The organs

Two symphonic organs from two Hungarian cathedrals were recorded together with their acoustical environment.
Hungary's most famous church, propably one of the main symbols of the capital, Budapest, the Notre Dame de Buda (The Church of the Blessed Virgin or commonly known as Matthias-Church) has a huge 99-stop Rieger-Kloss organ. This is one of the biggest organs in Hungary and together with its Choir Organ (Fernwerk), it really is the biggest: it has 104 stops all together.

The second instrument sampled, Notre Dame de Kispest (Church of Our Lady, Kispest) has a brilliant 38-stop Varga organ, which sounds uniquely symphonic. It has many stops that are known as the most beautiful ones in the country.

Key features of NDB Pipe Organ Samples, the difference of the several editions

Full Edition, Looped Edition

• The Full Edition and the Looped of NDB Pipe Organ Samples, made for the professionals contains 62 stops, pre-recorded combinations and sound effects from the symphonic organs. All of its more than 3000 samples are in 48 kHz/24 bit format, downsampled from the original 96 kHz/32 bit, in which the recordings and post processing took place. Every sample of the Full Edition in the manuals (keyboards) has a length of about 30 seconds or more, while the pedal notes are full minute long; the samples contain no loops to achieve the ultimate reality. All sound transients, like sounds of the valves of the pipes or the windchest activity could be heard together with the natural reverb of the cathedrals - without any additional noise. Key features include the realtime controllable swellbox, tremolo and crescendo effects and the natural cathedral ambience achieved in two different ways: by impulse responses of the cathedrals and by release triggers. You can always choose the method best fits your music, or even use them together. Every important combination and stop was recorded on the organs to allow performing almost every part of the pipe organ literature.

Compact Edition

• The Compact Edition of the library contains the basic stops and combinations you need for pipe organ music and orchestral arrangements in an affordable solution. The Compact Edition is available for both versions of GigaStudio. All samples are in 48 kHz, 24 bit. As in the Full Edition, the natural cathedral ambience is implemented by release triggered samples and impulse responses. Crescendos, tremolos and swellbox effects are not implemented in the Compact Edition. NDB CE ships on 1 DVD. Kontakt 2 version comes with looped samples. Please check below for the detailed contents.

Special features - in general

NDB Pipe Organ Samples have lots of pioneer special features, which are uniqe in the sampling industry, and were never available before.

Swellbox

The swellbox is wooden box in the pipe organ case with a pedal-controllable shutter from the organ console, containing some stops in it. Opening or closing the swellbox will increase and decrease the sound level of the pipe organ. A swellbox is a main compontent of a symhopnic organ, because it incresases the dynamic range of the insturment.
First in the world, NDB Pipe Organ Samples implemets this function, realtime controllable. The effect works on the stops, which were originally located in the swell box. We implemeted this function by adjusting the expression pedal (expression controller), because this looks very much the same as it is in the real pipe organ.
Also, as a special GigaStudio 3 feature, the swellbox is available as a GigaPulse plugin so that it can be applied to any stop or combination as an insert effect. This exceptional feature make you feel like you are playing the real organ.

Crescendo pedal

The crescendo pedal, an essential function in pipe organs, is a feature of NDB Pipe Organ Samples, first in the world, realtime controllable. The crescendo function, which very much sounds like a crescendo pedal, is implemented by gradual use of characteristic stops. It is again controllable by the 'foot controller' MIDI controller pedal.

Tremolo

The tremolo is also a well-known effect used on quite stops for creating a more beautiful sound. Measuring the tremolo machine's parameters in the organs allowed us to implement this function as well. Also realtime controllable by a MIDI controller.

Reverb

Release samples

The natural reverb of the organ sound in the cathedrals were captured after each note. The reverb is stored in release samples, and are played back, when you finish playing a note. This sounds very realistic. The amount of the reverb of a stop or combination can be freely adjusted - again realtime - and even can be turned off, in case you want to add your own ambience. All of NDB Editions is capable of this effect.

Impulse response reverbs

The natural reverb of an acoustic space could be represented by its impulse response. We measured carefully the impulse responses of both cathedrals in several microphone setups, which allows you to add these natural reverbs to any desired source of audio. The reverb is stored in these impulse responses, and are calculated by GigaStudio each time a note is played back, so nothing could sound more realistic. The amount of the reverb (the distance of the listener from the organ) can be freely adjusted - again realtime - and even can be turned off, in case you want to add a different ambience than of the real one.

The combinations and stops of NDB Pipe Organ Samples

The list below shows the stops and combinations of the library together with their availability in the different editions of NDB. The User's Guide shipping with the library - and available for download on the Support site -, contains detailed registration information and usage recommendations.

Combinations on the manual		availability		audition
from Notre Dame de Buda
:: Anches 16' 8' 4' (Récit)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Anches 16' 8' 4' (all manuals)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Brustwerk Plenum		Full, Looped Edition
:: Brustwerk Tutti		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 16' 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 16' 8' 4'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' (Positiv)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' (all manuals)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' (Positiv)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' (all manuals)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' + Mixtures 5x1		Full, Looped, Compact Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' + Mixtures 5x1, 5x2 + Trompete 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' + Scharff		Full, Looped, Compact Edition		free download
:: Fonds 16' 8' 4' + Quint		Full Looped, Compact Edition		free download
:: Flute traversiére 8' + Bourdon á cheminée 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Flutes 8' + Bourdon á ch. 8' + Gemshorn 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Flutes 8' + Bourdon á ch. 8' + Gemshorn 8' + Rohrflöte 4'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Gemshorn 8' + Nachthorn 8' + Rohrflöte 4'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Sesquialtera		Full Looped, Compact Edition
:: Tutti + Chamade 8'		Full, Looped Edition		see the full demos
from Notre Dame de Kispest
:: Anches 16' 8' 4'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 16' 8' 4'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' + Unda Maris		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' + Bassoon Hautbois + Mixtures G.		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' + Bassoon Hautbois + Mixtures P.		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' 2' + Mixtur 5x7		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' 2' + Mixtures (Grand-Orgue)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 8' 4' 2' + Mixtures (Positive)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Tutti		Full, Looped Edition
Stops on the manual
from Notre Dame de Buda
:: Basson 16'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Chamade 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Clairon 4'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Gedackt 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Glocken		Full, Looped Edition
:: Hautbois 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Krummhorn 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Octave 1'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Praestant 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Principal 8' (Positive)		Full, Looped, Compact Edition
:: Principal 8' (Récit)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Trompete Harmonique 8'		Full, Looped, Compact Edition
:: Voix Humaine 8'		Full, Looped, Compact Edition		free download
from Notre Dame de Kispest
:: Bourdon 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Clarinette 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Cornet		Full, Looped Edition
:: Flute Harmonique 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Trompete 8'		Full, Looped Edition
:: Voix Céleste 8'		Full, Looped Edition
Combinations and stops on the pedal
from Notre Dame de Buda
:: Fonds 16' Ped.		Full, Looped, Compact Edition
:: Fonds 16' 8' Ped.		Full Edition
:: Fonds 16' 8' 4' + Quint Ped.		Full, Looped, Compact Edition
:: Fonds 32' Ped.		Full, Looped Edition
:: Plenum + Posaune 16' Ped.		Full, Looped Edition
:: Plenum + Bassoon 16' Ped.		Full, Looped, Compact Edition
:: Subbass 16' Ped.		Full, Looped Edition
:: Tutti Ped.		Full, Looped Edition		see the full demos
:: Violon 16' Ped.		Full, Looped Edition
from Notre Dame de Kispest
:: Fonds 16' 8' 4' 2' + Mixtures (Pedal)		Full, Looped Edition
:: Tutti Ped.		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 16' 8' 4' + Bombarde 16' Ped.		Full, Looped Edition
:: Fonds 16' 8' (Subbass 16')		Full, Looped Edition
Special effects
:: Crescendos on both organs		Full, Looped Edition
:: Both organ engines		Full, Looped Edition
:: Bells of both cathedrals		Full, Looped Edition
:: Registration noises		Full, Looped Edition
:: Organ turn-on and turn-off sounds from Notre Dame de Kispest		Full, Looped Edition
:: Organ turn-on and turn-off sounds from Notre Dame de Buda		Full, Looped Edition
:: Sounds of the inner cathedral, steps		Full, Looped Edition
:: Setting up the microphones		Full, Looped Edition
Measured Impulse Responses		Full, Looped Edition
:: NDB Cathedral 1 (world's first true 7-channel, 5-channel and stereo cathedral reverb for GigaStudio)		Full, Looped Edition
:: NDB Cathedral 2 (stereo cathedral reverb)		Full, Looped Edition
:: NDB Swellbox (scientifically measured GigaPulse plugin)		Full, Looped Edition

About the recording process

Notre Dame de Budapest Pipe Organ Samples were recorded using the highest quality microphones and sound card, recorded directly to PC. The 96 kHz sampling frequency and the 32-bit (float) bitdepth allowed us to reach yet unheard sound quality in pipe organ samples. Because the church is far from being a low-noise sound studio, the files were edited and denoised using every note's own noiseprint with extreme care. The impulse responses of both cathedrals were also measured. More details could be found in the User's Guide at our Support site, on the DVD, and at the Philosophy section below.

To learn more about the recordings, the library and this sound sampling project, please check our Philosophy.

We wish to thank all NDB Users for supporting these organs by their purchase.