2 manuals and pedal, 29 stops, built in 1768 by Johann Phillip and Johann Heinrich Stumm

Please take note of our special bundle offer: You can purchase both Stumm organs (Meisenheim and Bad Sobernheim) together at a reduced  bundle price (300€ plus tax). Please select the option "Stumm bundle" in the version selection field below.

One of the most famous organ building dynasties in Germany is the Stumm family. Founded by Johann Michael Stumm in 1717, the family built more than 400 organs over six generations. More than half of these organs, most of which are located in southwest Germany, are still largely preserved. The Stumm organs were characterized by their high quality and characteristic voicing.

Stumm organs of the first generations have a characteristic sound concept in common: the principals sound warm and slightly bowing and are developed into complete principal choruses on an 8' basis in the Hauptwerk. The aliquot stops and the Hauptwerk mixtures are also scaled and voiced as principals. The reeds are voiced in the French tradition; the Vox-Angelica 2' in the bass section of the Hauptwerk is typical of Stumm. There are also string stops and characteristic solo voices such as the Quintathön 8' or the Flaut travers 8' made of pear wood, which is usually only used in the treble range. The individual voices are characterized by an excellent blend. Some stops are divided into bass and treble sections, which significantly expands the registration possibilities. 

The organ in the castle church in Meisenheim was built by the second generation, Johann Phillip and Johann Heinrich Stumm, in 1764-68. It contains the voices listed above, which are typical of Stumm organs, and the console is located at the side. The Positiv is located below the Hauptwerk, but does not protrude into the room as a Rückpositiv, but is in line with the Hauptwerk above it. The pedal trombone stands open behind the organ. Three large wedge bellows provide the wind supply.

The organ has been modified several times in the course of its history and, unfortunately, its sound has been fundamentally altered. In 1968, the original specification was restored by the Oberlinger company. In 1993/94, the organ builder Förster & Nicolaus extended the pedal range by installing an insert, which significantly expanded the organ's possibilities. The pipework of the pedal, which only reaches up to g0, was not extended, only the pedal keyboard now reaches up to d1. The pipes for the newly added upper keys are then played an octave lower, the coupler to the Hauptwerk is continuous. The organ is one of the best-preserved Stumm organs from this period, with around half of the stops completely intact. It is the only Stumm organ from this period in which all the reed stops are completely original, and the VoxAngelica is the only original one from the Stumm organs still in existence.

The organ is tuned in tuning III according to Neidhardt (1724). This tuning is slightly unequal, but the keys are not as distinctly characteristic as in mean-tone tuning, for example. Three fifths are tuned pure, the deviation in three of them is approx. 1/6 of a Pythagorean comma, in the others 1/12. The deviations in the thirds are relatively evenly distributed between approx. 1/3 and 2/3 of a Pythagorean comma. This means that all keys can be played quite well, but a certain character still remains.

Disposition

I Unterpositiv C-d3
Principal 4'
Gedackt 8'
Flaut travers (D) 8'
Flaud 4'
Quint 3'
Octav 2'
Solicinal 2' (B) 4' (D)
Mixtur III 1'
Cromhorn 8'
Vox humana 8'
Tremulant     

II Hauptwerk C–d3
Principal 8'
Bourdon 16'
Salicional 8'
Viol di Gamba 8'
Quintathön 8'
Hohlpfeiff 8'
Octav 4'
Quint 3'
Floet 4'
Superoctav 2'
Tertz 1 3/5'
Mixtur IV 1'
Trompet (B/D) 8'
Vox angelica (B) 2'     

Pedal C-g0
Principalbass 8'
Subbbass 16'
Quintbass 6'
Posaun 16'
Violonbass 16' 

Sliding coupler I -> II, Pedal coupler II -> Pedal

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 ideal listening position in the nave.. Here, room reverberation and direct sound are very well balanced and the result is a sound similar to a concert recording of the organ. These channels are labeled “Mid” in the sample set. A third pair was located even further away from the organ in the room; this provides a very reverberant sound. These channels are labeled “Room”.

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", "mid", 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.  

Tremulant: The organ has a tremulant that acts on the Positiv. This tremulant is built as a channel tremulant and vibrates at a very high frequency. The sample set uses special tremulant samples, i.e. each pipe of the Positiv is also sampled with tremulant. This method provides the best possible natural tremulant sound for organs with a lot of reverb. However, it also has disadvantages: Firstly, the vibrations of the individual pipes are not synchronized, each vibrates independently, and secondly, the speed or depth of the tremulant cannot be adjusted subsequently.

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. 

Pedal: In the original, the pedal is only reaching up to g0, with the keys above playing an octave lower. In the sample set, the range of the pedal stops has been virtually extended so that the pedal can be played all the way up to d1. On the Controls page there is a “Pedal Mode” switch that can be used to toggle between extended range (ON) and original behavior (OFF).

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 
This page is not intended for operating the sample set, but to give the organist an impression of the real console. The labeling on this page is difficult to read. This screen page is ideal for the MIDI assignment of the manuals.

Stops  
This contains all the controls with the exception of the manuals and the pedal. Care has been taken to ensure that the page is very easy to read. This screen page is ideal for operating the sample set with a touchscreen. The arrangement of the stops is based on the original. 

Stop Panels (left/right)
The left and right stop panels are designed for use with two touchscreens, so that the left and right sides can be displayed. These pages are available in portrait and landscape format so that they can be used for different console designs. Hauptwerk automatically adjusts the orientation to the size of the monitor.

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 to correspond to their actual volume. The maximum position of the controls corresponds to ca. +3dB. All settings on the Controls page are automatically saved and restored the next time the sample set is loaded. 

 

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 4.2). For optimal results, a sufficiently powerful CPU (e.g. modern quad-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	6.9 GB	12.3 GB
24 bit	13.4 GB	24.4 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 15 GB of free space is needed on the harddisc to install the sample set.

Licence Agreement

The licence conditions for our sample sets conditions can be found here.

Format:

This sample set is available both for Hauptwerk version 4.x as well as versions 5 and above. The set is protected using Hauptwerks basic protection scheme. You can download a fully functional trial version from our server and use it for testing as long as you wish. The only limitation of the trial version is that the sound will be periodically muted when more than 4 stops are drawn. Following a purchase you will receive a link to download a small file (organ definition) that removes the restriction of the trial version (periodic muting).

Download and Installation Instructions:

The sampleset is delivered as download only (approx. 12 GB). There are separate versions available for Hauptwerk version 4.2 and Hauptwerk version 5 and higher. This is necessary because the encryption method was changed when switching to Hauptwerk 5. You can find detailed installation instructions for your Hauptwerk version in the Hauptwerk Main User Guide. You can access it in Hauptwerk via the Help menu.

The download file for the trial version is available from our main download page.

The download file of the full version contains only the organ definition file (ODF) and must be installed in ADDITION to the free trial version, as this contains all samples and graphics.

During the installation the license agreement is displayed, which you can also find following the link given above. You can only continue with the installation if you accept the license agreement.

You can find a number of pieces recorded with this sampleset on the Contrebombarde website.

Here is a link to a playlist featuring this organ.