Billerbeck, 2014 [Hauptwerk]

Encryption
The samples are offered in 48kHz/24bit resolution. The multiple releases have three levels: short, mid and long. Hauptwerk v. 4.2 and higher supported. The sample set is offered in a plain wave format, no encryption.

Reverb time
The reverb time up to 6.5 seconds.

Keyboards, pedalboard
The original compass of the keyboards is 58 keys (C–a3). It was extended in Hauptwerk to 5 full octaves C-c4 . The original compass of the pedal division is 32 keys (C-g1).

Tremulants
All ranks were recorded with and without tremulants where available for the most convincing tremulant behavior. However, loading the authentic tremmed ranks consumes large amount of RAM. It is possible to select to use the artificial tremulant instead to save RAM (the switch is located on the mixer tab).

Surround format
The sample set is offered in a Surround variant (6 channels). There are four front channels and two rear channels. The front and rear audio channels can be mixed or used separately - depending on the preferences of the user. A dedicated "mixing desk" is available in Hauptwerk to mix the sound to the desired level. In addition to that, there are 2 semi-dry channels. These may be used stand-alone, or may be added to the 6 surround channels as additional (very) direct channels, forming an 8 channel sample set. Any mix of channels is possible depending on the personal user preferences. However, it probably makes little sense to combine the semi-dry and the direct channels. Rather, the semi-dry channels could be used instead of the direct channels for even higher portion of the direct sound in the mix.

To reproduce the surround format, an audio card with at least 4 output channels is required, dedicating the front channels to the front speakers, and the rear channels to the rear speakers.

Stoplist Accessories:

Carillon accessible from all manuals and the pedal. The original instrument has one carillon shared on all manuals. For the sample set, the carillon of the Schwellwerk is virtually separate, enclosed in the swell box and milder in voicing than the virtual carillon shared by the other divisions.

Extensions:

The real organ has many extensions and transmissions. For the sample set, I decided to record stops several times, so that almost all extensions and transmissions are gone, almost each stop is independent, with its own character. However, several extensions remained in the Pedal.


Burdon 8 of the Pedal is the transmission of the HW Bourdon 32, from the middle c up. Voicing Bourdon 8 of Pedal is therefore done together with voicing of the descant of the HW Bourdon 32.


Subbass 16 of the Pedal is the extension of the Pedal Bourdon 32. Voicing Subbass is done together with voicing of the PED Bourdon 32, only an octave higher.


Flute 32 and Flute 8 of Pedal are independent stops. But Flute 16 is formed as follows: First octave and half (CC-g0) is the Flute 32 an octave higher, the rest is from the Flute 8. Voicing Flute 16 is done by voicing the Flute 32 and Flute 8 of the pedal.

Swells:

Rückpositiv and Schwellwerk are both enclosed. Vox Ludgeri on the original instrument shares the Schwellwerk enclosure. For the sample set, a new swellbox for the Chamadenwerk was constructed, driven by an independent virtual swell pedal. Since the horizontal trumpets are inside the organ case in Billerbeck (not displayed), it may be a unique opportunity to enclose them into a swell box, at least virtually. All the sudden, the division is not simply a loud Chamadenwerk, but also an Echo, if desired.