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a Crow and new PAB demos on Contrebombarde

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giwro

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a Crow and new PAB demos on Contrebombarde

PostTue Sep 01, 2009 5:16 pm

Hello folks,

I finally have the PAB Pro, and since I was one of the skeptics (and have been for months!) I thought I'd publicly eat my nice tasty helping of crow, and admit this is a really fine set.

I've long wondered about a couple of things - some of the sounds I heard simply didn't convince me, and I doubted that it really sounded that way, but I had no way of knowing. Joe F. and I went in circles discussing about whether or not to ride the gain (especially for an mp3 file), I really was not satisfied with what I heard when impulse reverb was applied.

I finally got ahold of a pretty dry audio file and did my own experimentation with it - then I wondered what a full-quality version would sound like.... finally I read rave reviews from other users who had played the instrument and heard it in full non-mp3 quality.

I also know some people have not liked the way IA has promoted, and have questioned their sincerity, integrity and motives....

~~~

I have to say that my skepticisms have been satisfied - I really think this is a great set, and very flexible. I also must say that all of my contacts with Csaba have been exemplary - he has been unfailingly helpful and professional, and I (for one) really think that he and the folks at IA want to see all of us succeed - users, Hauptwerk and fellow sample producers alike.

We are so ready to assume the worst about people and their motives - I think really the world would be a better place if we tried first to think the best of people FIRST, rather than jumping immediately to the worst or negative.

~~

So, I've said my peace <chuckle> let's get to the set:

- I think it really shines the best when used with truncation (150~250 ms) and impulse reverb.
- I have done some experimentation, and I still strongly disagree with gain-riding or any compression of dynamics for demos. I think if a demo has a very wide dynamic range, it is FAR better to ONLY offer it as a 24 or16-bit WAV file...
- even with a huge dynamic range, I find that a non-gain-ridden 320kbps mp3 file sounds more natural to my ears (even though some of the quieter and louder passages migh be a bit less than optimal). I also think it is imperative to encode the mp3 with a quality encoder and use good options

If you can't find a good stop combination for what you are playing, you aren't looking. I've tried several styles, and this organ can really change character based on what stops you select and how they are combined.

So, here are some of the links:

Johann Nepomuk David:
- Lobe den Herrn http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1467
- Allein Gott in der Höh sie Ehr http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1466

David Johnson - trumpet Tune in D - http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1456

Richard White - Prelude and Fugue in Eb - http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1435

Falcinelli - a Notre Pere - http://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/1429


Enjoy,
Jonathan Orwig
Coon Rapids, Minnesota USA
http://www.evensongmusic.net
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jcfelice88keys

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Re: a Crow and new PAB demos on Contrebombarde

PostTue Sep 01, 2009 11:16 pm

Hello Jonathan,

Thank you for sharing your sincere comments about the PAB and discussions you and I have had, regarding the need to gain ride, especially mp3 files. In retrospect, when I was doing some of the gain riding, I was attempting to see how many PAB stops I could load and play, simultaneously. You will recall that, eight months ago, the 32-bit version of Hauptwerk forced us Mac users to load no more than 3 or 4GB of samples at a time.

Also looking back, I was playing around with the Bach Passacaglia, a work that seemed to beckon me to use as many stops as possible. In my enthusiasm to provide a huge sound, I had failed to realize that, although the PAB had 92 speaking stops, I didn't need to play 74 of them all at one time! Restated, I had over-registered the piece: the PAB sounds absolutely beautiful when a principal chorus (8'4'2') is used on one manual, and other manuals may be registered with between 1 and 5 stops each per manual.

Those of us who have heard the PAB sample set "live", so to speak, know that the sample set is capable of going from a whisper to a roar, and every loudness in between. The instrument has so many separate personalities, depending upon which stops one decides to use ... judiciously. That said, the original instrument is not a Cavaille-Coll, nor is it intended to be a CC.

There were some complaints about the way I performed "Flight of the Bumble Bee" in the PAB Medium Edition, jumping from manual to manual and losing continuity in the registration. I can only state that this was done as a favor to Csaba, who had asked if I might provide a short two-minute "showpiece" that might display as many of the 45-stop Medium Edition's sounds as possible, as the sample set was put through its paces. At the time, I had the Rachmaninov piano transcription of the work in my fingers; sorry if my ad-hoc transcription for organ had offended some of you.

In closing, the PAB sample library has to be heard live to be appreciated; as an mp3 file cannot do justice to what is heard live in 24-bit multichannel sound. Many thanks do go to Rob and Darryl for creating and maintaining the Contrebombarde Concert Hall, so everyone may have a taste of what may be expected from the 80+ sample libraries for Hauptwerk. (And the price for the Contrebombarde experience -- free -- ain't bad, either!)

Cheers,

Joe

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