New Swiss reseller. Small patches

12 January 2022

In the last time the sale to Swiss citizens was not possible due to tax problems in Switzerland. Now I have found a reseller, namely musicbase, run by Mr. Matthias Steiner. His website does not have a webshop, but you can order my sample sets from him by e-mail, phone 031 376 05 05 or via contact form. The prices are always calculated at the daily Euro conversion rate to Swiss Francs.

musicbase has been specializing in music computers and music software since 1994 and offers high quality, durable and exceptionally reliable Windows computers, specially optimized for audio applications and virtual instruments or applications like Hauptwerk, Cubase, Vienna Symphonic Library and many others.

With his many years of experience Matthias Steiner is also happy to help you with hardware or software problems as well as with the installation, be it via remote maintenance or on-site.

Patches

I also released a few small patches. As usual patches are listed at the bottom of each sample set webpage.

• Erfurt Bussleben (only GrandOrgue version) – There were some issues with pitch tuning, when using different than original temperament. You can download the most recent ODF from GrandOrgue versions page.
• Cracow, st. John Cantius (only GrandOrgue version) – Surprisingly celeste stops (Unda maris and Voix céleste) weren’t detuned before, as they should be.
• Święta Lipka – Some part of key and stop actions noises were independent from their master volume controls. Now it works as intended.

Winter sale

31 December 2021

I decided to organize a small winter sale. Every paid product costs 15% less until the end of January 2022. After the sale, some prices may be slightly raised due to the rising inflation.

Maybe the Christmas time is already over, however I would like to recommend you a wonderful not-only Christmas recital played on Nitra sample set by Ralph Looij https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AGbVl5Utzw and an another recital by Fraser Gartshore played on the Alessandria sample set https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UprMj1W5Ves . I hope you will like it.

I would like to wish you a Happy New Year!

Nitra sample set released

23 October 2021

Nitra sample set released

A new sample set is now available. It is a 30-stop organ built in 2016 by Kögler from Austria. It is located in Nitra city in Slovakia. The organ was built in a beautifully restored baroque organ case. The stops have charming, colorful voicing. The organ was presented by Richard McVeigh in this Youtube video. As usual I also prepared a video presentation of the organ capabilities. Here you can see the video. This time I invited Ralph Looij as a performer. He is a fantastic organ player and I strongly recommend visiting his Youtube channel.

Green Positiv update

I’ve updated the Green Positiv sample set. It is a small sample set with 5 stops (originally had 3), which may be suitable for a small portable positiv (with Hauptwerk or GrandOrgue system, speakers and MIDI keyboard). Now stop Kwinta 1 1/3′ isn’t anymore borrowed, so it is properly tuned and its volume can be now separately adjusted. I’ve added stop action noises to extension stops, fixed some faulty pipes, improved release handling and extended keyboard compass to 56 keys (from 51). There is no patch for this update. Please redownload the whole sample set. It is fairly small (around 700 MB).

Nancy update

I’ve also released a small update for Nancy. I’ve added crescendo disable switch (available from Organ settings/Organ Stop/Coupler/Tremulant switches menu). Disabled stops now have a darker look in Console and Jamb views for the greater difference between enabled and disabled state.

Small patch for Święta Lipka. Nitra release date

24 September 2021

I’ve just released a small patch for Święta Lipka sample set. It makes all Figuren noises independent from Blower and ambient volume control. It also fixes wrong order of enclosure images in the console view.

Nitra sample set will be released on October 23rd 2021.

Święta Lipka sample set released

12 August 2021

I hope you’re all fine after the holidays. I’m releasing a new sample set: Święta Lipka. This organ is quite well known, especially in Poland. It has a famous facade with moving figures. It is also a very interesting instrument, with many different colours, powerful tutti and a few toys to play with (Glockenspiel, Glocken, Zimbelstern, Nachtigall). The sample set also includes animations of the figures, these may stutter on less powerful CPUs, as Hauptwerk wasn’t designed for such features. I hope the sample set will bring you joy playing it.

I also released a small patch for Chorzów, św. Jadwiga Śląska sample set, which corrects two tremmed notes of Gedackt 8′.

Updates

8 June 2021

Updates

I’ve just released a big pack of updates. Now all of my multichannel sample sets have the detuning feature. The feature was added to:

• Saint-Jean-de-Luz (choeur)
• Erfurt Büßleben
• Oloron-Sainte-Marie
• Bégard
• Obervellach
• Chorzów św. Jadwiga Śląska
• Alessandria

Nancy sample set also received an update. I improved a bit release sample handling (the way how short notes sound). To hear the difference, you need to load the sample set with regeneration of cache. There are a few ways to do this. The easiest way is to select in Hauptwerk main menu: Organ/Load organ adjusting rank audio memory options … select the sample set and in the window which will appear, change any option and revert it back to the previous value. Hauptwerk will think something has changed and it will rebuild the cache file (which takes a while).

I also changed the behavior of 3 presets in the Settings tab in all mentioned sample sets. Now they also store the information about noise levels (key action, stop action, blower and ambient) and the level of detuning.

I’ve also updated all “big” downloads, so there is no need to install these updates (for people who started to download after receiving this message). I hope these updates will give you fun exploring some new sounds coming from the sample sets.

All updates can be found at the very bottom of webpages of each sample set.

Tutorials

I’ve noticed my previous message about upcoming tutorial videos had quite a big reception. I haven’t prepared any new tutorials yet. I plan to practice a bit with my English pronunciation and maybe try to prepare them with audio. I will see how it goes.

Święta Lipka

I plan to release it in the middle of July. I’m not sure yet if it is achievable.

Nancy sample set released!

29 May 2021

Nancy sample set released

The long-awaited sample set is now available. It is been a long journey, which finally reached the end. I hope it was worth it and the result will please you. A free demo version of the sample set includes 11 stops, as usual with all audio channels available.

The price of the full version is 699€ excluding taxes. This price is a sale price for one month. Later it will be 729€.

Joint project

The significant part of the income goes to Association pour le renouveau des orgues de la cathédrale de Nancy, which is responsible for non-profit cultural events taking place in the cathedral and organ renovation projects. It is also responsible for the project of the revival of the last original Cavaillé-Coll’s 16-stop organ as a choir organ in the cathedral. You can read more about this very interesting project at this website.

Tutorial videos

I plan to do a few tutorial videos to explain some rather basic aspects of Hauptwerk world. So far I’ve done one video explaining how to load only selected audio groups. I plan to make more videos on topics like: how to properly set the polyphony limit, how to set real-time priority for Hauptwerk to avoid CPU spikes, how to route different audio groups to different sound card outputs, how to hear different mix than is recorded etc. I will try to prepare them in my “free time”. I hope these videos will help some people to setup their configuration.

UK sales now possible. New web server. New payment methods

4 May 2021

UK sales now possible

After countless hours of work to fulfill all the requirements connected with UK VAT, Brexit, tax regulations etc. I finally gave up and decided to resell my sample sets via DHMidi-Organs. The sales won’t be as quick as before, but at least it is now possible and legal. I joined other vendors like SonusParadisi, Voxus or OrganArtMedia, which probably had no other choice as well. I hope the process will be smooth and convenient.

New web server

It’s been over a month since my website was moved to the new web server. It resulted in much better performance – especially download speeds. I hope thanks to this change, there won’t be any problems with the next sample set releases. Previously some of you reported the e-mails from my website weren’t delivered (like new order e-mails, password reset). It seems I solved this problem. Now you can also write to me using the more official e-mail: info@piotrgrabowski.pl This newsletter is also a test for the new mailing system (if you would like to unsubscribe, there is a link below this message).

New payment methods

A few weeks ago I added new payment methods. Now it is possible to pay directly by Credit Card, Bancontact (Belgium), Przelewy24 (Poland), SEPA Direct Debit, Sofort (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain), iDEAL (Netherlands), giropay (Germany), EPS (Austria), Multibanco (Portugal) and GooglePay. The payments are handled by a well-known and trusted Stripe company. I hope this will make purchasing a bit more convenient for some of you.

Nancy release date

The Nancy sample set will be released on May 29. As with the previous release (of Alessandria sample set), the sample set will have its premiere on a live stream on Richard’s McVeigh “Beauty in Sound” Youtube channel. One week before, May 22, he will perform Maurice Duruflé – Choral varié sur le thème du Veni Creator, so it will be possible to listen to the sample set earlier and get the first impressions.

Święta Lipka release date

I plan to release this sample set in the beginning of July.

Plans for next sample sets

So far I haven’t arranged any future recordings. It is also unsure what will be possible due to the coronavirus. Anyway I hope it will be fine and will record some interesting organs this year. I hope you’re staying healthy and optimistic in these difficult times.