The Karl Schuke organ at St.Stephani, Helmstedt, Germany. (c) Matthias Nagorni
Aeolus is a synthesised (i.e. not sampled) pipe organ emulator that should be good enough to make an organist enjoy playing it. It is a software synthesiser optimised for this job, with possibly hundreds of controls for each stop, that enable the user to "voice" his instrument. First presented at the 2nd LAD conference in Karlsruhe, end of April 2004.
Main features of the default instrument: three manuals and one pedal, five different temperaments, variable tuning, MIDI control of course, stereo, surround or Ambisonics output, flexible audio controls including a large church reverb.
Aeolus is not very CPU-hungry, and should run without problems on a e.g. a 1GHz, 256Mb machine.
Version 0.6.6 is a complete rewrite of the previous official release (0.3.1) offering better looks, a more flexible instrument structure, and lots of other improvements. Many thanks to all who contributed to the development of this version.
Some recordings made by Aeolus users, or from MIDI files created by them.
| Version | Player | Music | File |
| 0.3.1 | Matthias Nagorni. | J.S. Bach, Adagio BWV564 | BWV564b-mn.ogg (2.6M) |
| '' | '' | J.S. Bach, Triosonata | Triosonata.ogg (1.8M) |
| '' | '' | J.S. Bach | BachXmas.ogg (1.5M) |
| '' | ?? | J. Pachelbel, Toccata | Pachelbel1.ogg (0.8M) |
| 0.6.3 | Musikun | J.S. Bach, BWV590 | BWV590-ms.ogg (2.6M) |
| 0.6.6 | Bert Visser | J.S. Bach, Kommst Du nun | BWV650-bv.ogg (2.3M) |
| '' | '' | J.S. Bach, Liebster Jesu | BWV731-bv.ogg (1.7M) |
| '' | '' | C. Franck, Prelude | Franck-bv.ogg (2.5M) |
There are two mailings lists for Aeolus. Both are relatively low volume with the occasional burst of energy. These lists are unmoderated, but you have to be a member in order to be able to post to them.
To subscribe, send an empty mail to either aeolus-user-subscribe@muse-sequencer.org or aeolus-dev-subscribe@muse-sequencer.org. You will then receive a message requesting you to confirm the subscription, and the usual help information.
The wiki is here. Current content was provided mainly by Christoph Eckert and Joachim Schiele. If you feel like contributing please do so!
Many thanks to Joachim Schiele for hosting the lists and the wiki!
Musikun has prepared a very informative site covering installation and use of Aeolus. You will also find some more excellent recordings there.
Pictures of the Aeolus demo at LAC2006, and The concert program
A nice site about organ stops and their history: The Encyclopedia of Organ Stops