December 5, 2008:
A fifth MP3 is added.

December 2, 2008:
A fourth MP3 is added.

November 30, 2008:
A third MP3 is added.

November 29, 2008:
I've added a couple new MP3 files. They are in the Gospel genre. They demo the sort of thing I feel this organ can do very well. The organ, piano, drums, and bass on the Grand Band Organ sound so full since there are so many samples playing at once.

November 28, 2008:
I have now had a chance to record a first piece with the voiced Grand Band Organ. This first recorded composition is by Johann Ludwig Krebs. I've always thought it is one of the most exciting pieces for organ I've ever heard. The music comes from a midi file that was evidently prepared straight from the score, with no human feeling added. I don't mind at all with this particular piece of music. . . it's fantastic. Click on the MP3 link above to go to the page of music for this instrument. (More to come soon!)

November 26, 2008
This page is devoted to my new Grand Band Organ (as of November, 2008). The purpose of this virtual instrument is to record a variety of types of music. The sounds come from mostly from pipe organ samples recorded for the Hauptwerk virtual organ software (Crumhorn Labs, Inc.) This organ is made to use Hauptwerk version 3.11.

I have used the HW3 CODM (Custom Organ Design Module) to create this organ layout. The instrument uses ranks and samples from a number of sample sets:
Division One (Pedal): mostly from FBR and Zwolle organs - 20 ranks
Division Two (Choir): mostly from Zwolle - 18 ranks (1 from Litomysl)
Division Three (Great): mostly from FBR - 18 ranks (1 from Groton)
Division Four (Swell): all from St. George's Casavant - 18 ranks
Division Five (?): all from Doksy-Rieger - 9 ranks
Division Six (?): all from Groton and Little Waldingfield - 9 ranks
Division Seven (?): mostly from Litomysl - 9 ranks (1 from Doksy-Rieger)
Division Eight (Percussion 1): from Virginia TO and Sygsoft harpsichord - 10 ranks
Division Nine (Percussion 2): from Virginia TO and Sygsoft Harpsichord - 10 ranks
Division Ten (Percussion 3): drums and 30 - 40 special percussion sounds

The sample set producers and organs are:
FBR - http://www.evensongmusic.net/samples.html
Zwolle - http://www.sonusparadisi.cz/organs/zwolle/history.0.asp
Litomysl - http://www.hauptwerk.cz/Litomysl/Litomysl_dry.htm
St. George's Casavant - http://www.organsamples.com/LearnMore.htm
Doksy_Rieger - http://www.sonusparadisi.cz/organs/doksyrieger/history.0.asp
Groton - http://www.lavenderaudio.co.uk/organs/groton/
Little Waldingfield - http://www.lavenderaudio.co.uk/organs/ltw/
Sygsoft - http://www.hauptwerk.nl/clavecimbelen.php
Virginia TO - http://www.milandigitalaudio.com/wurlitzer.htm

Altogether the Grand Band Organ has 121 stops. Every stop except the 4' and 16' pitches of the piano's and harpsichords are separate samples. Thus, almost all of this organ consists of straight, not borrowed ranks. There are many couplers to add great versatility to the music that the organ can play.

The Grand Band Organ uses 4.92 GB of RAM. It is running on a Dell
Studio 540 computer: Intel Core 2 Quad, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive.

Now that the instrument loads correctly, the next job is to voice (balance) all these ranks to sound as good as possible. All ranks are loaded in mono to conserve memory. I need to use HW3's voicing abilities to set up a stereo effect by manipulating the stereo spread of the mono pipes. The result can provide a very natural and clearer sound as many pipes play together.

Soon, when all this voicing is complete, I will be able to use the organ for its intended purpose. I can drive it from a midi sequencer and record the music it makes. This music ought to be better than my previous efforts already placed on this website since this new organ is larger, uses higher resolution samples, and is driven by a much more advanced version of Hauptwerk.

I expect this to be the beginning of a lot of very fine sounding music!