I take the opportunity of the St. Cecily - patron of musicians - feast to inform you, that new sample set was released today. The large 4-manual organ of Laurenskerk, Rotterdam was built by Marcussen & Son in 1973, the organ case was designed by the architect J. W. Besemer. The instrument is based on 32-foot pedal, it consists of six divisions (Rugwerk, Hoofdwerk, Bovenwerk, Borstwerk, Chamadewerk and Pedaal). It is completely mechanical organ with 85 speaking stops and ca. 7600 pipes. It is said to be the largest purely mechanical organ in Europe.
The style of this organ is neo-baroque, but it was designed so as to allow performance of wide range of organ literature. The numerous demo pieces on my web pages prove that this is really possible.
Let me quote a remark of one of the beta-testers of this sample set: This is a remarkably colorful organ whose sound is surprisingly gentle. None of the voicing feels harsh or pushed. Instead, we get double-rank principal stops and large mixtures with many ranks of gently-voiced pipework that result in a natural, unforced sound. In fuller ensembles, the organ roars, but it never screams - even when the chamades are playing. The sound remains beautiful and comfortable even when played for several hours in headphones.
The sample set can be used in Hauptwerk version 4 and higher, the Advanced version is necessary due to the size of the virtual instrument. It is available in surround, wet and dry versions. The surround demands on computer are enormous. To load the full instrument in 20-bits (recommended), 40 GB of RAM are needed, and only the recent quad or six core CPUs are able to handle its tutti without polyphony problems. For the wet portion of the sample set, half of this performance is needed.
One of the innovative features of the instrument is the use of tremulants. As usual, many ranks of Borstwerk, Rugwerk and Bovenwerk offer recorded tremmed samples (recorded tremulants). However, the ranks where no tremulant was recorded (less important stops for a tremulant were not recorded tremmed to save the RAM demands), an alternative (Sonus Paradisi developed) Hauptwerk tremulant model is used which consists of the processing the left and the right channel independently. This gives considerably more convincing results than using plain Hauptwerk tremulant model.
More details, including the specification of the instrument may be found on my web pages. Special price is offered to early purchasers (ending on December, 20th this year). Please note, that there are no installation media ready to be shipped at this moment. Only download is offered. However, the sample set is enormous (42 GB of data to download). If you cannot download this size, please wait for 10 days when the installation media are ready. If you order the sample set from about 6th December onwards, the installation media will be available.
Other forthcomming sample set
I would like to inform you at the same time, that I have begun processing the Doesburg Walcker organ for Hauptwerk. It was recorded by Sonus Paradisi some time ago and now I put all my energy to making a sample set from this remarkable romantic instrument. The preliminary information can be found on my web pages.
Christmass discounts
Furthermore, I have decided to discount some older sample sets to make them still more attractive to potential customers. The discount amount is about 10% from the usual price. It is applied automatically to the shopping cart. The discounted sample sets include: Zwolle, Dom Bedos, Krzeszow, Utrecht, Prague Baroque, Santanyi, Palma, Velesovo. All the discounts end on December 20th, 2012.
The style of this organ is neo-baroque, but it was designed so as to allow performance of wide range of organ literature. The numerous demo pieces on my web pages prove that this is really possible.
Let me quote a remark of one of the beta-testers of this sample set: This is a remarkably colorful organ whose sound is surprisingly gentle. None of the voicing feels harsh or pushed. Instead, we get double-rank principal stops and large mixtures with many ranks of gently-voiced pipework that result in a natural, unforced sound. In fuller ensembles, the organ roars, but it never screams - even when the chamades are playing. The sound remains beautiful and comfortable even when played for several hours in headphones.
The sample set can be used in Hauptwerk version 4 and higher, the Advanced version is necessary due to the size of the virtual instrument. It is available in surround, wet and dry versions. The surround demands on computer are enormous. To load the full instrument in 20-bits (recommended), 40 GB of RAM are needed, and only the recent quad or six core CPUs are able to handle its tutti without polyphony problems. For the wet portion of the sample set, half of this performance is needed.
One of the innovative features of the instrument is the use of tremulants. As usual, many ranks of Borstwerk, Rugwerk and Bovenwerk offer recorded tremmed samples (recorded tremulants). However, the ranks where no tremulant was recorded (less important stops for a tremulant were not recorded tremmed to save the RAM demands), an alternative (Sonus Paradisi developed) Hauptwerk tremulant model is used which consists of the processing the left and the right channel independently. This gives considerably more convincing results than using plain Hauptwerk tremulant model.
More details, including the specification of the instrument may be found on my web pages. Special price is offered to early purchasers (ending on December, 20th this year). Please note, that there are no installation media ready to be shipped at this moment. Only download is offered. However, the sample set is enormous (42 GB of data to download). If you cannot download this size, please wait for 10 days when the installation media are ready. If you order the sample set from about 6th December onwards, the installation media will be available.
Other forthcomming sample set
I would like to inform you at the same time, that I have begun processing the Doesburg Walcker organ for Hauptwerk. It was recorded by Sonus Paradisi some time ago and now I put all my energy to making a sample set from this remarkable romantic instrument. The preliminary information can be found on my web pages.
Christmass discounts
Furthermore, I have decided to discount some older sample sets to make them still more attractive to potential customers. The discount amount is about 10% from the usual price. It is applied automatically to the shopping cart. The discounted sample sets include: Zwolle, Dom Bedos, Krzeszow, Utrecht, Prague Baroque, Santanyi, Palma, Velesovo. All the discounts end on December 20th, 2012.