New Arp Schnitger Flash Video Demo

[B. Milan]

Hello,

In light of the soon to be released Cappel Arp Schnitger organ I have created a flash video of the Bach Organ Concerto in A minor after Vivaldi's Opus 3 #8 Allegro. Here you can see the console in action and hear the instruments wonderful colors and clarity of tone.

http://milanaudio.com/hw2demos/schnitge ... valdi.html

For best result choose Full Screen mode in your browser, then click Play at the lower left corner of the player. Allow a few seconds for the brief fade in. This is optimized for 1024x768 screen resolution.

We hope to begin taking orders by the end of this week for the new sample set. As all of our other HW2 sets, this will feature 24 bit 48k samples, multiple loops, authentic wind modelling (a big thank you to Martin Dyde for lending a hand in creating the Schnitger style wind system!!) You can literally hear the life of the organ when the wind system is running, it's quite something! Within the next couple days the website will be updated with new pages and demos and will will begin to take orders for this new addition to the HW2 line. It should begin shipping in the following week. Don't miss this opportunity to have the experience to play what is considered the be the most original and authentic Arp Schnitger organ still in existence!

Please realize that this set will run on nearly ANY computer as long as that computer can run HW2. The processor overheads are minimal due to a very short acoustic of 1-1.5 seconds. Also computers running 2GB of RAM or even 1.5GB can still load the entire sample set with the proper options chosen in HW2 (all in stereo as well). The set itself also loads very quickly into memory.

Enjoy the new demo video! As always please let me know if there are any questions.

[Uwe Mahnken]

Hello Brett,

very good news :-)
Is it possible to use the samples with the CODM by creating own custom organ files or does the licence prohibit this?

Best regards,
Uwe

[B. Milan]

Hello Uwe,

Yes, this is possible. Although the samples and the ODF are all encrypted, the samples are not locked to the ODF, thus you could create your own organ files if you like. Please realize you will lose some of the realism by taking it out of the organ definition which was created for it. A manual coupler as well as a pedal coupler were added to allow people to use the organ natively with more flexibility. However if you really need to you can create your own ODF.

[SMann]

Hi Brett,

Very impressive!

I'm sure this is a terribly ignorant question but what is the function of the "Ventil" drawknobs? I did a little web search for the term but the results seemed confusing. Also, you mentioned that you have added a manual and a pedal coupler. Are these configured to operate in the same manner as the Georgenkirche Silbermann's coupler system? Finally, like the Silbermann, is there a seperate tab on the GUI with just the stop controls to make touch screen use easier?

Thanks,
Steve Mann

[B. Milan]

Hello Steve,

Not ignorant questions! The Ventils allow wind to be shut off to the respective division. However for U.S. users they will have no effect. Ideally you want to leave them drawn anyway. They default to the on position upon organ load up.

There is a manual coupler and on the console page. I added the manual coupler under the bottom right draw knob labeled ventils clavs. This stop currently has no function on the real organ so it was used to add the manual coupler back (which was disabled for Cappel since the organ was thought to be too loud for the church with coupling). Yes, there is a second display page with large stops and 10 generals as well as the pedal coupler. The original organ has no pedal coupler, so this stop is only found on the Stop Controls page. I will get some screen shots posted today. There is also a Bellows display page in which users with the wind system enabled may watch the organs 4 bellows in action.

Note that the Hauptwerk manual is the top manual. The pedal coupler is HW to PD and the manual coupler is RP to HW. Thus when coupling manuals, the bottom couples to the top and the top couples to the pedal. If manuals are coupled, then the pedal coupler activated, it will also grab the RP division since the HW division is coupled to that. So, yes it is similar to the St. George.

I hope that helps!

[jocr]

Hi, Brett,

In the words of my nephew's generation, way cool!

I found myself arguing with the interpretation, since I used to do my own manual breaks a little differently, and I did detect a problem with Positiv A3 repeating erratically, but that could have been caused by something MIDI.

The background noise you refer to is not obtrusive, at least over my speakers.

A remarkable achievement, not least of which is having the chops (I mean computer capability) to play and capture the performance at the same time.

James Pressler

[B. Milan]

Hi James,

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. There seems to be something with the video capture program that doesn't play certain movements back smoothly, perhaps that is what you are seeing on the A3 key. However, I am not trying to produce a Hollywood movie, so the idea of seeing the console and the moving parts are there.

This was taken from a MIDI file and I did the breaks myself by pure guesswork not having a score. So, chances are you had a better version than I do!! I just did what I thought made sense musically and technically.

[B. Milan]

Here are some screen shots for you to feast your eyes on. Click the images for a full size jpeg.

[prinzipal]

Exciting! I am watching the video again and again.

friendly regards,
Johan Eggers

[Marco]

very nice Brett, it would be nice to be able to do an a/b comparison with the Walcha cappel recordings, pity he never published his registrations, however the first track where he demonstrates all the stops one at a time (and in a few combinations) might be easier to reproduce...

[Grant_Youngman]

Exciting! I am watching the video again and again.

friendly regards,
Johan Eggers

I went to the machine I run my Hauptwerk configuration on (instead of the crummy typical-PC-speakers on my day-to-day PC), and played it through my instrument's audio system. (Hey it's one of the 2-3 times I've actually used the Mac for something besides just running Hauptwerk).

Phenomenal ...

[B. Milan]

Thanks to all. I'm glad you are enjoying the Flash Video. I am working on getting the website pages updated so we may begin taking orders very soon (perhaps later today or tomorrow). I expect to have full demos ready by the end of the week.

[JPSmith]

This stop currently has no function on the real organ so it was used to add the manual coupler back (which was disabled for Cappel since the organ was thought to be too loud for the church with coupling).

I found this very interesting....Knowing that the Cappel church is much smaller than the Hamburg Johanniskirche for which this organ was originally built, I had wondered how much tampering with Schnitger's voicing was done to "tame" the instrument upon its 1816 move to Cappel. Maybe not so much, if the solution was simply to disable the manual coupler?

[B. Milan]

I found this very interesting....Knowing that the Cappel church is much smaller than the Hamburg Johanniskirche for which this organ was originally built, I had wondered how much tampering with Schnitger's voicing was done to "tame" the instrument upon its 1816 move to Cappel. Maybe not so much, if the solution was simply to disable the manual coupler

One of the great aspects of this instrument is that the voicing has not ever been changed. Once I have the web site updated with some history you will know why. It basically has to do with the remote location of Cappel and the fact that the organ had been in storage for many years. All front pipes are original since Cappel was too far remote for any of the metal hungry war lords to take during the WW. So, due to many different reasons the organ still remains 99.9% original. The only slight modification was a replacement of many pipes of the Zimbel rank(not zimbelstern which was actually added later anyway). Missing pipes of this rank were added another builder and later reworked back to a near original state by Beckerath. Considering the nature of this stop (its odd intervals against other stops) it is not used very much and is not a noticeable distinction of the organ anyhow. The other slight change was a reworking of the Coret 2 in the pedal which had been slightly changed in the early 1900's, but has since been restored back to a near original state. Other than that the organ is basically authentic to its original state.

Thus having the means to virtually couple the organ, I feel, is a great learning tool to see how it was originally meant to work and many more combination possibilities are now attainable. Also the addition of the virtual pedal coupler adds even more flexibility.

[B. Milan]

I forgot to mention that a special Easter Egg has been added to this set! :) None of our sets are complete without them!