Chapelet Spanish Collection

The two Spanish instruments presented in this sample set are part of the collection of Francis Chapelet at Montpon-Ménestérol. Both organs are placed in the Auditorium, which Chapelet built in the garden of his house.

The organ with the green paint comes from the former monastery of Mondoñedo in Galicia. It was built by an anonymous organ builder at the end of 17th century. It has been restored by Pierre Chéron in 1977. All the stops of the single manual are divided between middle c/c#. The pedal is permanently coupled to the lowest octave of the manual. The instrument has a short octave, which was made chromatic in the sample set. The Hauptwerk software is able to emulate the short octave, if desired.

The instrument with the brown facade was saved by Francis Chapelet from a ruinous church in Castilia. Chapelet bought the organ, and one week after it was moved out, the church's vault collapsed. It was an empty organ case—only the front pipes were preserved and one of the windchests. The front carving bears the date 1736. Gerhard Grenzing restored the instrument in 1978 and enlarged it to allow for a wider repertoire. The organ has two manuals with a chromatic compass, and a full pedal of 30 keys.

The temperament found during the recording was similar to Werckmeister III.

Since both the instruments share the same room, it seemed appealing to put both together into one single sample set. In this way, it is possible to play a duet from a single console, where the lowest two manuals may serve for the Castilian organ, and a third keyboard can host the Galician organ. It is possible, for example, to send the Castilian organ ranks to the speakers positioned left, while sending the audio output of the Galician organ to the right positioned speakers (or using the front and rear speakers in similar manner), emulating the original placement of the instruments at the opposite walls of the auditorium. The pedal can be operated from a single pedal board, especially because the Galician organ has no dedicated pedal stops. To allow for switching the pedal board between organs for a double choir performance, a pedal coupler was added to the Galician organ. When it is desired to play the Castilian instrument only, the pedal coupler of the Galician organ must be off, so that no stops of the Galician organ are heard in the pedal.

Many thanks to Francis Chapelet for allowing us to capture the sound of his Spanish organs!

The link to the Francis Chapelet Collection: www.montpon-les-orgues.fr

The samples are offered in 48kHz/24bit resolution. The multiple releases have three levels: short, mid and long. Hauptwerk v4.2 and higher supported, including HW 5. The sample set is in plain wave format, no encryption.

Reverb time

The reverb time is ca. 2 seconds. Although the organs were recorded with its natural acoustics, the original room is excessively dry.  It is a good idea to add some digital reverb to the sample set.

Keyboards, pedalboard

The original compass of the Castilian organ keyboards is 51 keys (C-d3). The original compass of the Galician organ is 45 keys (C-c3) with the short bass octave. The compass was virtually extended to match the compass of the Castilian organ in the sample set.

The original compass of the Castilian organ pedal division is 27 keys (C-f1). The original compas of the Galician organ is one octave, permanently coupled to the manual. The pedal can be detached from the manual in the sample set by means of an added pedal coupler.

Tremulants

The Tremblant is made using the Hauptwerk tremulant model. There are no sampled tremmed ranks.

Requirements

RAM consumption: 4 channels (direct+diffuse)

  • 16-bit, other settings default: 4.6 GB
  • 20-bit, other settings default: 8.1 GB (recommended)
  • 24-bit, other settings default: 9.3 GB

Screen resolution 1280x1024 px or more.

Polyphony of 2000 voices recommended.

Channel format - recording perspectives

The sample set offers two recording perspectives. The direct channels were recorded close to the pipes, offering a good portion of the direct pipe sound. The diffuse audio channels were recorded far from the organ, allowing for more room resonances and reverb. These two pairs of ranks can either be mixed together to achieve any listening position between the two extremes, or used separately - depending on the prefererences of the user. A dedicated "mixing desk" is available in Hauptwerk to mix the sound to the desired level (see screenshots).

The Specification

 

A
1. Castilian Organ      
 Positiv C–d3        
Violon 8'
Tapadillo 4'
Flautin 2'
Nasardo 1 1/3'      
Cimbala II
Viejas 8'
   
Pedal C–f1        
Contras 16'      
Contras 8'
Octava 4'
Corno 2'
   
   
A
2. Castilian Organ      
Great C–d3        
Flautado 8'
Octava 4'
Docena 2 2/3'
Quincena       2'
Nasardo 1 3/5'      
Lleno III
Trompeta 8'
Clarin 4'/8'
   
   
   
   
   
   
B
3. Galician Organ Cd3      
All stops divided between middle c/c#      
Flautado 8'
Octava 4'
Docena 2 2/3'
Quincena 2'
Decinovena       1 1/3'      
Lleno III
Trompeta/Corneta 8'
Bajoncillo/Clarin 4'-8'
Dulziana 8'
   

Couplers:

  • I/II; III/II; II/P, III/P

Accessories:

  • Tremblant.

 

 

Screenshots

 

 

Console view:

This is the general console view. It serves to define the keyboard MIDI inputs for all the divisions. The active part of this view are the manuals, the pedal, and the stops. Specifying the MIDI inputs is done by right-clicking on the desired manual or pedal.
The drawstops can be engaged/disengaged by clicking/touching them. By right-clicking, MIDI switch can be attached to any of them.
The instrument on the left side of the window is the Castilian organ, with two manuals and a pedal. The manuals have the numbers I and II. The instrument on the right side of the window is the Galician organ with a single keyboard, and a small pedalboard. The single keyboard forms the third manual of the sample set (III). Both pedals may be attached to a single pedalboard, since the Galician organ has no dedicated pedal stops and it can be disconnected from the manual by means of an added coupler.

 

 

 

Mixer view:

The virtual listening position is adjusted here. Dragging the sliders downwards means to come closer to the pipes (more direct sound), dragging them up means going away from the organ into the church nave. The mixer settings can be stored, retrieved, reset. 3 different mixer settings can be stored/recalled any time. The blower switch should be always on. When off, the wind to the organ will stop and there will be no sound.

 

 

 

 

Left+Right Jambs view:

All the stops and other controls of the organ can be found here. Physical pistons or MIDI switches can be assigned to a virtual button on screen by right-clicking the button. The layout for dual touch screens. The design allows for portrait or landscape orientation, according to the orientation of the touch screens. The left jamb is dedicated to the Castilian organ, while the right jamb is dedicated to the Galician organ.

 

 

 

Left + Right Jambs Vertical view:

the dual stop jambs offer vertical (portrait) orientation as an alternative.

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Jamb:

simplified version of a single jamb to allow for more readable version of the stop names on small LCD touch screens. There are two variants: landscape and portrait. All the stops of the organ can be found here. Physical pistons or draw stops can be assigned to a virtual button on screen by right-clicking on the button.

 

  1. Chapelet Spanish Collection, vol. 1

    Spanish instruments from Chapelet Auditorium, 4 channels, plain wave format (no encryption). Minimum Hauptwerk version: 4.2. (Also works in all higher versions.).
    Price: Excl. Tax: €0.00 Incl. Tax *: €0.00 Excl. Tax

    Detail & order

  2. Chapelet Spanish Collection, vol. 2

    Spanish instruments from Chapelet Auditorium, 4 channels, plain wave format (no encryption). Install the Volume 1 first! Minimum Hauptwerk version: 4.2. (Also works in all higher versions.)
    Price: Excl. Tax: €68.00 Incl. Tax *: €82.28 Excl. Tax

    Detail & order