I do like the Burea Church sampleset. I'm sure it can be used as grand or as small as you wish. I used it as my "practicing sampleset" a few years ago when I was at the cottage.

Francis: Like its commercial cousin Hauptwerk, the open source GrandOrgue is software installed on a computer. The MIDI keyboard connects to the computer through a MIDI to USB interface cable, preferably a fast one such as Roland's UM-1. You select the stops on the computer with the computer's mouse, or touch pad, but the best is a touch screen with the computer. You will need a HiFi amplifier connected to the audio output socket of the computer as well as good speakers to play the sounds with good volume for a large room. At home for practice, you could always just use headphones plugged into the computer.

For playing the keyboard as an organ, you need a sample set of an organ. This is a recording that has been made for each and every pipe on the real organ, as well as its attack and decay samples. In other words, you would be playing on virtually the real organ as far as the sound is concerned. Sample sets are either dry or wet. A dry set is where the mic has been placed as close as possible to the pipe so that there is no reverb from the large church or hall where the organ is placed. This is good for those MIDI setups in large auditoriums or churches which will give the sound their own unique reverb. A wet sample is a recording made with the mic in the large church or hall, thereby including the reverb of that large space. These are good for playing your keyboard in small spaces such as your living room or through headphones. However, reverb can always be added electronically on the computer if you want to play a dry set in your living room or through headphones.

As for sample sets, the neat thing about these virtual organs is that you can download free organ sample sets of organs from around the world and install them all on GrandOrgue and then select the one you want for the particular style of music you will be playing. That allows you to play an organ type for which the composition was originally written for. Source Forge has a large listing of such downloads:

https://sourceforge.net/p/ourorgan/samplesets/Sample Sets/

I use Hauptwerk, but would suggest you source your sample sets here:

https://piotrgrabowski.pl/

I use Piotr’s sample sets exclusively, and have never been disappointed.

Piotr's sets are indeed wonderful. Especially the Freisach. As far as free sets are concerned, you can't do much better—although there are people who cobble together a lot of the Sonus Paradisi sets into larger conglomerate sets via 3rd party ODFs. Regardless, if you want to go small, check out the freebies on the SP website too.

@Marc Cerisier thanks for this. Always wondered if there was a better source than what I'd found!

i downloaded the app and a sampleset, but it crashes everytime i try to configure the midi...

@Ted

MacOS Sierra 10.12.6
8 gig RAM
No interface... going directly from Keyrig 49 to usb port

Thanks for asking and maybe helping to figure this out

@ted

I was hoping you wouldn't tell me that... I do not play the upgrade game on my devices... Hardware is MADE to run with the software they come with. Once you begin upgrading, you begin to degrade your OS, risk making older software obsolete, and running slower and slower.

I have another newer Mac... I will try that one and see if it works and let you know. Thanks for helping.

you may be sorry, but I was still running my 2004 mac tower with high end adobe suite until this summer... because it worked when i purchased it all (hw and sw) and i never upgraded anything... that was 16 years running just as fast from day one... don't play the upgrade game

You're both right in aspects.

Newer software releases (of apps or the OS) are often not supported on older machines and sometimes include tests to prevent installing them on older equipment. Some users work around such restrictions by applying unofficial mods to the software.

Conversely, some new hardware requires support from the OS and isn't compatible with older versions that don't support the device at all, or that have bugs in their support for the device.

Francis may need to get some advice from other Hauptwerk users about the range of hardware and OS versions compatible with the app he wants to run.

The Jobs/Apple philosophy is to give the consumer something that works, and not let one tinker with it. The PC was an IBM attempted takeover of the enthusiast self build market [to over simplify].There is an analogy with SCR's tight control, and the Consilium kit of interchangeable parts approach.

I got mine working, but the speakers in our gym don’t like anything below middle C :(

Francis:
Does your Mac recognise the M-Audio keyboard? To find out, try this:

https://m-audio.com/kb/article/1603

If it does, I would suspect GrandOrgue as the problem.

For everyone, this should also teach a lesson. Dealing with USB only musical keyboards can be a problem. As USB specifications are upgraded over the years, and despite what manufacturers say, they are not entirely backward compatible on the hardware level. For instance, I tried connecting a Hammer 88 with USB 2.0 (still in production) using its direct USB connection to some new ASUS motherboards which support USB 3.1. It would not connect. 99% of USB 2.0 devices will connect with USB 3.1, but this is in that 1% which will not. Moreover, you are reliant on USB drivers from the keyboard manufacturers for supporting future OS upgrades, which has been problematic as we all know. Fortunately the Hammer 88 also has the standard MIDI interface, which easily and successfully connected through a standard interface adapter to the ASUS motherboard via USB. In other words, stick to the standard DIN MIDI interface when purchasing musical equipment, an interface that is fairly universal and should remain so for a long time.

Ted

The keyboard shows up as the MIDI input in GO, so it sees it... however the keyboard is very old... maybe 15-20 years.