My impression about St Maximin v2

St Maximin is the first sample set (apart from La Madeleine, but it is not a stop by stop set) I bought along with Hauptwerk and I could not wait when I heard that a completely new version would be released.

I have received the St Maximin V2 upgrade yesterday. The installation was fast. I first load wet and surround in 16 bit format to fit in 12 gb memory, and in the same output since I don’t have rear speakers and the EMU 1212m doesn’t allow for that anyway.

The difference since version 1 is big, this is really night and days, there is a much deeper spatial sense, the reverberation is what we should expect in this basilique, everything is rich in quality.

However I wanted to see what I would get if I turned off the rear samples and load everything else in 24 bits : the sound is clearer, richer, each pipe extremely detailed and the good surprise is that the reverberation is much more present than what I expected, in fact largely enough to my opinion (I don’t like dry organs).

I think, in my case, it’s much better to load only the wet part in 24 bit rather than the surround in 16 bits, unless you are not limited by 12 gb of ram.

Now, I know that the surround in 16 bit would provide a greater immersion if I had rear speakers, but I would surely lose the details I get in 24 bits.

Jiri has once again achieved a state of the art sample set, congratulation!

Dear David,
thank you very much for this remark! Perhaps I did not stress it enough: the surround does not have any sense if you do not have the separate front and rear channels. To combine the front and rear ranks into single audio output indeed results in blurred sound. Please refer to my web pages for explanation how to adjust ranks to obtain wet only sample set wihtout the surround. Especially, this screenshot is helpful.

I see, so if I can some days, I would like to change my sound card but which one ?
Could some people give me some advices, for a card that sounds as good as the EMU 1212m with multi outputs but that is not too expansive ? (for a PC)
Also I have two M-AUDIO Bx8a deluxe in front. Do I need the same kind in the rear or smaller one such as the Bx5a would be sufficient?

[mdyde]

Hello David,

Could some people give me some advices, for a card that sounds as good as the EMU 1212m with multi outputs but that is not too expansive ? (for a PC)

These RME audio cards (PCI and PCIe respectively) might be worth looking at:

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdsp_9632.php

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_aio.php

I haven't tried either myself, but RME make excellent products and I understand that the 9632 (PCI) is very well-regarded for audio quality and performance with Hauptwerk. The AIO is its PCIe successor, which I expect should be at least as good (and better for future-proofing, since PCIe is superseding PCI in general). RME's drivers and support are typically superb.

[micdev]

David,

There are many good many multi-channels audiocards available from Emu, Echo, RME, M-Audio, Motu, Prsonus; it is only a matter of selecting the one with the number of output you need (and will need eventually should you decide to add more channels, a subwoofer).

The rear channel not being the main output, you can use smaller speakers (a well balanced surround system won't give away the fact that you have rear speakers, it will only provide additional presence); if you look at HTS system you will see that rear speakers are always smaller and less powerful.

Two rear speakers will add a lot of presence and remove the "in your face effect"... and for the non-surround sample set you still can use the speakers and redirect a aux-mix of the front speakers; while not surround effect, again it will add presence.

Good luck
François

Francois -- your previous post got me thinking about your earlier discovery using the sound output built into the motherboard for console sounds....could route the back channels through the onboard sound outputs? Wouldn't need another sound card then, just a pair of amped speakers.