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Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

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BachsFugue

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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostThu May 17, 2018 11:06 pm

Interestingly, Canada is the largest country of North America. It also has the longest coastline of any country on the globe.

The equivalent of the American Guild of Organists in Canada is the RCCO, the Royal Canadian College of Organists founded in a city in Ontario where I have frequently visited, Brantford. Some of it's well-known people and attributes are the Bell Homestead where Alexander G. Bell lived and invented the telephone, the Zamboni company of ice dressing fame, Wayne Gretsky of ice hockey renown, and Harold Smith, a Mohawk of the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation–more widely known as Jay Silverheels who gained fame as Tonto on the "Lone Ranger" television series. Brantford is also home of Her Majesty's Royal Chapel of the Mohawks, the oldest surviving church building in Ontario and one of only six Chapels Royal outside of the United Kingdom.

There are several long standing members of the Hauptwerk community who hail from Brantford and at least two of whom have been or are currently a president of the Brantford Centre of the RCCO.

Since many ancestral strands of my forebears predate the American Revolution, I am confident in affirming that all residents of North America are indeed Americans. I am sure there are some who may argue my point, but I do not stand with them.
Cole Votaw -- Springfield, Ohio, USA
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flydeltajets

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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostSat May 19, 2018 11:07 pm

I purchased the Casavant yesterday and have been playing around with it a bit today. First off, this is an exellent instrument! There are many colorful voices, and its eclectic specification make it suitable for many types of literature. This instrument is a real bargain, and I’d recommend the purchase to anyone who is in the market for a new organ!

One minor thing, which may be a programming limitation in HW: when the tremulant is engaged while note(s) are playing, the sampled trems setting causes the held note(s) to re-attack. Is there any way to change the behavior so there is a smooth transition when adding or removing the tremulants on a held note or chord?

Thanks for a wonderful instrument!
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zurek

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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostSun May 20, 2018 12:05 am

When tremulant enganged and the real recorded tremmed samples are used, the notes have to re-attack, since suddenly Hauptwerk needs to play different samples for you. Before engaging tremulant, untremmed audio samples were played back, while after engaging tremulant, the tremmed audio samples need to be played back. Untremmed and tremmed samples are physically different audio recordings. In other words, untremmed and tremmed samples are different audio files stored on your harddrive and Hauptwerk needs to switch quickly from untremmed to tremmed. This makes the tremulant sound convincing. However, there is no smooth transition possible (unless there is some clever crossfade done by Hauptwerk).

If you need smooth transition, you need to switch to the artificial tremulant (see the mixer tab). Using artificial tremulant model in Hauptwerk the need to change the sounding samples is obviated. The drawback: the artificial tremulant model is not as convincing as the real recorded tremmed pipes.
Jiri Zurek,
Prague
http://www.sonusparadisi.cz
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seh52

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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostSun May 20, 2018 9:59 am

How do the CLR 1988 Concordia University Casavant sample set https://www.clrresources.com/cui-casavant/ and this SP 1995 Bellevue Casavant sample set compare? Has anyone installed and played both yet?
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostTue May 22, 2018 9:13 am

Installed and configured. (Will have to do some pedal division voicing on a few notes, so it will play nice with my room).

My new favourite organ!

Highly recommended!

Lawrence
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostThu May 24, 2018 6:26 pm

I have the CUI casavant set from CLRResources, and I use it quite often. Will have to get this one, so i can compare the two. From the demos I've heard, it sounds like a nice set though. Dan.
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostMon May 28, 2018 9:12 am

What is the purpose of the UNISON OFF found in each of the manual divisions? (Recit, Gr.Orge and Postif). There are no sub and super couplers on this instrument. Baffled.
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostMon May 28, 2018 10:23 am

Lougheed wrote:What is the purpose of the UNISON OFF found in each of the manual divisions? (Recit, Gr.Orge and Postif). There are no sub and super couplers on this instrument. Baffled.


I have no knowledge of this instrument, but I used to play a very nice Wicks that had a Festival Trumpet on the choir that was non-coupleable. No markings of any kind to indicate that. One could have most of the stops out on the choir (including that Trumpet) with the Unison Off pulled on the choir, and have the Choir coupled to the great. Now all the ranks of the choir would be playable on the Great and just the Trumpet would sound on the choir manual! It would sometimes confuse visiting organists. Gave me a nice Solo keyboard without the actual keyboard. LOL
Ray
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostMon May 28, 2018 6:01 pm

Drawing the Unison Off stop silences any stops drawn on that manual, pushing the Unison Off back in allows the stops (now) drawn for that manual to sound. It works like a ventil.

You could, for example, couple all the divisions to the Grand Orgue, draw stops on the Recit, Positif and Grand. Draw the Unison off on the Grand and play on the Grand with only the Recit and Positif stops sounding. When you wanted to increase the volume (for example) you could cancel (push in ) the Grand Unison off and the Grand Orgue stops would also sound.

The venitl system is used in some French organs to enable crescendo and diminuendo effects to be produced and the directions in some French organ music indicate using the ventils to manage the registration the composer / editor recommends. Often these instruments don't have divisional or general pistons.

With this instrument, one could, of course, use general/divisional pistons or the crescendo pedal to provide similar control.

Iain
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostMon May 28, 2018 6:14 pm

IainStinson wrote:Drawing the Unison Off stop silences any stops drawn on that manual, pushing the Unison Off back in allows the stops (now) drawn for that manual to sound. It works like a ventil.

You could, for example, couple all the divisions to the Grand Orgue, draw stops on the Recit, Positif and Grand. Draw the Unison off on the Grand and play on the Grand with only the Recit and Positif stops sounding. When you wanted to increase the volume (for example) you could cancel (push in ) the Grand Unison off and the Grand Orgue stops would also sound.

The venitl system is used in some French organs to enable crescendo and diminuendo effects to be produced and the directions in some French organ music indicate using the ventils to manage the registration the composer / editor recommends. Often these instruments don't have divisional or general pistons.

With this instrument, one could, of course, use general/divisional pistons or the crescendo pedal to provide similar control.

Iain


Cavaillé-Coll would use a foot lever for this type of use. The Casavant has general pistons instead.

To me the explanation of RaymondList seems most probable. I guess those unison off couplers are meant to play the chamade trumpets exclusively on one of each of the manuals. I don't have the sample set though to verify this.
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostMon May 28, 2018 6:42 pm

I 've just checked the sample set:

The Grand Orgue Unison off affects the Trompette en Chamarde on all divisions: when the Grand Orgue Unison Off is drawn the en Chamarde does not play on any other division (irrespective of the state of the other divisions' Unison Off).

The Positif and Recit Unison off silence all stops on their respective division including the en Chamarde.

The Unison Off stops work through the couplers so they can be used in a similar way to a ventil system.

It would be good to know if this is the behavior of the real instrument?

Iain
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostTue May 29, 2018 5:27 am

Indeed it makes good sense what Raymond List suggested! I think it is the best logic for this particular instrument!

Therefore, I prepared a new ODF 1.1 with the behavior:

    Chamade Trumpets are not affected by couplers
    Chamade Trumpets are not affected by Unison off
This is achieved by placing the Chamade Trumpets on a hidden dedicated division. Drawing the corresponding Chamade stop button will couple the Trumpet to any desired keyboard or pedalboard.

Hence, you can couple divisions together to a specific keyboard and silence another keyboard using Unison off. Then, on the silenced keyboard you can play the Chamade Trumpet against the chorus.

I need volunteers to test this ODF, to find out any possible drawbacks of this logic. One comes immediately to my mind: the Chamade Trumpet will not be compatible with Hauptwerk Master Couplers, since now it stays on a windchest (forming a keyboardless division) of its own. Hauptwerk Master Couplers work on keyboards, not on divisions, and therefore a division without a dedicated keyboard is not accessible for the Master Couplers. I believe it is not a problem for this particular instrument, since the Chamade Trumpet is available on all the keyboards via dedicated drawstops.

If you wish to test the new ODF, please write an e-mail to me. When the ODF is sufficiently tested, I will release it publicly on my web pages.
Jiri Zurek,
Prague
http://www.sonusparadisi.cz
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostTue May 29, 2018 7:31 am

I am truly honored that my suggested behavior would be deemed worthy of all your effort! I know I enjoyed and used that feature on the Wicks I played a few years ago. I've heard such good things here about this sample set, I'd be buying a copy AND volunteering to test. However, I only have a 16GB computer, so I felt I would be unable to run it effectively.

EDIT: After downloading the Demo version, and some calculations, I simply had to have this instrument so I went ahead and purchased this sample set. Running on my laptop, Hauptwerk tells me I have 13.2 Gb available. I loaded the 'front' samples at 24 bit, did not load any tremmed samples or any 'rear' samples, and it loaded successfully, using just over 10 Gb, so I have a little room left. This is a fine instrument. I do wish I had a little more room in my laptop to load some 'reverb', but am very happy I have this instrument! Thanks so much for the excellent sample set!
Ray
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostTue Jun 05, 2018 7:07 am

Now that I have been playing this wonderful set for 3 weeks, I find that I’m playing little else. It possesses outstanding clarity and character, to the point where it sounds like it is really in the room.

My only issue with it is that the swell pedal response seems impossibly slow. Slamming the box closed takes a couple of seconds to have any effect. For quick echo passages, it is really frustrating. Is anyone else finding this an issue, and is there any way of manually adjusting the settings to make it more responsive?

Thanks,
Daniel
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Re: Casavant Organ Model by Sonus Paradisi

PostTue Jun 19, 2018 8:21 pm

RaymondList wrote:However, I only have a 16GB computer, so I felt I would be unable to run it effectively.

... I do wish I had a little more room in my laptop to load some 'reverb', but am very happy I have this instrument! Thanks so much for the excellent sample set!


I have a 16 GB computer, and was able to load all of the samples, including the sampled tremulants, at 16 bit resolution by choosing the option to load only a single sample loop for all of the ranks. I personally don't find that the multiple sample loop option adds much in the way of realism, and I don't know that my ear can distinguish 16-bit from 24-bit samples, so I am very happy with the result.

I am very grateful to have this set. I started with Hauptwerk back in 2012 and at the time there were very few North American organs available. I tried various British and European sets, but came to realize that the set I wanted just wasn't available. When I heard that Jiri was coming to the USA to sample some sets, I was hopeful that something would come along that would be better suited to the literature I play. This Casavant set comes the closest to my ideal of all the sets currently available - there is a generous stop selection that accommodates my literature; the acoustics are fairly "live" (for a North American church) and adjustable; and all of those sampled tremulants are beautiful - so much more convincing to my ear than the computationally modeled ones. And I could not believe how affordable this large instrument is. So, I took the plunge and am glad I did. I hope it sells *really well* and that Jiri will sample even more of our North American instruments. :)

Stephen
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