Alpha Organ

About

Alpha Organ features a beautifully sampled pair of pipe organs recorded individually and together at St. Paul's Church in San Francisco, CA. Each organ offers a distinct contrast to the other and when the two are played simultaneously in unison, the sound is glorious. We’ve captured both instruments individually and together in unison, with multiple microphone types and positions to offer you a variety of aesthetic options. The “lower” organ, built by Kilgen Church Organ Company of Saint Louis, MO, was originally water-powered, but has since been converted to an electric blower-driven system. The console is in the south isle near the side entrance and its pipes are hidden behind the altar with the blower and machinery under the floor of the Apse, allowing the lowest pedal notes to resonate through the floor, seeming to shake the very foundation. The upper organ, far larger and more elaborate, was built by the Felix F. Shoenstein & Sons Organ company of San Francisco. It is arrayed high above the portcullis and Narthex in a mezzanine between the two bell towers. Where the first organ - our “Alpha” Organ - is sweet and silky in its tone, the second - our “Omega” Organ - is thunderous and mighty in its body and energy, with a more powerful blower, larger console and many more pipes. We feel that this space has extraordinary acoustic properties bordering on the mystical. Each time we've recorded there, we've experienced waves of strange synchronicities. The entire hall seems to sing as if one great living instrument. To honor the high strangeness that the space seems to evoke, we've enriched this library with a very wide selection of sound designed ambiences, leads, pads, drones and custom effect presets, delving deeply into psychoacoustic and metaphysical aesthetics. The church was built by its own perishoners over a period of two decades, starting in 1897, delayed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and finally completed in 1911, using stone salvaged from the ruined city itself. It has a lush, pristine quality full of spacious airiness and crystal clarity, without a hint of cloudiness or oversaturation. This reverberant hall is one of our very favorite recording locations, home to our acclaimed Requiem Light Symphonic Choir, the Native Instruments Symphony Series Brass Ensemble and Solo collections and many other classic Soundiron libraries.

Contents

We’ve packed the user interface with powerful sound-shaping controls to give you complete flexibility. Controls for volume swell, attack and release time, sample start offset, vibrato, and sound bank selection are included in all presets. The main preset also features a microphone mixer and an octave effect. The Layered preset includes 4 independent sound layers, each with a full set of parameters that can be linked, automated and customized. The first three layers are the Close (Mic 1), Mid (Mic 2) and Far (Mic 3) microphone positions. The fourth layer is the Ambiences layer. We used various sound-design tricks to morph the sounds from our journey into 30 different tonal and dissonant pads, synth-tones and ambient dreamscapes. They can be played by themselves, or used to add texture and body to the primary sounds. In the advanced settings pull-down window, you’ll also find an adaptable per-layer LFO system, with selectable LFO shape, modulation target parameter, speed, intensity, tempo-syncing and fade-in time. You can also apply your choice of 13 lowpass, high-pass and FX filters, with assignable modulation targets such as velocity, mod-wheel, expression, after-touch, key position and step-sequencer table control. Our customizable arpeggiator features a built-in velocity sequencer table and control over arp direction, note timing, swing, randomization and duration. The built-in modular FX rack window offers 27 different DSP effect modules that you can assign in any of 8 available slots, in any order that you wish. You’ll find classic phase, flanger, delay, distortion, amp and cab simulators, compressors, EQ, rotator and so much more. The Reverb effect includes 99 of our own convolution reverb impulse presets. We’ve captured a huge variety of different rooms, halls, chambers and outdoor environments, along with 139 unique, strange and creative special effect impulses to completely transform the sound and open up whole new worlds of musical possibility.

Specifications