Alpha Organ is a beautifully sampled pair of pipe organs recorded at St. Paul’s Church in San Francisco, California. They feature a rich sound, powerful bass, a huge variety of presets, sound design, mic placement, tone controls, customizable effects, and an intuitive and flexible graphical interface. Each organ contrasts distinctly with the other, and when they both play in unison, the sound is simply magnificent. We recorded both instruments separately and together in unison, using a variety of mic types and placements to offer you a variety of aesthetic options.
About the entry
The lower organ, built by the Kilgen Church Organ Company of St. Louis, Missouri, was originally water-powered but has since been converted to an electrically powered blower-driven system. The console is on the south isle near the side entrance. The pipes are hidden behind the altar, and the blower and machinery are under the floor of the apse, allowing the lowest notes of the pedals to resonate through the floor, seemingly shaking the foundations.
The upper organ, much larger and more ornate, was built by Schoenstein & Co. of San Francisco. It is located high above the portcullis and narthex in the mezzanine between the two bell towers. While the first organ, the Alpha, is delicate and silky in sound, the second, the Omega, is thunderous and powerful in its body and energy, with a more powerful blower, a larger console, and more pipes.
We believe that this space has extraordinary acoustic properties, bordering on the mystical. Every time we recorded, we experienced waves of strange synchronicity. It seemed as if the entire hall was singing, like one large living instrument. To highlight the strangeness that this space seems to evoke, we enriched this library with a very wide selection of sound atmospheres, leads, pads, drones and effect presets, delving deeply into psychoacoustic and metaphysical aesthetics. The church was built by the parishioners over two decades, starting in 1897, with a lull in 1906 due to the San Francisco earthquake, and was finally completed in 1911 using stone found in the devastated city. It has a lush, pristine quality, full of spacious airiness and crystalline clarity, without a hint of turbidity or oversaturation. This echoing hall is one of our favorite recording locations, where our famous Requiem Light Symphonic Choir, Native Instruments Symphony Series Brass Ensemble and Solo, and many other classic Soundiron libraries were created.
Contents
We’ve packed the user interface with powerful sound shaping controls to give you complete flexibility. Volume boost, attack and release time, sample offset, vibrato and sound bank selection are included in all presets. The main preset also features a mic mixer and octave effect. The multi-layer preset contains 4 independent sound layers, each with a full set of parameters that can be linked, automated and adjusted. The first three layers are the mic positions: close (Mic 1), medium (Mic 2) and far (Mic 3). The fourth layer is the ambience layer. We’ve used a variety of sound design techniques to transform the sounds from our journey into 30 different pitched and dissonant pads, synth hues and ambient dreamscapes. These can be played alone or used to add texture and dimension to the main sounds.
The Advanced Settings drop-down window also features a customizable LFO system for each layer, with selectable frequency shape, modulation target, speed, intensity, tempo sync, and intro time. You can also choose from 13 low- and high-pass filters, as well as effects with assignable modulation targets such as velocity, modulation wheel, expression, after-touch, key position, and step sequencer table control. The customizable arpeggiator features a built-in velocity sequencer table and lets you control arpeggio direction, note timing, oscillation, randomization, and duration. The built-in module window with effects rack offers 27 different DSP effect modules, which can be placed in any of the 8 available slots in any order you like. You’ll find classic phasers, flangers, delays, distortions, amp and cabinet simulators, compressors, EQs, rotators and more. The reverb effect contains 99 convolution reverb impulse presets. We captured a huge variety of different rooms, halls, chambers and open spaces, as well as 139 unique, unusual and creative special effects impulses that completely transformed the sound and opened up completely new worlds of musical possibilities.
- Product version 2.0
- Two deeply sampled organs with three mic positions: near, middle and far
- 12 stages in Alpha organ, 20 in Omega, 3 in Unity, pedal tones + special effects
- 16,671 samples
- 24-bit lossless stereo NCW format at 48 kHz
- Flexible and intuitive user interface with professional features, deep customization and simple workflow
- Built for the free Kontakt Player (version 6.2.2 and above), Komplete Kontrol, all S-series keyboards, and NKS software and hardware from Native Instruments
- Works with the Libraries tab in Kontakt, as well as with Native Access.