J.B.:
When I was in Freidburg, Germany a few weeks ago, I visited the large cathedral there. It is home to 4 magnificent pipe organs placed strategically around the building.
Our tour guide stated that there are a total of 10,200 pipes & that each organ has its own keyboard plus a master station that can play all 4 simultaneously. It takes a special organist to successfully accomplish this due the length of time that the sound takes to reach the master station along with the 6 second decay time in the building.
There is a CD & an SACD available showcasing all 4 organs playing simultaneously by EP Biggs that I would like to get but, since it so rare, it is prohibitively expensive. Info here (first review on the page):
http://www.audaud.com/audaud/MAY03/HIRES/hires2MAY03.htmlI'd love to have Cameron Carpenter have a go at these beasts.
Exlabdriver,
i just listened to 2 organ recordings in quick succession:
1: Biggs' The Four Great Toccatas & Fugues and
2: Cameron Carpenter's Revolutionary
I listened only to Toccata and Fugue in d-minor.
Biggs' recording plays well at Ref. Level -6 dB and
Carpenter's recording at Ref. Level -3 dB.
I find the playing styles are very different, but i like Carpenter much more.
The acoustics are very different between the two; and i like that of Biggs' venue more. it's more airy with better acoustics and the noise level is lower too.
With the Biggs recording we can hear the church more, and with the Carpenter recording, we hear less of the church and more of the organ.
Playing Biggs's cd with Neural, it gives a wide sound stage and excellent acoustics; but Neural is no surround, even if i find it gives quite often the best surround with stereo recordings, compared to DPL IIx movie or music. i haven't tried DTS Neo:6 yet.
The biggest technical difference between the two recordings is the Biggs recording that does not seem to play the very low frequencies, as if they had been filtered out for the CD.
not once did i feel or hear deep tones.
when one has heard Cameron's recording, the other recording seems like the whole basement is missing.
Compared to Biggs' recording, the Cameron is like a giant beast that can eat you up in no time. Biggs' sounds a bit mousy.
on the other hand, i can hear some noise on Carpenter's recording coming from the right side and i think it could be the Rotary sub's fan doing that.
Overall, the Carpenter recording is a clear winner for me.
maybe the SACD has those low frequencies that the CD lacks...but for the price, it's not worth it.
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