Gospel Musicians have announced the launch of a new virtual instrument that has been designed specifically to capture the distinctive sound of a gospel church organ. The aptly named Gospel Organ recreates a Hammond A100 using a combination of sampling and physical modelling, providing users with both an authentic tone and in-depth control.
While the company have sampled an original A100 in detail, the instrument also relies a number of other techniques to improve its overall quality and versatility. It uses synthesis to replicate harmonic fold-back and ensure that there’s no phasing between tones, while each tone — including drawbars, bass and percussion — are kitted out with synth-style controls including an amp envelope, filter and LFO.
All of the quirks that help to make up the iconic sound (including the likes of percussion, noise and vibrato) are all present, and have been emulated from hardware sources. Thanks to the use of physical modelling, Gospel Organ is also equipped with dedicated controls for parameters such as key click and noise.
The instrument comes loaded with a selection of built-in effects. There five insert effects available per tone, along with two global effects racks and a master effects section that can each host up to five processors. There’s also a MIDI Learn function that allows for seamless integration with a DAW and hardware MIDI controllers.
Rotary Effect
Those who purchase the instrument will also receive a free license for a separate rotary cabinet plug-in that can be used alongside Gospel Organ or with other virtual instruments and sound sources. It’s based on a Leslie 145 — it utilises impulse responses captured from 12 different positions around a genuine unit — and also uses physical modelling to recreate the tone of three different drums as well as offering full control over the horn and drum speeds.
A selection of virtual mic positions allow users to tailor the sound to taste, and both the horn and drum sections can be shaped with high- and low-pass filters and dedicated 11-band EQs.
Compatibility
Gospel Organ is supported on PCs running Windows 10 or higher, and Macs running macOS 10.12 and above. VST, AU and AAX plug-in versions are available, along with a standalone application. It is also available as an iPad App, which is compatible with devices running iPadOS 11 or later.
Pricing & Availability
Gospel Organ is available now, and is currently (15 August 2024) being offered at an introductory price of $49.99£39.47, reduced from its full cost of $149.99£118.43. Prices include VAT.
