Latest News

April 10th 2024

I heard back from Canada as to how things are progressing with the hybrid instrument. It seems to be all up and running and it is being used in services.
I am waiting to hear back as to whether I can put in a link to the YouTube presentations of a couple of services. The instrument's final voicing and balancing isn't finished yet and new speakers are being custom built by the organ builder to handle the pedal stops.
Notwithstanding, the choir is very good indeed and the organist is very capable. The recording sounds a bit dead as regard acoustics and the bass is not very loud but I am told that in the flesh, the acoustics are much more lively and the bass is more telling.
One thing is for certain, is that it is pretty much impossible to tell what is real and what isn't even in its unfinished state which is fairly typical of our samples when they used together with pipes.

March 23rd. 2024

Finally, I have recently uploaded a couple of YouTube presentations. I say 'presentations' but they aren't exactly that great. It took quite a while to work out how to actually do it in the first place and I downloaded some software in order to make it possible. Since I am not sure as to exactly software I will end up using, I am only using the trial versions at the moment which means that they have an advertising banner present. Once I find some software that I am comfortable with, I will then purchase the necessary and such intrusions will disappear.
So far there is no video as such because I don't have a video camera. I suppose the next step will be to invest in one of those, but I can hardly describe myself as being proficient in that respect. After all, I am primarily a sample set developer, organ consultant, organist etc. I do not pretend to be a film director. There is the added aspect that I am somewhat averse to being photographed or filmed since I am certainly no Adonis.
In time, I suppose that I shall get more into making YouTube presentations in the future, but it is not something that is particularly high on the agenda at present.
Meanwhile, I continue to work on various sample sets including a small Bevington.
The Bevington is somewhat limited but has a couple of nice stops. There is also a rather uncommon Keraulophone which has proved interesting. The organ is one that I used to play on occasionally for services when we lived nearby in Somerset. Perhaps of more interest is that the church is in a small hamlet at the bottom of Burrington Combe on the edge of the Mendips. Whilst marginally famous for one or two of its caves such as Goatchurch, the Combe is more famous for the 'Rock of Ages'. This is a rock chimney situated by the side of the road at the bottom of the gorge and it is where the Rev. Toplady sheltered during a heavy thunderstorm. As a result, he wrote the well-known hymn: "Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee".

February 9th.2024

 The Canadian hybrid has been finished (as far as is possible at the moment) and sent off for trial and testing with the pipes in the church. I anticipate that there will be one or two changes required and these can be readily accommodated. As previously mentioned, several new stops had to be created including the Gemshorn's and the Quintadena, 
The Midmer Losh modelled Gemshorn's are very stringy so alternatives have been provided based on milder Gemshorn pipework (Nicholson).  Gemshorn's are one of those stops where opinions vary widely. The American continent often tends to consider them as string stops in many cases, hence the Midmer Losh examples, whereas in Europe, they tend to be slightly stringy flutes or slightly stringy principals. Indeed, it is / was common practice to label Swell Principals as Gemshorn even though they are merely stringy diapasons with no hint of tapering. Genuine tapered stops are not that common although they have become more frequent in modern instruments.
The Quintadena also proved to be a challenge in that examples vary so much around the world. I found a flute (some very old pipework - possibly late 1700's) that had a sufficiently pronounced quint to provide a basis for the stop. I also had a genuine Quintaton / Quintadena by Rothwell which was accurate up to a point but didn't sound as nice as the aforementioned Flute. An additional rank has been provided at 2 2/3' to provide a slight increase in the quint component if required. This just gives the peculiar edge that Quintaton's / Quintadena's have. Yet again, opinions vary widely with some of the old European varieties being entirely different to other versions found elsewhere.
The rest of the instrument has been fairly plain sailing using pre-existing finished stops that will merely require a bit of on-site balancing and alteration. However, I was able to produce a brand new 32' Contra Fagott which works very well and will be able to be used in future instruments where a slightly less rumbustious 32' reed is specified.

I have yet to hear back as to how well everything fits into the pipe specification and no doubt the odd substitution will be required. It is always difficult to second guess what any instrument might sound like in a building (especially when mixing with real pipes) but I am confident that the pipe organ builder who is undertaking the work in Canada will produce an excellent result.

There are very few companies in the world who carry out this sort of work and they tend to be very expensive. In conjunction with a number of pipe organ builders throughout the world, we offer a sensibly priced service which gives excellent results. 

Late January 2024

Work has just started on preparing a custom built hybrid instrument for a church in Canada. Originally quite an interesting instrument in a generous acoustic, it is being enlarged from its current two manual state to a three manual.
34 of our own digital stops including a Carillon and En Chamade rank are being added to the existing pipework which should result in a very comprehensive result. The Swell stops will be situated within the existing swell box which is preferable to trying to emulate the swell tonal changes within Hauptwerk.
Whilst a fair amount of the digital stops have been chosen from the current Concert Series, there are a few stops which will have to be created from our large archive which consists of several hundred stops built up over the years. 
Included in the specification is a Gemshorn and Gemshorn Celeste and a Quintadena. Regarding the Gemshorns, although we have a few genuine Gemshorns, I am modelling new ones on Midmer Losh examples. Initial results here in England give a favourable comparison. The Quintadena is proving interesting and whilst I have a couple of 16' Quintatons which could be re pitched to 8' but I believe that we can find something better. It may be that one of our many stopped flutes with a pronounced quint may fulfil the bill but we may have to create a completely new one. 
Audsley invented several new dual stops and indeed, he describes the Quintatons as being "dual toned stops" in his books. It may well be that in order to get the desired effect, I will have to combine two ranks into one, carefully blended and balanced.
The beauty of course with HW is that swapping out and altering stops in a given specification is a fairly easy task. It is particularly valuable when dealing with hybrid instruments where pipes have to mix with pipeless. It sometimes takes a bit of time but so far all of the hybrid instruments we have been involved with have been very successful.
I am pleased to say that in the majority of cases, very little has had to be swapped out or changed to achieve the end results from the "ranks" supplied initially.

Of course, our modus operandi allows us not only to provide ranks for hybrids but also to create totally HW based custom instruments to pretty much any specification.

November 2023

Whilst HW 4 has long been superceded by later versions and obviously we try and encourage customers to upgrade to a later version of HW because of the extra features, there are still plenty of users out there who do not wish to move on to HW 5,6,7 and 8 for various reasons. For many, HW 4 provides everything that they need but obviously, a few older sample sets by ourselves and other producers, are not available for the 4 platform because they require the additional features of HW 5 and later editions.
The majority of our sets are available with versions for both HW 4 as well as the later editions. They are the same sets but require slightly different downloads in some cases. Most 4 sets will indeed play on later editions without a modified package but 5+ sets may not load on a 4 system unless they have a specific HW 4 version loaded.
The sets listed in the official site price list are for users of the latest editions of HW. HOWEVER, other sets which were originally designed for HW 4 are available if required but not listed. This applies most notably for the old Studio 70 and 80 sets which are wet (with built in convolution reverberation). These sets do not require the old HW 4 dongle since they are encrypted / protected / unlocked in a different way. Unfortunately the smaller models in the Studio series require the old HASP dongle to be unlocked and therefore are NOT available since the unlocking of that dongle is no longer supported by MDA.
As a result, for anyone wishing to avail themselves of either the Studio 70 or 80 (which are excellent sets) these are offered at a bargain price on request.

Is there a catch ??? Yes, there is. 

Because of the bargain prices offered on these two sets, there is no longer a future upgrade path to later models such as those in the Concert series which was originally available some years ago. However, there may be some sort of loyalty discount available if a customer decides to move on to one of the later editions of HW at some point. Please email me if you are interested in either the Studio 70 or Studio 80. There are fully working demos for both sets which have an auto cut-out after 30 seconds until they are unlocked.

This ONLY applies to the two Studio sets: Most of the other sets are available for all platforms from HW 4 upwards - we just need to know which HW version you are using so that you get the right compatible set.

July 27th. 2023

Some good results are being achieved gradually with various reworkings but they are all part of the bigger picture. After two decades of working on HW sets and samples there is a great need to consolidate many back up hard drives and earlier versions of stops so that creating new libraries is a lot easier. Some archive recordings go back 30 years and whilst many techniques have changed over time, those original recordings were of high quality and many would be impossible to obtain again. Fortunately, old recordings are not generally ditched but unfortunately, it means that there is a lot of dross sitting in back up files on back up drives which takes time to evaluate before the dross is erased and the salvaged samples and stops can be kept for future use.

Tiverton is perfectly playable as are several other unreleased organs but they require much fine tuning and adjustment before they can be released officially. They also require photo graphics to be created in many cases. With the burgeoning of other sample sets which have the latest features, adding these features is something that also needs to be considered.

June 7th. 2023

Some progress is being made with reworking older recordings of instruments which were archived or recorded for reference. When many of the instruments were recorded, I only chose the very best stops to work on and complete for the various models that we produce. This left the others in archive. It doesn't mean that some of the stop recordings weren't perfectly valid, it just meant that I didn't use them because I had found better alternatives. Of course, some of the stops in some of the organs aren't always fantastic examples of their type but that doesn't mean to say that they are bad.
Together with new editing software as previously mentioned, many of these lesser stops are achieving a new lease of life and some rather pleasant instruments are emerging. Most of them are fairly small but they are very typical of the average UK parish church instrument. They don't have some of the more desirable stops of larger instruments which were built for larger congregations since they were basically designed as hymn machines for a relatively small local congregation. 
However, they are often more than capable of allowing lesser works to be played perfectly well and they tend to do this with a great deal of charm and that distinct mellow sound of the English organ.
It may come as no surprise that some of the great cathedral organists upon retiring, choose to settle down in some small village and are more than happy to become the local organist quietly going about accompanying the needs of very much smaller congregations. I know of one very fine recitalist who plays a small 12 stop instrument every week where he is perfectly happy. He could "transfer" his services to a very much better endowed instrument fairly nearby but chooses not to.
Likewise my late friend Prof. Robbie Pascal of Nottingham University felt happiest playing his small house chamber organ. He felt that it gave him a more intimate communication with the works that he was playing as well as improving his technique because every stop mattered.
For myself, I have big instruments at my disposal through HW and also real pipe organs of various sizes but likewise, I often find that choosing a very much smaller instrument to play on for many of the same reasons.

March 2023

Oh well, "fortnight" (February) has come and gone without us realising it.

OK, I haven't really been working much on the Tiverton set as such but I have been working on other stuff. Over the years I have sampled / recorded many organs and with some of the earlier recordings, I archived them because not only was editing software much more basic but also, the facilities offered by earlier versions of HW were quite limited.  Therefore, I moved on to different instruments in order to produce better results.

Fair enough, my own experience in sampling organs has improved over the years so that now, I can produce finished results more easily but that doesn't mean to say that some of the earlier samples / recordings were no good. Thus, I have been taking the opportunity to revisit some of those older samples  in order to see whether they might be used before I ditch them entirely. In some cases, I had already used some of the original samples in earlier libraries and achieved the best results that I could at the time given the state of the technology.

Some of those older samples are still not good - either because they were not recorded well or because they are just bad examples but a considerable amount of sampled stops (or in some cases part stops) from several years ago have suddenly gained a new lease of life and are definitely worthy of inclusion in new sample sets. No matter what I might do with some of the older stuff, it will never be good so it is likely to end up in the bin.

If you like, I abandoned a lot of stops at the time and searched for new and better examples because the technology (and my experience) of the time just wouldn't produce the sort of results that I was looking for. As a typical example, I recorded many stops from Huddersfield Town Hall which is a fine Willis later rebuilt by H & H: Certainly some stops such as the 32/16 Ophicleide will never produce a acceptable stop no matter what technology is used but others such as the Tuba Mirabilis and some of the Positive mutations have turned out to be really rather good. OK, I might not use say the Nazard as the original Nazard but suddenly, I find myself with a really good 4' or 2' flute which matches perfectly with many of my later samples and indeed is an improvement on some of those later recorded samples in the great scheme of things. Of course, I have to add either a half octave at the bottom or at the top to make up the new stop but that is not too difficult and the results have proved to be very much worth the time and effort that goes into the reworking of some of those older stops.

Remaining with Huddersfield for the moment, I must admit that the Diapason stops that I sampled originally weren't what I would wish for - nothing wrong with the real stops, I just didn't sample them very well at the time. As a result, I still can't ever really use them. However, I can always provide something closer to what the actual real stop sounds like recoded from other instruments at a later date and using better equipment and editing techniques. Theoretically, I could actually produce something very, very close to Huddersfield even though I don't have decent examples of the real stops in that instrument. Likewise, although I haven't got any samples from the real instrument, I can recreate a half decent facsimile of the original which might very well have been destroyed (example St. Peter's in Blackburn mentioned elsewhere).

However, the main benefit that has come about in all of this is that I can finally clear out many of my earlier workings which did not match up to those of today and the net result is that an awful lot of space on many disk drives is saved by consolidating things into a much more accessible archive.

The end goal I suppose, is to have on hand a complete collection of similar stops which can then be used to mix and blend at different pitches and therefore achieve a better result. It also means that (for churches in the main), that exactly the right sound can be selected for the specific building or instrument. I have already come across this problem where having a choice of several such stops such as a 2' Principal has proved invaluable in achieving the best end result for both pipe organ builders and HW installers. Given the choice of half a dozen different Fifteenths to try, perhaps only one will fit into the end design.

To sum up in more simple terms: The Open from ABC might be very fine indeed but it may be far too large for a particular building or instrument. Having the choice of a less powerful alternative from XYZ will often produce the result that is desired.

January 2023

The website is gradually being modified and brought up to date.
 
Tiverton is in the final stages of completion (for the close / dry set) and I hope to have some demos up and running in due course. Decisions have to be made as to whether to provide additional perspectives and whether these will be wet or dry.

Some work is also being undertaken on other libraries.

November 2022

Tiverton is beginning to shape up very nicely and is starting to become an exciting set. It is interesting to compare the set to the already existing Father Willis 1894 set.
The Tiverton set sounds much more fiery and brash on account of having 8' and 4' reeds on high pressure on both Great and Swell together with a typical tierce based mixture on the Great as already mentioned below. There are also 2' stops on all three manual divisions which helps to brighten the sound as well. Unlike the 1894 instrument, Tiverton also possesses a Twelfth which helps to add a further bit of spice to the Great ensemble. However,, apart from on the Choir, there are no 4' flutes and equally there is no Celeste rank on the Swell. I feel that the inclusion of a Celeste rank in the SW would be beneficial and this can be done as part of any "extended" version of the instrument.
However, there is also the question relating to the reinstated Choir Viol d'Amour. It is possible that in the original instrument as it stood, this may have been a very slightly detuned Celeste rank. It was not uncommon in some later Victorian instruments to find an undulating rank on the Choir even when there was none on the Swell. It is interesting to look back at some of the old specifications by various builders because in their earlier instruments, there were no undulating ranks present but from around 1860 onwards, they started to become more common even in smaller instruments. Of course, whilst undulating ranks were not often found in German instruments they tended to be quite common in Italian instruments (Voce Umana a detuned Principale rank) as opposed to Vox Humana and Spanish instruments where both some flue ranks and reed ranks were detuned. The Gorgi Bosch instrument at Santanyi has just such an undulating flue stop which from what I remember is actually a Flute. I have also come across "celested" Trumpets.
The existing mixture on the Swell is only a two rank quint mixture and I intend to offer the facility of an additional III rank tierce mixture to allow the division to more closely match many FW instruments of the time. I reckon that I may very well use the Stainer pattern which changes the Tierce to a quint  / unison rank quite early on the compass. The organ at St Bee's priory has just such as stop. I may include both.

I believe at some juncture, it might be possible to recreate the old St Peter's in Blackburn instrument with the existing FW material that I have. I have probably mentioned it before but St Peter's was a wonderful 4 manual - one of the most important large church organs that FW built. Sadly, the church closed in the 1970's and subsequently the organ was destroyed having been removed to a barn in Oxfordshire for safe keeping. The details of what happened are cloudy ranging from the owner being squashed by one of the 32' pipes to the barn burning down.

I played the organ several times when it was still in the church - albeit not in the best condition - and I was present at the summer party (together with another then teenage Hauptwerkian) when the church closed.

September 2022

Sic transit gloria mundi.

We are deeply saddened by the passing of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
We offer our most sincere condolences to the Royal Family, especially to King Charles III at this difficult time.

Long Live the King

August 24th. 2022

Restarted work on the Tiverton set. All of the Great is up and running and much of the Swell. Only one stop is running on the choir organ and so far, there is nothing completed on the Pedal. It's a somewhat different character from the 1894 Willis released earlier this year partly because of the additional 4' reeds on Gt. and Sw. but also because the mixtures are typical Willis Tierce mixtures which tend to spice things up a bit. 

Of course, the Tiverton instrument is famous for being the instrument on which the ubiquitous Mendelsohn wedding march was performed back in the 1800's. Although still very recognisably a Willis instrument, despite having much older pipework included, it suffered an unfortunate rebuild by Noel Mander in his younger days. In common with so many other instruments of the time, moves were made to push many organs in the Organ Reform Movement direction, destroying much historical older work. Tiverton escaped with minimum changes unlike others which were changed out of all recognition. Fortunately, in the case of Tiverton, the only changes were made to the Choir organ which lost most of its 8' stops and replaced them with an ill advised high pitched Mixture, a Sesquialtera and a weird 4' flute which has a strange composition etc. The remaining tonal scheme and overall sound remained the same. In some ways, the provision of the new mixture did help to create a slightly more sparkling plenum and the Sesquialtera went some way to addressing the demand for a quasi Cornet in the Choir but this sort of work would not be entertained today regardless of any perceived failings in the original Willis spec.

Our own Tiverton facsimile will seek to restore the original Choir specification back to what it was originally, retaining the Mander alterations as an alternative choice thus recreating both the current instrument and the past one in one single organ.

July 22nd. 2022

Apart from the occasional stray email that is being sent to my old TalkTalk/Tiscali address, most emails now get through to me on my new email addresses. It seems to have gone fairly quiet on the whole HW front whether it be on the HW forum or the frequency of personal emails. I suppose it's a combination of the current world situation as well as the long days of summer.
Certainly, after a couple of decades of dedicated work on sample set production, I am taking it slightly more easy than I was doing. This includes spending a little more creating music and arranging rather than the interminable, never ending editing of samples. 

When I first got into creating sample sets it was with the idea that through the wonderful facility of HW I could get much better results than could otherwise be achieved at the time. Unfortunately, creating sample sets is a very intensive and time consuming process and as a result, the normal aspects of life tend to go onto the back burner. Over the last couple of decades, I have to an extent, rather neglected my actual music creation and normal life because I have been concentrating so much on sample sets.

I will continue to produce sample sets of course, but I will be spending less time on doing so than I have been.

In addition, since there are so many sets out there these days, I have to consider very carefully as to what I might consider producing is going to be something out of the ordinary both in terms of the instrument chosen or the presentation of the sample set. In other words, it's going to have to be something special.

March 7th. 2022

Tiscali / TalkTalk are about as useful as a chocolate fireguard and seem unable to sort the problem out at all. 
Please use the new email addresses found on this site. It's going to take a long time to email everyone personally but I am doing my best.

February 27th. 2022

The email problem has not been sorted as yet because TalkTalk / Tiscali doesn't work weekends and it takes three working days for them to get back to customers (not what I would consider a good service). It is most likely that I will ditch Tiscali altogether - even if they do get things sorted out because I can't have this sort of thing happening again. I do have other email accounts set up already so I can be contacted.
I stuck with Tiscali for all of this time because it provided a logical and sensible way to work with the many emails that I get from all over the world. I'm not fond of my other email sites because it is too easy to delete stuff and never get it back. I suppose I will just have to get used to the various idiosyncracies of these other sites and hope for the best.

February 25th. 2022

The e-mail problem has been escalated to a higher level but this may take some time.
Their whole website is down for "maintenance" at the moment implying that they have a major problem that extends beyond my own personal one.

So my apologies once again to anyone who has received a scam email but rest assured that I am doing everything possible to get the situation sorted out ASAP.

If anyone needs to get in contact, please use the alternative Silver Octopus or gmail email addresses on this website.

February 24th. 2022

THE PROBLEM HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED.

Please do not use my Tiscali email address for the time being because all my emails are being re routed to the hacker.

February 23rd. 2022

The E-mail problem reported yesterday has now been resolved.

February 22nd. 2022
IMPORTANT

I have had a couple of phone calls and an email from today informing me that the recipients have received emails purporting to come from me. It would seem that in one of them there was a request saying that my niece had broken down somewhere and needed a couple of hundred pounds to rescue her.

This is obviously a scam so please don't act on it or reply to it. Fortunately, most people who get emails from me will know what it genuine and what isn't - either by the content or by the subject but it's best to be on the safe side.

Firstly, I don't have a niece and secondly, I would certainly never resort to request money or payment from anyone unless it was via a Paypal transaction or via bank transfer to my own named accounts for a bona fide sale.

I am looking into this and I am also wondering how it could have happened because I run strong firewalls and several other anti-malware and anti-virus programmes. 

I have checked my whole system and there are no problems so it would seem that my Tiscali email server may have been compromised.

It would seem at the moment that some emails are being rerouted to the phisher / scammer although others are coming through. If you need to contact me, please use the company emails which seem to be routing messages correctly.

February 1st. 2022

Please see the entry for the same date under the blog page which has some interesting observations and examples concerning reverberation.

January 16th.2022

I am pleased to announce the release of the Father Willis 1894. I felt that it was better to release the dry version initially because many users will be taking advantage of the convolution reverberation included in HW V, VI and the forthcoming VII or will already have their own external convolution facility.  I am nearing completion of the wet version but currently I am not sure whether the final release will be as a separate entity or whether it will be included in a dual perspective presentation.

January 1st. 2022

Happy New Year to everyone.

December 23rd. 2021

We wish all of our customers a peaceful and happy Christmas and wish to thank all of those who have supported us over the last year.

November 2021

November Sale with up to 70% off normal prices.

During the month of November, we are holding our first ever Black Friday sale. Although Black Friday is at the end of the month, running the sale throughout the whole month gives potential customers the chance to evaluate any sample set they might be interested in.

October 18th. 2021

The entire Concert series with the exception of the 10 stop demo is now complete with regards to the photo graphics developed by Olivia Nagioff. 
I believe Olivia is developing something special for the 10 stop demo which is fully working with no limited compass restrictions but I am not sure what she has in mind as yet.
In the interim, I have prepared demo versions of the rest of the Concert series and which will work on HW IV, V and VI and which have the normal restricted compass stops (2 octaves manuals, 1 octave pedals) and some functions limited such as the octave and sub octave couplers. This is available on personal application to me. Please email charlesbraund@tiscali.co.uk  if you are interested.
It is very important that the Concert series models are used (or tried out) with either the in built convolution reverberation or a good quality alternative unless played in a natural acoustic.
NB. The demos of the Concert series do NOT have the photo graphics and extra features such as the crescendo pedal.

September 27th. 2021

A further three models in the Concert Series namely the 55, 45 and 30 stop instruments now have their photo graphics with very many thanks to Olivia Nagioff once again.
In the interim, work continues with the wet version of the 1894 Father Willis which is progressing slowly.

September 6th. 2021

The Concert 65-3 Deluxe is now completed with Olivia's graphics and once again looks very nice. Screenshots as usual can be found on the relevant model page. The two 65 stop models differ slightly in specification apart from the difference of 3 and 4 manuals. Obviously, those with a four manual console would most likely opt for that model but those with three manual consoles can always set up the fourth manual as a floating division if they prefer the four manual specification.
I have now started working on the wet version of the 1894 Father Willis and I am just working out the best settings for the instrument with a couple of trial stops to see how they will turn out. The planned reverberation is musically generous but not too long - almost the same as the empty church. 

August 11th. 2021

Olivia has now completed the Concert 65-4 Deluxe model graphics which look very nice. Screenshots can be found on the 65-4 page. 
The 1894 Willis is undergoing finishing of the internal dry recorded samples before moving on to the wet more distant samples.

July 29th. 2021

I have now finished the first movement of the Lemare Symphony No 1 and the download link to this can be found on the Contre Bombarde site or under the Sound Demonstrations page on this site.  The CB demo is MP3 whilst the one on our site is wav.

July 26th. 2021

Both the Concert 85 and 75 have now received their graphics makeover along with extra features such as the crescendo pedal. The remaining models in the series; namely the two 65 stop models and the smaller models should be ready very soon. The models smaller than the 65 stop organs will not have crescendo pedals and may also lose one or two of the extra features of the larger instruments such as the sustainer but will otherwise follow the same styling. The relevant web pages featuring screen shots of the latest models will be updated in the next few days.

July 12th. 2021

The Concert 100 has now received its graphics as well (designed and developed by Olivia Nagioff) including the extra features from the 125. "Mirch" has uploaded a couple of pieces to the Contre Bombarde site featuring Stravinsky and the A Minor Bach Prelude. I hope to have a new world premiere demo of a Poulenc transcription up shortly as well. Whilst the sound of the new models is identical to the non graphic versions, the extra features are a welcome addition.

June 18th. 2021

The first of the Concert Series libraries has now received its graphics along with a few extra features courtesy of Olivia Nagioff.  Olivia has done a sterling job in creating custom graphics for an instrument which does not actually exist in real life. We chose the largest instrument to work on which is currently the 125 stop partly because of the logistics of trying to fit in such a large instrument within the confines of HW screens and partly because all of the smaller instruments in the series will be much easier to create since it is far less complex to remove stops than it is to try and fit in extra ones to a smaller specification. 

In addition to the graphics, Olivia has provided a number of features which were absent from the original Concert 125. These include a Great to Pedal Combinations coupler, sustainers to the Solo and Swell divisions plus a programmable crescendo pedal. Fuller details together with screen shots can be found on the Concert 125 page.

The various other models in the series will undergo a similar treatment in due course.

March 19th. 2021

I have just received the Forster & Andrews instrument complete with the photo graphics produced by Olivia Nagioff. Further details can be found under the relevant page in the menu. I think it looks very good and also sounds not too bad either. I hope to have some individual stop demos up shortly.

March 18th. 2021

One of the small Father Willis instruments (1886) is complete and currently awaiting for the custom graphics to be finished. The 1860 Bishop is also complete but still needs a little tweaking before it is also sent off to have the graphics done. I am currently running through the three manual 1894 Father Willis which is producing some nice results. Although a few stops from this latter instrument have been used in the past in earlier released instruments, the application of new editing techniques and better processing software has given a new life to the whole organ. A lot of this instrument was not possible to use before due to the limited technology that was around over a decade ago.
However, rather than just release the completely reworked instrument in solely dry form, it is likely that it will be released as a multi perspective instrument which will include wet and more distant versions.
The same will likely apply to the historical 1867 instrument which includes pipework by Smith from 1696 and Snetzler from 1770 as well as the 1867 Willis additions. The instrument had work done by Mander in later years and although the Great, Swell and Pedal organs were left as they were, the Choir suffered several alterations and additions which resulted in the loss of a few stops and the addition of others which were really not in keeping with the original (though well meaning and regarded as sensible at the time). 
Given the enormous amount of unaltered Father Willis pipe samples that I already have and continue to obtain, it should be possible to bring this instrument back to what it was as well as allowing for the Mander additions.
This sort of procedure is not uncommon these days and now that we have got over the excesses of the Organ Reform movement, many pipe organs are being restored back to what they were originally when they are restored as opposed to being rebuilt. This might be seen as a retrograde step in some cases and indeed some pipe organs were distinctly lacking in some of the facilities that are desired today. However, they were of their time and represent a historical period of time and design ethos. It's a difficult subject but one that seems to be being handled very well by some of our more enlightened pipe organ builders.
After all, one wouldn't take a Schnitger or Silbermann and tack on a new Tuba or Trompette en Chamade but adding an authentic stop which was possibly planned / desired but never included due to cost at the time I believe, is a valid improvement. 

Lock down continues to exercise its restraints on everyday life but hopefully things will be more back to normal as time progresses (especially in the UK). However, I do believe that we are unlikely to see the end of this pandemic (as per smallpox) any time soon since it's going to take a lot of time and resources to inoculate the whole world even if it's possible at all.

January 10th. 2021

The new Prosser organ has now been released together with the custom designed graphics by Olivia Nagioff to whom many thanks. Details and photos of the organ and church can be found under the "New Prosser 1883" in the navigation column.

December 25th.2020

Happy Christmas to all of our customers and followers.

December 7th. 2020

We are pleased to announce the release of a Johnson chamber organ dating from 1971 / 1972. This is a facsimile instrument complete with photographic console page. The graphics and ODF were developed by Olivia Nagioff who has done a splendid job. There are several of these instruments (either with identical or very similar specifications) in various places including universities and cathedrals throughout the UK.
Further details can be found under the E.J. Johnson button to the left.

November 20th. 2020

A live online recital from St Hilda's church in Hartlepool was presented last night with Daniel Cook as the recitalist. Daniel Cook is well known for his faultless playing and is currently the organist at Durham cathedral having previously been at Westminster Abbey and Salisbury cathedral. Apart from the fact that the concert was streamed live to YouTube in real time and it was possible to indulge in "chat" on line, the main point is that the organ at St Hilda's is a hybrid instrument which uses our samples.
The original Conacher instrument was a typical good example of that firm's solid work but somewhat limited in it's size and facilities. The organist Ian Pounder, decided to adopt Hauptwerk as a means to enlarging the instrument and chose us to provide the samples. It has long been established that we are leaders in the field of providing the best samples for use in hybrid instruments and our many customers in the USA and elsewhere as well as several pipe organ builders worldwide use our samples from providing a few additions such as a reed or 32' to many additional stops including whole divisions.
Ian Pounder is to be congratulated on overseeing the complete installation which must rank as one of the finest to be found anywhere and the "on line" recital mentioned above is complete proof that real pipe organs combined with carefully chosen stops from our huge libraries and well designed and set up instruments are a totally valid answer to this sort of situation. Out of the 49 stops of the instrument, 21 of these were provided by us. The full specification and further details can be found at the church website: http://www.hartlepool-sthilda.org.uk or click the button on our Sound Demonstrations page.
It really rather vindicates our mission statement for the last couple of decades that we can provide probably the best solution in this sort of environment that there is together with Hauptwerk software and carefully installed audio equipment.
There is the additional bonus that changes can be readily accomplished at very little or no extra cost. Already, at the suggestion of Daniel Cook, the original Choral Bass 4' on the pedal has been replaced by a 32' reed and this can be heard in the recording on several occasions. I find it hard to believe that 99.9 % of listeners would be able to point out any parts of the organ at St. Hilda's might be anything else but real pipes.
Several other well known organists (some who are avowedly "anti" digital) have also expressed complete approval of the instrument.

The YouTube recital can be found at the following link: https://youtu.be/LmdS04GVQBI or click the button on our Sound Demonstrations page.

November 11th. 2020

I have completed some recent pieces played on the Concert 125 stop model below. Although performed on the 125 these pieces could be performed identically or almost identically on any of the smaller models from the 65 stop model upwards. The Hymn to the Fallen has two versions a shorter one using organ and percussion and the fuller version including the extended section and an additional virtual choir.
To listen to any of the pieces please just copy the highlighted links into your browser or go to our "Sound Demonstrations" page for button links. The pieces are as follows:

Domenico Gallo: Trio Sonata. https://hidrive.ionos.com/lnk/Es0IO911
Igor Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite 1st Movement (based on the above Trio Sonata) https://hidrive.ionos.com/lnk/KI0IOsyl
Maurice Ravel: Menuet Antique https://hidrive.ionos.com/lnk/J70oOUPq
John Williams: Hymn to the Fallen (from the film; Saving Private Ryan) Short version https://hidrive.ionos.com/lnk/dIUIudNC
John Williams: Hymn to the Fallen (from the film; Saving Private Ryan) Long version: https://hidrive.ionos.com/lnk/170oO1xJ



November 4th. 2020

There are a couple of new demos featuring the Concert 125 model on the Contre Bombarde site with more to come. These include two transcriptions one of Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite 1st. movement and the other is Ravel's Menuet Antique.

September 28th. 2020

I have continued to work on the small Johnson chamber / box organ which is turning out quite nicely. However, it's been difficult because I took so many recordings from different perspectives. Every stop sounds fine regardless of the recording position but it's proved to be quite difficult to choose which stops or combinations of the same stop actually sound the nicest. All that has to be done now before the official release is to sort out the action and blower noises.
Once that is out of the way, I will return to the Forster and Andrews to finalise that before moving on to a small Bishop which has some pleasant aspects. None of these instruments are anything vastly special but they do represent a very typical type of instrument that can be found in dozens of small churches up and down the UK. For this reason, they are valuable and of course each instrument will generally contain at least one stop that is really rather nice and can then be used in some of the larger composite instruments.
It doesn't always work out as one expects and often one finds that a really nice stop on its own just doesn't blend in with other additional stops when introduced into a larger specification instrument. However, just sometimes a particular stop such as a Trumpet may not work in its original unison pitch but will provide a really excellent Clarion or Double (with additional extensions). It's all very much a case of trial and error and in comparison to facsimile sampling is so much more difficult since there are so many possible choices.
Likewise, constructed mixtures are very difficult since not only are there the possibilities of different breaks but also completely different scalings and it is amazing just how many different possible varieties there are for this particular type of stop. once again, none of them are bad it's just a case of which one of the many works the best.

August 2020
The Forster and Andrews instrument is now complete in its beta form. Once I get some feedback from the various parties, the set will be released. Those who have offered to be beta testers should get an email link in the next day or so. If you have offered and don't get an email, please contact me. Anyone else who is interested can also contact me with a view to betas testing this set.
One word of caution however, this is not beta testing to see whether the thing works or not, it is for the evaluation as to which of the two close recording positions gives the preferable stop. The results may dictate how we record samples in the future so it is quite important. both the positions used give good results but they are subtly different and that is the purpose of the exercise.
Although the current Covid crisis is still preventing any outside work in recording new samples, there is plenty to get on with and it has been a great opportunity to revisit some earlier work with a view to improving or redoing it. There have been considerable developments in software coupled to our own editing techniques over the last few years which meand that some smaples that we took some years ago and which could not be used at the time can now be processed and made into valid stops and organs. 

July 2020
Ongoing changes and additions continue to be made to this new web site and the format should be easier to follow in due course. 

May 2020
The new website is up and running with relatively few teething problems. Of course it isn't perfect and there are things that I would have liked to have done but either I haven't discovered how to do them as yet or they just aren't possible with the program that is being used currently.

In the interim, the Corona virus is rather putting a hold on future projects. 

Share by: