Scots Pipe Organ Samples

Key features

• The real pipe organ
  • the 1999 Rieger pipe organ of the Scots' Church in Melbourne, Australia
  • 64 stops, 4 manuals (with 58 keys) and pedal (with 32 keys)
  • 3 tremulants (tremolos)
• The recording
  • All stops were sampled chromatically
  • Advanced Pipe Organ Measurements (APM)
• The sample set
  • 48 kHz / 32-bit format, 2-channel stereo samples
  • Natural sound image — the samples authentically preserve all spatial information
  • multiple loops and releases per sample/key stroke
  • One-click assignable keyboards to divisions supporting your console configuration
  • Full Coupler Matrix, extended number of couplers (in Personal Edition)
  • Optional organ engine sounds and noises
  • Multiple pages and touchscreen-optimized for 4:3 displays
• Shipping
  • download

Details

Scots (SCT) Pipe Organ Samples is a fully playable, freely configurable, intuitively manageable and MIDI-controllable virtual pipe organ for the Hauptwerk™ virtual pipe organ software, for PC and Macintosh computers, delivering the authentic sound of the 64-stop Rieger symphonic pipe organ of the Scots' Church, Melbourne, Australia, to your computer.

The sample set

The real pipe organ has been entirely virtualized, including all sounds of all of its pipes, all functions including the original tracker sounds are provided with some additional couplers extending the original instrument, supporting even more versatile and convenient performance.

Sample format

The final sample set has been made available in 48 kHz / 32-bit 2-channel stereo (Personal Edition). Multiple, lengthy loops were carefully selected for each sound sample.

Acoustics

The natural church acoustics representing the recording conditions are embedded in the samples with multiple release sample layers; the acoustics heard in the sample set corresponds to the sound heard in the church. Due to its wooden structures the church has relatively dry acoustics providing a crisp and articulate high-definition pipe sound.

Multiple release samples and multiple loops

Multiple loops and release samples are provided for each sample. Triggered to play back randomly, this elaborate looping results in sustained notes of unmatched realism. The loops were calculated in a well-planned way, yielding both shorter and longer loops for each sample. Multiple release samples provide realistic, note-off-triggered pre-recorded reverberation for different lengths of notes. For example, a short note, with sound not fully developed will produce a different reverberation than a long sustained note. This quality is preserved in the sample library by providing multiple release sample layers.

Advanced Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The graphical interface of this organ was carefully modeled by employing hundreds of photographs and measurement in full 3D and the interface was implemented in a non-orthographical, perspective console view that is fully photo-realistic and operational at the same time. The keys move while you play, and every button responds appropriately to your actions. Both multiple- and single-screen operation is possible: the large number of stops can be operated conveniently from a wide choice of interface pages displayable on multiple touchscreens. Alternatively, convenient single screen operation is also provided.

Availability and shipping

Scots Pipe Organ Samples was released on 20 May 2014. The completely reprocessed Scots Pipe Organ Samples II is available from 24 June in download delivery.

Editions

Feature type	Feature	Trial Edition	Personal Edition
General features	Stops	16	64
	Keyboard compass (manual/pedal)	58/32	58/32
Acoustics	Multichannel format	stereo 2.0	stereo 2.0
	Available acoustics	church, organist	church, organist
	Adjustable microphone perspectives	*	*
Samples	Chromatically sampled
	Multiple loops
	Multiple releases
	Tremulants		LFO
	Engine noise optional
	Touch sensitive tracker noise
Graphics	Single touch screen support
	Multiple touch screen support
	All functions MIDI & GUI controllable
On-screen combination actions	General combinations
	General combination memory frames	256	256
	Divisional combinations
	Divisional combination memory frames	6	6
	PerformanceSequencer™, a combination action for organ settings
	Remembering sliders
Advanced features and helpers	Single-click keyboard to division assignment
	Additive crescendo and EasyCrescendo™ programming
	Programmable crescendo banks	4	4
	Dynamic KeyboardMass™ feature
Couplers	All coupler combinations with sub, super and unison off
	Pedal to manual couplers and splits
Swell	Swellboxes	2	2
	Swell pedals	3	3
	All divisions enclosed
Size	Download size (GB)	2.5	16.5
Delivery	Product delivery options	Download	Download

* distance control with a single slider that allows you to change the relative volumes of the stops

The free Trial Edition has a time-limited functionality of producing sound up to 15 minutes each time it is loaded, and disabling its sound output for a short time temporarily and occasionally within that period.

Highlighted features

• KeyboardMass™ functionality
  • The inertia of the mechanical tracker action is modeled, and adjustable, affecting the response speed of the pipe speech when a key is released and the pipe valve closes. You can make the keyboards feel very heavy by increasing the slider values, or extremely responsive by decreasing.
• Keyboard Assignment functionality
  • Even though you may have a different number of keyboards than the real instrument, with the keyboard assignment functionality you can map the keyboards of the instruments to your physical console setup with the ease of a mouse click. There is no need to use couplers as workarounds or complex configuration setups. Just a mouse click on the organ's virtual interface.
• Remembering sliders
  • As a convenience feature, all important sliders and function buttons in this organ will remember their last state when you re-load the instrument.

Additional features of the Personal Edition

In addition to the features of the original organ, the Personal Edition contains:

• Additional couplers
  • The Personal Edition provides all possible couplers for more flexibility and a bigger sound.
• Trompette Royal 8' shared stop on all divisions
  • The Trompette Royal stop is made available as a shared stop on all divisions allowing you the flexibility to use it without couplers.

Future editions

61-note extended compass, variable surround acoustics with longer reverberation and many additional features will be made available in future editions of the Scots Pipe Organ samples available as upgrades to current license owners.

The organ and the church

Until 1839 the church was a temporary wooden building at the west end of Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia. The present site of the church was obtained by Rev. James Forbes where the first church opened in 1841. The building was rebuilt in Decorated Gothic style, when a tower and spire was placed on the church in 1859.

The population of Melbourne was growing rapidly, so it was decided to build a new church in 1869, designed by the architects Reed & Barnes. The present church was opened in 1874. The exterior of the church was not significantly altered in the next century while the interior was reorganized in 1930, when the splendidly carved stone pulpit and reredos were replaced. The apse now contains a communion table, elders chairs and a wooden pulpit. The interior reflects simplicity and restraint in design and decoration.

The original organ was built by Mackenzie, Lee & Kaye in 1874. At the time, it was one of the two largest church organs in Australia, supplied with 3 manuals and 37 stops with barker lever and mechanical actions. Additional reed stops were supplied in 1883: the Great Trumpet 8' and Clarion 4', and Pedal Trombone 16'.

The instrument was rebuilt by George Finchman & Son in 1909. Into the original console was inserted a fourth manual along with new stops. The new division was an Echo Organ, with its pipes located above the south window and connected to the organ by electro-pneumatic action. The existing divisions also received additions included the Open Diapason 8' and a Wald Flute 8' to the Great Organ, and a wooden Violone 16' to the Pedal. It was further extended in 1959 with additional stops, conversion of the action to electro-pneumatic, and provision of a new detached drawstop console, with the couplers controlled by stopkeys. In 1992 many of the ranks were regulated and new Mixtures were inserted on the Great and the Swell. In 1999 this organ was removed and is now stored at the Bayswater factory of Wakeley Pipe Organs Pty Ltd.

The present pipe organ was built by Rieger Orgelbau in 1999-2000. The new case was designed in association with the Church’s Director of Music Douglas Lawrence OAM. The original cedar case was fitted with new tin facade pipes, and was raised and brought forward. The Pedal windchests were placed at the rear and sides of the instrument, the Positive behind the arcades, the Great centrally behind the facade pipes, and the Swell to the rear. The Echo division was divided on the two sides of the south window, and can be controlled by a single manual and pedal console, located with the pipework in the upper rear gallery. The main console is detached from the organ case. The drawstops of the four manuals are arranged on linear terraces. The present symphonic pipe organ has 4 manuals of 58 notes, 32-key pedalboard, 64 speaking stops of 3297 pipes, 10 couplers, 2 pistons and 3 tremolos with compass. Delivering the authentic sound of the Rieger pipe organ with a little English touch, it is one of the finest instruments on the continent.

Specification of the Rieger organ at Scots' Church, Melbourne

* The Trompette Royale 8' stop is directly accessible as a shared stop on other divisions as well in the Personal Edition.
** The Personal Edition of the virtual organ offers additional couplers, including transposing couplers, for more flexibility, on a dedicated Couplers page.
*** Pistons are special couplers that allows you to activate the divisional combination action's memory frames on both divisions simultaneously.

Specification of the Scots Pipe Organ Samples - Trial Edition

System requirements and recommendations

It is intended (and required) that the Scots Pipe Organ Samples be operated within Hauptwerk, a virtual pipe organ host software application (purchased separately). The Scots Pipe Organ Samples work with Hauptwerk V and later, and a valid license for Hauptwerk is required to load the organ.

For further information, please refer to Hauptwerk's detailed requirements on Hauptwerk's website.

Detailed RAM and polyphony guidelines

Hauptwerk loads all samples in the computer's RAM, with several loading options available according to your computer's specification. For wet sample sets offering built-in long reverberation, most of the RAM usage is due to the release samples. If you have convolution or other reverberation technology available, less RAM and polyphony will allow you to load and play the full organ. If you have more RAM, you can load the full organ with the release samples and enjoy the original sound. We recommend using Hauptwerk's built-in lossless memory compression to reduce the loading size. Below we have summarised the RAM requirements with their corresponding quality options.

RAM requirements for the Scots organ
Edition	Loading setup	Bits	Loops	Acoustics	Releases	Required RAM	Computer RAM*
Personal Edition
	Full organ, 64 stops	24	all	original	all	17.59 GB	24 GB
					single	14.44 GB	24 GB
					250 ms (all)	11.07 GB	16 GB
Recommended	Full organ, 64 stops	16	all	original	all	9.71 GB	16 GB
					single	8.08 GB	12 GB
For convolution reverb					120 ms (single)	5.96 GB	12 GB
Trial Edition
	All 16 stops	16	all	original	all	3.12 GB	6 GB

*The Required RAM column above is the memory requirement that also includes Hauptwerk*'s own memory consumption, so this represents the RAM the sample set and Hauptwerk* together will use, but some additional RAM may be required for the operating system itself, (not included in these figures). The measures were obtained on a Windows-based computer. The Computer RAM column shows a recommendation on the amount of RAM your computer should have as a minimum for a given loading setup assuming that some additional RAM is used by the operating system. This value might be different for each case so we recommend the maximum possible amount of RAM installable in your computer for this sample set, except if you are working with external reverberation or in a dry acoustic environment. Also note that on the Mac you may require more RAM in the computer than the value indicated above, due to the Mac OSX RAM allocation behaviour. Also note that Windows is capable of loading more content than your available RAM, loading (paging) the additional sample data to your hard drive, reading it once the sound is needed (played). In some cases this will cause glitches in the sound when played in real time since the hard drive is slower to access than the computer's RAM, but makes the full library usable in offline music composition and recording even if you do not have the required amount of RAM.

Licensing

Hauptwerk V platform

• iLok account and license is required for the operation of the sample set
• Internet connection required for license activation (one-time only)
• Activation Code issued by Inspired Acoustics upon your purchase to redeem and activate the sample set license via the PACE iLok License Manager software
• Downloading and installing the latest licensing package file from Milan Digital Audio

This sample set comes in an encrypted format compatible with Hauptwerk v5 and later and requires a PACE iLok license for the operation of the sample set.

For download delivery products, Inspired Acoustics will automatically and instantly set up the download access to your product after your purchase, and assign you a unique Activation Code that you can locate under My Products. Enter this Activation Code to the PACE iLok License Manager to redeem your license.

For retail box deliveries Inspired Acoustics will provide you with a unique Activation Code allowing you to access the downloads and updates to this product. The Activation Code can be found in the box in a printed form. This Activation Code is a unique license voucher for your product identifying your purchase and legitimate use, so please store it in a secure location.

Read more about the license update procedure for Hauptwerk v5 sample sets.

For migrations from previous Hauptwerk versions a one-time sample set migration procedure needs to be done once the previous version of Hauptwerk is upgraded to Hauptwerk V. An Activation Code is not required in this case since the license will automatically be downloaded to your iLok account during the migration process.

Modifications and customization

If you are planning a custom or commercial application that requires a different setup what this sample set offers out-of-the-box, please contact us for making a customized version for you. 

Modification or disassembling the contents of this sample set through the CODM interface of Hauptwerk is not supported since the variety of functions and the availability of the sample set's certain special features already offers most of the functions the CODM interface may offer. The complexity of the Organ Definition File shipping with this sample set is uniquely high and building custom variants requires a certain amount of special expertise. Legally, the end-user license of this sample set is permitting using the samples as a whole, as they ship.

Scots II Personal Edition

Scots II Upgrades to Personal Edition