Frequently Asked Questions
Thank you for your interest in Viscount Organs North America! This page is thoughtfully designed to provide clear, detailed answers to the most common questions our discerning customers ask, ensuring you have all the information you need to discover the quality and craftsmanship of our instruments.
Prospective Owners
Viscount North America a division of Viscount International Spa. Viscount North America was formed to better serve churches, individuals, and institutions throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the island nations. We are not a third-party Viscount organ distributor. This helps us keep costs low, while maintaining an ultra high-quality product, and providing 1st class service to our dealers and customers throughout this region of the world. Viscount North America is made up of US-based corporate staff, including both dedicated sales and service/parts support, warehousing facilities for quick and timely delivery, and a continually growing network of dealers.
Often times, our Viscount organ customers in North America ask why they haven’t heard of Viscount before. Viscount has been one of the largest manufacturers of high–quality digital organs for decades, but has been relatively unknown in North America, especially the US for two reasons:
- Italians are known for their intrinsic ability to create some of the finest and highest–quality products the world has known, including the mighty traditional and digital organ. Viscount has made the decision to offer every church in North America a new, quality church organ, and to know about the many options Viscount has to offer.
- Viscount has sold organs in North America for decades, but the importation happened because of third-party distributor for other US-based companies. Fact is, if you were playing on an electronic organ in the 80’s and 90’s, you probably played on a Viscount organ, but just didn’t know it. One of the largest manufacturers Viscount built for was Baldwin Organ Company. These classic instruments were made to Baldwin Organ’s exacting specifications and demands in Viscount’s state-of-the-art facilities. Viscount no longer manufacturers organs for third parties, and they do not have a third party distributor managing Viscount North America. Viscount maintains their own North American staff and imports all products directly in order to maintain their high-quality and sound standards. Cutting out the middleman also makes for highly competitive prices against other European and American Manufacturers.
Viscount’s motto is ‘One Family. One Brand.’ This not only signifies our dedication to our valued dealer network as family, but it also clearly states that the Viscount organ brand is everything to this company, and is only as good as the technologies and high-quality products we offer our customers.
Clearly, with the creation of Physis® Physical Modeling Technology used in our digital organs one can see that we are not swayed in our pursuit by what others are doing in the music industry, and we’re certainly not trying to imitate any other company’s strategy. The only thing in this world we are shamelessly trying to imitate is the beauty and majestic sound of the pipe organ. Instead of following, we lead by doing what we believe is best for our customers, even if that means taking the road less traveled.
Since we felt that there was a better way than sampled sound technology in digital organs, we spared no expense in developing a technology for the music industry that has already been accepted by other industries throughout the world; self-driving cars, smart phones, the meteorologists’ weather map, navigation devices, and even internet search engines all use physical modeling.
The future of music is our mission, based on clear and simple values that guide us in our pursuit of the ultimate digital organs and instruments. These values can be categorized in four simple categories.
TRADITION
To live in Italy means to be surrounded by beauty, from artistic masterpieces, to architecture, to rich musical traditions. We always seek to include this beauty in our traditional instruments and digital organs wherever in the world they may go.
ARTISANAL CRAFTSMANSHIP
In the production and realization of our digital organs and instruments, we always pay the highest attention to every detail. To own a Viscount instrument is to have in your hands an object of prestige which will last through time.
TECHNOLOGY
Viscount makes use of the most advanced technologies in software, hardware and mechanics – developed and expertly adapted specifically for the musical instrument market. Our inventions, covered by numerous patents, help us realize traditional organs and digital organ products with great impact and exclusive performance.
PASSION
Music isn’t just the core of our business, but something which elevates our minds and our bodies. We put our passion into our digital organs and traditional instruments, adding this faithful attribute to your most intimate moments or performances.
Viscount offers the industry-wide standard limited manufacturer’s 10-year warranty that covers electronic part failures attributable to defects in manufacture. We stock replacement parts in facilities on both sides of the Atlantic. Most Viscount owners find the standard warranty more than sufficient, although supplemental service options can be purchased from Viscount North America.
Like all warranties, Viscount’s warranty excludes coverage and remedy for all failures of or damage sustained by the instrument, its systems, and components caused by inadequate, improper, or unqualified use or care of the instrument and the building.
Items not covered by this Warranty include but are not limited to the failure of the instrument’s operating mechanisms, components, or materials caused by acts of nature, or incidental water, fire, smoke, flood, sprinkler discharge, lightning, wind storm, earthquake, settling, cracking, or shifting of the Building’s foundations, hail, explosion, riot, civil commotion, vehicular damage, vandalism, malicious mischief, vermin, and theft.
In order to provide fast, quality service, Viscount North America has US-based parts and service support. If you ever need any assistance, call your local dealer. If you are an independent technician, please contact our service department.
Viscount Physis organs do not require seasonal tuning and maintenance. We provide technical assistance and employ advisors to educate organists in the use of Viscount’s special features. Viscount organs are self-diagnostic, so if any component fails, a notification will appear on the console’s screen pinpointing the affected circuit board.
Traditional systems often require a technician to spend hours on-site diagnosing the problem. With a Viscount organ, repairs are streamlined—our plug-and-play components allow technicians to arrive with the precise part needed, ensuring faster and more efficient service.
For maintenance beyond the warranty period, costs are typically limited to the replacement of parts as necessary, with no additional routine servicing required.
Arrangements may be made with your Viscount representative for the removal of your existing console and organ components that are not being incorporated into your new project. To comply with local, state, and federal safety regulations, it is the client’s responsibility to contract with an insured licensed electrician to make all line voltage disconnections and connections required for the decommissioning of your present instrument and the provision of power to your Viscount Physis or Fusion organ.
Like fine pipe organ workshops, Viscount North America has a dedicated Tonal Director on staff. We are the only digital organbuilder that retains a veteran pipe organ builder and respected organ historian to develop our instruments for each client.
The tonal design of every organ, from the stop selection to the coupler array, is developed and finalized in consultation with the Tonal Director, who confers with our sound laboratory and manufacturing facility to meet the musical requirements of each commission. Following the design process, Viscount clients receive a PDF of an engineering drawing that clearly shows:
The exact stop names and their locations
The intra- and inter-divisional coupler array
The scope and distribution of the combination action
The layout of console controls and displays
The arrangement of the internal speaker array
Clients who have an interest in Viscount’s standard designs may request that information from their local Viscount representative or from the main office.
Our methodology mirrors that of traditional pipe organ builders, by which no two Viscount organs are identical. Unlike sample-based organs that might claim to offer a copy of an existing pipe organ, our historically researched designs draw upon the finest work of all eras and cultures of fine organ building, creating individual voices that build cohesive ensembles from the ground up, tailored to each acoustical environment for which we build.
Viscount’s term for an organ stop created in our laboratory is “PipeSet,” a single voice from our vast tonal library. The term “Sound Suite” indicates a sub-library of voices that is installed within the organ and available as a musically related selection of PipeSets. Your instrument comes with a number of Sound Suites, each of which reflects a particular culture and era. Examples from which the organist can choose are “Northern Baroque,” English Cathedral,” “American Classic,” and “French Romantic.”
The Sound Suites installed in each Viscount organ reflect the musical tastes of the individual owner or owning institution. The design of each organ is based upon the size and acoustical environment of the venue, whether a church, auditorium, school, or private studio. Viscount’s Tonal Director can recommend configurations and customize the organ’s design prior to its manufacture in our facilities.
The presiding musician can modify the tonal finishing (digital editing) of individual notes using Viscount’s open-source software. This is achieved effortlessly via an iPad or a PC without the need for dealer assistance unless requested. Many of the organ’s primary adjustments can be made using the organ’s built-in screen. Nonetheless, the minute adjustment of single notes within individual ranks is rarely necessary. Professional voicing at the time of construction assures excellence in note-to-notes tonal finishing. On occasion, musicians may desire that the relative amplitude of a particular stop be adjusted in its relationship to other stops in a division.
Viscount organs are equipped with a pre-installed group of nearly 700 voice models and a growing selection of orchestral and non-organ voices. The existing orchestral library is extensive, and most clients find it meets all of their needs.
The option to expand that selection is offered through the purchase and installation of a supplemental circuit board dedicated to the new voices. Viscount requires only the exchange of a new circuit board that is recognized instantly by the organ’s computer system.
No programming is required.
Viscount’s flexible sequencer offers sophisticated capabilities including multi-track recording, overdubbing to overlay Physis orchestral and organ voices with organ recordings. It can create customized “song lists” or full programs for religious services or musical events, complete with “looping” (smooth repetition) and playback options
Every Viscount console is equipped with an advanced stereo sound system that delivers clear, immersive audio for the organist. Key features include an internal stereophonic speaker array with two independent subwoofers (other manufacturers often resort to a monaural subwoofer). Multiple midrange and “tweeter” speakers produce balanced, high fidelity sound through digital amplification utilizing DSP (Digital Signal Processing) for superior clarity and spatial accuracy.
This innovative design ensures exceptional acoustic performance, surpassing competitors that rely on mono-summed low frequencies and outdated analog amplification. Every Viscount sound delivery system is engineered for unmatched realism in tone and acoustical behavior.
Your organ’s sound system includes a total of 26 speakers engineered for voicing accuracy and clarity, housing 24 full-range speaker cabinets that deliver rich and balanced sound across all registers. Ultra-low frequencies are produced by a pair of subwoofers that create the physical sensations and authentically powerful bass unique to the organ.
The Viscount system is powered by audiophile-quality amplification with advanced digital signal processing (DSP). This allows for precise tuning of the speakers to the room’s acoustics before voicing and tonally finishing the organ, a level of refinement only possible with digital amplification that features extensive DSP.
Viscount’s unique technology has eliminated phase cancellation, which occurs when multi-speaker audio arrays produce identical frequencies that negate each other. When phase cancellation occurs, the Viscount system redirects problematic frequencies to neighboring speakers in real time, eliminating cancellation while maintaining impeccable clarity. Whether a single stop or full organ, each tone remains distinct and vibrant in its contribution to the ensemble. This level of scientific attention to detail is unmatched by other builders.
Viscount organs are equipped with our “room modeling” technology that delivers a realistic acoustical experience. Unlike other systems, Viscount’s proprietary reverberation technology is integrated directly into the voice modeling process, ensuring that the digital pipe models respond authentically to the surfaces of the listening space.
Realistic “front” and “tail” reverberation is adjustable, unlike the fixed, sterile-sounding settings of lesser systems.
Humidity influence simulation, by which the effect of regional environmental conditions can be replicated, permitting the organ to respond as it would in each individual venue, depending upon its geographic location.
A selection of preprogrammed listening environments are avaialble, by which the musician can select a simulated acoustical environment, such as a vaulted cathedral, a long basilica without transepts, a modern church, or a small chamber music hall, tailoring the acoustic experience.
Viscount organs are built with velocity-sensitive keyboards with customizable settings to suit the organist’s technique. Key features include:
Adjustable sensitivity: Tailored touch characteristics to accommodate the continuum of performance styles and key action characteristics.
Dynamic orchestral voices: Expressive control of emulated orchestral voices in response to velocity sensitivity.
Authentically “fixed” models: Certain tone models, such as those for not touch-sensitive, so their genuine sound is preserved by keeping such a digital model in its pure state.
This thoughtful design ensures versatility and historical accuracy, enhancing your playing experience.
For those who wish to equip their instrument with Viscount’s remote playback feature, it is available for an additional investment. The system consists of a receiver and a hand-held remote control device to control the organ from a distance. The price for this optional feature should be confirmed with your Viscount representative or the main office at the time you commission the organ, and is presently $1,000.
The 3,500-year-old veneered furniture in King Tutankhamun’s tomb is fully preserved, and some of the finest American plywood furniture from the 1850s graces the collections of the world’s museums.
Viscount employs veneered console construction for its strength, environmental sustainability, and aesthetic superiority. Thin cross-grain laminations of graded wood form stable elements of higher weight-to-strength ratio than solid wood, distributing loads more evenly to mitigate cracking and warping.
Uniformity of grain pattern, color, and finish is guaranteed when veneer for an entire console is sliced from the same tree, a feat rarely possible with solid wood.
Solid timber varies in quality, density, and strength depending upon growth, harvesting, and drying conditions. Viscount’s cross-grain plywood, manufactured under controlled and monitored conditions, is a premium material that withstands wide swings of temperature and humidity. Therefore, unlike other companies, Viscount does not surcharge their clients for instruments destined for extreme climates.
The number of thumb and toe pistons is determined by the size of the instrument and the needs of the church’s music program. If you are customizing one of Viscount North America’s standard models, the piston complement, and layout can be customized during the design phase. We adhere to the parameters established by the American Guild of Organists as a point of departure for our console construction, and our Tonal Director has the knowledge to assist with customizations for historic and European console styles.
The discreet Sustain switch is located near the balanced Swell expression pedal. It is built as a convenient foot switch similar to the “Sostenuto” device used in cinema organs of a century past. It is positioned to the right of the expression pedal for intuitive location and operation.
Sampled Sound Technology in our hybrid and digital organs records a sound and saves that information on a hard drive. Every time you press a key, it’s like hitting ‘play’ on a tape deck. Releasing the key is like hitting ‘stop’. As long as you own an instrument with sampled sound technology, the recording stored inside will always remain the same. Many pipe organists will tell you that much of the beauty of the instrument comes from its ever-changing sound, tuning, and nuances.
Our Physis® Technology
Each note played on a pipe organ is unique, influenced by factors such as sympathetic resonance from neighboring pipes, variations in air pressure, and the interplay of pipes in ensemble. Physis® Technology addresses not only the sound of a pipe organ, but also its behavior, reflected in our digital organs.
How It Works
Physis® Technology does not use recordings to produce its sounds. Instead, the engineers at Viscount have successfully created a series of complex algorithms (computer code) that build each individual pipe from the ground up in real time, faster than the human mind can recognize any delay. With the introduction of Physis® Technology, Viscount has succeeded in reproducing sound waves just as they would emanate from a windblown pipe organ—each with its own autonomy, individuality, and unique characteristics. Viscount’s instruments using Physis®, reproduce each note’s sound wave in our digital organs just as it sounded in the original organ. Since there are no “breaks” or “split-points” as found in many sampled sound technologies, the progression of sound across the keyboard is accurate, smooth, and natural. However, the shapes of Physis® sound waves are open, making it possible to edit, modify, and extend their structure. They produce a tri-dimensional sound. Physis® speaks not just with “Left-to-Right” motion, as currently done with older technologies, but also with “Front-to-Back” and “Up and Down” motion as they do in real windblown pipes.
The current setup consists of 72 separate parameters, and this number continues to grow with each update. These parameters collectively determine the sound of each individual pipe of each rank. They include factors such as room temperature, humidity, pipe bore diameter, pipe opening size, and pipe age. Once the sound is created, we have the ability to adjust or remove these parameters one by one, allowing us to achieve the most realistic and best pipe organ sound possible. Similar to a real pipe organ builder, we can manipulate the physical characteristics of each individual rank of pipes to meet your exact specifications in our digital organs. With Physis® Technology, you have a digital organ that is entirely yours, and is voiced precisely to meet your specific needs as a player or for your congregation. Additionally, if your needs ever change, Physis® Technology-driven organs can be easily adjusted by the user, eliminating the need to pay a dealer to do it for you.
The library of our digital organ currently contains just under 1200 voices, and the pipe models are universal across every Viscount organ model. This means that regardless of whether you have the smallest two-manual or the largest five-manual, you have access to the entire library of voices. Getting new voices is as easy as accepting an email attachment. The Physis® model library is continually growing as our Research & Development team builds new models from pipe organs around the world. Since our open platform is so flexible, you can always download new pipe rank models in your Physis® driven organ, even if your organ is already installed.
The number of pipe voices in the library of each organ (out of the box) varies depending on the model. Some only have several hundred, while the larger models have around 800. But regardless of the number of stock voices on your Viscount organ, you have complete control over which voices you choose to have on your digital organ. This is another way Viscount is empowering today’s organist to make the best decisions for their music and congregation, not relying on the opinion of a dealer.
Certainly! Here are the key benefits of choosing Physis® Technology for your next hybrid organ project:
1. Patented Tuning Technology: Viscount’s advanced tuning system ensures that your digital stops stay in tune with your pipes, regardless of any drift. The tuning and interface systems are patented technologies that not only monitor the tuning of the pipes but also track real-time temperature shifts in the chamber to anticipate where the pipe tuning will drift next before it happens. This extra layer of monitoring ensures that the pipes and digital stops of your Viscount Hybrid Organ will always sound harmonious.
2. Use Your Existing Pipe Organ Console or Choose a New Viscount Console: Physis® Technology can be integrated into your existing pipe organ console. If you prefer to expand your physical stop list, you can opt for a new stock or custom-made Viscount Organ Console to power both pipes and digital voices. 3. Qualified and Certified Viscount Pipe Organ Technicians Throughout North America: Many churches with existing pipe organs are choosing hybrid organs, and this process can be complex. By choosing Viscount for your new hybrid organ, you are selecting highly competent craftsmen who not only have a deep technical understanding of the work but can also effectively explain the necessary steps to your church committee.
Finding your nearest Viscount organ dealer in North America is easy. Simply visit our Find a Dealer page and enter your zip code. If you are in an area of North America without local coverage on the map, give us a call directly. We have many associates throughout the continent who are our brand ambassadors for our Viscount organs. These individuals are authorized to represent and sell our products. Many of our ambassadors are located in areas where there is limited dealer coverage. Our North American Dealer Network is constantly growing, so don’t hesitate to contact us.
If you happen to be visiting our page from another area of the world, please note that this website is for North American Viscount Organ Customers Only. You can reach Viscount International at their website.
Existing Owners
Please see our Find a Dealer page under Help & Support and look for your nearest authorized Viscount organ dealer. All of our authorized traditional and digital organ dealers are required to maintain competent service, repair facilities, and staff. If you are unsure about who your authorized Viscount organ dealer is, or you’re in an area with limited coverage, please call our product support center for further assistance.
Viscount’s physical modeling technology distinguishes their instruments them from the sampled sound systems used by other firms. Our laboratory’s ongoing program of software refinement provides:
Regular Updates: Viscount organs receive new or improved voices or features via operating system updates. Viscount owners simply download an email attachment, “unZip” it, transfer it to a flash drive, and install it into the organ.
New Features: Updates can introduce new functions and improve ease of use. For example, if a feature is difficult to access, updates can relocate or simplify it based on user feedback.
Voice Refinement: Viscount’s Tonal Director and laboratory are devoted to refining the algorithms that generate the organ’s sounds, making each voice more realistic over time. Each enhancement to our sound models add elements that create richer, more authentic tone.
Future-Proof Technology: Unlike traditional organs that require entirely new hardware to improve, your Viscount Organ’s updates ensure it always stays current.
In short, Viscount is the only digital organ that sounds better with time, thanks to its cutting-edge technology and commitment to continuous improvement.
To find the information you need, please visit the assistance page on the Viscount Italy website.
Instructions:
Once on the page, you can search for your product in two ways:
By Model: Type the product model into the search bar and click the “Search” button.
By Product Type: Select the appropriate product type from the dropdown menu and click the “Search” button.
Refer to the images below for a visual guide to these steps.
Viscount chooses not to offer a selection of copies to our clients, but to use our highly refined system of tonal architecture to build our own voices, just as an artistic pipe organ builder would do. Our clients enjoy organs designed for each unique acoustical setting, and can work with our Tonal Director as if commissioning a fine pipe organ.
Viscount’s artificial intelligence system has a name: MORIS. As described in our main website, MORIS uses “deep learning” to re-create how each pipe in a rank sounds and how it behaves on its relative
Windchests and vowel system which all affect how a pipe speaks and sounds.
MORIS is able to create a new voice model in about an hour, whereas other systems may require days or even weeks to create and post a new voice. Viscount provides an unmatched level of flexibility and ease of use. Our Physis system creates uncannily realistic extensions to match existing pipes, simulating the effects of scaling, halving ratio, pipe shape, wind pressure, pipe material, mouth width and height, harmonic structure, and voicing parameters to provide the exact pipe sound needed for any application in any environment.
To access the information you need, please visit the Assistance page on the Viscount Italy website.
Instructions:
1. Locate Your Product
Search by Model: Enter the product model in the search bar and click the “Search” button.
Search by Product Type: Select the relevant product type from the dropdown menu and click the “Search” button.
Refer to the images below for a step-by-step visual guide.
2. Access the User Manual
Once on the product page, click on the user manual link.
Detailed instructions for connecting the Physis® Editor to your Viscount Organ can be found in the user manual.
Refer to the images below for a step-by-step visual guide.
Note: Please refer to the list below for the corresponding names of US products and their EU versions.
VERO 4110DK – OPERA 800C
VERO 489DK – OPERA 800
VERO 370DK – OPERA 600
VANGUARD 363MDK – OPERA 450
VANGUARD 363DK – OPERA 450
VANGUARD 363RT – OPERA 400
VANGUARD 250DK – OPERA 250DK
VANGUARD 245RT – OPERA 200
VIRTUOSO 352RT – DOMUS 9
VIRTUOSO 246RT – DOMUS 6
VIRTUOSO P33 – DOMUS P33
VIRTUOSO P45 – DOMUS P45
Have a question not answered here?
If you don’t find the answers you’re looking for here, we invite you to connect with our team of passionate music professionals.