Key features

• The organ
  • the 1909/1984 Rieger-Kloss symphonic organ of the Notre Dame of Buda (Matthias Church), Budapest, Hungary; entirely virtualized
  • 85 stops, 5 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
  • Touch sensitivity
    • velocity-sensitive (attack and release) optional tracker action noises
  • Acoustics
    • natural, out-of-the-box cathedral acoustics; semi-dry (between wet and dry) recording
    • 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
  • Independent Combination Action — entirely GUI-controllable faithfully reproducing the original organ's
  • 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 Matyas virtual pipe organ implements the response to 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 Matyas Pipe Organ Samples is an advanced surround-capable virtual pipe organ that uses state-of-the-art technology to reproduce the symphonic organ sound of the Rieger-Kloss pipe organ of the Notre Dame of Buda.

Feature / Edition	Trial	Personal	Professional	Extended
Stops	49	85	85	TBA**
Compass* (manual/pedal)	37/13	61/32	61/32	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
Shipping and availability
Academic discount for personal use	N/A
Retail box availabilty
Download availabilty
Download size	9 GB (stereo, wet)	27 GB (stereo, wet)	27 GB (stereo, wet)	TBA**
			31 GB (stereo, console)
			62 GB (quad)
			56 GB (adjustable)
Availability	available now			TBA** (2010)

*Compass is the number of available keys on keyboards or pedals. The graphical user interface corresponds to the pipe organ's original 58/30 compass however the sounds are available for all 61/32 keys.
**TBA: To Be Announced.

The Trial Version of the Matyas organ has a limited compass of C2-C3 (lowest octave) in the pedal, C2-C5 (lowest 3 octaves) in the manuals. Its 49 stops include all stops from the Pedal, first and second manual, as well as mixtures and reeds from the third manual.

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

Disposition

The stop list of the Rieger-Kloss Matyas organ is as follows:

History

In 1909, using the donation of Franz Joseph, the church received a new organ built by the Rieger manufacturer in Jägerndorf. Rieger Orgelbau is an Austrian firm of organ builders, known generally as Rieger. The firm was founded by Franz Rieger. From 1873 it was known as Rieger & Söhne, and from 1879 as Gebrüder Rieger, after his sons took over. At the end of World War II, the firm was nationalized by the Czech government and merged with another workshop as Rieger-Kloss. The Rieger tradition was also continued by the owners and workers of the original firm, who moved to Austria and founded a new workshop as 'Rieger Orgelbau'.

The original 1909 instrument was built in a late romantic style, using the plans of Viktor Sugár, and had four manuals with 77 stops. According to the acoustic fashion of the time, the pipes of the 4th manual were positioned in the attic of the church, and their sounds were directed to the church aisle via a 14-meter-long wooden tube. In 1931, again using the plans of Sugár, the Budapest organ builder/manufacturer Rieger enlarged the instrument to include 85 stops. The pipes of the fourth manual division were brought down from the church's attic, and the inner construction of the organ was changed to accommodate them. During the 1944 Soviet siege, the instrument was damaged badly. It was temporarily restored after World War II, but the condition of the organ had deteriorated from bad to worse in the ensuing decades.

In 1979, a committee was created to design a new instrument with the cooperation of Ferenc Gergely, István Koloss, István Baróti and titulaire organist of the church, Bertalan Hock. They designed a symphonic organ that retained those valuable pipes and the action of the old instrument that could be salvaged, and combined romantic and baroque style ranks. It was again the Rieger-Kloss organ factory that performed the 1980's restoration. Their excellent work resulted in a new, five-manual, 85-stop organ with electro-pneumatic action (Rieger Op. 3541). The organ was consecrated by Cardinal László Lékai on January 25, 1984. In 1999, an extension was made to the internal sequencer to support almost 800 stepped programs instead of the original 8 general combinations.

In the spring of 2009, the organ was completely disassembled as part of the thorough cathedral restoration, and itself is being restored at the time of this writing. Just before disassembly took place, the organ was entirely recorded in 192kHz/24-bit format, to capture its sonic characteristics for posterity's sake.

.: Pictures from the gallery

The Matyas Pipe Organ Samples, as a virtual pipe organ product financially supports 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 representing the recording conditions are embedded in the samples with multiple release sample layers; the acoustics heard in the sample set corresponds to the sound heard in the organ loft (console) but the default stereo version represents a nave sound (wet). Its realism was proven to be authentic by different organists with experience on the real instrument. There are 4 types of acoustics thus four virtual instruments in one package: the Stereo version offering a wet-dry balanced nave sound, a Console stereo version offering a little dryer sound heard near the console, a Quad version whose front channels are dryer and rear channels are more wet (and they can be used independently as two different stereo organs) and an Adjustable version which offers free adjustability between a more direct or diffuse, between more wet or more dry and even beyond be it stereo or surround. All version come with multiple release samples and noise samples including the tracker and engine noises that 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 fully compatible with dry acoustic spaces and additional convolution reverberation. Also, the samples fit perfectly to Hauptwerk's* release sample truncation without compromising the spatial adjustability. The renowned acoustics of the Matthias church measured before the reconstruction is also represented in the INSP:IR Impulse Library.

Adjustable Surround - Real-time acoustic control

Probably one of the most exciting features of the Matyas 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 Matyas 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 Matyas 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. (An AU version for the Mac will be ready shortly.)

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 Matyas 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. Dynamic velocity responsive tracker noises with separate attack and release parts - as audible on the real organ - are available for the I. Manual (Positive) and the Pedal. Additional button switch noises for the switches and larger registrations are also available.

Independent Combination Action

The Matyas Organs own combination action is reproduced and fully supported allowing you to use the original combination action that served the pipe organ. Additionally, programmable general combinations and tutti and 3 fully programmable crescendo programs are also available. The three crescendo program slots ship with one pre-programmed slot with the pipe organ's original crescendo wheel program.

.: Pictures from the gallery

Advanced Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The Matyas 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 the 85 stops in a 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 Stereo version is the exact same as the Personal Edition, and there are three additional acoustic setups: the Console Stereo (which is a little bit dryer, closer to what you can hear near the organ console and more 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 Matyas Pipe Organ Samples is available both as a download and as a retail box product. The retail box product ships on an external USB hard disk drive (HDD) 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 Matyas (MO) 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 Matyas 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 Matyas 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 Matyas Pipe Organ Samples
	Loading setup	Losless memory compression enabled	Bits	Multiple Loops	Multiple Releases	Required RAM
Trial Edition
Stereo	All stops		16	all	all 3	4.25 GB
Personal Edition and Professional Edition
Stereo	All stops		16	all	all 3	11.4 GB
	All stops		16	first	all 3	9.2 GB
	All stops		16	all	first	7.7 GB
Stereo Reduced	All stops		16	first	all 2	7.2 GB
Professional Edition
Console Stereo	All stops		16	all	all 3	13.2 GB
	All stops		16	first	all 3	10.8 GB
	All stops		16	first	all 3 truncated to 250 ms for convolution reverb	4.2 GB
Console Stereo Reduced	All stops		16	first	all 2	8.4 GB
Surround (quad)	All stops		16	all	all 3	26.2 GB
Surround (quad) Reduced	All stops		16	first	all 2	16.5 GB
Adjustable	All stops		16	all	all 3	24.0 GB
Adjustable Reduced	All stops		16	first	all 2	15.3 GB

'Reduced' organ definition (ODF) files are provided for each type (stereo/quad/adjustable) of organ in order to allow maximum flexibility in the loading setup, supporting to load only 2 release layers out of the available 3. Otherwise the Reduced ODF files are equivalent to the originals.

Please note: 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 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