E-Mu Emulator Pipe Organ Sample?

[Polkahero]

Finally figured out that David Rosenthal used an E-mu Emulator for the pipe organ sound on the intro to Rainbow's "Can't Let You Go".  This sampler only had 2 KB of memory!  Only pipe organ sample I've heard that comes close is the Sanctuary preset in my Alesis QSR module.  How could they come up with such a realistic sample whereas most of  today's ROMpler offerings fall short?

 

 

[mate stubb]

That's 128kb of memory, not 2kb. About 2 seconds worth. Very short loops and lots of sample stretching!

[Radagast]

It helps if the person doing the sampling loves pipe organs and knows what they sound like.

[D. Gauss]

8 bit sampling! 5 inch floppies!  We had the Emulator II at a studio i used to work at waaay back in the day. We'd gotten a bit of cash from working with New Order and boom! 9K dollars later, an Emulator II appeared.  It turned out to be a cash cow for the studio. Every artist that came in wanted to use it ("we want to use what new order uses"), and then they would spend crazy amounts of time trying to figure out how, while the studio clock was tick-tocking away at an insane hourly rate. Ca-ching!

 

for those youngsters who have no idea what this beast is/was, this'll help in 3 parts:

 

 

 

 

[The Piano Man]

12 hours ago, Polkahero said:

Finally figured out that David Rosenthal used an E-mu Emulator for the pipe organ sound on the intro to Rainbow's "Can't Let You Go".  This sampler only had 2 KB of memory!  Only pipe organ sample I've heard that comes close is the Sanctuary preset in my Alesis QSR module.  How could they come up with such a realistic sample whereas most of  today's ROMpler offerings fall short?

 

 

Totally agree. Pipe organs are a sadly overlooked instrument in almost all keyboards these days. There are a few notable exceptions which I have subjectively ordered with “best” first:

Viscount

Hammond

Nord

Dexibell

 

Technics had decent pipe organ samples when they were in the game

[Mills Dude]

Had an Emax for while in the late 80's.  It probably had the same sample set from the E II.  I remember the pipe organ sample to me sounded excellent.  My church at the time had a 26 rank pipe organ -- https://pipeorgandatabase.org/instruments/59809#stoplists.  While I thought the Emax sample was very convincing, the music/choir director who cranked that real pipe organ up every Sunday wasn't convinced.  That thing could shake the neighborhood.

 

Pipe organs have very quick attack, no decay and little to no modulation, so short looped samples can do the trick quite well.  The real trick, as stated, is capturing it properly and the fact that each installation sounds different.

[Radagast]

7 hours ago, The Piano Man said:

Totally agree. Pipe organs are a sadly overlooked instrument in almost all keyboards these days. There are a few notable exceptions which I have subjectively ordered with “best” first:

Viscount

Hammond

Nord

Dexibell

 

Technics had decent pipe organ samples when they were in the game

Have to disagree with the ranking.   I think Dexibell does pipe organ sounds better then Hammond.

 

Which Viscount model has great pipe organ sounds?

[Polkahero]

5 hours ago, Mills Dude said:

Had an Emax for while in the late 80's.  It probably had the same sample set from the E II.  I remember the pipe organ sample to me sounded excellent.  My church at the time had a 26 rank pipe organ -- https://pipeorgandatabase.org/instruments/59809#stoplists.  While I thought the Emax sample was very convincing, the music/choir director who cranked that real pipe organ up every Sunday wasn't convinced.  That thing could shake the neighborhood.

 

Pipe organs have very quick attack, no decay and little to no modulation, so short looped samples can do the trick quite well.  The real trick, as stated, is capturing it properly and the fact that each installation sounds different.

 

I play a 26 rank tracker organ at one of my churches but it doesn't sound "big" like this sample.  Really curious which pipe organ they sampled for this sound.

[The Piano Man]

22 hours ago, Radagast said:

Have to disagree with the ranking.   I think Dexibell does pipe organ sounds better then Hammond.

 

Which Viscount model has great pipe organ sounds?

Cantorum series.

[David Emm]

On 2/25/2024 at 11:43 AM, Mills Dude said:

Pipe organs have very quick attack, no decay and little to no modulation, so short looped samples can do the trick quite well.  The real trick, as stated, is capturing it properly and the fact that each installation sounds different.

 

Hear hear! Exactly right. That sound has Zelensky-sized balls. 🤯

 

Polkahero makes a solid point about the tracker he played. I've had the pleasure, too, so I know he's on the mark. The experience is one thing for the organist in that great command center and another for the audience.

 

Then there's that third grail of the E-mu sample. Boy, does E-mu still stand as the best samplists their era of instruments had. I had a pair of Proteii and still possess their unique Planet Earth module. I also have several sample volumes from Digital Sound Factory, including Planet Phatt and Virtuoso, their full orchestra module. On one hand, they have their 'dusty' aspects, showing their age sonically and stylistically. On the other, they're still clarity on the hoof. Even now, those sounds are marvels of savvy sampling.

[MushMusic]

Is anyone running Hauptwerk?

 

I have it for gigs on laptops as a plugin hosted by Cantabile, with effects.  

 

Also run it on PC for both my studios as standalone.  The one in the organ studio is hooked to an analog 3 manual drawknob Rodgers with a MIDI interface added. The synth studio one is just added via MIDI to hardware synths and has an extra push controller for presets.

 

 

[Mighty Motif Max]

34 minutes ago, MushMusic said:

Is anyone running Hauptwerk?

 

I have it for gigs on laptops as a plugin hosted by Cantabile, with effects.  

 

Also run it on PC for both my studios as standalone.  The one in the organ studio is hooked to an analog 3 manual drawknob Rodgers with a MIDI interface added. The synth studio one is just added via MIDI to hardware synths and has an extra push controller for presets.

 

 

I used to run a basic Hauptwerk setup (back when they had the free edition in Version 4), but I now have a digital Baldwin D421A that is sufficiently nice-sounding for my needs. On the other hand, it does have full midi capability, so the option is always there. I just don't feel like shelling out the $$ for the current versions of Hauptwerk and some additional sample sets (and the laptop that I ran V4 Free on is long gone). Once they removed the more affordable options, it became too much of a specialty item for me to invest in.

[Radagast]

7 hours ago, The Piano Man said:

Cantorum series.

But that’s a dedicated classical organ keyboard.  I would like to see a variety of good pipe organ sounds in regular keyboards.

[Polkahero]

3 hours ago, MushMusic said:

Is anyone running Hauptwerk?

 

I have it for gigs on laptops as a plugin hosted by Cantabile, with effects.  

 

Also run it on PC for both my studios as standalone.  The one in the organ studio is hooked to an analog 3 manual drawknob Rodgers with a MIDI interface added. The synth studio one is just added via MIDI to hardware synths and has an extra push controller for presets.

 

 

I played a concert on a Hauptwerk setup and wasn't that impressed but that was 10 years ago.  I'm sure their sampling is much better now.

[Moonglow]

Enjoyed using that pipe organ back when I had an E-Max. The program contained a demo song, Bach’s Toccata in D minor, which my band would sometimes use as an intro when we took the stage. Definitely rattled the room.

[Doerfler]

On 2/24/2024 at 9:12 PM, Polkahero said:

How could they come up with such a realistic sample whereas most of  today's ROMpler offerings fall short?

 

Can't answer this question, but I was playing this last evening, bought it on sale recently as I did not have a sampled pipe organ available to myself.

It's a  1906 Harrison Pipe Organ  sampled at All Saints Church, greater London England area

Works for my needs/wants. Will work in Kontakt player (free)

https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/35-rare-and-unique/g67-all-saints-organ/

 

 

[ABECK]

The Genuine Soudware Gemini has a nice modelled Pipe organ.  It sounds great to me, but I don't have enough real knowledge of pipe-organs to rate its authenticity.

 

"...we chose to offer a Baroque-style organ based on a single manual and 9 stops plus 3 couplers and the classic "tremulant" effect. This synth engine works as an hybrid synthesizer, uses additive synthesis and physical modeling, there are no samples involved. The expression pedal responds naturally and varies the amount of air that passes through the pipes. There is a total of 776 virtual pipes."

 

https://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=43

[Polkahero]

If anyone is interested, I transcribed the song's intro in Musictime.  It's not rhythmically accurate because he improvised it in the studio but all the notes are there.