Sat May 21, 2022 11:42 am
Hi Les, I spent some time playing this organ today, and I was very impressed!
Honestly I don't play Cracow or Friesach much because I feel they are a bit pedestrian, that is, lacking in interest. For a long time I felt this was because of the divisional composition and how they were voiced, and it seems to be that I was right! In your hands, you've totally transformed these two instruments, and the result sounds very good.
Some highlights for me are the two mixtures on the positive. I never liked Cracow's harmonia aethera because I felt it was too uneven, but combined with the cornet and the other stops on the positive, it really sparkles! Another highlight is all the celestes. You seem to have chosen the most interesting stops on each parent instrument for them, and it really works. Particularly if you combine the flute and string celestes together, then add the 4' and 16' couplers, you get a gorgeous, interesting and lush string chorus sound that few other sample sets have. The voicing is very balanced, so that you can pretty much play anything on it, and there are tons of options for each particular voice you would like to try. Having the chimes and zimbelstern is also great. The acoustics of Friesach and Cracow sound very similar with your voicing, so the combination really works. There are now many more options to combine stops in an interesting way, and a way that makes sense for more repertoire.
Actually the organ that it most makes me think of is the PAB. I think it has that very transparent, flexible, and carefully balanced sound of a concert organ, coupled with a lot of different options for stops, which makes it very useful for a lot of repertoire. To think that you can get almost all of the tone colours of the PAB in a package that is totally free and requires much less memory is astounding. Thanks for this!