4 manuals and pedal, in German romantic style, built by Link Broth. in 1910 and restored and enlarged by Thomas Gaida in 2015

With this sample set we present one of the finest german romantic organs in existence, the Link/Gaida organ of the Pauluskirche in Ulm. The organ was originally built in 1910 by the Link organ company, and it has been restored and enlargeed in 2013-2015 by organ builder Thomas Gaida. Care has been taken to maintain the german romantic sound characteristics, while at the same time creating an instrument with unsurpassed flexibility through the addition of 10 stops built as auxiliaries. These stops can be registered independently on each manual and are available at several pitches, while at the same time they are excluded from the normal coupling action. Following the acceptance of the restored organ, the expert, KMD (Church Music Director) Gerhard Klumpp, wrote in his acceptance report: "The inauguration concerts were overwhelming demonstrations of the unique romantic sound of this large organ. The organ is unsurpassed in its uniqueness in a wide area. I personally know of no instrument that equals or even surpasses the St. Paul organ in its romantic character."

For more information please have a look at the comprehensive booklet provided with the set.

Disposition:

I. Hauptwerk C-a3		II. Schwellwerk C-a3		III. Schwellwerk C-a3
				(Teilwerke A / B separat koppelbar)
I	Contraviolon 32’	II	Bourdon 32’	II	Bourdon 32’
II	Bourdon 32’	II	Lieblich Gedeckt 16’	II	Lieblich Gedeckt 16’
	Principal 16‘		Geigenprincipal 8’	A	Flötenprincipal 8’
I	Violon 16’		Bourdon 8’	A	Flöte 8’
I	Salicional 16’	II	Gedeckt 8’	A	Quintatön 8’
II	Lieblich Gedeckt 16’		Flauto amabile 8’	A	Viola 8’
	Principal 8’		Aeoline 8’	A	Viola céleste 8’
I	Gamba 8’		Voix céleste 8’	II	Gedeckt 8’
	Fugara 8‘		Octave 4’	A	Fugara 4’
	Konzertflöte 8’		Flöte 4’	A	Violine 4’
	Doppelgedeckt 8’		Flauto dolce 4’	B	Traversflöte 4’
	Gemshorn 8’		Quinte 2 2/3’	B	Nasard 2 2/3’
I	Dulciana 8‘		Piccolo 2’	A	Flageolet 2’
II	Gedeckt 8’		Terz 1 3/5’	B	Clarinette 8’
	Quinte 5 1/3’		Mixtur 4-5fach 2’	B	Vox humana 8’
	Octave 4‘		Kornett 5fach 8’	III	Oboe 8’
	Geigenprincipal 4‘	II	Trompete 16‘	III	Oboe 4’
	Rohrflöte 4’	II	Trompette harmonique 8’		Tremolo
I	Dolce 4’	II	Corno 4‘	II	Trompete 16’
	Quinte 2 2/3’		Clairon 4’	II	Trompette harmonique 8’
	Octave 2’	II	Basson 16’	II	Corno 4’
	Mixtur 3fach 2 2/3’	II	Fagott 8’	II	Basson 16’
	Mixtur 3-5fach 1 1/3’	II	Fagott 4’	II	Fagott 8’
	Kornett 4-5fach 8’		Tremolo	II	Fagott 4’
	Trompete 8’	III	Oboe 8’	I	Tuba 16’
	Tremolo	III	Oboe 4’	I	Tuba 8’
	Contraposaune 32’	I	Tuba 16’	I	Tuba 4’
I	Tuba 16’	I	Tuba 8’	I	Violon 16’
I	Tuba 8’	I	Tuba 4’	I	Salicional 16’
I	Tuba 4’	I	Contraviolon 32’	I	Gamba 8’
II	Trompete 16’	I	Violon 16’	I	Dulciana 8’
II	Trompette harmonique 8’	I	Salicional 16’	I	Dolce 4’
II	Corno 4’	I	Gamba 8’		Cymbalum
II	Basson 16’	I	Dulciana 8’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 8’
II	Fagott 8’	I	Dolce 4’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 4’
II	Fagott 4’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 8’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 2’
III	Oboe 8’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 4’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 1’
III	Oboe 4’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 2’	Solo	Flute céleste 8’
Solo	Flauto mirabilis 8’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 1’	Solo	Flute céleste 4’
Solo	Flauto mirabilis 4’	Solo	Flute céleste 8’	Solo	Clarinet 8’
Solo	Flauto mirabilis 2’	Solo	Flute céleste 4’	Solo	Clarinet 4’
Solo	Flauto mirabilis 1’	Solo	Clarinet 8’		Celesta
Solo	Flute céleste 8’	Solo	Clarinet 4’
Solo	Flute céleste 4’		Celesta
Solo	Clarinet 8’
Solo	Clarinet 4’
	Celesta
Solo C-a3		Pedal C-f1
	Flauto mirabilis 8’		Bassus magnus 32’		Contraposaune 32’
	Flauto mirabilis 4’		Principalbass 32’		Posaune 16‘
	Flauto mirabilis 2’		Contraviolon 32’	I	Tuba 8’
	Flauto mirabilis 1’		Contrabourdon 32’	I	Tuba 4’
	Flute céleste 8’	II	Echobourdon 32’	I	Tuba 2’
	Flute céleste 4’		Principalbass 16’	II	Trompete 8’
	Clarinet 8’		Violonbass 16’	II	Trompete 4’
	Clarinet 4’		Subbass 16’	II	Trompete 2’
	Tremolo	I	Harmonikabass 16’	II	Basson 16’
I	Contraviolon 32’	II	Gedecktbass 16’	II	Fagott 8’
II	Bourdon 32’		Quintbass 10 2/3’	II	Fagott 4’
I	Violon 16’		Octavbass 8’	III	Oboe 8’
I	Salicional 16’		Bourdon 8’	III	Oboe 4‘
II	Lieblich Gedeckt 16’	I	Cellobass 8’	III	Oboe 2’
I	Gamba 8’	I	Dulciana 8’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 8’
I	Dulciana 8’	II	Gedeckt 8’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 4’
II	Gedeckt 8’		Terzbass 6 2/5’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 2’
I	Dolce 4’	I	Quintbass 5 1/3’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 1’
I	Tuba 16’		Choralbass 4’	Solo	Flauto mirabilis 1/2’
I	Tuba 8’		Flötenbass 4’	Solo	Flute céleste 8’
I	Tuba 4’	I	Cello 4’	Solo	Flute céleste 4’
II	Trompete 16’	I	Dolce 4’	Solo	Clarinet 8’
II	Trompette harmonique 8’	II	Gedeckt 4’	Solo	Clarinet 4’
II	Corno 4’	I	Quinte 2 2/3’	Solo	Clarinet 2’
II	Basson 16’	I	Cello 2‘		Celesta 4’
II	Fagott 8’	I	Dolce 2‘
II	Fagott 4’	II	Gedeckt 2’
III	Oboe 8’	I	Quinte 1 1/3’
III	Oboe 4’
	Celesta

 

 * Solo Clarinet 4' on Manual II, III und Solo not present on original organ due to lack of space for buttons

Normalkoppeln:
II/I, III/I, IIIA/I, IIIB/I, III/II, IIIA/II, IIIB/II, I/II, I/III, I/IV, II/III, II/IV, IIIA/IV, IIIB/IV I/P, II/P, III/P, IIIA/P, IIIB/P, P/I, P/II, P/III, P/IV
Superoctavkoppeln (4'):
I/I, II/II, III/III, IIIA/III, IIIB/III, P/P, II/I, III/I, IIIA/I, IIIB/I, III/II, IIIA/II, IIIB/II I/II, I/III, I/IV, II/III, II/IV, IIIA/IV, IIIB/IV, I/P, II/P, III/P, I/P 2‘, II/P 2‘, III/P 2‘
Suboctavkoppeln (16'):
I/I, II/II, III/III, IIIA/III, IIIB/III, II/I, III/I, IIIA/I, IIIB/I, III/II, IIIA/II, IIIB/II, I/II, I/III, I/IV, II/III, II/IV, IIIA/IV, IIIB/IV
Normallage ab: I, II, III, IIIA, IIIB, P

Separate transposers (+/- 12 semitones) per division

Pizzicato per division

Sostenuto per manual

 

The organ was recorded in 2022 using high-quality microphones in four-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 on the first gallery to both sides of the console, providing the listening perspective of the organist. The sound at this position is very clear yet provides a fine spatial sound. These channels are labelled "Middle" in the sample set. Finally a third set was placed down in the nave, yielding a sound with a high emphasis on the reverb. These channels are labelled "Ambient" in the sample set.

For optimal results, at least three release layers (staccato, portato and long held notes) were recorded for each pipe. The blower noise and tremulant sounds were also recorded. The stop and keyboard action noises are so quiet on the original organ that recording these sounds makes no sense. For the recordings our self-developed recording robots were used, which allow a manually unattainable precision, especially for the short releases, and also produce very little noise themselves thanks to the precise motor control.

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:

Auxiliary Stops:
During the expansion of the organ from 2013 to 2015 by the company Gaida, among other things, 10 new stops were installed, which were designed as auxiliary stops with a separate control. They can be switched separately on all manuals and are available in several foot positions. The stops are distributed among the individual divisions of the organ. These stops are listed below:

Manual I bzw. Pedal:

• Violon 32'-4'
• Salicional 16'-8'
• Posaune/Tuba 32'-4'

Manual II (expressive):

• Lieblich Gedeckt 32'-4'
• Trompette harmonique 16'-4'
• Fagott 16'-4'

Manual III (expressive):

• Oboe 8'-4'

Manual IV (SOLO):

• Flauto Mirabilis 8'-1'
• Flûte Céleste 8'-4'
• Clarinet 8'-4'

As mentioned, these stops are separately switchable on the individual manuals, on the other hand they are excluded from the couplers. This means that e.g. the coupler II/I will NOT couple an auxiliary stop drawn on manual II to manual I. This is an important aspect to consider when registering.

The auxiliary stops can be recognized very easily by the labeling of the stop switches, they are marked in the first text line of the switch with the abbreviation of the division, e.g. with "I" or "SOLO".

The 4th manual (SOLO) has no stops of its own except for the corresponding auxiliary stops. The SOLO manual thus contains only stops for auxiliary stops, and there are accordingly no couplers from the 4th manual to other manuals.

32' stops:
The organ contains a number of 32' stops. Except for the Contraposaune 32', these are all acoustic 32' stops, i.e. the 32' sound is not real, but is generated psychoacoustically by the combination of 16' and the corresponding 10 2/3' fifth. This is of course realized in the same way in the sample set. There are two fundamentally different procedures for this organ:

For the 32' stops in the Violon and Gedeckt auxiliary ranks, there is no matching 10 2/3' stop available. Therefore, in the lower octave of the 32' register, the corresponding note in 16' and an additional fifth above it are played. From c0 on, the 16' register is then played an octave lower.

For the 32' stops in the pedal (Principal 32' and Subbass 32') the corresponding note in the 16' stop is played together with the stop Quintbass 10 2/3'. From c0 on, not only the 16' tone is played one octave lower, but also the acoustic 32' combination of 16' and 10 2/3' is continued.

The Bassus Magnus 32' stop is a group stop. Here the stops are played as with the Subbass 32' plus Principal 32' and additionally the Terzbass 6 2/5'.

Tremulants:
The organ has 4 tremulants, which are assigned to the divisions I to IV (SOLO). Excluded from the tremulant are the auxiliary stops of the Hauptwerk division, i.e. Violon, Salicional and Tuba. All other stops are assigned to the respective tremulants. This means, for example, that the tremulant in Manual II affects all stops of the 2nd manual as well as the auxiliary stops Trompette harmonique, Lieblich Gedeckt and Fagott, no matter on which manual they are played. If stops of the other auxiliary divisions are played on Manual II, they will accordingly NOT be affected by the tremulant of the 2nd manual. This applies analogously to the other manuals.

The sample set uses special tremulant samples, i.e. for each pipe a separate sample was recorded with the tremulant switched on. This method provides the best possible natural tremulant sound for organs with a lot of reverb. However, it also has disadvantages: For one thing, the tremulants of individual pipes are not synchronous; each vibrates independently. The speed or depth of the tremulant cannot be adjusted afterwards. Secondly, it is not possible to switch between tremulant on and off while a note is sounding.. There are two options here, which can be toggled via the Tremulant Retrigger switch on the Controls page: If Tremulant Retrigger is off, turning the tremulant on or off only affects notes that are played afterwards. If it is on, on the other hand, notes that are already sounding are briefly interrupted and played again, so that the tremulant takes effect immediately. Depending on the response of the respective stop, this is more or less audible. The sampled tremulant sounds best with solo voices.

Split windchest manual III:
The windchest of the third manual is divided into III-A and III-B. The partial windchests can be coupled separately (e.g. III-A/I or III-B/I, the coupling III/I then operates both couplers). The assignment is also listed here in the first line of the stop switches, there is an "A" or a "B" for each stop of the 3rd manual.  

Pedal Divide:
The pedal divide divides the pedal into two halves, the lower octave (C-H) and the upper part (c-f1). In the lower part the pedal sounds normally, in the upper part the pedal stops as well as coupled stops are muted and only those stops are sounded which are registered on the corresponding manual (e.g. II at "Pedal Divide II"). This allows the pedal to be used, for example, to take over a lower voice with the foot. The pedal divides for the individual manuals can be combined, then the stops from all selected manuals sound. The auxiliaries are excluded from the pedal divide, i.e. they sound normally over the complete compass.

Sforzando:
The Sforzando foot piston is used to activate a very powerful registration (Sforzando) for a short time. The registration programmed into the set corresponds to the setting on the original organ and cannot be changed. The sforzando is active as long as the piston is pressed, after which it switches back to the previous registration.

Crescendo:
On this organ the stop crescendo is controlled by a foot lever rather than a roller. The crescendo has 30 steps (1-30), in position "0" no stops are active. The crescendo is switched on by the foot piston labeled "Walze". The activated stops are displayed on the console. The crescendo is permanently programmed in the sample set and cannot be changed. Users who would like to create their own crescendo can do so using the Master Crescendo in Hauptwerk (see Hauptwerk User Guide for instructions on how to do this). The master crescendo can store up to 4 programmings.

Sostenuto:
A sostenuto function can be activated for the pedal and manuals I - III. With this, played notes are held even after releasing the keys until a new note is struck. The sostenuto does not affect the auxiliary stops. When sostenuto is activated, the last sounding note is held on the corresponding manual until a key is pressed again. When the sostenuto foot piston is pressed, all played notes are held even after release and continue to sound when the foot piston is released again. If a key is subsequently pressed again, the held tones are deleted.

The sostenuto only affects the normal stops of a manual, but not the auxiliaries, so these are not held. The sostenuto also does not affect coupled stops. If, for example, Sostenuto I and the coupler II/I are active, then the stops in the 2nd manual will sound when played on the 1st manual, but without Sostenuto. In the opposite direction the couplers are deactivated. If sostenuto II and coupler II/I are active, the stops on manual II would not sound when playing on the first manual, even though coupler II/I is switched on.

Pizzicato:
The pizzicato makes the played notes sound only briefly, no matter how long the key is held. The pizzicato applies to all stops of a division, no matter from which manual they are played, and also acts across couplers. "Pizzicato Aux II" thus acts, for example, on the auxiliary stops Lieblich Gedeckt, Trompette harmonique and Fagott, no matter at which pitch and on which manual they are played. "Pizzicato III", for example, has a corresponding effect on all stops in Swell III (i.e. IIIA and IIIB), even if they are played from manual I via coupler III/I, for example.

Transposition:
A special feature of the organ is the ability to transpose each division individually and independently, by +/- 12 semitones. This opens up a multitude of possibilities that are especially interesting for contemporary music. Couplings can be realized in arbitrary intervals. For transposition, three switches are provided for each piece, "+HT" (semitone step), "-HT" and "0". This allows the transposition to be made in a simple manner and quickly reset with the zero adjuster. The real organ has a status display that shows, among other things, the transpositions. However, such a display cannot be programmed in a Hauptwerk sample set, so another variant was realized in the sample set. For each division, the transposition is digitally displayed in the reset switch ("0"), provided that a transposition has been made, i.e. the value is not 0. In addition to the individual transpositions the real organ also provides a general transposition function. Since such a function is available in Hauptwerk by default and for each sample set, it was decided not to duplicate this function in the sample set.

Expressions:
The organ has two divisions under expression, manual II and Mmnual III. Three balancing foot levers are provided for operation, one lever on the left for the left foot and two levers on the right. The two right levers are assigned to the two expression divisions by default. The left lever can be assigned to one or both expressions by means of corresponding switches. The right lever can also be set to operate both expressions.

In the sample set, the SOLO Clarinet is also put under expressions. This was not possible in the real organ. Due to limited available space, it could not be placed in the expression divisions, otherwise it would also be under expression in the real organ.

The assignment of the three balancing levers to the divisions (II, III and SOLO Clarinet) is done in the sample set by a switching matrix provided on the controls page.

Integration into sequencer and use of Hauptwerk Master Couplers:
The special functions pizzicato, sostenuto, pedal divide, and transposition are integrated into Hauptwerk's registration sequencer, so that their settings can be saved along with the registration for a piece, and they are also reset by the general cancel function.

The Master Coupler function of Hauptwerk should not be used with this sample set. The various special functions (transposition, pizzicato, sostenuto) are not compatible with this function and using them simultaneously will lead to unpredictable results.

Tuning:
In the Hauptwerk setting "Original Tuning" the organ sounds in its own tuning. The tuning is not 100% precise, resulting in a very natural lively sound. When using the tempered tunings available in Hauptwerk, the organ is tuned very precisely to that tuning. This can sound a bit sterile, which is why Hauptwerk includes a random tuning feature when loading.

However, this random tuning built into Hauptwerk cannot be used for this set, as it is not possible to date to ensure that front and rear samples that belong together are tuned synchronously (this is a limitation in Hauptwerk and affects all sample sets recorded in multichannel techniques). 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 sliders on the Controls page can be used to adjust the degree of detuning; the values are randomly determined for each pipe, but are immutable in the definition file. Separate controls are provided for labial and reed voices.

Virtual Console:
The virtual console consists of various screen pages that have been optimized for operation with touch-screens. All screen pages are created in very high 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 gives the user an impression of the real organ console. Because of the large number of stop switches and since their status can only be recognized by small LEDs integrated into the switches, an animation of the stop switches has been omitted on this page. The Console page is thus mainly used for MIDI assignment of the manuals as well as the expression pedals.

Single:
The Single page is used to operate the sample set with a single touch screen. Here all stop switches etc. are accommodated on a single page. Despite the very large number of control elements, great importance was attached to legibility.

The arrangement of the stop switches is based on the arrangement of the real organ. However, the controls on the left side (stops of manuals I-III and pedal), the right side (couplers) and in the middle (transposer, stops of the Solo-manual and effects) had to be combined on a single page. Another deviation from the original results from the fact that the stop switches for the SOLO stops Flauto Mirabilis, Flûte Céleste and Clarinet were added to the organ later and could not be integrated into the switch rows of manuals I-III, which is why they were added to an extra row labeled "Solowerk" on the real organ. For the sample set it was decided to integrate these switches into the rows of manuals I-III to make it clearer and more understandable for the user.

Left/Right:
These screen pages are designed for users with two touch screens. By splitting the display into two pages, the display can be made much more legible, which benefits usability. In order to make the best use of the available space, the elements have been distributed between the two sides as follows: The left side contains the stop switches from the pedal and manuals I and II, as well as the switches for transposition; the right side contains the stops from manuals III and Solo, the couplers and the special effects (pizzicato, sostenuto, etc.).

The left/right pages are additionally realized in portrait format, the switching is done automatically in Hauptwerk. With this representation, it was necessary to change to a vertical arrangement of the stop switches within the rows, which differs considerably from the arrangement on the real instrument.

Control:
This page is used to make various settings. These are, among others, the balance between the audio channels as well as the setting for the random tuning. Another central element on this page is an assignment matrix, with which the expression pedals of the sample set can be assigned to the pedals present on the user's console. To do this, the first step is to assign the pedals present at the user's console to the "Input" pedals shown in the top row, using the Hauptwerk MIDI Learn function from the Console page. Then you can click in the matrix which pedal of the console should control which pedal of the organ. All settings on the Controls page can be saved, 5 memory locations are available for this purpose. To save a setting, first click on the "Store" button, which lights up to indicate the store function. Then click on one of the 5 numbered buttons and the configuration will be saved.

 

The sample set requires a powerful Windows or Apple Mac OS computer with a current 64-bit operating system and the Hauptwerk software (Advanced Edition from version 5.0). For optimal results, a sufficiently powerful CPU (e.g. modern hexa-core CPU) and enough main memory (RAM) are crucial. The following table shows the memory requirements in GB for the samples with different loading options:

	compressed	uncompressed
16 bit	20,2 GB	39,5 GB
20 bit	38,8 GB	>64 GB
24 bit	39,5 GB	>64 GB

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

Lizence conditions
Here you can view the licence conditions for our sample sets.

Installation
The sample set is delivered exclusively as a download (approx. 40 GB). The download consists of several files, which together form a splitted archive. For installation in Hauptwerk, these files must all be located together in one directory. Then select the file "...part1.rar" for the installation. Hauptwerk will automatically install the complete set in one go. Detailed installation instructions for your Hauptwerk version can be found in the Hauptwerk Main User Guide. You can access it from the Help menu in Hauptwerk.

During the installation you will be shown the license agreement, 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 protected by the iLok system. A valid license for the sample set is required to install and play the organ. For this purpose you will receive an activation code by mail after purchasing the set. The mail also contains the instructions for activating the license. Only after activating the license in the iLok License Manager the sampleset can be installed.

 

You can recordings with this sampleset on the Contrebombarde website.

Here is a link to a playlist featuring this organ.

 

This sample set can only be used with an activated licence and the download contains the full version. You can get a free activation code for a 14-day trial period from us on request.

Please refer to our downloads page to download the trial version or the full version for Hauptwerk version V and above.