It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:31 am


Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

Existing and forthcoming Hauptwerk instruments, recommendations, ...
  • Author
  • Message
Offline
User avatar

tf11972

Member

  • Posts: 338
  • Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:33 pm
  • Location: Bavaria, Germany

Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostFri Mar 18, 2022 3:22 am

I am happy to release my new sampleset of the Marcussen-organ in the Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (Germany). It contains 56 stops on three manuals and pedal.

History
The Willibrordi Cathedral was built from 1498 to 1540 as a late Gothic basilica with 5 naves. The tower, built in 1487, was taken over from the previous Gothic building from 1424 to 1480. From 1883 to 1896, the building was renovated in accordance with the late Gothic taste of the time. During the Second World War, in which Wesel was almost completely destroyed, the Willibrordi Cathedral also suffered considerable damage. From 1948 it was rebuilt, whereby the neo-Gothic additions ofthe 19th century were largely removed. The reconstruction was completed with the erection of the choir loft in 1994, from which a carillon can be heard four times a day today.
A first organ can be traced back to 1418 from old account books. In 1528 a new organ was built above the sacristy. In 1645, Johann Bader built a new organ above today's north portal, which had 27 stops on three manuals and pedal. Parts of the case of the Bader organ were used by the Sauer company (Frankfurt/Oder) to build a new instrument in the west gallery. With its 80 stops, the organ was the largest in West Germany at that time. This size attracted Karl Straube to Wesel in 1897, where he took over as organist. But only 5 years later he became organist at the Thomaskirche and later Thomaskantor in Leipzig. Wesel owes several first performances of Reger's organ works, which were considered unplayable at the time, to hisfriendship with Max Reger.
The Sauer organ was completely destroyed in the bombing raids of 1945. It was not until 1964 that a new organ was built by the Walcker company from Ludwigsburg, which found its place in the choir room. It had 66 stops on four manuals and pedal. Because of the importance of Karl Straube, it was named after him. However, because of the neo-baroque specification, the sluggish action and the partly inferior material, demands for a reconstruction of the instrument were already made in the 1980s.
Finally, in 2000, the Danish company Marcussen built a new organ on the same site, in which many stops from the previous instrument were reused. Completion took place in 2001 with the installation of additional stops. The organ has 56 stops on three manuals and pedal and 4675 pipes. The façade was designed by the Bonn architect Ralph Schweizer.
In 2020, a lightning strike destroyed the organ setter. It was renewed by the Karl Schuke company (Berlin), and octave couplers were also installed.

Technical Details and Requirements
All samples were recorded four-channel with 24 bit/48 kHz, each tone with long, medium and short attack. A special denoising algorithm was then used to preserve the harmonics of the samples. The samples contain up to 6 loops.
All tremulant stops were also sampled chromatically.
In order to play the sampleset, your computer needs the following minimum RAM requirements:
16 Bit Stereo compressed 13 GB

16 Bit Surround compressed 26 GB

24 Bit Stereo compressed 25 GB

24 bit surround compressed 50 GB

The sample set is encrypted. You have to install the “iLok LicenseManager” on your computer to obtain a license from us. Then you can choose between having a permanent internet connection to keep the license alive or buying an iLok-dongle from a retailer. Onto this you can transfer the license and use Hauptwerk without an internet connection. In
Hauptwerk you also have to install the current “LicenseComponentPackage” which you can download from http://www.hauptwerk.com. It’s a rar-file which you install like an organ.

There are many demo recordings on Contrebombarde, when you type "Wesel" in the search box. Here is an example:

LINK

Paul Fey presents the instrument this evening on his YT-channel:

LINK

Here you can order the sampleset (HWV and higher). You can also get a demo license for the full organ (2,50 EUR) which is valid for 14 days. An encrypted, but license-free HW4-version is also available on request (no demo version available):

LINK

You can also order the sampleset from our resellers.
Best regards
Thomas

Forestpipes - Virtual Pipe Organs
https://forestpipes.de
Offline
User avatar

tf11972

Member

  • Posts: 338
  • Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:33 pm
  • Location: Bavaria, Germany

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostSun Apr 10, 2022 8:05 am

I have uploaded a new update (V1.10) for Marcussen Wesel that fixes some minor bugs. You can find it under the download link provided by e-mail at the time of purchase. I ask HW4 customers to contact me beforehand.
Best regards
Thomas

Forestpipes - Virtual Pipe Organs
https://forestpipes.de
Offline

organsRgreat

Member

  • Posts: 561
  • Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:30 am
  • Location: England

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostMon Apr 18, 2022 9:34 am

Considering that this sample set was released on 18th March I’m amazed that it hasn’t attracted more attention. In Paul Frey’s Youtube demonstration it sounds wonderful; the specification looks ordinary, but there are so many colours amongst the various registers and combinations. Youtube employs aac compression, so when heard live via Hauptwerk the sound must be even better. A practical attraction for me is that it’s available for Hauptwerk 4. I’d be very interested to receive comments from anyone who has bought this set. There’s a very professional video of the pipe organ here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWm0ICYgCFw
Offline

CyrilCouten

Member

  • Posts: 28
  • Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2020 12:59 pm
  • Location: France

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostMon Apr 18, 2022 2:42 pm

You are right there is no comment and it deserves good comments : this is a very nice set (clarity of sound and acoustics), especially on Buxtehude and Bach. Works quite well on french romantic music, Mendelssohn ... I recommend it for those who like Marcussen style !

Another comment : you may want to load the front channel with release sample truncation option (eg 250ms) as the front channel is a bit too much reverberant and use IR. It is matter of taste.
Last edited by CyrilCouten on Sun Apr 24, 2022 5:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
Offline

larason2

Member

  • Posts: 752
  • Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2016 9:32 pm

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostMon Apr 18, 2022 5:00 pm

It is a good instrument, and has become one of Carson Cooman’s new favourites. However, the trouble is the Laurenskerk main organ is also a Marcussen, it’s a bigger disposition, a better acoustic, and the dry set is cheaper! That’s the trouble though, too many good instruments and not enough money!
Offline

organsRgreat

Member

  • Posts: 561
  • Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:30 am
  • Location: England

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostWed Apr 20, 2022 10:17 am

Thank you gentlemen – exactly what I needed to know. Confirmation that this is a respected sample set, and information about another Marcussen organ of comparable size and price. Fortunately Paul Frey has recorded a demonstration of the Laurenskerk organ, so I’ve been able to compare the voicing of the two instruments played by the same organist. To my ears Laurenskerk sounds brighter, and hasn’t quite the gentle richness I like at Wesel – though this could be due to external factors such as the acoustic, position and type of microphones used for sampling, etc.

The information about the Laurenskerk organ states that some of the Principals at 16, 8 and 4ft use two sets of pipes in unison. I’d not come across this idea before, but if used at Wesel it would help explain the warmth and richness of some of those stops.

I just need to listen a bit more before making a final decision, but it’s very likely that I shall decide to buy the Wesel Marcussen (sample set!). Thanks for helping me to make up my mind.
Offline
User avatar

tf11972

Member

  • Posts: 338
  • Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:33 pm
  • Location: Bavaria, Germany

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostWed Apr 20, 2022 11:01 am

organsRgreat wrote:
The information about the Laurenskerk organ states that some of the Principals at 16, 8 and 4ft use two sets of pipes in unison. I’d not come across this idea before, but if used at Wesel it would help explain the warmth and richness of some of those stops.



When you look at the specification, you‘ll see that some pipes of Wesel are used up to three times:

https://forestpipes.de/?page_id=563
Best regards
Thomas

Forestpipes - Virtual Pipe Organs
https://forestpipes.de
Offline

larason2

Member

  • Posts: 752
  • Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2016 9:32 pm

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostWed Apr 20, 2022 1:37 pm

Using more than one pipe at a time for the principals is actually a Marcussen staple, and they appeared to have used it on the Laurenskerk as well as the Wesel as stated. Note that the Wesel is a later Marcussen and the Laurenskerk is an earlier one, so some of the differences you hear may be related to changes to how they made organs over time, or the fact that the Laurenskerk is a bit older.
Offline

adri

Member

  • Posts: 1545
  • Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:33 am
  • Location: Belgrade, Serbia

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostThu Apr 21, 2022 2:56 am

It's a common Dutch tradition to have non-mixture stops that are 1-3 ranks strong, e.g. choir organ Laurenskerk Alkmaar, Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam, Martinikerk Groningen, etc.
Offline

organsRgreat

Member

  • Posts: 561
  • Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:30 am
  • Location: England

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostFri Apr 29, 2022 6:01 am

Thomas: I followed the link you provided, and think I can understand how this shows where one stop has more than one rank. Where it says, for instance, “octave 8′ 1-3f”, I presume that means the Octave 8ft stop has between one and three pipes per note, depending on the part of the compass? That would certainly account for the richness of sound that impressed me in Paul Fey’s Youtube demonstration.

Could I check that no dongle update is required for the Hauptwerk 4 version? I know that later versions of Hauptwerk use a different licensing system.

Adri: You must be a mind reader! That was going to be my next question – whether other builders have provided more than one pipe per note, and whether that would be appropriate when registering baroque organ music. Presumably the Laurenskerk Alkmaar organ is the one chosen by Helmut Walcha for many of his Bach recordings?
Offline
User avatar

tf11972

Member

  • Posts: 338
  • Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:33 pm
  • Location: Bavaria, Germany

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostFri Apr 29, 2022 6:17 am

organsRgreat wrote:Where it says, for instance, “octave 8′ 1-3f”, I presume that means the Octave 8ft stop has between one and three pipes per note, depending on the part of the compass? That would certainly account for the richness of sound that impressed me in Paul Fey’s Youtube demonstration.


Yes, that's right, the Principals have up to three ranks, depending on the octave.

organsRgreat wrote:Could I check that no dongle update is required for the Hauptwerk 4 version? I know that later versions of Hauptwerk use a different licensing system.


Yes, a dongle update for HW4 is obsolete. When you order, please write that you need the HW4-version (best in a separate mail via the contact form, my mail-client (Thunderbird) blocks parts of the payment messages from Paypal).
Best regards
Thomas

Forestpipes - Virtual Pipe Organs
https://forestpipes.de
Offline

organsRgreat

Member

  • Posts: 561
  • Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:30 am
  • Location: England

Re: Released: Marcussen Willibrordi-Dom Wesel (III/56)

PostFri Apr 29, 2022 7:57 am

Thomas – I’ve sent an email via the contact form on your web page, and received an automated acknowledgement.

Return to Hauptwerk instruments

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests