Best Samples for French Baroque

If you can wait some few days, the new incoming organ of Zamárdi (AVO) might be the one that you need, and it will be very afordable. You have already beautiful demos on Contrebombarde played by DominiqueD, Jepisi and Istwan.It's not an historical instrument but it was built very French baroque styled.

Here is a very nice tour of this organ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzrVLog ... A&index=20

For authentic sound I highly recommend the St Thierache organ. You can combine manual 3 and 4 if you wish or select only one of them. Its flutes are divine.
A really amazingly good set.

St. Pons seems nice too although I don’t have it.

Arlesheim is nice but the organ is less fiery as some other sets. I’m trying it now fir 14 days.

Ebersmunster is more fiery but its stop list is more limited. It is an earlier organ as well. Hard to compare to Arlesheim.

AVO organs are not on same level of sampling and thus cheaper. Try before purchasing. Is my advice here.


Good luck. !!

I thoroughly agree that St. Michel en Thiérache is a beautiful organ, with very expressive flutes. I have discovered that adding the tierce to solo reeds gives them extra bite (with the cromorne or the trumpet). My ears are not good enough to hear the tierce harmonics as disturbing.

The pedal division has no 16', but surprisingly the 8' pedal flûte is a satisfactory bass for slow pieces. Sometimes I couple the 16' bourdon from the great to the pedal and play the great manual an octave higher.

Since visiting St. Cécile in Albi I have started to use the 16' bourdon with the Grands Jeux, it adds a lot of depth!

The Montre 8' is a lovely sound as accompaniment!

There's so much to discover about this organ. Often I play the same piece multiple times in a row, with different registrations. Check out the Livre d'orgue de Montréal for lots of great and sight-readable repertoire.

https://imslp.org/wiki/Livre_d%27orgue_de_Montréal_(Girard%2C_Jean)

AVO organs are not on same level of sampling and thus cheaper. Try before purchasing. Is my advice here.

Augustines always says that you must try before buy. If you try the AVO organs, especially the last ones, I'm sure that you will be surprised by the quality of the sampling. No a priori. The price of sample sets is not linked to their quality but to commercial or philosophical reasons. There are some (which I will not mention) very expensive which are pitiful and free ones which are splendid.
Another very beautiful French baroque organ is that of Haringe. It is quite dry because the church is small and because it was recorded near the pipes. But it is a very authentic instrument and in perfect condition (I have played it). The sample set was unfortunately only made a few months before that of St Michel-en-Thiérache, less austere and which overshadowed it. Especially since there is no trial version for Haringe. But the demos on the website allow you to compare the real organ and the sample set.
https://www.hauptwerk.nl/haringeen.php

I agree that AVO’s sampling is not inferior to any other sample set maker. However, there are differences in technique and preferences that distinguish one sample set maker from another. I have the Castilian Budapest and the Farkasret Venetian replica, and I think both of those are splendid organs. Augustine tends to sample a bit drier, which I prefer, and also tends to sample organs in smaller acoustics, but his recordings are full of detail and character, and I think they are splendid. The new Zamardi indeed looks very good, but it is a smaller organ, so there are less options for different registrations. I would still go for St. Maximin. I feel no other French Baroque sample set has the same panache. The reeds alone can be distinguished audibly from other organs by their character, and reeds are very important in French baroque music.

An other great French baroque organ is the Andreas Silbermann of Ebersmunster, Alsace (Organ Art media), with its long reverb (5;5 sec) and very clear stops. 3 manuals and 29 stops. Only for HW 5/6 and licensed. No evaluation version.
https://www.organartmedia.com/en/andreas-silbermann-organ

For authentic sound I highly recommend the St Thierache organ. You can combine manual 3 and 4 if you wish or select only one of them. Its flutes are divine.
A really amazingly good set.

St. Pons seems nice too although I don’t have it.

Arlesheim is nice but the organ is less fiery as some other sets. I’m trying it now fir 14 days.

Ebersmunster is more fiery but its stop list is more limited. It is an earlier organ as well. Hard to compare to Arlesheim.

AVO organs are not on same level of sampling and thus cheaper. Try before purchasing. Is my advice here.


Good luck. !!

Dear Adri,
I must answer about some of your comments.
1. Arlesheim and Ebersmunster are 2 really different organs. Arlesheim has nothing to do with an original SIlbermann organ. It's a Metzler organ . It's a very beautiful and verrsatil instrument. Ebersmunster is more original despite the restoration made by Kern and sounds great and french. I played the original and the sample too (by a friend).

2. You consider that the quality of a sample is in relation with its price ? WHat a joke ! I would not be rude with some producers who always sell HW1 samples at indecent prices ! In that case you must certainly think that Piotr Grabovski's free samples are very bad because they are free !.I could give you a good exemple of a new sample whose price is around 400€ and whose recording and mostly editing is really bad for my taste. We hear imbalances that could have been avoided.

3. ABout AVO samples, you're wrong. I've the chance to test samples and record demos for Augusine, producer of AVO. He always do a better job. His last sample is perfect to play all the french baroque music. I know that, because he realized the extended version by following my advice.... and sorry, I know what a french baroque organ is. You must also know that all well known french composers didn't always play on very big instruments. This sample provides a perfect medium size organ very suitable for french ancient music with a very clear recording and a lot of personnality. WHen you know a little who is Augustine, you will discover that he has others ethical aims than earning money.

4. ANd now, to answer the question of the choice. A friend of mine has St Michel en Thiérache and Ebersmunster... very good ! ROzay ... too dry. St Maximin is very good too. This organs are originals. There is the Rieti sample.... a copy of Dom Bedos, but Formentelli's job should have been so much better. So, among all, this AVO sample is simply perfect : all is clear, well recorded, very well edited and very nice to play... at a very cool price.

5. But if you want a great sample to play french music, just wait a few monthes... my wonderful 1775 organ has been sampled.... it's just an organ with a little more than 80% of original pipes of XVIIIth century in a wonderfull acoustic.

Best regards
DominiqueD

Try before purchasing. Is my advice here

Yes, try the AVO sample sets before arguing and you will be surprised.

5. But if you want a great sample to play french music, just wait a few monthes... my wonderful 1775 organ has been sampled.... it's just an organ with a little more than 80% of original pipes of XVIIIth century in a wonderfull acoustic.

Hi Dominique, if you are referring to this one, it would be a wonderful addition to the French Classic Organs options -



I guess this is too early to get further details?

5. But if you want a great sample to play french music, just wait a few monthes... my wonderful 1775 organ has been sampled.... it's just an organ with a little more than 80% of original pipes of XVIIIth century in a wonderfull acoustic.

Hi Dominique, if you are referring to this one, it would be a wonderful addition to the French Classic Organs options -

I guess this is too early to get further details?

Perhaps, wait and see !

From older posts, it seems that Prospectum will come with the Vezelise organ (http://orguesfrance.com/VezeliseStComeStDamien.html). They usually take their time and they are currently working with the Ansbach organ. So I guess this will not be ready soon.
Jeuxdorgues announced that they will release the La Chaise-Dieu organ on 25 January (https://www.musiqueorguequebec.ca/orgue ... edieu.html).

Both these organs seem to be similar to the Boizard organ from Sonus Paradisi (my favorite together with the St. Maximin).

The new AVO organ is actually pretty good, much better than older AVO organs. Augustine has improved a lot.

Both these organs seem to be similar to the Boizard organ from Sonus Paradisi (my favorite together with the St. Maximin)

No mistake. The organ of Vézelise has nothing to do with the Boizard organ (1714). Vezelise was achieved in 1775 and sounds absolutly different. Boizard is good for Couperin, Grigny, Marchand..... Vézelise can play all french baroque composers, mostly from second half of 18th century (Corrette, Beauvarlet, Lasceux...). The art of registration was not the same in 1700 and 1780. Vezelise has 80% of original pipes..... not La Chaise DIeu (I played this organ in concert a few years ago... I'm curious about the recording... hope it'll be a demo.... hope too it'll be better than the Wasselone sample I heard by a friend).

Thanks for clarifying, I am looking forward to hearing the sets, then.

Apparently I wrote my post too hastily. The prices of sample sets are indeed not necessarily related to the quality of sampling, so I take that back and stand corrected.

Arlesheim: I agree. I tried the set for 14 days and wasn’t convinced it sounded authentic. The influence of Metzler is indeed very obvious.

The Ebersmunster set sounds more authentic but its specification is limiting but I have this set and enjoy it for certain literature.

The Thierache organ is unique and just plain beautiful.

St. Maximin is grand and I enjoy playing this set too, but it doesn’t have the musical intimacy of Thierache.

The other sets discussed here I don’t have.

On the Prospectum's site, the Ansbach's organ is planed for ... 2019 !
It's 2021 now !
(I rememnber it took a very very long long long time for Weissenau too... )

The sampling of the Vezelise's organ is a good news,
but I can't imagine when it will be realised !! (in 2025 or later ? )