1925 Steinmeyer Berlin (III,71) work in progress

I also support the postion of Prof.Maier. HW is a wonderful thing to do for study or at home.But for me, HW doesn't belong in the public as a replacement for a pipe organ in a church or as a tinkering alienated.HW became known as an authentic reproduction of pipeorgans and in my opinion that should stay that way.We are proud to have founded a series "Famous organs as guest in ..." our city as part of a music school.If HW and thus the samples are changed by to many users, critics will rightly refrain from what is otherwise a very good thing.Dear Prof.Maier, carry on. Thir sets are also highly praised in specialist circles.

I second this. Many people who tinker with sets or add reverb to sample sets, in most cases, make it sound worse. This is my experience. I do occasionally add reverb to my virtual harpsichord or harmonium or claviorganum. These, alogn with continuo organs, are instruments that are not tied down to fixed spaces and are neither voiced for particular rooms, so here taking the liberty to add some reverb is in my view justified. But not with organs that were specifically voiced for a particular room. I have tried, just to understand this better, and in all cases, the organs sound worse.

Now there are people who prefer dry sets and the add their own acoustics to taste, so to say. But this is like placing an organ in a different building, without any further voicing adjustments; and this is unrealistic.

What about a dry set and then adding the church's own acoustics? In theory this may be good, and some people are advocating this, but I have no experience with this at all. Only a few make such dry sets available, so your choices are limited anyways.

I welcome the purist attitude of Herr Maier and others. It's also totally within his rights, preference and choice to do so.

I don't find the Metzler muddy at all, but very transparent. I was organist once in an extremely reverberant space (the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC) and I learned to adjust. If you always play in a very dry space, then playing in a reverberant space will throw you off, and vice versa as well.

But should, what you are used to or even prefer, become the basis of complaining?

I hope this excellent organ sample is released soon - can't wait.
I'll be happy to use it as it is.
My main concern is that my current computer will be adequate.

Hello Erzahler,

thanks, yes, I think the set will be working even for non "super workstations" very well:
RAM Surround only 20 GByte, even an older Quad-Core processor will run for nearly all registrations except very massive General Tutti (all sub- and super-couplers!)

Beta version now ready, demos should come soon

First demos are now available on ConcertHall:

Interesting, early modern, while not "easy-listening" piece of the younger Peeters (1928), performed on a contemporary instrument similar to his Belgium Klais organ, showing the instrument nearly in full dynamics
Flor Peeters: Variationen und Finale über ein altflämisches Lied (Laet ons mit herten reyne)

Dupré:Cortège et Litanie (op. 19,2)
especially showing the tubular bells, string ensemble, and cinema organ like vibrato effects etc.

Perhaps you now may imagine the sound of the giant Steinmeyer Passau (built 1925-28, "re-organized" (destroyed) in the 70th)

More demos to follow

Just a short status report:

- All samples (about 10.000) have now been checked in phase 2 (release check process).
Now the complete documentation has to be done, cover, booklet and stick production etc.
So, we hope to be ready for sales about end of March.

I have created a play list of all Steinmeyer recordings so far:
https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerth ... isten/2010

Enjoy!

End of March and 65 days to wait!
Oh well at least we can hear it on Concert Hall and see it being played on Youtube.
Thanks Helmut.

It is almost end of March... can’t wait!

He did not say which year

Thanks for the ongoing interest!

Short status report:
"Instrument Information and Release Notes" is just in work. The docu will also include a lot of registration tips and special combination files with complete typical registrations.
The comprehensive booklet (in work) with church and Steinmeyer history, special chapter on the Rupp-Schweitzer Alsatian organ reform etc., which is important to better understand this instrument, will perhaps be released afterwards, it always takes much time to design, translate and print.

So, please still a little bit patience, should come in the course of April.

Wow, one sleep till April 2021.

Please fasten your seatbelts! Soon it will start:
"19.04.2021: 1925 Steinmeyer Organ Release on Wednesday, 21 April 2021, see HW Forum for details."

Now available from at least one retailer https://www.hauptwerkshop.de/Samplesets/Organ-Art-Media/ at an introductory price.
Iain

715€ for an organ which denies the user quite some functionality clearly defines the target audience.

My experience with the OAM sample sets I own is that they are ready to use within my system without needing any significant work on my part. I have enjoyed playing them over a number of years and am pleased to have virtual access to some very fine instruments which I am unlikely to be able to access in person. The OAM sets I have are well balanced and not too demanding on the my system. I am always surprised that they don't require more memory than they do - I suspect this is because of the careful work put into the creation of the sample sets.

I appreciate that others way have different views about these sets. Some will want to be able to change the sample sets they have for their own delight and enjoyment - that is of course their choice and I have no problems with this. For the OAM sets I am pleased buy them subject to the terms and conditions offered by OAM.

There is a great diversity in the sample sets that are now available for Hauptwerk. I hope we can all welcome this and accept that the sample set makers will be subject to different constraints and have different objectives when creating their offerings.

Iain

On the OAM website, the price is 517€ for the download version + sales tax if applicable