Key features

• The organ
  • the 1778 Pazicky baroque organ of R.C. St. Imre, Pusztaszabolcs, Hungary; entirely virtualized
  • 17 stops, 2 manuals (with 45 keys) and pedal (with 18 keys)
  • mechanical console
  • Werckmeister III. tuning at a=448 Hz
• The recording
  • High Definition Sampling (HDS) — all stops were sampled chromatically at 192 kHz / 24-bit
  • Advanced Pipe Organ Measurements (APM)
• The sample set
  • 48 kHz / 24-bit format, 2-channel stereo samples
  • Natural sound image — the samples contain all spatial information as they are heard
  • Multiple loops per sample
  • Touch sensitivity
    • 2 velocity (attack) layers for all pipes
    • velocity-sensitive (attack) optional tracker action noises
  • Acoustics
    • Natural, out-of-the-box acoustics
    • multiple release samples for all velocity layers
  • Noises
    • optional organ engine (blower) noise
    • optional touch sensitive tracker action and drawbar noises
  • Historical and Extended Edition in one organ file
    • Switch between Historical and Extended mode — with a single click
    • Compass extension to 54 keyboard and 30 pedal notes
      • Variable-Pattern Note Extension Method (VPNE method) — using different extension patterns for different stops and notes
    • Short octave support
      • original note order (historical mode)
      • full note order (historical and extended mode)
    • Single click base frequency change (448 / 440 Hz)
    • Wind stability control*
    • Independent Combination Action — entirely GUI-controllable with 8 memory slots
      • control buttons on the console are adaptively displayed or hidden in extended and historical mode, respectively
  • Graphical interface
    • Multiple touchscreen-optimized pages best viewed at 1280x1024 native resolution
    • Entirelly remodelled console, perspectivic keyboards, animated drawbar stops
• Shipping
  • download delivery
  • retail box

* Please note that although the Pusztaszabolcs virtual pipe organ implements controlling wind stability, it may become disabled in some copies of Hauptwerk particulairly in the US automatically according to the manufacturer Milan Digital Audio.

Details

The PSZ Pipe Organ Samples is published in a single product that contains two forms of the 1778 Pazicky baroque pipe organ of Pusztaszabolcs: the historical version (historical mode), which is in features identical to the original instrument, and an extended version (extended mode) that contains an extended number of keyboard and pedal notes (compass). So in other words, the extended version is included for free with the historical version.

Feature	Historical Mode	Extended Mode
Stops	17	17
Chromatically sampled
Multiple loops
Multiple releases
Single-page & multi-page horizontal touch screen ready
Multiple (multi-page) touch screen optimized graphics
Custom Combination Action	('Ext' page)	(console pages)
Engine noise optional
Tracker noise optional
Velocity sensitivity for tracker noise
Velocity sensitivity for pipes
Original church acoustics
Download now

The PSZ Organ is available in both personal and commercial licenses. For commercial inquires, please contact us.

The free Trial version of the PSZ baroque organ is equivalent to the final version in all of its features except that the Trial version has a time-limited functionality of producing sound up to 10 minutes each time it is loaded, and disabling its sound output for a short time temporarily and occasionally within that period.

Disposition

The stop list of the Pazicky organ at Pusztaszabolcs follows:

II. Manual (great organ, 45 notes original, 54 notes extended; ~1700-1739)

Principal (8’)
Copula maior (8’)
Octav (4’)
Copula minor (4’)
Quinta (2 2/3’)
Sedecima (2’)
Quint minor (1 1/3’)
Mixtura (2x1’) 

I. Manual (positive, 45 notes original, 54 notes extended; 1778)

Coppel (8’)
Quintadena (8’)
Flauta minor (4’)
Principal (4’)
Octave (2’)
Super octave (1’) 

Pedal (18 notes original, 30 notes extended)

Petal (Subbass 16’ + Burdon 8’)
Octav bass (8’, ~1778)
Flauta bass (4’, ~1778)

Coupler

Copula claviaturae (II+I, 1778)
P+II, P+I couplers available in extended mode in the virtual instrument only

History

The epic history of the organ dates back to the turn of the 17th and 18th century. First evidences show that it was operating at the 1717 Franciscan Saint Anna church at Esztergom, Hungary, with the builder and exact time of construction remaining still unknown. According to a recent research it was most likely completed before year 1739. In 1778 Jan Pazický (spelled Pazsiczky at that times) extended the organ to feature 2 manuals and 17 stops. No later than a few decades afterwards the organ's deterioration had begun; it was repainted and dismantled for several times and in 1918 the tin pipes of the façade were removed by the authorities to support war. The original short octave pipes built by Pazicky were cropped to revert to a chromatic scale; finally in 1941 a decision was made to build a replacement organ, and the old Pazicky organ was acquired by the city of Pusztaszabolcs. Installed shortly before the Second World War, there were no funds to restore it until the early fifties when the church decided to entirely replace its internal parts. Ironically the disappearance of the appointed repairman with all prepaid restoration monies saved the instrument; only in the nineties it was again recognized and finally in 2003 the office of the National Cultural Heritage declared the organ as an Historical Relic. Despite its adventurous history, about 90 percent of the pipes, the mechanics and the 18th century status of the organ case remained. In early 2002 the restoration of the organ had begun, with the objective to recover the 1778 state of the baroque instrument in all of its historic aspects.The façade pipes were rebuilt, the case was restored and the second rank of the Mixtura (mixture) stop that was originally planned by Pazicky but was never built, was also completed.

.: Pictures from the gallery

The instrument is now in its original splendor, reconstructed to its original 1778 Pazicky state. In 2008, the pipe organ was recorded by Inspired Acoustics to further document and preserve this state, and the Pusztaszabolcs Pipe Organ Samples, as a virtual pipe organ product financially supports maintaining the instrument.

The sample set

Sample format

All pipes were recorded with the same recording equipment, under the same acoustic and physical conditions, entirely at 192 kHz / 24-bit. The post processing was conducted within 32-bit and 64-bit precision environments according to each post processing phase's own technical requirements. The final sample format is 48 kHz / 24-bit, 2-channel stereo for all samples. The virtual instrument delivers the appropriate spatial sound image without need of any adjustment — no artificial panning or approximations were used in the creation of the library: what you hear is exactly the same as the reality.

Acoustics

The natural church acoustics are embedded in the samples with multiple release sample layers. A different release sample is available for different lengths of the same note and again different for the multiple note layers. The sample set is recorded in a way that it is also compatible with dry acoustic spaces.

Touch response

The pipe organ has a very sensitive mechanic console and its touch responsiveness is modeled in two ways. First, the sound transients of the organ pipes are different when the key is pressed faster or slower, and second, the tracker action is producing louder or softer sounds also dependent on the key pressing speed. In the virtual pipe organ all pipes - including the extended pipes - have two different layers of a slow and a fast pipe transient. Some pipes are more responsive, while others are less - this is all captured as it happens in the real instrument. Furthermore the optional tracker action sound is also touch sensitive in 128 levels.

Historical and extended compass, short octave response

The pipe organ has an original compass of 45 keyboard notes and 18 pedal notes and a short lower octave. When the virtual organ is loaded, you can select by pressiong one button to extend this compass optionally to 54 keyboard notes and 30 pedal notes. Furthermore for more playing convenience the virtual organ supports both the original historical short octave keyboard mapping and the standard MIDI keyboard mapping. The extended notes that are created based on the existing ones were generated by the proprietary Variable-Pattern Note Extension Method, an algorithm developed first for this organ. Different patterns of extensions were used for different stops so as to make for a natural-sounding result.

Optional noises

Both the organ engine sound and the tracker action sounds along with the sounds of the drawbar stops are optional for your convenience. The reverberation continues below the noise level of the organ engine so you can create high quality recordings with the virtual pipe organ.

Tuning and temperament

The original temperament of the Pusztaszabolcs Pazicky organ is the famous Werckmeister III, based on 448 Hz. This original tuning loads automatically, but in order to allow playing the instrument at concert pitch as well as for use with choir or other instruments, an additional button is added with which you can tune the organ to 440 Hz with a single click, even while you play.

Wind control

On the advanced page of the graphical interface of the pipe organ, the stability of the wind supply can be user-controlled. If your version of Hauptwerk supports it, the wind stability control model is automatically included. Please note that inclusion of this feature depends on geographical locale, so please refer to the manufacturer, Milan Digital Audio's website for more information.

.: Pictures from the gallery

Advanced Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The PSZ baroque organ is equipped with multiple pages, providing extensive support for various touch-screen setups. Furthermore, in the extended mode, additional buttons, permitting control of the combination action and engine noises, appear on the console and on the left and right pages. The graphical interface exactly documents the real organ visually — talented experts have carefully modelled every detail, even featuring animated drawbar stops on all pages.

Availability

The size of the sample set is approximately 9.5 GB and it is available both as a download and as a retail product. The retail product ships on three DVD discs with a printed color booklet, which is also available electronically within the installed sample set.

System requirements and recommendations

It is intended (and required) that the Pusztaszabolcs (PSZ) Pipe Organ Samples be operated within Hauptwerk, a virtual pipe organ host software application (purchased separately).

For further information, please refer to Hauptwerk's detailed requirements on Hauptwerk's website.

Detailed RAM guidelines

Hauptwerk loads all samples in the computer's RAM, with several loading options available according to your computer's specification. PSZ was specifically designed and post processed in such a way that it will load successfully even on smaller or notebook computers. We recommend using Hauptwerk's built-in lossless memory compression to reduce the loading size. Below we have summarised the RAM requirements with their corresponding quality options.

.: RAM requirements for Pusztaszabolcs Pipe Organ Samples
	Loading setup	Losless memory compression enabled	Bits	Multiple Loops	Attack layers	Multiple Releases	Subjective Quality	Required RAM
	Full organ, 17 stops		24	all	all	all	maximum	10.2 GB
Recommended	Full organ, 17 stops		16	all	all	all	almost maximum	5.4 GB
	Full organ, 17 stops		16	all	first	all	nearly maximum	3.6 GB
Recommended	Full organ, 17 stops		16	first	all	all	almost maximum	3.1 GB
	Full organ, 17 stops		16	first	first	all	nearly maximum	2.4 GB
	Full organ, 17 stops		16	first	first	all, simulated dry (250 ms)	for applying reverberation	1.0 GB

Please note: all samples loaded in stereo. These requirements include Hauptwerk's own memory consumption. Some additional RAM may be required for the operating system itself, (not included).

Also note that Windows Vista is capable of loading more content than your available RAM, loading (paging) the additional sample data to your hard drive, reading it once the sound is needed (played). In some cases this will cause glitches in the sound when played in realtime since the hard drive is slower than RAM, but makes the full library usable in offline music composition and recording even if you do not have the required amount of RAM.

Demos

• Sound and video demos — If you would like to listen to demos, please proceed to the expanding list of Demos >

User reviews