2 manuals and pedal, 14 stops, german romantic, unknown builder, around 1870

This beautiful small organ found in a village church in a district of Braunschweig is a true gem, as it survived nearly unchanged and presents us with the typical warm sound of german organs from that period. The only change to the original is the addition of a Clarinette in 1982, this stop was planned for in the original organ. 

Even though there are only 14 stops, 9 of them are at 8'-pitch! This leads to a great variety of available sounds for such a small organ, even though there are no aliqute or mixture stops and with the Clarinette in the Hauptwerk just a single reed.

As this organ is probably not of interest to the mainstream we decided to offer this sample set for free as a gift to the Hauptwerk community! The set is not encrypted and runs on any Hauptwerk version starting from 4.2. 

Just download and enjoy!

Disposition:

Hauptwerk (C-f''')
Principal 8'
Doppelfloete 8'
Gamba 8'
Octave 4'
Gedackt 4'
Waldfloete 2'
Clarinette 8'

Oberwerk (C-f''')
Geigenprincipal 8'
Floete 8'
Salicional 8'
Traversfloete 4'

Pedal (C-d')
Subbass 16'
Principalbass 8'
Violoncelle 8' 

Couplers:
Manualkoppel
Pedalkoppel

The organ was recorded in 2024 using high-quality microphones in multi-channel technique. One pair of microphones was positioned at the height of the organ prospect and a short distance away from the organ. These microphones provide a high percentage of direct sound, and the organ sounds very clear as a result. In the sample set, these channels are labeled "Direct." The second pair was placed in the nave to capture the full acoustic of the room. Due to the small size of the church however the reverberation time is just about 1 second, resulting in a very clear and direct sound. These channels are labelled "Ambient" in the sample set. 

For optimal results, at least three release layers (staccato, portato and long notes) were recorded for each pipe. The blower noise as well as drawstops and tracker action noises were also recorded. 

The recordings were made in 24bit/96kHz without any filtering. The processing of the samples was done with our self-developed processing tools, with special mention of our special noise removal process. This is optimized for the characteristics of organ pipe tones and allows for an unprecedented quality of noise removal without affecting the sound characteristics. 

The sample set faithfully reproduces the organ with its features in Hauptwerk. It has some special features, which are explained below:

Surround:
The set contains "direct" and "ambient" samples. Ideally, these should be routed through separate pairs of speakers to get the best effect. Using the sliders on the Controls page the levels can be adjusted separately.  

Random Detuning:
The random detuning built into Haupt­werk cannot be used for this set, as Hauptwerk still does not ensure that related front and rear samples are tuned synchronously. The result is usually not very pleasing. Therefore, the correspon­ding parameters in the sampleset are set to 0, so that Hauptwerk's "random detuning" setting has no effect. Instead, the sampleset contains its own pseudo-random detuning. Here the degree of detuning can be adjusted with the slider on the Controls page, the values are randomly determined for each pipe, but unchangeably set in the definition file. 

Virtual Console

The virtual console consists of different screen pages optimized for touch screen operation. All screen pages are created in very high native resolution, so that the maximum resolution of the monitor can be fully used even with high-resolution screens. The following screen pages are available:

Console 
The console page shows a photorealistic representation of the console. However, the stop labels are difficult to read in this view, which is why it is not suitable as the main view for operating the sample set.

Stops  
This page contains the drawknobs for the stops and the two couplers. The page was designed to be very easy to read. This screen page is ideal for operating the sample set with a touchscreen. The arrangement of the tabs corresponds to the original. This page is available in both landscape and portrait format, with Hauptwerk automatically selecting the appropriate layout.

Controls
This page is used to adjust various settings. These are the balance between the recording channels, the random tuning setting, and the volume of the various noises. The volume of the noises is preset (about 70%) to correspond to the actual volume. The maximum position of the controls corresponds to +3dB. All settings on the Controls page are automatically saved and restored the next time the sample set is loaded. 

The sample set does not place particularly high demands on the hardware; a modern dual-core CPU should be sufficient. The memory requirement ranges from 1.4GB (16bit compressed) to 4.4GB (24bit uncompressed).

The compression of the samples used by Hauptwerk is lossless, i.e. loading with the option "compressed" does not cause any loss of quality. However, a bit more CPU power is needed when playing the set. The best quality is achieved when loading with 24-bit resolution, but with minor losses the resolution of 16-bit can also be chosen. Since this can be set individually for each register in Hauptwerk, it is possible to adjust the loading options individually to the available main memory.

Approximately 6 GB of free space on the hard disk is required for the installation of the sample set.

The sample set is delivered exclusively as a download (approx. 3 GB). Detailed installation instructions for your Hauptwerk version can be found in the Hauptwerk Main User Guide. You can access it in Hauptwerk via the Help menu.

During the installation the license agreement is displayed, which you can also find in this booklet. You can only proceed with the installation if you accept the license agreement.

This sample set is available free of charge and is not encrypted. It therefore works with all Hauptwerk versions from version 4.2 onwards.

Licence Conditions:

§1) These licence terms apply between Pipeloops Reiner Suikat and the user of one of our sample sets for the Hauptwerk software. The sample set consists of the samples, graphics, database and other files.

§2) Pipeloops grants the buyer the right to use the sample set. All other rights, in particular copyright, remain with Pipeloops. To use the full version the user must either install a file (organ definition file) on his system that is made available via download after the purchase, or activate a licence in the iLok licencing system. For this purpose the customer will receive an activation code after the purchase. 

§3) For all our sample sets we provide a free trial option. Depending on the sample set this is either via a freely downloadable trial version, where the sound is muted periodically, or via an activation code for a 14 day trial period. Only one such code may be used per user for any given sample set. In any case the trial version contains the complete organ and therefore allows full testing of all registers and sound combinations.

§4) The use of the sample set for commercial purposes is generally not permitted. For specific sample sets we may be able to grant permission for such use on request. Without such permission from us commercial use is not allowed.

§5) The buyer may make a backup copy of the sample set. The use and distribution of parts of the sample set (e.g. samples or graphics) in own products is prohibited. In particular the distribution of definition files allowing the use of the freely downloadable samples of the trial edition without the trial limitation is strictly forbidden.

§6) It is permitted to sell your copy of the sample set. For sample sets that are not protected with the iLok system you must fully delete the sample set from your system(s) and confirm in writing to us that you did so. If a sample set is protected using the iLok system you can simply transfer the licence to the new user directly in the iLok licence manager software. 

§7) Acceptance of these licence terms is a prerequisite for installation of the sample set in Hauptwerk.