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Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

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zurek

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Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostFri Dec 08, 2017 4:43 am

Today, I wish to introduce a very special Sample Set for the Hauptwerk software. It is the virtual model of the Klapmeyer organ in Altenbruch (Germany). It is one of the most famous North German organs from the early period, it is the finest surviving example of the work of the organbuilder Johann Hinrich Klapmeyer (1724-1792). The origin of the organ goes back to the 15th century, its present shape was finished by Klapmeyer in 1730. The organ was carefuly restored by J. Ahrend in 2004. I am grateful to many people from the Hauptwerk community and - above all - to the representatives of the Altenbruch church who helped to make this dream possible.

The instrument consists of 3 manuals and a pedal, alltogether 35 sounding stops. The stop list is very representative for the North German organbuilding school as are also the tonal colors of the pipes. A personal note: two of my beta testers confessed, that this sample set is probably the best sample set ever made by Sonus Paradisi, or, at least, it should be the most inspiring one. Well, the following weeks and months will show whether they were correct.

The sample set can be used in Hauptwerk version 4 and higher, the Advanced version is necessary due to the size of the virtual instrument. It is available in a surround (6-channels) and a separate 2-channel variant exists in the form of the semi-dry sample set. The surround sample set is encrypted, hence no use outside Hauptwerk is possible. The listening position of the surround variant can be varied via a built-in mixer. The result is achieved by blending the direct and diffuse virtual pipes in any desired ratio.

More details, including the specification and audio demo samples of the instrument and a rich free demo sample set may be found on the Sonus Paradisi web pages.

Sonus Paradisi Best-sellers of the year 2017
According to the statistics of the last 12 months, I discovered, that there are two more candidates for the Sonus Paradisi best sellers: the Zutphen sample set and the Aeolian-Skinner sample set. According to the amount of pieces sold during the last year, these two sample set superated the otherwise unshakable position of the eternal bestsellers, such as Freiberg sample set or Zwolle sample set. It is only the Caen sample set which was selling more than Zutphen and Aeolian-Skinner during the last year.

In longer term, it is the Goerlitz Sonnenorgel sample set which gradually makes its way to the top. Taking into the account the last 3 years in terms of the amount of the copies sold, the top 10 Sonus Paradisi sample sets count like this: Caen, Utrecht, Rotterdam Hoofdorgel, Freiberg, Zwolle, Zutphen, Goerlitz, Aeolian-Skinner, Rotterdam Transept, Rosales.

To welcome the newbies, I decided to apply a small discount to them, both Zutphen and Aeolian-Skinner are now sold with 10 percent discount for a limited period of time.
Jiri Zurek,
Prague
http://www.sonusparadisi.cz
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josq

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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostFri Dec 08, 2017 4:07 pm

zurek wrote:A personal note: two of my beta testers confessed, that this sample set is probably the best sample set ever made by Sonus Paradisi, or, at least, it should be the most inspiring one. Well, the following weeks and months will show whether they were correct.


Judging from the generous demo sample set, they very well might be!
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Andrew Grahame

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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostMon Dec 11, 2017 5:52 am

Just got Altenbruch loaded for the first time tonight. In a word - exquisite! Especially love the quiet reeds, flutes and warm foundations. Chorus work is assertive and striking in its impact. Independent pedal holds its own well. The real organ must have received a Rolls-Royce of restorations in 2004 - now matched by this glorious sample set. A gem for baroque lovers.

Andrew
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Radioman

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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostMon Dec 18, 2017 3:22 pm

I've heard this organ somewhere around 2007 at a concert given by Dutch virtuoso Ton Koopman. An incredible instrument! Very colourful, a dream come true for lovers of the baroque organ. I've ordered a copy of the set past friday. Does anyone happen to know if Milan Digital Audio is on vacation? I'm very eager to play the organ, but I'm still waiting for an update of my license file, needed to play this encrypted set. I have heard nothing from Milan Digital Audio and/or Sonus Paradisi so far (the impatience is killing me).
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Andrew Grahame

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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostMon Dec 18, 2017 3:37 pm

My licence update took a couple of days to come through - but then I'm in the southern hemisphere so a delay of a day or two is normal and I regard it as part of the process. Also it will take you some time to install the sample set as there are 7 large installer files, plus the time needed for the initial loading and caching. My ageing Hauptwerk PC is rather slow - and the large hard drive used for the bulk of sample set data storage is external and connected via USB - so it took another whole day after receiving the update file before the instrument was actually playing. I can understand your frustration, but it's well worth the wait.
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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostMon Dec 18, 2017 3:50 pm

Thanks for your swift response, Andrew, I will be patient and have faith!
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Andrew Grahame

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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostMon Dec 18, 2017 3:55 pm

You can always install the first two files and play the free demo instrument while you wait!
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Andrew Grahame

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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostTue Dec 19, 2017 12:03 am

The Sonus Paradisi demo sample sets can sometimes be a little hard to find on their website. Here's the demo page link to Altenbruch. The two installer files are the same as the first two of the seven full installers.

http://www.sonusparadisi.cz/en/organs/t ... e-set.html
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mdyde

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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostTue Dec 19, 2017 4:42 am

Hello Radioman,

I'm not involved in licence updates myself, but looking back through our database and correspondence, I see that the licence update was sent to your Hotmail address yesterday. Our apologies for any delay with that. I'll forward it to your other email address, in case it didn't reach you yesterday.
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostTue Dec 19, 2017 9:47 am

Andrew Grahame wrote:The Sonus Paradisi demo sample sets can sometimes be a little hard to find on their website.


Actually not hard to find at all.

At the Sonus Paradisi website, simply click on "Free Stuff".
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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostTue Dec 19, 2017 11:43 am

Yes, the Altenbruch demo is actually there under Free Stuff. However the latest release demo sometimes isn’t there straight away but has to be found via a link from another place. I have to say I didn’t even look there under Free Stuff this time because of this past pattern.

The Sonus Paradisi demos are quite generous - no time or compass limits and often amounting to a useful small instrument on its own.
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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostTue Dec 19, 2017 12:20 pm

I feel I'm in the minority here, but I do not find the demo sets from SP useful at all. The primary purpose (for me) for downloading the demo, is to sample what the paid organ would sound like. You cannot get a proper feel for an organ when the pedal is completely missing, or when only a few ranks are present.

I agree that you can do useful things with the demos (composite organs etc), but as their primary purpose is to help a user decide whether the full organ should be purchased or not ... no, I find them lacking, I do not even bother downloading them anymore. Which is a pity, because I'm sure there are more organs I would have purchased if I can be guaranteed I will like the sound.

To me: a useful demo organ is one that contains the entire set of ranks, but has some other limitation, preferably a "time limitation". Maybe the organ just stops sounding every 5 or 10 seconds, for a period of time (say another few seconds). Nobody would ever attempt to use such a demo permanently, but yet you can hear exactly what the full organ would sound like.
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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostTue Dec 19, 2017 12:35 pm

sonar11 wrote:I feel I'm in the minority here, but I do not find the demo sets from SP useful at all. The primary purpose (for me) for downloading the demo, is to sample what the paid organ would sound like. You cannot get a proper feel for an organ when the pedal is completely missing, or when only a few ranks are present.

I agree that you can do useful things with the demos (composite organs etc), but as their primary purpose is to help a user decide whether the full organ should be purchased or not ... no, I find them lacking, I do not even bother downloading them anymore. Which is a pity, because I'm sure there are more organs I would have purchased if I can be guaranteed I will like the sound.

To me: a useful demo organ is one that contains the entire set of ranks, but has some other limitation, preferably a "time limitation". Maybe the organ just stops sounding every 5 or 10 seconds, for a period of time (say another few seconds). Nobody would ever attempt to use such a demo permanently, but yet you can hear exactly what the full organ would sound like.


I'm in the same boat as you Sonar. Although I will still bother to download the demo, I do it mainly to hear the acoustic to see if I like it or not. That alone can result in me either quickly saying nope, or spending more time with the set. It has been very frustrating for me as well as of late, I've looked over a number of sets I'm contemplating and I just can't get a good enough feel for any of them to fully determine if I will like the set or not, especially when contemplating the amount of cash I will be parting with. I don't like making mistakes. I too wish the demos would have time limits that cuts out the sound every so many seconds, at least this way as you point out, we get to hear the whole deal.

Marc
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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostTue Dec 19, 2017 1:19 pm

For dongle-protected sets, it will probably be possible to agree a trial perod with the sample set producer?
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Re: Altenbruch Sample Set - Sonus Paradisi New Virtual Organ

PostWed Dec 20, 2017 6:34 am

This thread has strayed somewhat from its original topic, which was to signal the release of the Altenbruch sample set. Here are some thoughts of mine aimed at steering the thread back to its original focus.

I am thoroughly enjoying this sample set. I've been exploring works of earlier baroque composers - Bruhns, Böhm, Buxtehude and Scheidemann in particular.

I find the reeds in particular are ravishing - especially the 4 quiet colour/solo reeds - and the sampled tremulants are glorious. By contrast, the bold chorus reeds on Haupwerk and Pedal - all of trumpet tone - take no prisoners. The bass of the Pedal 16-foot reed is incredibly rich in fundamental.

The main flue choruswork takes some getting used to. Up to 4-foot pitch it's warm and rich, but the upperwork is most assertive. Coupling the Brustwerk to the Hauptwerk appears to be a necessity when building up a pleno, because the Brustwerk has the 2-foot principal which is missing from the Hauptwerk, and its mixture is slightly less potent. However I've heard a recording made in the 1970's in which the 2-foot flute on the Hauptwerk was satisfactorily included in a chorus registration.

The big low-pitched 4-rank mixture on the Hauptwerk appears to include 16-foot harmonics, so I've been adding the flue double in conjunction with it. I find that using this mixture without the double can be problematic as these sub-fundamental harmonics can be heard dropping in and out in the middle register. The higher mixture on the Hauptwerk has an impact similar to that of the 5-rank mixture at Armley and must be handled in similar fashion.

I have yet to miss having pedal couplers, and I see nothing lost by being unable to couple the Rückpositiv to the Hauptwerk - yet the Brustwerk and Hauptwerk seem to want to function together as one when coupled - at least as far as the principal choruswork is concerned.

The wealth of colourful flutes across all departments offers plenty of variety at quieter levels. The two 8-foot manual Principals have their own personalities - the Rückpositiv stop being brighter and more incisive while the one on the Hauptwerk is more foundational.

I've heard some wonderful uploads on CCH, and although I've been unable to bring any new works up to a satisfactory standard just yet I've recycled a few pieces from previous uploads to contribute a little myself. When I say recycled, I didn't use the MIDI files from those previous recordings - I did play the works anew.

To other users of this sample set - what are your thoughts?

Andrew
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