Facsimile Instruments

Whilst our general modus operandi is to design and create composite instruments made up of sampled stops from various organs with a view to creating fine instruments containing the best examples of the stops used in their specifications, we do create sample sets of complete organs as they exist in real life or in some cases, with a small amount of additional stops. This allows us to capture a snapshot of a particular instrument in time as well as producing examples of specific instruments for historical interest and study. The majority of these instruments are typical of the type of organ that can be found in many English parish churches.
The organs in our Chamber Series are of course, facsimile instruments but they serve a very different purpose. These instruments often date from the 19th. century and usually have limited specifications. Tonal design often leaves much to be desired and many of the features that organists desire are just not available. Their primary purpose is to accompany church services in the smallest of buildings, as continuo organs or in the home. Whilst some may be quite capable of being used as solo instruments especially when used in the music of their period, this is often the exception rather than the rule.
Obviously as instruments increase in size, more becomes possible in terms of solo performance requisites but many of the typical English church organs have less than twenty stops. Often as not, there is little in the way of carefully designed choruses, mixtures are often non-existent, there are few reeds and the Pedal organ often consists of one or two stops only. 
However, there are very few instruments that don't have at least one or two saving graces and whilst organists may despair of having a preponderance of foundation stops and little above 4', some of the individual stops in these instruments are very beautiful in their own right. The thoughtful organist who tailors his / her choice of music to the instrument that they have to play, can produce some very fine results which are both musical and uplifting.
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