The Verschueren choir organ from the Basiliek in Oosterhout

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foto van Verschueren koororgel Oosterhout

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J.S. Bach - BWV 527

In October 2022, we recorded the Verschueren choir organ of the Basilica in Oosterhout for Hauptwerk.
Due to the non-functioning of the main organ in the church, and the temporary postponement of its restoration, in 1977 it was decided to have a choir organ built by the Verschueren company. It was designed in a classic southern style.

As a choir or altar organ, the Sint Jan has since had a modest instrument from Verschueren with a well-thought-out disposition. The main manual, based on the Prestant 8 ft, has a divided Trompet 8 ft, while the secondary manual has a Cornet décomposé. In the seventies, it was one of the innovative instruments of this organ builder. A modest instrument with nice sound possibilities.



About the recordings


Four channels technology
sliderversch.png
Schuifjes op de tab "speeltafel"

This sample set was recorded from four positions in stereo (24 bit 96kHz).
The set comes with a Sygsoft devised 4-channel technique whereby the user may set the listening position themselves.

There are 4 positions, namely :
1: Front, recorded very close to the organ. This provides a very direct recording that is useful for study purposes.
2: Middle, this recording was made at about 3 times the distance used in the front recording.
3: Rear, recorded far from the organ.
4: Wall, recorded far from the organ at the rear wall can be used as surround.
Through four sliders (0-100%), a mix can be made of the four positions that is to your liking.
A good starting point for setting the sliders is e.g. Front-Middle-Rear-Wall 25-60-80-100
More information see: "System requirements"


Other div

The recordings for this sample set were made in october 2022.
Recording quality 96 kHz, 24 bit. The set is reduced to 48 kHz 24 bit.
Number of microphones: 8
Number of samples processed in this set: 9,140
Number of lines in the Organ Definition File (ODF): ca. 550,000

Division of the Work

Christian Boogaard:
Noise reduction, adjusting the wind model, intonation, demos, and artistic advice.

Johan van der Waal van Dijk:
Processing of the samples and technical advice.

Rietje Raatgeep:
Administration and PR.

Fred de Jong:
Layout, additional control samples, loops ,ODF and overall management.

With thanks to
Jan Willems, de organist van de kerk, and his wife Ilse, for the pleasant cooperation and
the municipality of Oosterhout for switching off the fountain on the Markt and the carillion of the church.

Specification
of
the Verschueren choir organ from the Basiliek in Oosterhout

(green has been added for Hauptwerk)

Man. I:
Hoofdwerk C-g''
Man. II:
Nevenwerk C-g''
Pedal: C-f'
Foot Coupler:
Prestant
Gedekt
Octaaf
Fluit
Prestant
Mixtuur
Trompet
8'
8'
4'
4'
2'
ll-lV ranks
8' B/D
Gedekt
Roerfluit
Nazard
Fluit
Cornet
Tremulant

8'
4'
3'
2'
II ranks
NW

Subbas
Prestant
Gedekt




16'
8'
8'




Coupler
Coupler
Coupler




HW+NW
Ped.+HW
Ped.+NW




Demos
of
the Verschueren choir organ from the Basiliek in Oosterhout



  D. Buxtehude - Passacaglia BUXW-161 Toon info
  J.S.Bach - BWV527 Toon info
  von Paradis Sicilliene Toon info


Download Information
of
the Verschueren choir organ from the Basiliek in Oosterhout


Download files: Would you like to download this sampleset for free, please send a message via the Request form, you will then receive access to the download files via e-mail.


Important : Before download, first read the comments below at 'General'.

General
Installing a sampleset

Before download and install, note the following:
1. Download all .CompPkg.Hauptwerk files.
2. Leave these files in the same folder and
3. Do not change the file names and
4. Do not unpack by hand.
5. Check the MD5 checksums with the WinMD5 program, free to download from
http://www.winmd5.com or http://www.fastsum.com
If a checksum is incorrect, discard the wrong download file from the PC and download that file again.
6. Start Hauptwerk (File/Install organ....), select in the folder where you just downloaded the files,
the file with extension .CompPkg_Hauptwerk_rar in Hauptwerk's 'component installer'.
Hauptwerk automatically finds the other files.
7. If you get error messages, scroll to the end of the log file (this opens automatically if something goes wrong when unpacking) to see what goes wrong.
Usually a file is missing, or there is a file in the wrong folder or a file is damaged.
8. Before loading the sampleset, check the system information regarding the expected memory usage etc.

Note: Please contact us via the Contact form if you encounter any issues; we will try to assist you.

System requirements
of
the Verschueren choir organ from the Basiliek van Sint Jan de Doper in Oosterhout


The computer

To play the complete version of this sample set without restrictions requires a modern, fast computer with, for example, Windows 10 64 bit installed and around 32 GB of RAM.
Obviously Hauptwerk must also be installed with the latest version 5 (or higher) Advanced.
It is said that the best results are achieved using Apple-MacIntosh computers; however, we have no experience with this. It is difficult to make exact statements about what is needed. The "mother" website hauptwerk.com provides much information about this issue. Prerequisites. Het virtuele Verschueren orgel van Oosterhout is alleen via download te verkrijgen. The choir organ is FREE. Below is a table of memory usage.
On other systems, these values can vary considerably! Please note that your Operating System also requires considerable memory.


The sound card

A good internal or external sound card. In many cases, this sound card can also handle the MIDI connection from the console to the computer.
For more information go to: Hauptwerk.com.


Manuals/keyboards/pedal òr complete organ with MIDI out

Twee manuals or keyboards and a (at least 25 keys) pedal òr a complete electronic organ with MIDI out. Beautiful consoles specifically designed for Hauptwerk are commercially available. Er zijn al de meest prachtige speeltafels speciaal voor het gebruik met Hauptwerk in de handel.
In the Netherlands these are available through, for example,

Those who are technically inclined can provide their keyboard with MIDI capability using hardware from, for example, MIDI-Hardware.com or MGB . We ourselves have done this using a Heyligers organ dating from around 1975 (using WIRA hardware). The conversion was about 300 Euro and everything has worked perfectly for years.


Speakers/headphone

The superb sound quality of Hauptwerk is best experienced through high-quality headphones, such as AKG or Sennheiser.
We prefer connecting the sound card to a (possibly multi-channel) sound system. The above mentioned companies can also advise you on any purchases in this area.
What you definitely should not do is listen to Hauptwerk through the built-in speakers of the monitor or a set of €10 computer speakers!



Table of memory usage
for
the Verschueren choir organ from the Basiliek in Oosterhout

Hauptwerk 6 (space needed on the hard drive is 10 GB)

The meaning of the columns:
A = Number of loaded channels
B = Compression applied?
C = Bit rate Pipe samples
D = Multi-release pipe loaded?
E = RAM usage, Operating System not included (GB)

Please note that the stated values are an approximation !

De nrs. 1-2-3: is for loading mode 16 bit, single release compressed (a possibility but we think the quality is insufficient).
De nrs. 4-5-6: is for loading mode 16-bit, compressed and multi release (the standard Hauptwerk loading mode).
De nrs. 7-8-9: is for loading mode 16 bit, uncompressed and multi release.
De nrs. 10-11-12: is for loading mode 20-bit, compressed and multi release.
De nrs. 13-14-15: is the loading mode 20 bit, multi release uncompressed (we prefer this if you have enough memory).
There are of course many more variants, e.g. pipe samples loaded at 24 bit and sounds at 16 bit, etc.
If you're having trouble, send us your question by filling in the Contact form.

nr. Definition A B C D E
1 (16 bit) with 1 channel loaded single release compressed 1 16 1,05
2 (16 bit) with 2 channels loaded single release compressed 2 16 2,1
3 (16 bit) with 3 channels loaded single release compressed 3 16 3,15
4 (16 bit) with 4 channels loaded single release compressed 4 16 4,2
5 (16 bit) with 1 channel loaded multi release compressed (Standard Hauptwerk) 1 16 1,4
6 (16 bit) with 2 channels loaded multi release compressed (Standard Hauptwerk) 2 16 2,8
7 (16 bit) with 3 channels loaded multi release compressed (Standard Hauptwerk) 3 16 4,2
8 (16 bit) with 4 channels loaded multi release compressed (Standard Hauptwerk) 4 16 5,65
9 (16 bit) with 1 channel loaded multi release uncompressed 1 16 2,1
nr. Definition A B C D E
10 (16 bit) with 2 channels loaded multi release uncompressed 2 16 4,2
11 (16 bit) with 3 channels loaded multi release uncompressed 3 16 6,3
12 (16 bit) with 4 channels loaded multi release uncompressed 4 16 8,4
13 (20 bit) with 1 channel loaded multi release compressed 1 20 2,2
14 (20 bit) with 2 channels loaded multi release compressed 2 20 4,5
15 (20 bit) with 3 channels loaded multi release compressed 3 20 6.7
16 (20 bit) with 4 channels loaded multi release compressed 4 20 8,9
17 (20 bit) with 1 channel loaded multi release uncompressed 1 20 4,1
18 (20 bit) with 2 channels loaded multi release uncompressed 2 20 8,1
19 (20 bit) with 3 channels loaded multi release uncompressed 3 20 12,2
20 (20 bit) with 4 channels loaded multi release uncompressed 4 20 16,2
Screen layout
of
the Verschueren choir organ from the Basiliek in Oosterhout

Tab 1 : Foto's (Pictures)
Interieur
Interior of the church
verschueren_04
Organ front

This tab shows the front of the organ and if you click on the picture you will see the church.


Tab 2 : Console (simple stop representation)
virtuele speeltafel
Virtual Console

On this tab a simple representation of the stops of this organ.
The buttons with a bleu dot are added voor Hauptwerk using samples of this organ.
The button "Motor" turns the wind engine on.
The button "Tremulant Nevenwerk": This organ does not have a tremulant on the real organ, but for the enthusiast we have made one that you can switch on with this button. This is a modulating tremulant and you can adjust this to your taste via the voicing.

With the 4 sliders at the top right, the volume of the different channels can be set, which allows you to broadly determine your listening position. A good starting point is Front-Middle-Rear-Wall e.g. 31-46-69-100

The button "Trompet 8'" (Hoofdwerk): This button is split vertically. If you press the left part you will hear the bass side and if you press the right part you will hear the treble. On the tab "3:Schakelaars" you find a button "Trompet 8 Vt gekoppeld". If this is "On", the Trumpet 8' is not split.

The pedalstops Prestant 8' and Gedekt 8' are not original and are so-called transpositions of the manual voices (so do not contain extra samples). The couplers are all 3 original.


Tab 3 : Schakelaars (Switches)
virtuele speeltafel
Switches

Most elements of this tab do not actually need to be visible, but for interested parties it still gives a a bit of an impression of what needs to be done to get a sample set of this size to work.
Keep in mind that behind each (manual) button there are 56 long, 56 long release, 56 medium release and 56 short release samples. The same applies to the pedal, but always 30 pieces.

It is also useful to know that if you right-click on a switch you can immediately access the correct voicing screen.

In the column "Speelhulpen" (Playing aids) you will find 3 buttons:

With the button "Trekkergeluid" (Tracker noise) you can choose whether or not to hear the sounds of the trackers.
With the button "Manuaal Kopp. B/D" you can link bass and treble of the manual coupler.
With the button "Trompet 8 Vt gekoppeld" you can choose whether the Trumpet 8' is split or not.


Tab 4 : Wind
Het windmodel
The windmodel

On these tabs a schematic representation of the wind supply of this organ.
With the various sliders you can control the supply of wind for the bellows and the various wind chests.
With the "R" or reset buttons you can return to the settings that we think are the most suitable (default values). With the button "Sygsoft" at the bottom right you can reset all 7 sliders in one time.


Important:
If you decide not to load a part of this sample set (e.g. your computer RAM memory is too small and you choose e.g. to omitting all "Wall" samples) then the wind consumption decreases by 25% and then the organ becomes much less wind sensitive than it actually is.
In that case, go to Organ settings/Organ preferences/Wind supply model and choose a value of approx. 125. In case you only need to load one channel e.g. "Middle", (the wind consumption decreases by 75%) then you need this value to about 400% to get the same result.
Obviously, you can choose any value if you don't like the organ's behavior. With the check mark on this same Wind supply model tab you can turn off the wind supply completely.


You listen to the Verschueren positif from the Basilica in Oosterhout