James,
I am adamantly *not* experienced, nor am I an engineer. And my best results have been mostly accidental. However, I hate to see a sincere question go unanswered. With luck, someone qualified to answer your question will come along soon to offer better advice than mine, which is this:
Find the spot where the sound is best to your ears, being aware of reflections, delay, decay, peaky nodes, etc. In other words, listen to the balance of actual sound and don't fall into the music (don't let your listening filter what you're actually hearing).
Use a one-point stereo mic on a fairly tall stand, or a simple fixed AB mic array, with two identical mics on a crossbar, parallel to each other, pointed the same way, 12 to 18 inches apart. Omnis are good, but obviously tricky. Monitor your feed. Move the mic up and down until it sounds right. An inch or two might make a difference. Try higher (above the audience, less coughing and shuffling noise). Keep it as simple as possible.
This is just a start. I'll leave more complex set-ups to those with real experience. Because of the enormous dynamic range and the complex acoustics of the venues, great pipe organ recordings are not that common. I suspect it woudn't hurt to put a high quality compressor in line. Also, keep in mind that most playback systems are totally incapable of reproducing the full range of a large organ, and that most listening rooms are too small to allow the full waveforms of the lowest octaves to propagate fully.
Here's another thought (I have *not* tried it -- it's just a thought). Consider making a true binaural recording for playback on headphones. You know, the type where you tape a $1000 pair of Core Sound DPA micro-mics to your glasses by your ears, run them into a Dennecke/Zefiro In-Box, and send the digital output direct to portable DAT? Then listen to playback through a good headphone amp and a pair of
Sennheiser HD600 headphones -- I think that might just be the best way to listen to recorded pipe organ! But again, I have *not* tried it. I'm just spending your hard-earned money in my imagination.
Good luck, and please let me know what works for you!
Best wishes,
Mark H.
