Hauptwerk audio demos

J.S. Bach, Toccata in D Minor (BWV 565) Played live by Fabio Mancini (MP3, 3.9 MB, no additional effects). This spectacular piece by Bach gives an idea of the 'full organ' sound that can be produced by Hauptwerk using a top-quality sample set. This is a 'wet' sample set, with the original room acoustic recorded into the samples to reproduce the experience of playing the organ in its original building with incredible realism. Wet sample sets are suitable for playing in an acoustically-dry environment, such as at home or on headphones. In particular, note how the original room acoustic responds naturally whether short or long notes are played due to the use of multiple release samples in this sample set, combined with Hauptwerk's advanced and unique release sample handling mechanisms.

Widor, Symphonie Romane, Movement I Played live by Brett Milan (MP3, 10.5 MB, no additional effects). This is a another 'wet' sample set, this time of a big symphonic organ, giving the experience of playing the organ in its original acoustic. In this piece you can hear Hauptwerk's swell box model in action.    Vogt, Siciliano Played live by David Lines (MP3, 4.4 MB, no additional effects). This piece gives an example of Hauptwerk's tremulant model for a classical organ.    Widor, Symphonie No. 1, Meditation Played live by David Lines (MP3, 5.0 MB, no additional effects). A very soft beautiful piece showing some solo stops.

Kalmar/Ruby, Who's Sorry Now? Played live by Jelani Eddington of RJE Productions (MP3, 3.6 MB, live acoustic).    Strauss, Die Fledermaus, arr. Jelani Eddington Played live by Jelani Eddington of RJE Productions (MP3, 17.4 MB, live acoustic). Here's an example of Hauptwerk running a large 'dry' theatre organ sample set, played by one of the world's top theatre organists. Hauptwerk's multi-channel audio facilities were used to distribute ranks and pipes amongst multiple speakers installed in a large room, and a stereo microphone was used to record the result live in the room. Dry sample sets have no room acoustic recorded into the samples and so are suitable for playing in reverberant listening environments. Of course, tremulants are critical to the success of any theatre organ and this piece shows how Hauptwerk performs at modelling theatre organ tremulants.

From this moment on Played live by Jelani Eddington of RJE Productions (MP3, 3.4 MB, additional reverb added). Hear Hauptwerk modelling a small WurliTzer theatre organ. Hauptwerk's multi-channel audio output capabilities were used to play this sample set in a virtual theatre acoustic. If you want to listen to dry sample sets at home you would usually need to add additional reverb, as in this demo. Note that Hauptwerk does not currently have a built-in reverb processor, so you need to use external hardware or software reverb for home use.

J.S. Bach, Prelude in C (excerpt) Played live by David Lines (MP3, 0.9 MB, no additional effects). This is a short clip from another 'wet' sample set, this time from a historic baroque organ.    J.S. Bach, Prelude in F (excerpt) Played live by David Lines (MP3, 0.8 MB, no additional effects).

Telemann, Christ lag in Todesbanden (excerpt) Played live by David Lines (MP3, 0.7 MB, no additional effects). Another short clip from another 'wet' sample set from a historic baroque organ. In this demo you can clearly hear the 'wobble' in the sound of the pipes imparted by Hauptwerk's wind supply model, which uses physical modelling to model the movement of air through the organ's wind supply. [Note that the wind supply model is only available in the Advanced Edition of Hauptwerk, and is not available in the U.S.A.]    J.S. Bach, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (excerpt) Played live by David Lines (MP3, 1.3 MB, no additional effects). Here again you can hear the effects of the wind supply model, as well as a very gentle baroque tremulant.

1907 Brindley & Foster (Sheffield) organ, included with Hauptwerk.

J.S. Bach, Fantasia in G Minor (BWV 542) Played live by Brett Milan of Milan Digital Audio (MP3, 8.4 MB, no additional effects). This piece demonstrates the St. Anne's, Moseley organ sample set included with Hauptwerk. The Kirnberger III temperament was used, and the piece culminates with a few bars of the St. Anne's full organ. To demonstrate that you don't need a particularly expensive computer to get very big sounds from Hauptwerk, this recording was made in on a PC with a low-cost 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor and 1.5 GB of memory.