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A New Hauptwerk User

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CHRIS 037

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A New Hauptwerk User

PostTue Dec 30, 2003 9:23 pm

Hello,

I am a new member. I’ve been using Hauptwerk now since early November, 2003. I think the Hauptwerk program is absolutely terrific! I have been looking at the postings by members and enjoy reading about how others are using this software. So now, I thought I’d post some info on how things have worked out for me, and hope that members will find this interesting.

At this point I have purchased the Casavant and Buzard Organ CD’s from Milan Digital, the two Silbermann Organ CD’s from Milan Digital, and the Marcussen & Sons Organ CD from Ariaan Hoogendijk. What absolutely wonderful sounds!!! Every organ is recorded beautifully. I consider all of these samples well worth the money. I hope I can afford the other sampled organs eventually since the MP3 demo’s indicate they are fine sample sets too. I was supposed to receive the CD from my original Hauptwerk purchase, but somehow it has never arrived (about 8 weeks now). I’m sure that I’ll really enjoy it too, if it finally comes.

This is what I’m using for hardware: Gateway XL700 with 2.53 GHz P4 processor. Soon after getting Hauptwerk I had to expand the RAM to 2.0 GB. Not long after that, I replaced the Audigy sound card with the USB version of the M-AUDIO Audiophile 2496 card (big improvement noted here). I use a pair of Grado SR-325 headphones plugged directly into the sound card. As I understand it, the sound is digital right up to the point that it is sent to the phones. I have never heard such a clean and wonderful organ sound (except on CD’s, of course, and live organs up close). This set-up gives me full bass down through the 32 Hz of the SUBBASS 16’ and PRINZIPAL 16’ stops, as well as sparkling highs from the mixtures and reeds.

Soon after getting a bit familiar with Hauptwerk, I began to put together my own version of an organ, as I suspect most members do. I’d like to describe what I’ve come up with so far. First I need to point out that I don’t try to play this organ directly (the computer stuff is not in the same area as my organ console though I wish it was.) My intent in getting into Hauptwerk is to have a way to record my own organ compositions. Any latency is not particularly a problem. I’m running Hauptwerk at 50 buffers and at an output level of 30.

I now have an expanded “straight” organ of 42 stops with three manuals. This is my limit; Hauptwerk won’t load when I try to add any more. I’m using the medium by medium-large screen size. I’ve included 19 sampled sets from the Casavant organ, 7 sets from the Buzard organ, and 14 from the Marcussen organ. To make the Marcussen stops more compatible with the others, I used Sound Forge and Seamless Looper (as recommended by Martin D.) to create new sample sets with the reverb tail cut back to model the Casavant sound. This worked quite well. It was either that, or add reverb to the other stops. I decided to introduce as little corruption to the original samples as possible. An added benefit was the ability to include two more sets of pipes using memory saved by shaving off the reverb tails from the Marcussen stops. My worry was that the new Marcussen samples would sound odd alongside the others, but I can’t honestly detect any problem caused by any reverb “halo” that must still be in those samples. I suppose a more discerning listener might.

I also created a 32’ Fagotto from the 16’ Casavant set. This turned out to have that ‘jack-hammer” kind of sound that I really like. Also, I must say, the Marcussen reeds are beautiful. I’ve renamed the 16’ pedal stop as POSAUNE 16’ since it has that big full trombone sound. So do the TROMPETTE 8’ stops.

Since I have always loved the Celeste sound, I created a new rank from the Casavant GEDACKT 8’ and detuned it using Sound Forge. I did the job by ear rather than by adding a certain number of Hz. The resulting FLUTE CELESTE is quite nice. Again using Sound Forge, I sampled the output of the VOIX CELESTE 8’ from the Viscount EXL-150 module I have. I added just enough reverb to give each sample the same feel as the Casavant stops. Again this turned out well. I can use the samples at 16, 8, and 4 foot pitches. I've added an invisible VOIX CELESTE manual for the VOIX stops and use couplers to each manual and pedal to access them.

I also sampled some clear bells from another module and created a Carillon from that. It worked out well.

Now that I finally have a finished Hauptwerk organ, I have begun to record my own music. I have never been so pleased with the results before.

If anyone would like to have an MS WORD file with a screen shot of the Hauptwerk console of my organ (570 KB), just ask: chris909037@aol.com. The VOIX CELESTE (50 MB) and CARILLON (28.8 MB) stops are available too, providing that doesn’t violate some copyright somehow(?) Also, I have a Hauptwerk organ recording of the first verse of the hymn “God of Our Fathers” which uses the whole Hauptwerk organ rather well, showing off those stunning reeds I love so much. There is no reverb added. The file is available as an MP3 format (915 KB) or the direct Hauptwerk .wav file (10.065 MB).

CHRIS 037
Spokane, WA USA
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G'day

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PostThu Jan 01, 2004 2:06 pm

Hello Chris,
I read your first posting with great interest. I note that many hauptwerk users have the M-Audio 9624 card. I myself have the Audigy 1 card and am generally happy with the sound, however, customer support isn't as good as it might be. Why did you switch?
Your tailored organ is very exciting, I had wondered, and likely others have too, is it possible to combine various organs into a cohesive registration. I should like to see the final stoplist! Any plans to join Brett's Silbermanns? Perhaps add a 32" Posanne!?
All the best in new year
G'Day
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mdyde

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PostFri Jan 02, 2004 9:30 am

Chris,

Can you try contacting RegSoft (the company I use for payment handling and CD distribution) about the CD? I would certainly have expected it to arrive by now - it normally takes about a week. It sounds like it may have been lost in the post. Their contact page is:

http://www.regsoft.com/how%20to%20conta ... rder.shtml

If you have any problems, do let me know.

Also, with the latest version of Direct X and the 5.10.0.27 drivers for the M-Audio 2496, I can set the buffer size to 6 blocks for good results, so you might want to try that.

Hope that helps.

Best regards and a happy New Year,
Martin.

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