VIRTUAL ITALIAN ORGANS
The replica of the harpsichord built in 2022 by Roberto Marioni based on the Grimaldi model from the late seventeenth century represents, at the moment, the only sample set that reproduces an Italian school harpsichord.
Owned by M.° Gabriele Giunchi who promoted its sampling in 2022, the harpsichord consists of a single manual of 58 notes (GG - e), two 8' stops and Lute (on the main stop).
The tuning is non-equal according to Neidhart; the pitch is 415 Hz at A2 and it can be transposed one semitone higher by sliding the keyboard.
Compared to its Flemish-style counterpart, the Grimaldi harpsichord clearly stands out for its more powerful and singable timbre, which is particularly effective in the lute register: with this sample set we are making it possible for harpsichord music enthusiasts to enjoy a more authentic and enjoyable interpretation of the great Italian literature.
The Marioni/Grimaldi harpsichord was sampled in a single session in January 2023, using the wet technique and three channels: "direct", "distant" and "console" that allow the musician to virtually move around the acoustic environment. The microphone positions are according to the EBS scheme for the direct and distant channels, and with the mid-side technique for the console channel. The relative positions are consistent with those used for the Rückers: laterally to the body for the direct, in front, just above the keyboard, for the console and a few meters away for the distant. This last position was intentionally kept identical for both harpsichords, in anticipation of a composite sample set that allows performances for double harpsichord.
The recording was performed as usual at 96 kHz and 24 bit, reduced to 48 kHz at the end of the processing.
RAM memory requirement:
24 bit, all ranks, all channels and all releases:circa 5.2 Gb
The graphical interface has two tabs: "Console", with the graphical reproduction of the instrument equipped with keyboard and recording controls assignable via MIDI, and "Options" containing the channel mixer (with four programmable memories) and the pitch change.
Short video presentation of the sample set.
The same presentation pieces of the Rückers copy harpsichord and the Marioni spinet were deliberately chosen, to make the comparison between the timbres of the instruments more immediate.
Georg Böhm, Suite n° 11 in A moll (David McKinney)
The demo version of the sample set for Hauptwerk 4.21 and later is fully functional, but the sound is periodically interrupted by a watermark; to download it please email a request using the button below.
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