If the pre-programmed organ patches on the keyboard are not the best, it might be possible (for perhaps only a few hundred dollars, or maybe less used) to get a MIDI sampler to plug into the keyboard that at least has better organ sounds.

#1, above all: GET RID OF IT. Buy a real organ, or, failing that, at least a digital one. Some of the cheapest digital models are around $12,000 new. Surely you could find, say, 24 people, willing to pledge $5/week for 2 years, to purchase an organ. Do you know how to play a real organ? (no attack, just curious) If not, seek training.

Use of a MIDI patch is so far below the dignity of the liturgy that bongos would be an improvement. So please consider your options as you move forward in this position.

#2, as for the situation you're in RIGHT NOW, my advice is to check if your keyboard has a "Harmonium" patch. The "Church Organ" patches always seem to have been designed by people who have never heard or played a real organ. The Harmonium patch is usually pretty acceptable. Failing that, I'd find a patch approximating a Hammond organ, usually listed as "Jazz Organ". It's not ideal, but it will probably sound better than the default patch - after all, the Hammond was invented to imitate the sound of a pipe organ. Or just use the "Piano" patch. It's probably the best one on there.

#3, depending on your church acoustic, you may consider adding reverberation to the sound. Too much can make the sound uselessly muddied, but a bit will add much to the sound. Of course, you need to be familiar with the operation of the instrument to do that.

Again, let me stress the importance of buying a real/digital organ. Something with pedals and stops. Your parish will be MUCH happier with it, and it will DRASTICALLY improve the musical quality of your liturgies. If I may be blunt (of course I may), your parish sounds like it's in crisis due to the leadership of the past few priests. Your community is splintered, fighting, and leaving. As someone who has worked on an organ fundraising project before, I have seen first-hand what a tonic such projects are for a hurting congregation, and how they lend a sense of pride and involvement in the music program.

There are options for your congregation, so talk to your pastor and see what he thinks. I must STRONGLY, STRONGLY, STRONGLY disagree with the advice above: do not spend a CENT on anything other than an organ. You'll just be patching (pun unintended) over a serious deficit in your program, and it will fix very little. Talk to your priest, talk to some of the parish "movers and shakers", and see what you can do to get an instrument to produce worthy Sacred Music.

Gavin--thank you for your suggestions. We will eventually (in the next couple of years when our new church is finished) get a real organ and, while I am a pianist and not a true organist, I have a church organist friend who is willing to give me lessons. My objective at this point is to try and find something that will do justice to the music without spending a lot of money since the parish is in the middle of a capital campaign for the new church. I will try the Hamonium patch (unless, of course our keyboard doesn't have one). And, thank you for the advice about the "church organ" setting, because, like you say, it truly sounds nothing like a true instrument.

What FNJ says is true. I was the consultant to installing a Roland C-330 in a church out East from here where I live this past December, and for 20k, it is a phenomenal deal.

The speaker system is the real trick. I haven't seen a digital installation that I like yet. However, I have spoken with M&O and they are doing some very good speaker installations. It is almost better to plan more money on the speakers than the instrument itself. Builders of pipe organs did and continue to do BOTH. Designing and voicing pipes for an installation is inseparable from designing and building the console. The two are one and same, and need to be treated as such.

Don't skrimp on speaker installation and placement, voicing (individual volume and tone of each pipe) and analyzing the EQ of the particular church architecture and then getting the sound even throughout. You need someone who knows acoustics to do this. That generally doesn't come from digital organ companies these days.

Thanks Jackson.....I do agree with the touch and I'm getting better at it. I'm also so used to playing the sustaining pedal on the piano, that it's taking a lot of practice to rid myself of it.

This is beginning to go in the right direction!

A friend of mine is using Hauptwerk to remodel a practice organ at home. I hear all you need is a fast computer and an MIDI keyboard (or two). He is taking apart his old electronic organ, then rewiring the thing to add midi functionality, then hooking the midi to his computer. Sounds like fun.

especially if they're using their own personal laptop with the "church organ".