoplists for the four styles make the Chorum 60 Dlx a truly multum in parvo organ. In effect, there are four complete organs, from which one can match the music being played.

Here are a few of my favorite examples from among the numerous possibilities:

BAR – 18th century North German Baroque, e.g., Silbermann

J. S. Bach: Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 654, and other ornamented chorale preludes:

Swell: Gedeckt 8’, Blockflöte 4’, Nazard 2 2/3’, Terz 1 3/5’, Tremulant
Great: Rohrflöte 8’, Spitzflöte 4’
Pedal: Subbass 16’, Gedecktbass 8’, Great to Pedal

BRK – 17th century North German Baroque, e.g. Schnitger

For Italian Elevations:

Swell: Italian Principal 8’, Unda Maris 8’ (makes a lovely Italian Voce umana)
Great: Holzflöte 8’, Spitzflöte 4’
Pedal: Subbass 16’, Gedeckt 8’

Dietrich Buxtehude: Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, BuxWV178 (Herzlich tut mich verlangen in 80 Chorale Preludes, Herman Keller, ed.):

Swell: Rohrflöte 4’, Regal 8’ (right hand)
Great: Quintadena 8’ (left hand)
Pedal: Subbass 16’, Gedeckt 8’

Johann Pachelbel: Magnificat Fugues

Great: Principal 8’, Octave 4’, Octave 2’, Mixture IV, (Trompete 8’)
Pedal: Octave 16’, Octave 8’, Octave 4’, Mixture IV, (Fagott 16’, Trompete 8’),
Great to Pedal

J. S. Bach: Meine Seele erhebet den Herrn, BWV 648:

Swell: Gedeckt 8’
Great: Spitzflöte 4’
Pedal: Gedeckt 8’
Keyboard Inversion On, so that Great is on the upper manual (right hand) and Swell is on the lower manual, as a Positiv (left hand)

ROM – 19th century French Romantic, e.g., Cavaillé-Coll

A singing, useful fonds d’orgue:

Swell: Principal 8’, Cor de Nuit 8’, Gambe 8’
Great: Montre 8’, Flûte Harmonique 8’, Viole 8’, Swell to Great
Pedal: Contrebasse 16’, Soubasse 16’, Violone Basse 16’, Basse 8’, Bourdon 8’, Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal

The voices in the ROM style, including the fiery reeds, do wonders for literature such as the César Franck L’Organiste, the Louis Vierne 24 Pieces in Free Style and Messe Basse, The Practical Organist by Alexandre Guilmant, etc. French Romantic organ music really comes to life in the ROM style!

SYM – 20th century English / American Classic

Wonderful for playing hymns, Anglican service music by Willan and Merbecke, pieces from collections such as The Liturgical Organist, etc.

The Swell strings in each of the styles are quite beautiful. Viscount thoughtfully included a Pedal 32’ stop, which works wonderfully with the strings

Viscount provided an amazing array of power and tone color variety in the reeds available in each style. Combined with the excellent principal choruses, the reeds contribute mightily to a tonal build-up that is breathtaking for an organ of this size, undergirded by the Pedal 32’.

The internal speaker set is very fine, and even includes a subwoofer built into the console.

There is a dazzling array of control features for stop volume adjustments, tremulants, reverberations, tuning, temperaments, equalizers, volumes (division, output, reverberation and overall organ), output routing, combination action, keyboard inversions, etc.

If some choral karaoke at home sounds like fun, you can play an external audio source, such as a CD player, through the organ, and tune the organ precisely to the music on the CD. I’ve also been pleased with the ability to tune the Chorum 60 Dlx to my 19th century reed organ. Stay tuned for Soler concerti with the grandkids someday…

The console is structurally sturdy, with an oak finish. Viscount ingeniously avoided installation problems by connecting the pedalboard to the console by means of a data cable. This system is superior to having to rely on tricky alignment of the pedalboard with magnets, switches, etc. inside the console.

The Chorum 60 Dlx more than does justice to classical organ music of any period, as well as hymns and other choral accompaniments. I am confident that it will completely delight many organists and their congregations."

Dean