2 manuals and pedal, 25 stops, built by Johann Michael Stumm in 1739

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 Matthias Church in Bad Sobernheim was completed in 1739 by Johann Michael Stumm, the founder of the organ building family. It is a typical instrument from this period and is characterized by the typical stops and characteristics of the Stumm organs described above. The organ served unchanged for almost 140 years before being significantly rebuilt and modified in 1878 and 1940. It was not until 2003-2005 that it was restored to its original condition by the organ builder Rainer Müller (Merxheim). All parts of the organ, case, action, windchests etc. were returned to their original state or reconstructed. The pipework was also restored and partially reconstructed. The Cromhorn, for example, is still in its original state. The organ was tuned to the Valotti tuning. Today, the organ once again presents itself as a magnificent and sonorous testimony to its time.

Disposition

I Rückpositiv C,D-c3
Principal 4'
Getact 8'
Solicinal 8' (D)
Rohrflöth 4'
Octav 2'
Quint 1 1/2' / 3'
Mixtur III 1'
Cromhorn 8'
Vox humana 8'
Tremulant     

II Hauptwerk C,D–c3
Principal 8'
Getact 16'
Violdigamb 8'
Solicinal 4'
Getact 8'
Cornet 4f. 4' (D)
Octav 4'
Quint 3'
Flöth 4'
Superoctav 2'
Tertz 1 3/5'
Mixtur IV 1'
Trompet (B/D) 8'   

Pedal C,D-g0
Principalbass 8'
Subbbass 16'
Posaun 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. 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. 

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	5.4 GB	9.7 GB
24 bit	10.6 GB	19.2 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 12 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. 10 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.