Mary the Virgin in Budapest 71/IV+P - New

I am pleased to inform everyone that my new sample set has been completed. This is a large, symphonic organ from Budapest, the Organ of the Mary the Virgin.

The church was built by the only Hungarian-founded order, the Order of St Paul the First Hermit, on the site of a demolished mosque in 1723. The architect was András Mayerhoffer, who was one of the outstanding figures of Hungarian Baroque architecture. The church was built for a very long time and was not completed until 1771. This church was the central church of the Paulines. After the Pauline Order was dissolved in 1786, the church became the property of Pázmány Péter University. Since the church is still owned by the university, the common language is known as the University Church.

The first organ of the church was completed in 1791. It was a two-manuals organ. Unfortunately, in 100 years, this organ has been completely destroyed and its disposition has not survived. Only the organ cabinet remained.

The new organ was built by the Rieger organ factory in Budapest from 1910 to 1915. This organ had 3 manual, 57 stops, pneumatic systems. The disposition of the organ was designed by Aladár Zalánffy, and the neo-baroque organ cabinet was made by Ernő Foerk.In 1942-43 the disposition of the organ was changed to a lesser extent, based on the plans of Ferenc Gergely.

Between 1970 and 1972, the organ was significantly expanded according to the plans of Ferenc Gergely, István Koloss, László Bucsi and László Fehér. The original baroque organ cabinet, which had been empty until then, was incorporated and this became the Brust-positive work (fourth manual). The organ was expanded to 71 stops and the pneumatic system was partially replaced by an electric tractura. This work was carried out by the Organ-building of the Metropolitan Craft Company, which was the successor to the Rieger.

The Pécs Organ Manufactura (POM) carried out the general repair and cleaning of the organ in 2003, when the Trompete 8 'register, which was missing from the pedal, was installed.

Sample quality
The sample sets are available in wave format 48kHz/24bit, multiple loops (1-8) and multiple releases (3 levels).
Equal, a=440 Hz
The sample was prepared in 2-channel stereo front-near, 2-channel stereo front-far, and 6-channel (near-far-rear) surround versions.
The reverb is 4.5 s, reflects he original acoustics of the church.
Hauptwerk v4.2 or v5-6 supported for the Organ Definition Files.
Keyboards, Pedal
The original and the virtual organ compass of the manuals are 61 keys, the compass of the pedal is 32 keys.
RAM requirements:
stereo form: 16 bit:9 GB, 24 bit: 14 GB, surround form: 16 bit: 20 GB, 24 bit:32 GB

Screenshots
Audio demos (Surround)
Audio demos (Stereo)
More info.

Acknowledgements:
The organist László Gesztesi-Tóth obtained the permission to record the organ, and he deals with the distribution of the sample in Hungary. The processing of the recording was made very difficult by the fluttering noise generated by the electromagnets. I got good ideas from Samuel Sleath and Fred de Jong to remove this noise. Without their help, nothing would have been out of this sample. The following friends helped me to make and publish the sample set (in alphabetical order): Dominique Dantand, Gérard Lefranc, Nagy István, Pecze Andor and Jean-Pierre Silvestre. If something's done well, it's thanks to them.

The Mary the Virgin seems to rest on the solid foundation of the expected stops. However, beyond what is expected, a strong distinction from other organs quickly becomes evident. Even in the flue stops, the timbre of each rank seems more explicitly defined than is usual. Careful listening discloses the even-harmonic structure of the Principal as distinct from the odd-harmonics of the Gedackt.

In this organ flutes sound like flutes, strings like strings, woodwinds like woodwinds, and brass like brass. Such distinction is exemplified by the Violinbass of the pedal division, which yields far more than the usual stringy-flute contrabass pedal sound. This stop sounds like the bow touching the string of a double bass and the note developing. Such clarity of timbre seems to be the rule with this organ.

In addition to clarity, this organ gives diversity. Manual III offers five very distinct reeds, three being of 8' pitch. Of the latter, the 8' Franz-Trompete, 8' Schalmey-Oboe, and 8' Vox Humana are contrastingly different from each other. Manual II yields realistic brass sound in three pitches. Manual I even has a very nice Celeste. Timbral variety makes this a very rich instrument.

The "Mary" sample set is generously endowed with both inter-divisional and intra-divisional couplers, and with Tremolo for each manual. The "Console" screen's "Near", "Far", "Rear", and "Noise" sliders provide convenient control of acoustics. Though "Left Jamb" and "Right Jamb" screens are provided, I prefer the "Controls" screen with its complete and orderly presentation of all necessary controls.

Despite it being a large and capacious instrument, this organ's tight relationship between stop names and sounds produced makes it manageable even with my limited abilities. I'm enjoying this set immensely!

Bill

The St. Mary's organ of the University Church of Budapest has an eventful history, which is also reflected in the division of the works. It is designed for all epochs of organ music, from baroque to French symphonic. The disposition is partly exactly what one would expect from a great organ coming from the Rieger stable, but it also has stops that are out of the ordinary, such as two fifths stops in the pedal, 5 eight-footers in the swell, 4 in the Hauptwerk and an overtone 2 sor 1 1/7 + 8/9 besides Mixtur and Zimbel in the swell, there is no lack of abundant overtone stops in any work besides the fundamental and very different colored stops in 8, 16 and 32 feet.
Especially the 15 reeds are real treasures. Besides Trumpets, Trombone and Clairon, there are wonderful individualists in knotty, smoky colors like Rankett 16', Knopfregal 8', Schalmey-Oboe and as an attraction the Sordun 16' with medieval-like rough Krummhorn color. Each reed is unique, something special, none sounds similar to the other. The organ invites us to let these growling individuals growl individually and not to let them drown in a mishmash of sound. The same applies to the fundamental tones. The more sparingly one registers, the more new color compositions this organ releases. In this it is almost inexhaustible with its 71 stops.
The elimination of the rather unpleasant noise of the electric solenoids that open the tone chests with each note has been perfectly accomplished, which must have been a lot of work for Augustine, who sampled this organ with 3 pairs of microphones in a desirably high and pure quality. The mechanics of this organ are certainly no longer state of the art. But you don't notice anything of that in the sample.
The spatiality of the organ is a bit confusing, but explains itself quickly. In the middle you can hear the Brustwerk from the baroque case, which was empty for a long time after the destruction of the original baroque organ. Below this positive, which was probably the Hauptwerk in the beginning and now has everything that a normal Hauptwerk of a smaller organ contains, is a small case of a Rückpositiv, which was also only a dummy for a long time and today is very versatile with 7 stops played from the 4th manual, a beautiful Brustpositiv. Behind these two baroque works of the 2-manual organ from 1791 at the gallery parapet is across the entire width of the choir room of the gallery the old Rieger organ from 1915 with at that time 57 stops in 3 manuals, all housed in a single neo-baroque case, where also now Pedalwerk, Hauptwerk and Schwellwerk can be heard, the latter on the right, on the left the Hauptwerk, which spatially extends from the center to the left side. The Pedalwerk sounds from the center on a broad stereo base. Thus the individual works overlap in spatial perception. However, they can be easily distinguished and located according to foreground and background. It is astonishing that the pedal stops, which are acoustically hidden by the old baroque case of the positive, can nevertheless be heard very clearly and distinctly from the center.
With the 14 couplers and 3 tremulants, there is a rich diversity of possible combinations for the 5 works, although here, too, economy brings out the richness of sound to better advantage.
The fact that this huge organ with 71 stops is offered by Augustine for 199 Euros is, in comparison to certain other organs, a sign that in the Hauptwerk scene not only business acumen and proud prices for wealthy academics reside, but also the sound enthusiasts with less thick wallets can participate in the richness of sound of the organ scene, which were never intended to be the property of individual organists, but on loan to the musicians of the congregation, in the hope of inspiring and filling many people with their heavenly tones for the many voices of divine diversity in church, cosmos and heart. I am sure this organ will become the insider tip of those who want a lot of dreamlike sound for little money.

Dear Linaria,
Thank you very much for the detailed and professional description of the organ and the sample set. It is a special pleasure for me that you also felt what motivated me in my activities. I wish you much pleasure in using the sample.

Dear Bill,
I’m glad you like the sample and shared your experience with the forum readers. You are a very old and loyal customer, so your opinion is especially important to me and inspires me in my further work.
Augustine

[mdyde]

[Bill -- I've merged your review of the sample set into this thread, so that the information can be found in one place easily.]