Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:09 pm
The Noordbroek sample set is beautifully recorded in multiple perspectives and in my system it sounds a great deal better than Raszczyce. Although the stoplist is fairly similar, it is of course a much older instrument, originally by Arp Schnitger, and it does sound different. It is also surprisingly versatile.
There are a number of very characterful organs available. You might want to think about a "Bach-style" instrument in contrast with the North German and Dutch Baroque organs that are better known. Bach would have been more familiar with the organs of central Germany, which were characterised by a wide range of stops at 8' pitch, including strings and flute celestes, and also a range of pedal colours at 16', usually with some kind of 32' pedal stop available, and thirds as well as fifths in the mixtures. Examples are the Trost organ at Walterhausen by Organ Art Media and the Engler organ at Krzeszow by Sonus Paradisi. There are also some very beautiful modern Bach organs, my favourite being the Mocnik organ at Velosovo by Sonus Paradisi, which speaks very clearly and I think might fit your brief quite well. I also like the two Metzler instruments, one at Poblet by Organ Art Media, which was specifically built as a Bach organ but with the addition of Spanish trumpets, and the other at Duren by Piotr Grabowski, which is a more eclectic instrument. Poblet has a very generous acoustic, and the microphone position is a little far from the pipes for my preference (I get the impression that the OAM sample sets are optimised for listing through headphones rather than speakers) but it is nevertheless one of my favourite instruments.
You might also be interested in the Sauer organ at Frankfurt Oder by Sonus Paradisi. This is more in the Organ Reform Movement style, but the voicing is less extreme than many and it does speak very clearly, as well as being well-recorded.
If you want historical but not Bach-style, then I can also recommend the Silbermann at St. Peter's Church, Freiburg, again by Sonus Paradisi. For a larger instrument there is the Muller organ at St. Bavokerk, Haarlem by Voxus, the Bader organ at Zutphen by Sonus Paradisi, both of which are historical and very characterful, or the very famous instruments by Schnitger at St. Martinikerk, Groningen, and at Zwolle, again both from Sonus Paradisi; of the two I prefer Groningen, though it is the most expensive sample set that I own and the one that consumes the most RAM.
There are many other very beautiful organs available for playing Baroque music, and the historical ones in particular each have their own character, but I hope this gives you some ideas.