Key features

• The organ
  • the 1927/2001 Rieger/Varga French romantic organ of the Notre Dame of Kispest, Budapest, Hungary; entirely virtualized
  • 38 stops, 2 manuals (with 58 keys) and pedal (with 30 keys)
  • electrical console
  • Equal tuning at a=440 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 / 32-bit format
  • Real-time adjustable stereo and surround, 4-channel fixed surround, and 2-channel stereo versions
  • Natural sound image — the samples contain all spatial information as they are heard
  • Multiple loops per sample (Professional Edition), single loops per sample (Personal Edition)
  • Touch sensitivity
    • velocity-sensitive (attack and release) optional tracker action noises
  • Acoustics
    • natural, out-of-the-box cathedral acoustics
    • multiple release samples
  • Real-time acoustic control for both stereo and surround setups (Professional Edition)
    • an intuitive VST plugin is included for native 64-bit and 32-bit VST hosts as well
    • up to 8.0 surround per instance of VST plugins
  • Noises (also available in adjustable surround)
    • optional organ engine (blower) noise
    • optional touch sensitive tracker action noises
  • Dynamic KeyboardMass™ functionality
    • simulates and controls the weigth and inertia of organ keyboards and action independently using a dynamic model
    • allows you to adjust the weight of the keyboards in real-time while you play
  • Advanced features
    • Swellbox pedal operational direction selector
    • Independent Combination Action — entirely GUI-controllable faithfully reproducing the original organ's
    • Wind stability control*
  • Graphical interface
    • Multiple touchscreen-optimized pages best viewed at 1280x1024 native resolution
    • Entirelly remodelled console, perspectivic keyboards
• Shipping
  • download delivery
  • retail box

  Please note that although the Kispest 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 Kispest Pipe Organ Samples is an advanced surround-capable virtual pipe organ that uses state-of-the-art technology to reproduce the historic romantic organ sound of the Rieger-Varga pipe organ of the Notre Dame of Kispest.

Feature / Edition	Trial	Personal	Professional	Extended
Stops	38	38	38	TBA**
Compass* (manual/pedal)	58/30	58/30	58/30	61/32
Chromatically sampled
Multiple loops
Multiple releases
Single-page & multi-page horizontal touch screen ready
Stereo support
Fixed Quad (4-channel) surround support
Adjustable Surround (Mono-to-8.0)			in horizontal plane	in full 3 dimensions
Support for loading 3 release layers
Support for loading 2 release layers
Dynamic KeyboardMass™ feature
Custom Combination Action
Engine noise optional
Tracker noise optional
Velocity sensitivity for tracker noises
Original church acoustics
Swellbox directional selector
More features TBA**
Shipping and availability
Academic discount for personal use
Retail box availabilty
Download availabilty
Download size	13 GB	13 GB	13 GB (wide stereo)	TBA**
			14 GB (stereo)
			29 GB (quad)
			24 GB (adjustable)
Availability	available now			TBA**

The Kispest Organ is available in both personal and commercial/worship installation licenses. For commercial inquires, please contact us.

The free Trial version of the Kispest organ is equivalent to the Personal Edition 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 Rieger-Varga organ at Kispest is as follows:

**The 8th stop on the Pedal, the Trompette 8' is not built in the real organ but it is available in the Kispest Pipe Organ Samples. It is made available by an advanced processing method based on measurements on the real organ that acoustically relocates the pipes in the pedal works. This makes the virtually added Trompete 8' stops work nicely together with the original Trompette 8' on the first manual.

History

On February 15, 1926, a pipe organ was decided to be built in Roman Catholic church of Kispest. The organ builder company Rieger was chosen to build the instrument which was finished in 1927, new 29-stop instrument -- Opus 2256. The pipes spoke with a mainly German Romantic overall sound. The original Rieger organ underwent many changes and reconstructions, much of which did not help with the instrument’s sound, reliability or playability. By the nineties, the organ had become worthless in providing meaningful musical support of the liturgy; worse yet, it was totally useless regarding any artistic work. Just as in 1925, it was inevitable that the organ must be totally rebuilt. The body of representatives considered the renovation first on February 25, 1995. During the year the presbytery appointed Bertalan Hock, organist of the Matthias Church to assess the technical state of the instrument, to design the new organ, and to perform the technical management and supervision of the renovation.

The presbytery appointed master organ builder László Varga with the renovation and reconstruction of the instrument. The first renovated 16 stops sounded on Easter 1999, which were gradually followed by the remaining ones, first the stops of the main work, then the pedal work. The great amount of sacrifices, patience, and the financial support of the congregation, the local government and the foundation finally yielded the expected result: on February 25, 2001, during the even mass at 6 o’clock, Bishop Dr. Miklós Beer blessed the organ. After the holy mass, Bertalan Hock organist gave a very successful concert. He created a program to show the versatility and the virtues of the organ. This was when everybody realized that they managed to exceed their originally intended goals: besides modernization and renovation, a new sonic quality was born – the overall sound of the organ showed many features of the French Romantic style.

The renewed organ cannot deny its German Romantic heritage, but because of the careful planning, the significant changes and especially the excellent, artistic intonation it became capable of portraying the gems of the French Romantic organ literature.

.: Pictures from the gallery

Some intended parts of the renovation could not be finished however. These unsettled matters include a missing rank of pipes, plus some mechanical issues of pipework, infrastructure and the console. In 2008, the pipe organ was recorded by Inspired Acoustics to document and preserve that current state. The organ, tuned at the recording session was recorded at consecutive nights. To allow a less noisy condition the pipe organ original engine's was temporarily replaced by a smaller one.

The Kispest 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 final sample format is 48 kHz / 32-bit, 2-channel stereo for all samples.

Acoustics - 4 in 1

The natural church acoustics are embedded in the samples with multiple release sample layers. There are 4 types of acoustics in the Professional thus four virtual instruments in the package: the Wide Stereo and Stereo versions offering a convenient balance between wet and dry sound, a Quad version whose front channels are dryer and rear channels are more wet (and they can be used independently) and an Adjustable version which offers free adjustability between wet, dry and beyond. All version come with multiple release samples and noise samples including the tracker and engine noises are also multi-channel and adjustable. A multiple release sample mean different release samples available for different lengths of the same note - this helps achieving more realism in staccato notes. The sample set is recorded in a way that it is also compatible with dry acoustic spaces either by using the Adjustable version or by using the front channels of the Quad version. Also, the samples fit perfectly to Hauptwerk's* release sample truncation with the spatial adjustability retained.

Adjustable Surround - Real-time acoustic control

Probably one of the most exciting features of the Kispest Pipe Organ Samples is its real-time freely adjustable acoustics. This feature allows you to adjust the spatial impression of the virtual instrument while you play.

You can make the organ sound closer, narrower, or more diffuse, wide or anything in between, and you can turn your virtual head towards the facade of the organ or towards the altar. You can make a fairly dry sample set or a fairly wet sample set, a narrow or a wide stereo or surround image, as you wish, while you play. The feature works perfectly even without release sample layers so it is compatible with dry installations. The spatial adjustment feature uses so little CPU power that you may probably not even notice it.

How real-time acoustic control works

The Kispest organ is supplied with a real-time acoustic control feature that is implemented by the INSP:DEC Surround Customizer VST plugin. It is a separate independent software of Hauptwerk* specially designed to support real-time acoustic control. The Kispest organ is supplied with different loader files (Organ Definition Files) and one of them are coded to support the real-time acoustic control feature - while others provide you fixed acoustic setups. The samples for the real-time acoustic control feature are made so that once you load them you can output up to four different 'vector' channels of audio from Hauptwerk, which if you route to the supplied customizer plugin's input you obtain the properly configured audio outputs. In the plugin you can control all the configuration parameters. The plugin itself can produce up to 8 channels of audio from its three or four input channels. By using many instances of the plugin parralel you can obtain more than 8 channels of output.

The following figure shows two different setups how the INSP:DEC Surround Customizer VST plugin can work together with the Hauptwerk* version 3. For Windows users Hauptwerk* is available as a VSTi plugin which together with the INSP:DEC Surround Customizer VST can be hosted by an audio software of your choice. Mac users can use a different dedicated system for the customization feature.

The INSP:DEC Surround Customizer VST is available both as a native 64-bit and 32-bit VST plugin for Windows. (AU version for the Mac is in the works.)

Dynamic KeyboardMass™ and touch response

Keyboards and tracker actions of pipe organ have mass, inertia, which describe their response while you play. The Dynamic KeyboardMass™ is a special feature in the Kispest Pipe Organ Samples that allows you simulate and control each of the organ's keyboards heaviness independently, even if your keyboard controller does not support any dyanmics at all. This revolutionary feature adds a new layer of realism to play the virtual pipe organ.

The Dynamic KeyboardMass™ model sets the response of both the speaking and the release part of the pipe sound simultaneously and dynamically, adopting itself to your actual keypresses. Practically this makes the virtual organ a living instrument and ensures that the virtual instrument remains very responsive even if you set it to have very heavy keyboards.

Besides the Dynamic KeyboardMass™ the pipe organ simulates optional tracker noises as well in a full 128-level touch sensitive model. Together these two features ensure that you can have the same experience as on the real console.

Optional noises

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

Wind control

On 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 Hauptwerk-supplier Milan Digital Audio's actual policy, currently based on geographical locale, so please refer to the manufacturer, Milan Digital Audio's website for the availability of wind control features.

.: Pictures from the gallery

Advanced Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The Kispest Pipe Organ is equipped with multiple pages, providing extensive support for various touch-screen setups from 1 screen to multiple screens. All elements on the graphical interface are fully functional.

Personal Edition

The Personal Edition features all stops in a wide stereo, 48 kHz / 24-bit configuration with out-of-the-box wet acoustics. The virtual instrument has the same features and controls as the instruments of the Professional Edition, except that there are no surround and acoustic adjustability features.

Professional Edition

The Professional Edition contains 4 independently installable organs, each coming with different spatial and microphone configuration types. The Wide Stereo version is the exact same as the Personal Edition, and there are three additional acoustic setups: the Stereo (which contains a more narrow stereo image compatible with convolution reverb), the Quad Surround using 2 front and 2 rear channels, and the Adjustable Surround, which by employing the supplied VST plugin can configure the acoustics in real time. The Extended Edition will be an upgrade to the Professional Edition.

Availability and box contents

The Kispest Pipe Organ Samples is available both as a download and as a retail box product. The retail box product ships on an external hard disk drive (equipped with a USB connector) with a printed color booklet, which is also available electronically within the installed sample set and once you sign in to the Inspired Acoustics website.

System requirements and recommendations

It is intended (and required) that the Kispest (KO) Pipe Organ Samples be operated within Hauptwerk, a virtual pipe organ host software application (purchased separately). The Trial Edition works with the Hauptwerk Free Edition once the Kispest Organ is loaded so that the Free Edition's RAM and polyphony limitations are met.

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. The Kispest Organ was specifically designed and post processed in such a way that it will load with significantly less RAM footprint once the 'first loops only' loading option is selected. 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 Kispest Pipe Organ Samples
	Loading setup	Losless memory compression enabled	Bits	Multiple Loops	Multiple Releases	Required RAM
Personal Edition
Wide Stereo	All stops		16	all	all 3	6.1 GB
Wide Stereo Reduced	All stops		16	all	all 2	5.1 GB
	All stops		14	all	all 2	4.5 GB
Professional Edition
Stereo	All stops		24	all	all 3	13.0 GB
	All stops		16	all	all 3	7.0 GB
	All stops		16	first	all 3	5.0 GB
	All stops		16	first	250 ms truncation for convolution reverb	2.2 GB
Stereo Reduced	All stops		16	first	all 2	4.1 GB
Quad (surround)	All stops		24	all	all 3	26.0 GB
	All stops		16	all	all 3	13.5 GB
	All stops		16	first	all 3	10.0 GB
Quad Reduced	All stops		24	all	all 2	22.3 GB
	All stops		16	all	all 2	11.6 GB
Adjustable	All stops		24	all	all 3	21.9 GB
	All stops		16	all	all 3	18.6 GB
	All stops		16	first	all 3	8.7 GB
Adjustable Reduced	All stops		24	all	all 2	17.5 GB
	All stops		20	all	all 2	14.3 GB
	All stops		16	first	all 2	9.7 GB

'Reduced' organ definition (ODF) files are provided for all versions (wide-stereo/stereo/quad/adjustable) in order to allow maximum flexibility in the loading setup. These reduced version load only 2 release layers out of the available 3 thus making the RAM footprint reduced. In all other features the Reduced ODF files are equivalent to the originals.

Please note: although these RAM requirements include Hauptwerk*'s own memory consumption as well, some additional RAM may be still required for the operating system itself, which are not included in these figures.

Also note that Windows 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 to access than the computer's 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