Is there any kind of VSTi that reproduces the sound of non-electrical organs found in churchs?
B4 and the similar ones may well emulate a B3 or something like that, but i haven't yet seen that for mechanical organs...

Perhaps physical modelling...sample-based would be hard because of the tonewheels

Not VSTi, and PC only, but try this...
http://www.hauptwerk.co.uk/

You mean like this?

Doesn't Tassman have church organs?

I'm pretty sure it does. Maybe not. Worth askin someone who has it.

I was just reading a glowing review of PMI's Baroque Organ in SOS. Looks very comprehensive.

HTH

No, Nubi was not what i was looking for. Not that the name of the first preset detered me (Jsmith), but my overall impression is that it sounds very electric.

I'm currently downloading Hauptwerk.

timewastin wrote:

Is there any kind of VSTi that reproduces the sound of non-electrical organs found in churchs? B4 and the similar ones may well emulate a B3 or something like that, but i haven't yet seen that for mechanical organs... Perhaps physical modelling...sample-based would be hard because of the tonewheels

Um, tonewheel (Hammond) organs *are* electric. non-electrical organs don't have tonewheels - just reeds, pipes, etc.

Cloning the B-3 is typically done as PM (B-4, Nubi, Korg CX-3, Roland VK-8, Nord Electro) or samples (Charlie, Hammond XK-2 and I believe the "new B-3" and XB-3M, and a few of the synthedit VSTI).

For pipe and reed organs, samples are your best bet, although I think Reaktor's "steampipe" has been mentioned along this line.

I know that Ahlborn Galanti's current church organs are based on samples of pipe organs from around the world ... I wouldn't be surprised if the current Rodgers and Allen ones are as well, but I haven't looked.

Doug

polyslax wrote:

I was just reading a glowing review of PMI's Baroque Organ in SOS. Looks very comprehensive. HTH

Slight glitch in the URL there ... http://www.postpiano.com/products/prod_iteminfo.php?id=146&subCat=Baro que+Organ (take off the "url" in your URL).

I'm really into Hammonds... but I love a good pipe organ (what's the fun of drawbars for Toccata and Fugue in Dm?)... I checked out the demos - NICE!

BestService has sample CD's as well: http://www.bestservice.de/group.asp?uid=889705a150p134p8p5&lng=3&area= 2&group=5&typ=1&idx=1&flg=grp

Doug

Hauptwerk isn't yet a VSTi, but its sound is to my ears superb. Painstakingly sampled pipe organs, real-world controls (stops, couplers, etc.) and more.

Many of the add-on sample sets are expensive, but hey: you're getting the Moog Modulars of their era, and they're a whole lot easier to haul around than a real church is! Also, it takes a huge investment in time and effort to get clean samples of every single pipe of every voice of a sizeable pipe organ, and because it appeals to a comparatively small market the volume of sales isn't terribly strong. Fewer purchasers have to defray the cost of development. The value for price is great if you need this kind of sound, though.

I've used MIDIYoke to connect Hauptwerk to my host program (Sonar) and got excellent results. It's a great program, mostly sampler with some physical modelling here and there from what I understand. Read the "what's coming" parts of the site for some tempting glimpses at the future.

Prefer to start with something more modest? Try the Jeux soundfont -- it has lots of reasonably good samples. Raw they sound pretty unconvincing, but run them through a suitable reverb and they come to life pretty well. It's nothing like comparable to Hauptwerk, but it's free if you have a soundfont player.

Jeux pipe organ soundfont

I loaded this into Reason's NNXT sample player, threw the new RV7000 reverb after it, tweaked until it sounded like the right size of church, and let 'er rip. o/~ In the Garden of Eden, baby... don't you know that I love you... o/~ Sorry, got carried away there. *blush*

Best wishes,

Meffy

The_Hidden_Goose wrote:

Doesn't Tassman have church organs? I'm pretty sure it does. Maybe not. Worth askin someone who has it.

Harm Visser has done a Tassman 4 organ patch. I don’t own T4 but the mp3 demo sounds great:

www.hvsynthdesign.com/audio/choral.mp3

This is a physical model, not samples.

/Yoss

dougsyo wrote:

Um, tonewheel (Hammond) organs *are* electric. non-electrical organs don't have tonewheels - just reeds, pipes, etc.

I know about that, it was a problem of language. Afaik a non-electrical organ has controls to vary the sound. In german we call that "Register".

timewastin wrote:

No, Nubi was not what i was looking for.

Oops, misread your question. (missed non-electrical)

Cheers.

Check the link in this other post
'Tick

I found also this site: http://members.aol.com/Computorgue/

It's in french though and I didn't tried it personally...

Thanks for the link, Tick
Follow it through to "G-Town Church Organ" (Giga format...103.2MB!)..it's splendid!

The pipe organ in EVB3 is outstanding

Here's another one:
http://www.orgona.org

'Tick

A nice synth (not samples) is CesSynth2 from LoftSoft (FMHeaven). It's specifically a pipe organ vsti and does quite a good job, imo. There's a demo version which is essentially unrestricted. (Also check out the old bank for it here on kvr submitted by Boff.)

thanks for bringing this topic up!
a couple of months ago, Birmingham had its' annual music festival; my store supplied the 9 foot Steinway for the classical sessions and I had to go tune it. I arrived a few minutes early, and one of the guys booked was practicing on the organ. The piano bench where I sat was a dozen feet or so from the speaker. I'd never paid much attention to classical organ music before, the timbre of the instrument and the composition were breathtaking.
I meant to look for some church samples. Thanks for the link, big tick!

We're releasing something for this very soon. It sounds incredible and is recorded in Quad. One of the largest pipe organs in the world. Majestic to play.

While looking for something else, I found this page with some classical and theatre pipe organ soundfonts (in sfpack format).

sfpack is here. If anyone needs it, I can convert them to sfark or pkzip format for non-PC users.

Doug

timewastin wrote:

Is there any kind of VSTi that reproduces the sound of non-electrical organs found in churchs? B4 and the similar ones may well emulate a B3 or something like that, but i haven't yet seen that for mechanical organs... Perhaps physical modelling...sample-based would be hard because of the tonewheels

I have been working on this one for a while and hope to have something available within the next month or two.

The organ I am working on is called cathedral and offers a tabstop organ based on those produced by viscount and gem - although these were electronic organs they were specifically designed to produce an accurate simulation of real pipe organs for use in churches and theatres.

Keep your eyes on http://www.simple-media.co.uk

This will not be a free product (unlike those currently available at simple media) due to the amount of work that is going into it, but should be very low cost (maybe 10 or 15 pounds) - the individual pipes are synthesized but are being fine tuned to accurately duplicate those of the reasonabley well known Jeux Pipe Organ - I believe there is a sound font for this one somewhere too.

The technique being used is based on the theory that was applied in the Allen Computing Organ in the early 1980s - the approach was to use very carefully envelopes and modulation to produce the timbral and dynamic variations of real pipes with fairly simple waveforms - the effect was stunning.

Cathedral will feature 20 stops covering a range of footages from 32 feet to 1 foot pipes, these will cover instrument groupings incliding flute, tibia, nazard, vox humana, reed and string, there will be a band limiting dual filter for'gross' tonal control and built in reverb. There is also an lfo used to produce the tremolo effect of theatre organs and there will be a simple simulation of fan or bellows noise that can be mixed into the overall tone for added realism.

At present development is about 75-80% complete and it does sound quite realistic for both church and theatre organs.

There will be no seperate registration for lower manual and pedals, but the stops covered will allow for appropriate tones to be created.

Tab stops will have 2 different levels as well as off so that a more realistic range of tonal variations will be possible (most real orans allow a tab to be pulled half way out). Swell should also be included - probably on aftertouch for greater play dynamics.

The major flute groups will be swithable from metal to wooden pipes (flute to bourdon or tibia).

This has to date been my most complex project although more recently retro-gs01 has taken over (oops that's supposed to be the secret project...not...tease).

This is what has sometimes been referred to as idiomatic synthesis, where the methods used are less important than the sound created...

bluedad wrote:

one of the guys booked was practicing on the organ. The piano bench where I sat was a dozen feet or so from the speaker.

I don't get it. What do pipe organs and orators have to do with each other?

My favourite power trip: Widor's Toccata. At some point you're playing the melody in 5 parallel octaves. The slightest detuning makes the whole organ bench vibrato. Quite a feeling!

V.

Why not invest in the real thing?
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2004/08/ebay-of-day-tracker-action-pipe -organ.html

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