Sonus paradisi Doesburg, Martinikerk Walcker Organ Hauptwerk-ARCADiA

Team ARCADiA | Hauptwerk | 28.5 GB
The Walcker organ of the Martinikerk in Doesburg, Netherlands
The great four manual organ of Oscar Walcker was built as his opus 1855 for the church Nieuwe Zuiderkerk in Rotterdam in 1914-1916. The construction of the church and the organ was sponsored by brothers Bos who were organists themselves and who had certain predilection for the organbuilding techniques represented by the lastest achievements of German organbuilders.

For this reason, the modern organ with an electro-pneumatic action was commissioned to the Walcker and Co. When the church had been demolished in 1968, the organ was sold to the Doesburg parish and transferred to the Martinikerk. This church lost its own organ during the bombardment of the 2nd World War when its spire was destroyed. Although different (neobaroque) organ fashion was governing at that time, the authorities of the church made the fortunate decision to acquire the Walcker organ which is now pride of the town and a true historical monument, because there are only few large Walcker organs preserved without major rebuilding.

The organs of the Walcker company bear many characteristics which we usually call "romantic" today: predominance of 8' stops carefully selected to provide the widest possible differeciation of the sound color as well as smooth dymanic layering, absence of aliquotes, lower number of reeds,use of darker mixtures, the contrast between the division based on dynamics rather than on timbre, tracker allowing comfortable and light touch and virtuoso playing technique, plenitude of couplers and other playing aids.

Nevertheless, the opus 1855 exhibits also the influence of the Alsace organ reform after Emil Rupp. The elements of this sound concept were: more reeds in the French fashion after Cavaillé-Coll, large swell divisions (there are three swell boxes available), brighter mixtures and cornets after Silbermann - the builder proudly engraved the name of the Freiberg master to the largest pipes of the stops made according to the Silbermann scales. An extraordinary feature of the organ which brings the idea of brighter sound color further is the treble rank extensions. Although the compass of manuals is already large - five full octaves, there is a sixth treble octave available for many stops and comes into use when the octave coupler is engaged.

Originally, the organ had an echo division positioned above the vault of the Rotterdam church while the sound was driven through 22 meters long channel into the church nave. This feature was not rebuilt in Doesburg, but the echo division is not lost. It is now seated on top of the organ case in a swell box.

The organ allows historically accurate reproduction of the organ music written during the Romantism and later.

Features:

Prerequisities
The Hauptwerk version: This organ model requires Hauptwerk version 5 or higher. Only the advanced version of Hauptwerk is suitable for running this virtual model.

Sample Quality
The samples are offered in 24bit/48kHz quality, multiple releases (3 levels). The sample set is encrypted and dongle protected. The reverberation time is up to 6 seconds for the ambiental version. The sample set is offered in the surround (six channels) variant. The dry version (two channels) is also available for use with an external reverb.

The organ offers a wide range of dB, from pianissimo to a great fortissimo. The audio level is set as default so as not to overload the soundcard output when reasonable tutti is played. If the volume is turned up considerably beyond the default setting, there could be a danger of blowing the speakers.

The Compass
The original compass of the manuals is 61 keys, i.e. 5 octaves. Most stops have an internal extension to 73 tones (6 octaves) to be used with the super octave couplers. The same compass is available in the virtual model. The pedal compass is 30 tones, the extended pedal compass of the virtual organ model is 32 tones (C-g1).

Tremulants
Many ranks offer recorded tremmed samples (recorded tremulants). These special tremmed ranks can be identified by the word "tremmed" in the rank description. Load these special ranks together with the normal ranks to get the correct behavior with the tremulant engaged. On the rest of the ranks, the Hauptwerk tremulant model is active.

Pipe Coupling
Pipe coupling feature is introduced with this sample set. Great enhancement of the realism of the sample set. Read about it more.

Tips:
The dry channels mixed into the to the diffuse and rear perspectives provide considerable amount of detail to the result. Thus, the "presence" of the audio is greatly enhanced. Do not exaggerate the amplitude of the dry channels in the mix, or the result may start sounding unrealistic.
It may be good idea to route the dry channels through a separate output bus, while adding a bit of suitable convolution reverb to the dry channels, before mixing them back to the diffuse channels.