Paramount updates

Has anyone heard of any possible updates for the Paramount samplesets coming anytime soon?

I think any updates are very unlikely as they appear to have ceased any further development, other than migrating the sample sets to V5. The Albee Wurlitzer (Opus 1680) sample set development was taken over by Melotone Sound Productions. You may want to check it out, as I think it is excellent.

What kind of update features were you wanting?

Ray

Oh, just improvements like roll cymbal implementation and maybe touch sensitive piano.

Is it confirmed they ceased all further development? Are they going to stop selling their organs anytime soon?

On another note, KeyMedia Productions never got around to update their organs to run with HW 5 which probably suggests they have or will close for good.

Keymedia Productions definitely DID release updates of their theater organs for HW V. I am running them on my installation. I suggest you write to Neil Jensen directly about this. His email can be found on the KeyMedia web site under "contacts."

Les

The Paramount 341 has a roll cymbal and you can select between expression control and touch for the piano. FYI

Good to know Keymedia supports HW 5. Their website hasn't been updated in ages.

I'm afraid that theatre organs are a minority interest - both in the real world and within the Hauptwerk community. Much as I love them, we have to accept that their heyday was the 1930s - ninety years ago. One established Hauptwerk company - I think it was Inspired Acoustics - mentioned some while ago that a "significant" theatre organ was under development, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

Another problem is that theatre organs are not so varied in specification and sound as straight/classical/concert organs. Of course there are differences between the sound and general approach of organs by Wurlitzer, Robert Morton and (in the UK) John Compton; but those differences are much less than between a large romantic cathedral organ and a baroque instrument like St. Laurens Alkmaar. Consequently we don't need so many sample sets to represent the world of theatre organ sound.

Nevertheless there are wonderful opportunities for an enterprising samplist - for instance the 5/27 Moller which was commissioned by Reginald Foort in the UK as a touring organ, became the second BBC Theatre Organ, spent a while in Holland and is now back in America (Pasadena?). Still functional in the UK is the magnificent dual-purpose Hill, Norman and Beard/Christie organ in the Dome concert hall in Brighton. That organ has a sound of it's own, with a particularly beautiful Harmonic Claribel and superb high power reeds. But given the time and expense involved in producing sample sets of these instruments, I'm not certain it's realistic to expect virtual versions . . .

I agree with your assessment, but it should not stop a sample set producer to make it clear on their website that their products indeed will work with HW5 if they want to nurture sales.

I disagree with the assessment that the theater organ had its day 90 years ago. In fact, I became interested in this style of playing from recordings made in the 1960s - not from silent movies. There was a resurgence of interest in the theater organ spurred by a series of great organists who used the instrument and its effects to interpret popular music of the 40s and 50s as well as broadway show music. There are still many important organ artists performing concerts on this style instrument.

I have both style instruments including multiple theater sample sets. There are definitely differences between Wurlitzer, Morton, ... although they are quite subtle. After all, these builders all created their theater organs in the same era - over only about 25-30 years.

Since I live in Los Angeles, I am quite familiar with the 5/27 Moller that was built for Reginald Foort. It is installed in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium but is only used once in a while. I have heard it many times.

Les