Suggestions for instrument like Raszczyce but bigger?

Hi all,

Raszczyce by Piotr Grabowski is easily my most-used instrument, as I love the character of the individual stops, the clarity of speech mixed with the acoustic, and basically the overall sound of it. It is not a large instrument, and while there are plenty of registrational options I occasionally find myself wishing for more. More stops, tremulant, even another manual would be nice (although not essential). I'm drawn to Sonus Paradisi Noordbroek too, and I will probably buy that next, but it's only a little larger.

Does anyone have any suggestions of a characterful instrument, well-captured, baroque-style (modern or historical) that might fit the bill?

Thank you.

Hello, the Raszczyce originally comes from the Netherlands and has really been an organ for congregational singing. Typical organ from the 60s and 70s in the Netherlands. There are many more of this kind in our country. I have an idea what kind of organ your choice could be: Rotterdam - Laurenskerk - Transept organ Marcussen & Son1959, 31 registers, Modern neo-Renaissance wet, surround, dry Released: 11/2014. You can buy it at Sonus Paradijs. I have been playing with it for years with complete satisfaction.
What might also be recommended is the Pieter Backer organ of the Bonifacius Church of Medemblik NL. The upper keyboard has a fantastic regal register, with pear wood bells. Delivered by Hauptwerk.nl and is an initiative of Sygsoft the Netherlands
Good luck with your choice and greetings, Coos Blokhuis.

I try to get to the Netherlands once a year for organ concerts, and I am always very impressed with the organ community there, not to mention the amazing instruments.

Thank you for your suggestions, both of which seem to be exactly the sort of thing I'm after. I'll take a closer look.

I second SP's Rotterdam Laurenskerk. You might also like the Haarlem by Voxus. If you want stops with personality, the Trost by OAM has a lot of that, but it's not Dutch style.

The Noordbroek sample set is beautifully recorded in multiple perspectives and in my system it sounds a great deal better than Raszczyce. Although the stoplist is fairly similar, it is of course a much older instrument, originally by Arp Schnitger, and it does sound different. It is also surprisingly versatile.

There are a number of very characterful organs available. You might want to think about a "Bach-style" instrument in contrast with the North German and Dutch Baroque organs that are better known. Bach would have been more familiar with the organs of central Germany, which were characterised by a wide range of stops at 8' pitch, including strings and flute celestes, and also a range of pedal colours at 16', usually with some kind of 32' pedal stop available, and thirds as well as fifths in the mixtures. Examples are the Trost organ at Walterhausen by Organ Art Media and the Engler organ at Krzeszow by Sonus Paradisi. There are also some very beautiful modern Bach organs, my favourite being the Mocnik organ at Velosovo by Sonus Paradisi, which speaks very clearly and I think might fit your brief quite well. I also like the two Metzler instruments, one at Poblet by Organ Art Media, which was specifically built as a Bach organ but with the addition of Spanish trumpets, and the other at Duren by Piotr Grabowski, which is a more eclectic instrument. Poblet has a very generous acoustic, and the microphone position is a little far from the pipes for my preference (I get the impression that the OAM sample sets are optimised for listing through headphones rather than speakers) but it is nevertheless one of my favourite instruments.

You might also be interested in the Sauer organ at Frankfurt Oder by Sonus Paradisi. This is more in the Organ Reform Movement style, but the voicing is less extreme than many and it does speak very clearly, as well as being well-recorded.

If you want historical but not Bach-style, then I can also recommend the Silbermann at St. Peter's Church, Freiburg, again by Sonus Paradisi. For a larger instrument there is the Muller organ at St. Bavokerk, Haarlem by Voxus, the Bader organ at Zutphen by Sonus Paradisi, both of which are historical and very characterful, or the very famous instruments by Schnitger at St. Martinikerk, Groningen, and at Zwolle, again both from Sonus Paradisi; of the two I prefer Groningen, though it is the most expensive sample set that I own and the one that consumes the most RAM.

There are many other very beautiful organs available for playing Baroque music, and the historical ones in particular each have their own character, but I hope this gives you some ideas.

Thanks for mentioning that the poblet sounds recorded a bit far from the instrument. I also like that one, but I don't like organs recorded too far away! I also quite like the Trost by OAM. Seems a perfect organ for Bach. Has Jiri fixed the mixtures on Groningen? Last I heard them they were terrible.

Thanks so much for all the advice and suggestions. I wish I could afford to buy them all!

Hello, The Walburg sample set is for sale on Marktplaatsnl. Here the link.
https://www.marktplaats.nl/v/muziek-en- ... -hauptwerk
Greetings,
J. Blokhuis

Has Jiri fixed the mixtures on Groningen? Last I heard them they were terrible.

Unfortunately, the wind model is still terrible. The sound quality collapses when registering plenum registrations.

Unfortunately, the wind model is still terrible. The sound quality collapses when registering plenum registrations.

Did you try moving the Pipe Coupling slider all the way down on the Mixer tab, then gradually increasing it until the wind sag on big registrations seems more natural? The default of 64 (middle of the slider) on a few SP samplesets sounds too extreme to me, although I enjoy it at 64 on most of them.

I also sometimes go to Organ settings | Organ preferences | Wind model and reduce the wind demand per pipe when an organ's wind effect is too much. Mainly when the upperwork starts wobbling. Hate that sound...

Disclaimer: I don't have Groningen, just a lot of other SP samplesets.

Glad to see another Raszczyce fan out there. When played and registered correctly, it can hold its own. I demonstrated this set for several colleagues and they are impressed as it is easily overlooked. I use it quite a bit to help regulate multi-channel audio installs that I do. Plus being a single perspective makes it quick to load easy to voice.

Noordbroek is also a good suggestion. I was sold on it after listening to this live concert stream.
https://youtu.be/DIRKNrkgrQk?t=739

However a few days later, SP introduces Bückeburg which is a modern Baroque organ. Again with the right registrations you can get close to the Noordborek plenum plus its basically, almost free. At 139eu its really a bargain so I bought it instead. Still might purchase Noordborek since it is indeed a historic instrument.

Danny B.
VoceInstruments.com

I have Bückeburg and I use it a lot too. It doesn't appeal to me quite so much sonically (it's the acoustic I think), but I should probably pay for it anyway to complete the perspectives. It's a very flexible instrument when I need more options.

I'm going to buy Noordbroek next anyway while I consider my future purchases. In reality, I have bought a few larger instruments that I like well enough but don't use nearly so much. That may be a function of my sound system, which is pretty basic, as well as my own tastes.

--All very nice suggestions. You could also look at Grabowski's Erfurt PredigerKirche.

- As for Groningen's mixtures, it always has been quite a mystery : why do they sound this peculiar way , when the rest of the organ is so realistic and clear and near to the original ?.....
Many have said it could be the wind model. I'm not qualified to have an opinion on this. But,anyhow, I find that the "pipe coupling" or "detuning" devices which were created in order to fix the problem, in my opinion don't fix it at all ( creating a lack of wind or detuning the organ, deosn't by itself prevent pipes to sound "shrilling" ...). Perhaps , the best thing would be to record again all the mixtures ?..
In the mean time, a solution is to avoid too direct channels and to add in the plenums the flutes 8 and 4 ( which is not "orthodox" of course - if "orthodoxy" or "dogma" in these matters mean sanything - , but corrects a bit the overhall colour , ( for my ears at least..)

- Another good sample set is Leens (SP). Plenum is a bit milder compared to Noordbroek. The church as less acoustic, but the organ sound very good! It's a characterful instrument.

- Regarding Groningen: honestly, I don't recognize the 'shrill' sounding mixtures. When I compare recordings of the actual organ with the sample while using the same registration, they sound very much alike.
Before the update with the Original Mixtures, Pipe Coupling, and Pipe Detuning, it sounded clinical and shrill. However, I don't experience that anymore. Guest organists are also impressed with this sample set.
Due to RAM restrictions, I'm not using the Direct channels. I have set the Diffuse to 40, Distant and Rear to 80. Perhaps that's the reason?
The wind model indeed needs improvement, but that applies to the entire Hauptwerk.
I would like to understand what others are experiencing