Rotterdam - Transept Organ for Hauptwerk

I have the pleasure to introduce the Rotterdam Transept sample set for Hauptwerk. The medium sized instrument consists of 3 manuals and a pedal, alltogether 31 sounding stops. The original organ was built in 1959.

The sample set can be used in Hauptwerk version 4.11 and higher, the Advanced version is necessary due to the size of the virtual instrument. It is available in a surround and a wet variant. The dry variant is available as well.

More details, including the specification of the instrument may be found on the Sonus Paradisi web pages.

The demo version is available for free download from the blog of Sonus Paradisi.

Chrismas discount period

A number of Chrismas bundles is now enabled on the Sonus Paradisi web pages. If you need a special bundle with items (sample sets) which you select yourself, please inform me and I will arrange it for you whenever possible.

Competitive upgrades/crossgrades

Several new special discount rules are now applied for owners of older Sonus Paradisi sample sets. Owners of the Rotterdam Hoofdorgel sample set and owners of the Litomysl sample set have now possibility to acquire some new sample sets with considerable discounts. The discounts applicable for each user are visible on the Dashboard after logging into the Sonus Paradisi account.

I had some trouble getting to the Transept Organ pages on the web site but this was fixed by clearing the cache and cookies in my browser. I've since downloaded the demo version (surround sound) and installed it on my HW 4.1.1 system. It installed as one would expect. I assigned the front channels (there are two sets) to my main speakers and the rear channels to my small rear speaker system. The sound of the three demo stops (8,4,2, flutes) is really lovely and the illusion of being in the building rather good.

There are portrait left and right stop jambs and a useful simple stop screen which SP have started to add to their more recent sample sets. In addition there is an audio mixer screen to let you adjust the balance of the sound channels and so give the impression of changing your listening position in the church. The presence of the instrument in the room is quite excellent (rather better than the demo files to my ear).

Well worth looking at and trying.

Iain

Downloaded and installed the Surround version with no problems: Front to my front speakers, rear to rear speakers, "noises" to smaller pair of side speakers; 24 bit, no compression, all releases.

This is a wonderful organ. I might find myself playing this one more often than the large Gallery organ!

The demos sound really nice. Very tempted.

I play on the complete Transept organ one day,
and for me is this one of the finest organs from Sonus Paradisie.

What I find nice on:
1) The voices remain clear and transparent with both small and large registries
2) Beautiful tremulants sampled the rugwerk but also made tremulants of breast work
3) Because it is not a very large organ I find it easy to register, all combinations are beautiful
4) Both baroque music is beautiful, but also choral music is very beautiful on it,
all votes by the beautiful solo stops, tremulants and especially the lovely acoustics.
5) Very bright sound of the Mixtuur and Cymbel, the Cymbel seems silver.

I put here a link to a video of Geert Bierling plays the organ, and the great thing is that you can do with the sample set these sounds.

http://youtu.be/r5Mcg74DuMs

Pleun

THis is about TWO famous Dutch organs, from which samplesets have recently been made.

After I came home form the ofiicial presentation of the Haarlem Bavo sampleset, which was very well organised, with concerts on the real instrument in the church as well as on the virtual in a concert hall nearby,
I bought the Laurens Transept.........

Much fuss about Haarlem, on this forum, and far too few comments on the Laurens Transept.

THis is a little gem....very transparant sound, and you can hear all sorts of details in the pipe-speaking.

It is financially as well as concerning PC requirements within reach of many people, which cannot be said about the Haarlem. Besides, the Haarlem sounds convincing with small registrations, but gets less convincing with heavier registrations.
What did it, for me, is, that in this concert hall, where they had the virtual Bavo installed, the Philharmonie, there is a fine Cavaille-Coll instrument. I had hoped for a short demonstration on it too......

Now the presentator said that they would not play that instrument, because of the short reverberation, it would not sound as good as the virtual Haarlem, which of course has the reverb of the church.

THis is not true at all!! I once asked a very famous organist, who gave a concert on the CC-Philharmonie, if this short reverb is not annoying. And he said, its no problem at all!!
So what they were really afraid of, is, that the real CC in this hall, compared with the virtual Haarlem, would in fact point to the weakness of virtual organs in generall!! Apart form the qualites of the Bavo sampleset, which I will not discuss here, I was negatively struck by this bald assumption.

Happy playing,

Geert ( Netherlands)

To Mr. Geert: Your post is very well put, and I agree with your observations on the two samplesets, but one could also argue that playing the CC in the concert would be irrelevant and would detract attention from the Muller and it's samples - indeed, it is unwise to compare a large, baroque organ in a wet acoustic to a small, dry romantic organ. Still, I think many have prejudice against drier acoustics when it comes to organs, but remember, even great Schnitger had to deal with this when he was building the Stade organ.

As judging from the audio samples, I also am liking the Laurenskerk transept organ, and I would venture to say that I like it's sound and sampling technique better than the Hoofdorgel. The clarity of it's sound is just beautiful, and I like the sound of the reeds here - It's a fairly large organ, but still it preserves a distinct character. I also like how it's priced very fairly. I don't think there are any similar-sized organs that are such well priced, besides for my favorite Riddagshausen organ when it is on sale, but I think sampling technology has seen improvements since the Riddagshausen, as demonstrated by this beautiful one (which is also a better organ). Well, I'm tempted! Kudos to Mr. Zurek for the new organ!

- Achenpigeon

This is one instance where giving in to temptation is a good thing. Riddagshausen is a nice organ, but the Rotterdam Transept sample set is, in my view, head and shoulders over it in every way. This new sample set is not one to pass up lightly. Also, the discount price still applies for another 9 days. I had no intention of adding to my already substantial collection of sample sets at this time but on hearing the demos of the Transept organ I happily succumbed to temptation!

Andrew

Listen f.i. to the Hindemith played by Peter vd Zwaag......it may be a small instrument, but with wise registration, what a sound can come from it........

Geert

I'm not sure you can really compare the two organs. I have yet to hear a large HW sample and be impressed with it, mainly because the organ is far too large to be accurately reproduced on a small audio system like mine. You're trying to put 70+ stops through a few speakers and compare that to the real live earth shaking instrument, it's not going to happen. When you play softly (few stops), the sound is soft and distant; when you play full organ the sound is too loud; the dynamics of the organ do not fit with my audio setup or my room.

So it may be more fair to compare the Haarlem set with the big Rotterdam...? Compare the Tholen from Voxus vs this Transept? At least there you can ignore the size of the instruments and focus on the quality of the recordings or the character of each organ etc.

Could some fellow explain me please the real differences between Rotterdams Transept organ and his free SP mini big brother? Are they really different as to get both?

Thanks
Luis

It was NOT my intention to comape Haarlem with LaurensTransept!!!! I only mentioned it, purely as a contrast.

The Laurens Transept cannot be compared to the Laurens Hoofdorgel, although it is from the same organbuilder. Its a completely different outcome.

The Hoofdorgel is mighty in its layout, and certainly alle organ repertoire can be played on it.
But it lacks strong colors a bit; it all sounds quite neutral and evenly.

The Transept has much more "Charactere"....!! BUT: in spite of this, a great variety of repertoire can be played on it, from Clerambault till Alain.... And it keeps its transparancy in the tutti, whereyou can even hear a soft stop being added.

Its really much more fun to play. Unless you only like to play the great Reger pieces.....

I would like to add, that the Borstwerk has sort of a swell arrangement ( doors that can be opened or closed), which can be assigned to a swell pedal, and, apart from that, EVERY work has its own slider, so that you can f.i. assign a swell pedal to the RUGWERk slider.

This makes the sampleset even more universal. You have to play it!!

It is financially as well as concerning PC requirements within reach of many people, which cannot be said about the Haarlem. Besides, the Haarlem sounds convincing with small registrations, but gets less convincing with heavier registrations.
What did it, for me, is, that in this concert hall, where they had the virtual Bavo installed, the Philharmonie, there is a fine Cavaille-Coll instrument. I had hoped for a short demonstration on it too......
Now the presentator said that they would not play that instrument, because of the short reverberation, it would not sound as good as the virtual Haarlem, which of course has the reverb of the church.
THis is not true at all!! I once asked a very famous organist, who gave a concert on the CC-Philharmonie, if this short reverb is not annoying. And he said, its no problem at all!!
So what they were really afraid of, is, that the real CC in this hall, compared with the virtual Haarlem, would in fact point to the weakness of virtual organs in generall!! Apart form the qualites of the Bavo sampleset, which I will not discuss here, I was negatively struck by this bald assumption.

Hi Geert,
I'm afraid you are right. I played the CC-organ in the Philharmonie also and the short acoustics are absolutely not annoying. They were indeed afraid showing the weakness of the virtual Bavo set according the sound of this CC. I also noticed that they played different pieces in the Philharmonie and the Bavo. In order to make a good comparison they should have played the last piece in the Philharmonie and the same as the first piece in the Bavo by example. Now the overall sound is not comparable, so will this sampleset be as realistic as possible? There is too much fuss about this set. To me it seems that it's more like a prestige-project for Voxus. Look what we can achieve ! With the goal to get in the upper-class of producers as fast as possible. I think this is a bad approach. Besides that only a few users can load the set given the high demands. Still, I wish them luck in order to improve the set without further updates. Hopefully with a fine end result that the real organ also will be honored.

Of course things may get worse when pulling more stops. That seems to me an inherent limitation to the current Hauptwerk model and (even more important) to electronic set-ups with few speakers only in a non-optimized room, not a flaw in any particular sample set.

In an interview (http://www.refdag.nl/muziek/presentatie ... m_1_875416, in Dutch), Jos van der Kooy, one of the local organists, said something worth pondering: "...it never can replace the original. It is like a flight simulator: you can use it to learn to fly well".

So if you want to make a fair comparison, compare it to other sample sets, not to the original, and certainly do not ask to compare it to an organ from an entirely different style period.

Of course it is a prestige project, and it is praiseworthy that Voxus aims for the top. And they are certainly not wanting to go too fast, considering how much impatience some people show towards their announcements of new sample sets.

I also am liking the Laurenskerk transept organ... The clarity of it's sound is just beautiful, and I like the sound of the reeds here - It's a fairly large organ, but still it preserves a distinct character. I also like how it's priced very fairly. I don't think there are any similar-sized organs that are such well priced... but I think sampling technology has seen improvements... as demonstrated by this beautiful one (which is also a better organ). Well, I'm tempted! Kudos to Mr. Zurek for the new organ!

I have installed the new Transept Organ, and find it absolutely delightful! Already, it is one of my favorite Sample Sets (along with the Laurenskerk Hoofdorgel, which of course is an entirely different kind of Organ).