In addition to the particularly successful performance to capture the sounds of a Schnitger organ in a sample set, Jiri Zurek (Sonus Paradisi) has also made a fantastic performance with the sampling of the special sounds of the Bader organ. Both sets reproduce the sounds in the church extremely well in the living room.
The sound beauty of the Principals is striking, a mild chiff and a vocal character. The Principal plenum of the main work sounds distinguished, modest and broad. On the other hand, the choir organ is much more direct; the tones begin with an articulation and have a penetrating sound.
The Flutes and the Quintaden are very characteristic. The beautiful sound of the reeds is characteristic of the sound idiom from which Bader has designed his organ.
The DRY samples show the sounds well, the articulation is perfect and the somewhat rustling sounds in the church are well heard in the living room.
In the St. Nikolai Church in Altenbruch is one of the oldest organs of northern Germany. In 1498, Johannes Coci built the oldest part of the organ. Matthias Mahn added the Rückpositiv in 1577 and retained the good pipes of Coci in the main work.
They are gothic sounds, the most authentic style of organ sounds. The metal of pipes that has produced the same sound for centuries has changed metallurgical, which is audible in the resonance of these pipes. It is comparable to the sounds of a Stradivarius. With the time and the use, the sound matures and gets a special resonance.
In 1730, Johann Klapmeyer expanded the organ with the use of the historical material. Jiri Zurek delivered a top performance with his samples, in which the exceptional sounds are optimally stored.
Authentic organ sounds and perfect recordings go here together
See also: Coci-Klapmeyer-orgel in Altenbruch
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The French Baroque organ has a mild, poetic sound. The basis is the singing sound of the Montre and is equal to the Central German Principal. The overtones interlock and form shiny timbres. Due to the low wind pressure, each tone can be voiced refined. Striking are the subtle colours of the French Baroque reeds.
The recordings of this organ are of exceptional quality. Without voicing the samples, the organ sounded good in the living room. After some time I tried to get even better sounds by voicing. The result was overwhelming: not one sample set can reproduce the pipe sounds so realistically.
I hear a fascinating Baroque Church organ from the époque of Bach with sounds that are ideal for his music. The Baroque style corresponds to the organs in Freiberg and Dresden. The registers sound in good proportions in the living room.
Jiri Zurek has created the ideal set Prytanée - French Baroque
Jiri Zurek captured the sounds in a sample set and he said about it:
"After a year of development, the sample set of the Martini organ is ready. I want it to be the best sample set ever and that's why I've given all my skills to this sample set."
I have played the organ almost daily and I know now this representation of a church organ is really good. With the set of this organ, a new standard for making sample sets has been created.
The two-channel sample set with DRY samples and the church's convolution reverberation surpasses all sample sets.
Martini Organ
The new Impulse-Response technique of Hauptwerk, which makes an identical copy of the acoustics of the church, represents a fundamental improvement of Hauptwerk. It was the missing factor to make church organ sounds perfectly equal in the living room. The Hauptwerk organ was already able to reproduce the tone through a loudspeaker so accurately that it is no different from the reproduction through a pipe. The acoustics in the church ensure a broad, full sound development and that development is now also taking place in the living room.
The tone occurs when the wind flows out of the languid along the upper labium and causes an underpressure in the pipe that pulls the wind in. This creates an overpressure that pushes the wind out again. This beginning of the tone is the articulation that sets the wind column in the corpus in motion to set the tone. It is crucial that the organist hears the articulation immediately, before the first reflection by the reverberation can affect it. The microphones must be close to the pipes to store this DRY tone in the sample. Due to the reflections of the tone against walls, columns or other objects, the tone develops into a wide full sound. Because these objects are at increasing distances, the reflections move further and further away from the source. That's the organist's sound experience.
The Impulse-Response technique from Hauptwerk 5 gives the tone in the living room the same development to full sound as the pipe tone in the church. The sample set contains no more than two channels with short-range recorded tones without reverberation, the DRY samples. The acoustics are recorded Impulse-Response technique and separately from the samples in the memory of the Hauptwerk organ. This allows the tones from the samples to undergo the same development to full sound, as happens in the acoustics of the church.
Below are sample sets whose sounds are correctly recorded:
About the first organ is little known, but documented is the year 1570.
Hendrik and Johan Huisz built a three-manual organ in 1658 and used a large part of the pipes from 1570. Berend Huisz (Huß) was their brother who worked as an organ builder in Stade Northern Germany and bequeathed his workshop to Arp Schnitger. Striking is the Bazuin, which was made in 1621 the oldest pedal reed in the world is.
The sample set is eight channel, but I only use the stereo channel with the DRY-samples. The behavior of the tones is recorded in the sample from the start, the build up of the tone and the ending of the tone with all side effects.
They are large files, because every effort has been made to show all the details of the characteristic properties. In the first place a deep Gravity, the basis for male choral voices. Then a transparent Clarity in the plenum sound and the lovely Poetry is especially audible in the beautiful Flute Voices.
Sonus Paradisi has produced another high quality sample set.
The DRY samples show this perfectly. The tones start with a characteristic round accent and then show the authentic sounds of the Renaissance-Baroque period.
The 36 stops are divided over three manuals and pedal
The Praestanten beautifully reproduce the North German Baroque sounds in a style that Arp Schnitger aspired to. Each register is a solo voice with great eloquence. Combined with the high mixture, a plenum with a silvery sound is heard.
The Trumpet enhances the plenum and adds shine. The velvety sounds of the four-foot flutes are striking. The Vox Humana is a nice solo voice, with a modest but sweet sound. The transparent sounds give the Dulciaan a singing character. The Mixtuur and the Scherp are composed of high scaled pipes, which promote the silvery sound beauty.
Cor Edskes restored the organ to preserve the original sounds from the Baroque era. The bright singing sounds of this organ make that Noordbroek is a pilgrimage site for organ enthusiasts and is known worldwide.
It is a successful sample set from Jiri Zurek. It attests to the high level of its craftsmanship, and no one has surpassed him.
Historical research has established that organs from the Baroque period had reached the pinnacle of musical expressiveness. In the last quarter of the 20th century, organ builders were again able to make pipes that sounded as good as the well-preserved historic organs.
Jürgen Ahrend and Rudolf Janke restored historic organs and built their own organs whose sounds are equivalent to organs in the Baroque period. The pipes speak direct and the sounds are relaxed. One of the properties is stability, once tuned they keep the tuning. Annual tuning is unnecessary.
Jiri Zurek captured the sounds in samples. They are large files, but they are needed to display all properties properly. Small files do not reflect the Gravity of the sounds. Only the DRY samples are usable; the other samples show the acoustics of the church, but this can be obtained much more realistically with an IR recording. The reverberation is 3 seconds and Jiri Zurek has a suitable recording for that. The organ is built according to the Werkenprinzip, which means that the volumes of the three manuals differ greatly. The Hauptwerk sounds loud, the Oberwerk moderate and the Unterwerk is barely audible. By good voicing, these differences should be reduced for the living room.
Rudolf Janke Organ