Professional Edition
The big power of this large symphonic concert organ is the enormous disposition of 92 stops (so far the biggest Hauptwerk sampleset).
The 5 manuals have a nice functional arrangement: I Baroque Basic, II Romantic Basic, III Romantic strings, IV Solo, V Chamade.
All possible manual- (and pedal-) couplers are available; the sampleset can therefore also be used when you have only 2 manuals available.
Further there are a lot of handy 'play helpers', as: Walze (crescendo wheel), configurable combinations, 4' and 16' couplers, etc, see: Console.
The manuals of this sampleset have a compass of five full octaves, none of the other samplesets, available for me, have this great dimension.
The real organ has two consoles: a mechanic console, and a separate loose electronic console with stop switches.
The sampleset is based on the 'electronic console': I don't hear sound of keys and stop changes, also are the very nice photo realistic registration pages based on this console.
The sound of the wind engine and 'tuba wind engine' can real-time be switched on/off with buttons, I prefer that for each sampleset.
The operation is easy because of the practical registration pages; although there are a lot of registers and other buttons, the names are good readable (because of the clear font).
The Left-Photo and Right-Photo pages are nice to see, but I don't understand the use of them.
I have a 17-inch touch screen, so I use the Center page to register.
Because of the small acoustics (about 1 second reverb) you hear all stops in pure shape.
Furthermore I experienced a very low latency during playing, it feels very direct. Ideal for exercising, every fault is noticeable.
Judge you the standard reverb of 1 second too short, then it is for this sampleset no problem to add extra reverb (you must than purchase additional software or hardware).
Even though I'm in general not a lover of samplesets which such small acoustics, I had a lot pleasure during the recording of the demonstration pieces.
Because of the big amount of possibilities, it spends a lot of time to find suitable registrations.
I don't have any experience with such big organs, so may be my registration choices are a bit stupid.
The recordings are made with the Hauptwerk-recorder and contain no additional reverb.
I used the Professional Edition and loaded the sampleset with '16 bit', 'single loops, 'multiple releases'.
With 'single releases', mainly the flutes, sounds a bit 'glassy' in the fast pieces.
Which stops you appreciates, is mainly everyone to his own taste.
I have a light preference for the romantic stops.
But I don't say you cannot play baroque music on this sampleset, almost every stop is available on this organ and with Hauptwerk you can choose every temperament you want.
At first, I can't found a clear Flute, until I found the Flute traversiere 8.
Especially in the highest octaves this stop sounds wonderful (listen for example to Sonatina BWV 106).
The tremulo is very slow; I didn't hear the tremulo on the real organ, so I don't know if this is also in reality.
The requirement for this sampleset are considerable: 8.2 GB when you load all stops with '16 bit', 'single loops' ('multiple loops' is only a small improvement) and 'multiple releases' ('multiple releases' is a big improvement for fast pieces).
When you, as I, have 8 GB available, you can not load (with mentioned adjustments) about 10 stops.
But with 82 (i.s.o. 92) stops there are still sufficient registration possibilities ;-) .
Because of the small acoustics the sampleset doesn't have high demands for the processor.
Summary: Qua usability this sample is top quality, there are a lot of handy 'play helpers' (all possible couplers, combination stops, etc) and the pages are logical arranged and good readable.
The sampleset is suitable for all types of music.
Qua sound this sampleset is a bit 'taste sensitive', people shall judge it between 'all' and 'nothing'.
A sampleset for people that search an organ with a lot of stops and for which are 'church acoustics' and 'historic' not a 'must'.
Gert, januari 2009