Charles-Marie Widor - Toccata from the Fifth Organ Symphony

[OrganNLou]

You should try "Hauptwerk" a software based organ system

[kreutzbach]

@OrganNLou

Yes, of course, Hauptwerk is a powerful interface, now required by most off-the-shelf virtual organs. But I use NDB Full Edition and it runs only under GS3, so I had to build my own software interface to play it live. NDB is still IMHO the best symphonic organ library available, with clear sound and great ambience. If you compare the Widor Toccata played on the new Matyas pipe organ samples (under Hauptwerk) and the performance of this post you can appreciate the difference.

[drbobdrake]

@kreutzbach Your posted performances are indistinguishable from a real pipe organ, according to my ear. Congratulations. The dry Matyas Hauptwerk sample does not compare. However, now that GS3 and 4 have been discontinued, how does one use NDB, resuming you can still buy NDB? The "news" on the NDB (organa.org) website ends in 2005!

[kreutzbach]

@drbobdrake Many thanks for the compliment! To answer your questions: 1) Gigastudio has been purchased last year by Garritan, so there are hopes that they come out soon with a new and better product compatible with the old sample sets. 2) You can still buy NDB library from the old website, but for now only in Kontakt format. 3) For my recordings I didn’t use the off-the-shelf NDB directly, but I worked a bit on the sounds. Glad to share some technical details if you are interested.