St Omer - advice / opinions?

Hello,

Seems since I've found myself looking again, I must be in the market for a new sample set. I've been going over the lists and have been eyeballing in particular the St. Omer from SP. I'm certainly no expert of organs but am looking more for a romantic sounding instrument this time around. From the story on this one it's more romantic with a subtle amount of baroque which I think would be just fine, perhaps giving the instrument a bit more flexibility. Comparing it to Caen as an example they sound similar to me but the St. Omer is much more in my price range for now. I also base a considerable amount of my buying decision on sound quality / acoustics perception and the amount of headroom in the sound, which I like with the St. Omer. I'd be interested to hear from folks who own this set, both good and bad (if there is any bad that is), any other similar sets to consider, etc.

Thanks in advance!

Marc

I have this set and like it, but it is a rather unique organ.
Romantic? Yes, but not well suited for German romantic literature.
I

I have this set and like it, but it is a rather unique organ.
Romantic? Yes, but not well suited for German romantic literature.

Thanks Adri, I always value your opinion on the various sample sets. Would you mind elaborating on the "unique" part you mention?

Thanks,

Marc

Even though St. Omer is interesting and has beauty, especially in some of its exuberant rough edges, I find that I don't use it often.

For French romantics, Caen is more complete and more refined, and has stronger fonds where St. Omer's reeds seem too dominant relative to the fonds. The soft, rather classical pedal flues don't support romantic music so well. Just an opinion!

For French classical (baroque), St. Michel and St. Maximin are much more authentic. St. Omer does have most of the right stops on paper, distributed in a way that can be used, and some of them sound classical, but the overall balance and blend of the usual classical registrations aren't as convincing, even with an appropriate temperament.

After much deliberation back and forth between St. Michel and St. Max, I went with St. Max earlier this year and love the set, it gets used daily. Comparing St. Max to at least what I am able to hear of the St. Omer demo set and audio examples, I'd also say yes, they are two entirely different animals. St. Omer at least to me from the audio demos I've listened to seems to be a fairly softly spoken instrument without a lot of robust power like the St. Max can deliver. Would that be a fairly accurate assumption? Which also leads me to ask, what's a good example of typical music to play on this instrument, or is it more an all around instrument for a variety of perhaps more typical church / hymn repertoire?

Marc

Hi Marc,
I got this with Goerlitz, but had St Omer for a week before the big one downloaded (long story..)
St Omer vs Caen isn't really a St Michel vs St Max argument. St Eucaire vs Caen is a better comparison. (Typical Parish vs medium Cathedral of the same era..)
St Omer is a bit of a mixture, without being anything in particular.
It uses the classical concept of Grand/Rasionance, but here the Grand IS the pedal extension and the Bombard provides some solo stuff. Takes a bit of thinking about.
With clever use, and perhaps a bit of voicing, most things can be attempted.
If there is an option, try for Caen first (or Doesberg, if you want romantic). St Omer is probably best viewed as a (highly important!!!!!!) historic curiosity, rather than a general purpose instrument.

You could always wait for the new SP organ (looks interesting, but 2 manuals in one swell box?????).
or buy medium Goerlitz for now...... (It's wonderful!!).

Second the medium Goerlitz, I am enjoying it very very much. The most multi-purpose set I own.

St. Omer is unusual inits specification, in its melange of classical and romantic stop, and in its 4-manual layout, whereby the bombarde is an extension of the Grand Orgue,and the Recit is a bit smallish.

It's nevertheless a very musical instrument and invites me to improvise a lot.

Caen and Metz are far more bombastic and heavy and more C-Coll like in its fullness of the meaning that term.

I find Caen's bass reeds a bit overwhelming and St. Omner a little underwhelming.Some personal vocing may help.

You can't compare these organs, however.

When you say: play romantic music,from what country? USA/English? French? German? And what period?That should determine your choice.

Keep your eyes out for new sample sets being announced this season.
See CB for example

St. Omer is unusual inits specification, in its melange of classical and romantic stop, and in its 4-manual layout, whereby the bombarde is an extension of the Grand Orgue,and the Recit is a bit smallish.

It's nevertheless a very musical instrument and invites me to improvise a lot.

Caen and Metz are far more bombastic and heavy and more C-Coll like in its fullness of the meaning that term.

I find Caen's bass reeds a bit overwhelming and St. Omner a little underwhelming.Some personal vocing may help.

Agree with Adri. It is a musical instrument and inspiring. However I am using mostly a few stops and rarely tutti.

Thanks all for the input so far, it's been helpful. I've been doing a bit more listening to the instrument in question here and I guess I'm not 100% sold on it, perhaps it doesn't offer quite enough of what I'm after. I like the idea of the Goerlitz, however with the medium version from what I can see is there are NO strings at all, something I for sure want but can't cough up the full version price right now. Also, the Goerlitz is a monster in terms of memory requirements and my measly 28 GB would get ate up in a hurry not really doing the instrument justice.

Another option is I've also been investigating the Oberlinger from Pipe Loops and am downloading the demo version as we speak. The audio examples sound very good and I've been impressed with the sound quality of the Pipe Loops sets in the past. We'll see.

Marc

Have you listened to the Brasov Black Church from SP? Lots of strings, lovely sound. I'm running it nicely in 32GB with a bit to spare (fronts only). Quite versatile except no really bright mixtures -- it is pretty solidly Romantic.

If you want strings, SO Studio 80. It's a pity you missed the sale. Well worth it! (Now, if we could arrange a few duplexes to the pedals from the enclosures...........)
It is reasonably dry out of the box, but with a medium reverb to the sides and a longer one with about 120ms pre-delay to the rear, you can be in your favourite room.

Hi guys,

Yep, have listened to Brasov, I don't really care for it for some reason. Initial impression of the acoustics is something I either like or dislike, some to me have an awesome sweet spot and some don't, Brasov is just one of those I don't care for. Now, if it had St. Max acoustics, then I'd probably be writing the check for it now. Being I don't use (and won't use) any kind of external or internal artificial reverb like Lexicons or Reaper as an example, a dry set won't cut it although I have sampled a few of the SO sets and they are very nice, just too dry. I see a lot of purist here when it comes to the authenticity of the instrument itself, while fairly important to me I won't lose any sleep over that part. What grabs me when I listen to a set is the actual acoustics and how it comes across, this part of the authenticity deal is probably more important than anything. Still in the process of s-l-o-w-l-y downloading Pipeloops Oberlinger, I really liked the sound of the audio examples, hopefully it's still there when I try it out for myself.

Marc

It might be too cheap for you but the Cracov sample set by Piotr Grabowski (sp?) is amazing. The acoustic is HUGE and might be too big for you, but give it a try!

You will have very soon a new big sample set from Augustine: the Buckow-Rieger organ of Komárom. I have the privilege to play this set as beta tester since several weeks and after some corrections and tuning, it is now finished and very good. It's a 3 keyboards pure german romantic organ, with 51 stops. Of course it is very different of a Cavaillé-Coll: when this organ was built, french and german people were not very friends and the german builders were asked to make instruments which didn't sound french at all! The comparaison is very instructive.
There are good demos in contrebombarde (browse for Komarom). Its price will be very affordable, as always by Augustine. You can find the composition and other links in the topic "Listen already".