Yokota Centennial Organ of Chico State University

Yokota Centennial Organ of Chico State University (1984-1990)

The 2 manual tracker organ owned by the Chico State University (California) was built by Munetaka Yokota according to the aesthetic and artisanal principles of Gottfried Silbermann. The special and unique feature of the instrument is the way it was built.

David Rothe, the music and organ teacher at the university since 1968, met with Munetaka Yokota when he was an apprentice of John Brombaugh and the two visionaries prepared a project of building the organ on site in the same way organs were built several centuries ago. Subsequently, thanks to the efforts of David Rothe, Munetaka Yokota was hired by the university as an "artist in residence" for several years.

Hence, one day in 1984, Munetaka Yokota showed up in a small college town, without a team of trained craftsmen and without materials. He recruited volunteers from the student body and community as his assistants and trained them in the handcraft techniques of the early 18th century as a part of their college curriculum. The city of Chico donated enough wood from the fallen Hooker Oak to construct the pedal board and bench, while local lumber companies contributed wood for the organ’s body. The University Farm donated shin bones from cows in order to fashion the keyboards, and the art department’s sculpture lab created the organs pipes out of melted tin and lead. The metal for the pipes of Yokota’s Silbermann-style organ was cast from lead reclaimed from spent bullets from the LAPD gun range!

In 1990, the organ was meticulously done and it has gained an international reputation since then.

Features

Resolution and Encryption

The samples are offered in 48kHz/24bit resolution. The multiple releases have three levels: short, mid and long. Hauptwerk v4.2 and higher supported. The sample set is offered in plain wave format. No encryption.

Reverb time

The reverb time is ca. 2 seconds.

Keyboards, pedalboard

The original compass of the keyboards is 57 keys (highest g# missing, but added in the sample set). The original compass of the pedal division is 30 keys.

Tremulants

All ranks were recorded with and without tremulants for the most convincing tremulant behavior. Three lowest pedal stops have no tremulant. Loading the authentic tremmed ranks consumes large amount of RAM. It is possible to select to use the artificial tremulant instead to save RAM (the switch is located on the mixer tab).

Requirements RAM consumption: 6-channel surround

  • 16-bit, other settings default: 16.8 GB
  • 20-bit, other settings default: 27.6 GB (recommended)
  • 24-bit, other settings default: 31.7 GB

RAM consumption: 2-channel (front-direct solo for a semi-dry experience)

  • 16-bit, other settings default: 6.6 GB
  • 20-bit, other settings default: 9.8 GB
  • 24-bit, other settings default: 11.9 GB

Screen resolution 1280x1024 px or more. Polyphony of 4000 voices recommended for the full suround (2000 pipes minimum). Polyphony of 2000 simultaneous pipes recommended for use of the wet sample set.

Surround format

The sample set is offered in the Surround variant (6 channels). In addition to the usual 4-channel surround, there are two more alternative front channels. In total, there are 4 front audio channels and 2 rear channels. The two pairs of the front ranks feature two different recording positions: direct (near to the pipes) and diffuse (distant from the instrument). These two pairs of the front ranks can either be mixed together freely to achieve any listening position between the two extremes, or used separately - depending on the prefererences of the user. A dedicated "mixing desk" is available in Hauptwerk to mix the sound to the desired level.

The Specification

 

1. Manual (HW) C–a3
Principal (in facade) 16'
Octav Principal (facade) 8'
Viol di Gamba 8'
Hohlfloete 8'
Octava 4'
Spitzfloete 4'
Quinta 3'
Octava 2'
Tertia 1 3/5'
Mixtur IV 2'
Cymbel III 1 1/3'
Cornet IV (c-) 4'
Fagott 16'
Trompete (German) 8'
Glockenspiel (c-f2) 4'
2. Manual (OW, enclosed) C–a3
Quintadena 16'
Principal 8'
Unda maris (a-) 8'
Quintadena 8'
Gedackt 8'
Octava 4'
Rohrfloete 4'
Nasat 3'
Octava 2'
Tertia 1 3/5'
Quinta 1 1/3'
Sifflet 1'
Mixtur (Scharf) IV 1 1/3'
Trompette (French) 8'
Vox humana 8'
Pedal C–f1
Gross Untersatz 32'
Principal Bass 16'
Octav Bass 8'
Octav Bass 4'
Posaunen Bass 16'
Trompeten Bass 8'
Cornet Bass 4'
   
   
   
   

 

Couplers:

  • HW/Ped 8', OW/Ped 8', OW/HW 8';

Accessories:

  • Zimbelstern (2x);
  • Vogelgesang;
  • Tremulant works for the entire organ with the exception of Untersatz, Principal Bass 16 and Posaunen Bass 16. The Tremulant stop still engages the tremmed samples for the entire organ, including the pedal stops. In addition, split tremulants were prepared for HW and OW, accessible from the simple tab.
  • Device to mute/unmute the middle C of the Cornet, thus allowing for French or Spanish compass.

 

Screenshots

 

 

Console view:

this is the general console view. It serves to define the keyboard MIDI inputs for all the divisions. The only active part of this view are the manuals and the pedal. Specifying the MIDI inputs is done by right-clicking on the desired manual or pedal.

The drawstops can be engaged/disengaged by clicking/touching them. By right-clicking, MIDI switch can be attached to any of them.

 

 

 

Mixer view:

The virtual listening position is adjusted here by adjusting the front/rear balance. Different balance can be set for each division separately if desired.

The mixer settings can be stored, retrieved, reset. 3 different mixer settings can be stored/recalled any time.

The switch in the right makes the selection for the tremulant between the sampled tremulant and artificial (Hauptwerk model) tremulant.

 

 

 

 

Left+Right Jambs view:

for dual touch screens, split jambs were created. They allow for portrait or landscape orientation, according to the orientation of the touch screens.

All the stops and other controls of the organ can be found here. Physical pistons or MIDI switches can be assigned to a virtual button on screen by right-clicking the button.

 

 

Left + Right Jambs Vertical view:

the dual stop jambs offer vertical (portrait) orientation as an alternative.

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Jamb:

simplified version of a single jamb to allow for more readable version of the stop names on small LCD touch screens.

 

Simple Jamb (Portrait)

An alternative simple jamb for portrait orientated screens.

 

 

Shop By
Manuals
2 3 2 to 3
Instrument
  1. Chico, Centennial Organ (1)
Builder
  1. Yokota, Munetaka (1)
Created from
1984 1990 1984 to 1990
Style
  1. American Eclectic (1)
  2. Central German (1)
Variant
  1. dry (1)
  2. wet (1)
  3. surround (1)
Stops
37 38 37 to 38
Period
  1. modern (1)
  2. baroque (1)
Encryption
  1. open format (1)
  1. Chico Yokota Virtual Organ Model

    Software model of Yokota Centennial Organ of Chico State University. 6-channel Surround. No encryption, plain wave format. Minimum Hauptwerk version: 4.2. (Also works in all higher versions.)
    Price: Excl. Tax: €270.00 Incl. Tax *: €326.70 Excl. Tax

    Detail & order