Gernot Wurst of PROSPECTUM today unveiled a free sample set: the 1895 Schäfer organ of the Frauenkirche Neckarsulm.

To obtain the free sample set, log in to your MyPROSPECTUM account (or create and activate one if you do not yet have one). Once logged in, you can generate your personal license and download the Frauenkirche Neckarsulm installation package.

The Organ

Carl Schäfer (1838-1922) was the last representative of the Schäfer family of Swabian organ builders from Göppingen. In 1838, his father Johann Heinrich Schäfer (1810-1887) relocated to Heilbronn and established his own workshop. Both Johann and Carl, who received his training from his father and later took over the workshop, soon became renowned for the quality of their work. Consequently, Carl Schäfer was commissioned to construct numerous new organs in the region, particularly in the latter half of the 19th century.

The Schäfer organs are renowned for their Swabian Romantic sound: orchestral and smooth. The 1895 Frauenkirche Neckarsulm organ, one of Carl Schäfer’s late works, features the typical Schäfer style with an expressive yet not aggressive Prinzipal 8′ and Gedeckt 8′, a calming Salicional 8′, a Fugara 4′ to lead congregational singing, and a Subbass 16′. Octavkoppel and Tutti provide brighter and more powerful sounds.

Sample Set

In March 2005, PROSPECTUM released Version 1 of the virtual Frauenkirche organ for Hauptwerk 1. This version was created using pipe recordings with the blower switched off, using laminar wind from the bellow. In mid 2023, experiments to optimize IR recording techniques in the Frauenkirche provided the building blocks for Version 2, which was subsequently created as a free sample set for the Hauptwerk community.

The Frauenkirche Neckarsulm sample set version 2 is equipped with 6 channels (direct, indirect, and church). To ensure intuitive use of these channels, a visual perspective control system was developed. This system includes seven preset perspectives with corresponding images, as well as 3 programmable custom perspectives (A, B, and C) for creating and refining personal settings. These settings can be saved using either the standard Hauptwerk SET button or by clicking the Prospectum.com label at the bottom of the screen. In Hauptwerk 8, clicking the Carl Schäfer Heilbronn 1895 label opens the ‘intuitiv touch menu’.

This virtual organ showcases the following highlights:

• One manual, pedal, 5 stops.
• Original keyboard compass, with no extensions, ranging from C to d1 (pedal), and C to f3 (manual).
• A six-channel sound system with direct, indirect, and church perspectives, featuring an intuitive control system.
• No denoising was applied, thus no sound details were lost due to denoising.
• Three release samples per pipe.
• Sample resolution: 24bit / 48kHz stereo.
• Action noises, such as keys and stops, as well as blower noise which can be switched on or off, are available.
• Ambient noise can be voiced using the standard Hauptwerk voicing feature.
• Versions for Hauptwerk 4, for Hauptwerk 5 to 7, and for Hauptwerk 8 available.