Freiberg, Silbermann sample set review
From Inspired Acoustics Knowledge Base
The St. Petrikirche, Freiberg organ, built in the year 1735, is one of the largest two-manual organs built by Gottfried Silbermann. This sample set is produced by Sonus Paradisi sample set producer who already offers many sample sets. Sonus Paradisi is a project concerned with the recording, documenting and archiving of the sound of significant historical organs, and is directed by Jiri Zurek.
Mr. Zurek has already produced many sample sets for Hauptwerk; this sample set, released in November of 2008, is offered in 4 versions:
- Dry, mono recorded very nearby the organ.
- Wet direct, recorded not far from the organ, giving a more direct, but still wet sound
- Wet diffuse, recorded from the church nave.
- Surround, 4 channels recorded; the 2 front channels use the Wet direct version, while the rear channels recording contains more reverb and less direct sound, creating a beautiful sound surrounding environment.
Sonus Paradisi is the only sample set producer to offer surround sample sets (the Zwolle set is also available in surround version). The overall effect of the surround version is very convincing, recreating the spatial feeling; one drawback of the surround version is that twice the memory is needed, since a complete "different" copy is loaded into memory for the rear channels, thus doubling the memory requirement for the surround set. While the Wet versions consume between 3.6 and 6.5 GB of RAM (16-24 bits depth), the surround version requires 6.9GB of RAM at 16-bit resolution.
Characteristic of all of Sonus Paradisi's sample sets, this set offers its own voicing utility (for those using Hauptwerk basic edition, this is something important to consider), so one can voice the organ to your taste and listening environment. The console screen, is, contrary to many other sample set producers, not a virtual replication (photorealistic) of the real organ, but more a functional screen to ease the use of the organ; large rectangular buttons (in place of drawstops) allow easy registration while playing, especially if you use a touchscreen. Also, you will find 5 general pistons (not part of the original organ) something quite useful when playing without the help of someone to register the organ.
Demos are available on Sonus Paradisi website and on Contrebombarde.com as well. The virtual version comes with two ODFs (Organ Definition File), the standard one offering the original keyboards and pedalboard compass and an extended one, extending the keyboards from 49 to 54 keys and the pedalboards from 27 to 30 keys.
This is a nice baroque sample set; beautiful principal plenum, warm Viole di Gamba and nice Vox Humana; the Cornet 4 + Rohrflute 8 will provide a great solo registration; I would have love to have an Oberwerk-Pedal coupler (even if it is not part of the original organ) to expand the organ's tonal disposition.
If you can afford it, and if your computer has the required RAM, do get the surround version. This will add a whole new element to your Hauptwerk playing and listening experience. A demo pack is available for 28 Euros (credited if you buy the set): it includes 5 stops with limited compass from all the versions (wet direct, diffuse, dry and surround).
More info from the producer's website
