Jonathan,
I am one of the overwhelming positive response to this organ. It is one of the best Hauptwerk organs that my neighbours have listened to .... albeit my 2 week trial ends tomorrow.
Let me first mention the really good things about this organ.
1. The keyboards are a full 61 notes.
2. Some of the solo/orchestral stops are the best I have heard eg. French horn, English horn, Tuba Mirabilis (should be called Tuba Miraculous), Aetherial Celeste, Cornopean, Oboe, French trumpet, Clarinet and Orchestral Oboe. My apologies to any beautiful stops I have omitted.
3. The bass is the best I have heard or seen .... 4 x 32' pedal stops, 12 x 16' pedal stop. This is fantastic!! Another 8 x 16' stops on the keyboards.
4. The crescendo is so practically balanced. Although editting it is tricky because I can't see how to get back to the default.
The organ comes in 4 channels. I usually look for 6 but these 4 are enough.
But there are a few small negatives.
Let me start with the Simple Jamb, which is what I always use. Although the organ is encrypted the ODF is not which means I can edit it. Why did I do this? Each keyboard has screen stops in bright colours, which change when the stop is engaged ... except the Great keyboard where the stops stay red with an added white border. This is so simple to change since I only had to adjust ONE PIcture (actually one for each of the 3 pages). It took less than 5 minutes.
I would also change all the CAPITAL LETTERS on the Simple screen stops. Changing the font is also very easy in this sample.
One very creative feature is the way the volume slider for each of the 4 keyboards sits horizontal above each keyboard stops. This is very neat and takes up very little screen footprint. But why are they all green? I didn't do it, but it would not take much to make these the same colour as the keyboard stops.
The controls page (page 4) has screen sliders for Front / Rear perspective adjustment. Unusually these are not attached to MIDI so they can't be linked to my usual perspective slider knobs.
There is something unusal in this organ about the couplers.The Simple Screen has 36 couplers.I don't use screen couplers. I have set coupler switches which work exactly the same for all organs .... except this organ. Some of the couplers can only be operated from the screen. ie the screen coupler overrides the native Hauptwerk couplers. Why do this? 4 of these couplers sit (hidden) amongst the keyboard stops. I can't see why these 4 stops have been isolated from the other 32 couplers.Why? There are 4 blank coupler spots left on the screen.
Lastly the stops on the Simple Screen seemed to be arranged almost randomly within each keyboard. This is so with each keyboard. eg. The Swell, this is how the stops are arranged on the screen ... 8, 4, 8, 16, 8, 8, V. V, 2, 4, 22/3, 4, 8, 4 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 16, 8, 16, 8 & 4.
Also 2 of the Great stops sit offset below the Solo stops. Why are they not in the Great columns? There is room.
I like symmetry. The Swell Tremolo sits on top right, the Solo and Choir Tremolo sit on top left, Why?
There are 3 CHIMES stops. The pedal chimes sits bottom right. The Solo Chimes sits above the bottom left. The Great Chimes is one of the 2 Great stops offset below the Solo stops.
I need a bit more time to work out 2 switches on the Simple Screen ... "ALL PSTNS NEXT" and "ALL SWELLS TO SWELL". The third switch in this group swaps the Great and the Choir keyboard. Interesting but is it useful?
All up one of the best Hauptwerk organs I have fiddled with. The price, even today, is a bit out of my range. I thank Jonathan for the last 2 weeks.
Stephen
Australia