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1893 Steere Sample set Released!

Console

We are proud to announce the release of the 1893 J.W. Steere organ in the First Baptist Church of Owatonna, Minnesota. It has a long and interesting history – the organ was installed with funds donated by the famous Pillsbury family, and has served the church for nearly 130 years.

The instrument is a typical small parish instrument of that era, with plenty of 8′ tone, lots of options for color, and built sturdily to work and last with minimal maintenance. Also notable is the fact that the organ is mostly original and intact – it does have an electric blower, but one can still see the controls for the original water machine and there is still a stop knob to signal the bellows, hearkening back to the days of manual pumping.

The organ is still used for weekly services, and is in remarkably good condition considering its age. We sampled in 96kHz/24 bit, and downsampled to 48/24 after noise reduction was complete.

This continues our series of historic American organs – we are grateful to church organist Drew Meyer and the church board for allowing us to digitally preserve the sound of this organ for the future. Do note a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the sample set will go back to the church.

 

To order a copy of this historic organ go HERE

Introductory price $89, and includes a complimentary free organ – a small instrument on the Concordia University Irvine campus.  The instrument was a home organ which was donated to Concordia University and came to the university in 2019.  It sits in the university’s new Zhang Concert Hall.

 

Gedeckt 168 73 pipes
Principal 84 73 pipes
Gemshorn 84 73 pipes
Rohrfloete 2 61 pipes
Larigot 36 pipes (from tenor A sharp.  Bottom is from the Principal)
Mixture II 56 notes/112 pipes
Krummhorn 168 68 notes
Due to the unification, there are no couplers, but the manual controls essentially encompass all that’s available on all three keyboards.
Zhang Hall organ
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Announcing the organs of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles

Evensong is pleased to announce the imminent release of the organs of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles. Immanuel Presbyterian is one of the great churches on Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles, California. The main church seats over 2000 people. There are three organs on the campus. A 1929 4 manual EM Skinner (Op 676), a 1956 3 manual Schlicker (the first three manual Schlicker to be installed in Southern California), and a 2 manual 1977 Hradetzky tracker action instrument. A history of the church is available at https://immanuelpres.org/history/

Unfortunately, due to significant demographic changes since its heyday in the mid 20th Century, the instruments have fallen into disrepair, and the church is serving its community in ways that don’t involve these fine instruments. We are happy to be able to have preserved them using this platform. All three of these instruments are available as one set from Evensong.

Clarence Mader was the organist at Immanuel Presbyterian from 1929 through 1966. He presided over

Clarence Mader @ the Console

the then brand new EM Skinner organ, and over the installation of the 1956 Schlicker in the Westminster chapel on the campus. The Schlicker was Clarence Mader’s primary teaching instrument. The Hradetzky organ was donated in memory of Clarence Mader in 1977. The Hradetzky instrument was one of three instruments of similar size made by Hradetzky at about the same time for installations in Southern California. The other two Hradetzky instruments are at UCLA and UC Irvine.

The Skinner is our first 6-channel set, and the sounds are very rich as a result – one may adjust the sliders of direct, ambient and remote to “dial in” your preferred sound. While the space does not have a cathedral reverb, the 6 channels do give a very good impression of the space, and help to capture the reverb of 2~3 seconds. The two chapel instruments are in very dry, small rooms, and so were only each sampled in a single perspective – they do respond very well to a little reverb added via the HW convolution reverb feature. We are releasing all 3 organs together as a package deal – a portion of the proceeds will go back to help the church. A special 2-week introductory price of $399 is available to those who are subscribed to our newsletter before the April 4 release date – subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/hioiaz After the introductory period, the price will rise to $429, and the order page will be made available to the general public.
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PPC IV/111 Aeolian-Skinner Release and Black Friday Sale

Facade

We are pleased to announce the release of the IV/111 Aeolian-Skinner op. 1131-A at Pasadena Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, CA.  We are privileged to have been allowed to sample such a fine instrument, one of the few Aeolian-Skinners that is largely unmodified from its original state.  During the introductory period, which will run concurrent with our Black Friday Sale, the set will sell for $299, after that the price will rise to $349.

Our Black Friday sale begins when this post goes public, and runs through Cyber Monday, November 30, 2020. Several of our sample sets will be on sale at reduced prices during this time, so be sure to stop by and check them out!

The Pasadena Presbyterian introductory price is over, but the rest of our sets are still on sale for the holidays. Enjoy!

Best wishes, and enjoy!

 

Jonathan Orwig and Charlie Raasch

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Trinity Georgetown 1925 EM Skinner Release and Fall BOGO

Console

We’re pleased to release the Trinity Georgetown organ, a 1925 E.M. Skinner organ, one of the finest of its era. The instrument went through a five-year renovation and expansion program between 1995 and 2000.  This historic instrument was originally installed in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress until it was brought to Holy Trinity in 1955. Contracts were signed in 1995 with the Lively-Fulcher Organ Company to rebuild/refurbish and enlarge the instrument.

  • In the summer of 1996, the company replaced the failing wind chests of the great and choir divisions of the organ. The swell and pedal wind chests were in good repair.
  • In the fall of 1997, Lively-Fulcher revoiced and tonally regulated the entire instrument, which over the years, had been worked on and added to by various organ builders. The work brought the organ into one cohesive tonal ensemble.
  • In the summer of 1999, a much-needed new console was installed. This new console had the stop preparations for the additions that were to come.
  • Finally, in the spring of 2000, those additions became a reality. Included were five new stops to the pedal division including a full-length 32′ pedal reed, and a Walker digital 32′ Bourdon. Other additions included a 4′ reed on the swell, a 16′ Bourdon on the Great, a Tierce on the choir and a solo “Festive Trumpet”.

This sample set was recorded in 24 bit 96kHz, all noise reduction was done at the high resolution before converting to 24/48 for Hauptwerk

We are releasing this set only in v5, since we have had very minimal sales in our sets released for v4.  The set will sell during the introduction period for $199, and for a limited time, if you purchase the v5 set, you will also receive the 1929 Glendale Skinner organ for free! (previous purchasers of the Glendale instrument will be eligible to buy for $99 during the introduction period with a valid proof of purchase note that the set is not available for HW v4, so you must have either purchased the V5 Skinner or upgraded to HW 5 )

There are several demos on the page for this organ, all have been done in HW-V, with some carefully added reverb via the new convolution reverb included with HW-V. Those specific setting are included on the page so you can duplicate them in your setup.

This is the second of our releases as a combined partnership with CLR, we continue plans to release new HW American sample sets, we have more coming!

The BOGO sale will run until September 15, 2020 – thanks for your continuing support, and best wishes for all during this challenging time!