It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:23 am


Viscount Hymmersive

A discussion forum for anything even marginally Hauptwerk-related.
  • Author
  • Message
Offline

seh52

Member

  • Posts: 280
  • Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2010 10:16 am
  • Location: Los Angeles, CA 90019

Viscount Hymmersive

PostWed Jun 28, 2017 9:20 am

Today I received an email from Viscount announcing the Hymmersive, a 3-manual, 72 stop tab, 6-channel audio Hauptwerk-based organ with expandable computer resources. Sample sets are dealer-installed.

http://www.viscountinstruments.com/classic-organs/hymmersive.html

Has anyone seen, played, or heard this new instrument? What is the cost in USD$?

Please share reviews.
Last edited by seh52 on Wed Jun 28, 2017 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Offline
User avatar

dhm

Member

  • Posts: 1270
  • Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:50 am
  • Location: Rochester, UK

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostWed Jun 28, 2017 10:19 am

This looks *very* interesting.
But there is no mention of it yet on the Viscount UK website....
Douglas Henn-Macrae
Authorized Hauptwerk Reseller
http://www.midi-organs.eu
Offline

Unda Maris

Member

  • Posts: 42
  • Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:07 pm
  • Location: Germany

Mon dieu in Mondiano

PostWed Jun 28, 2017 12:26 pm

www.viscountinstruments.com/classic-org ... rsive.html
... and the Winner iiiis!: "Hauptwerk!"
Offline

scottherbert

Member

  • Posts: 466
  • Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:22 pm
  • Location: Southern Colorado, USA

Re: Mon dieu in Mondiano

PostWed Jun 28, 2017 1:41 pm

If you can't beat them, join them! Very interesting!

When will Allen hop on the wagon??? :lol: :lol: :lol:

~S :wink:
"Life is just a dream, it is in death that we truly awaken!"
Offline
User avatar

magnaton

Member

  • Posts: 682
  • Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 6:28 pm
  • Location: Austin, TX

Re: Mon dieu in Mondiano

PostWed Jun 28, 2017 4:32 pm

scottherbert wrote:When will Allen hop on the wagon??? :lol:
~S :wink:


I think Hauptwerk acceptance is too much of a paradigm shift for Allen at this stage. I'm not sure they've lost enough sales to their own older, refurbished, organs running HW. That is for a head-to-head church install. To quote one prominent Allen dealer when asked about Hauptwerk "Different market. People buying HW are not potential Allen organ customers to begin with."

Allen does have the facility to build a quality MIDI only console but I doubt they would charge a layman's price for it. The labor cost to build an organ console with or without tone generation and amplification is probably the same. They even have the talent to come up with a clever design to hide computer screen, mouse, and qwerty keyboard, like a couple of Dutch MIDI console builders have done. To protect the Allen name and business model, they could create a separate brand to market their MIDI only consoles. Problem is the organ market is relatively small and eclectic so it wouldn't take anyone long to realize the marketing ploy. But I say so what. Towards the end, work was so slow at Rodgers that the Oregon plant shifted a large area to assemble Roland electric pianos.

Regarding this Viscount model, I'm digging the small color OLED text displays for stop names. Wish they had some close up shots of that. :-)

Danny B.
Offline

scottherbert

Member

  • Posts: 466
  • Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:22 pm
  • Location: Southern Colorado, USA

Re: Mon dieu in Mondiano

PostWed Jun 28, 2017 5:00 pm

Yeah, that's why I posted the laughs, it's kind of like Ford coming out with a solar powered 1 ton pickup!

~S
"Life is just a dream, it is in death that we truly awaken!"
Offline
User avatar

mdyde

Moderator

  • Posts: 15446
  • Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2003 1:19 pm
  • Location: UK

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostThu Jun 29, 2017 3:32 am

[I've merged the two original topics on this into one here.]
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
Offline
User avatar

organtechnology

Member

  • Posts: 1886
  • Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:58 pm
  • Location: DFW, TX USA

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostThu Jun 29, 2017 5:52 pm

If the PTB do not want this on the forum, just remove it.

Having just read the Viscount promotional brochure through a couple of times, it seems to me that the Hymmersive is not really an organ at all or even an adequate MIDI controller console since it does not have a pedal board.

[quote From the Viscount Hymmersive brochure:]
Nowadays classic organs lovers can choose between three categories of electronic organs: Viscount’s state of the art Physis® Physical Modeling Technology, Sampled Based Organs, or Sampled Based ‘DIY’ Computer Programs. Viscount already offers a wide range of high quality products series (Unico, Sonus, Chorum, and others) accurately designed to satisfy the needs of almost all organists, institutions, and houses of worship. But in some cases, a personal computer based program, like Hauptwerk, may be considered. Unfortunately, until now, this choice has had some drawbacks.

The first is that the stop choices and commands are done by virtual buttons on touch screen that are quite uncomfortable and unnatural to the user and unpleasant to see for the listeners. Not factual

The second is because the computer, where Hautpwerk program runs, could become unstable for many reasons, sometimes causing the system to lag, or worse…crash. Imagine that occurring in the middle of a service! The Hymmersive uses the same kind of computer running Windows!

The third drawback, and often the worst, is the entire organ system, computer, manuals, and cabinet, and assembly, often done by a single person that can’t guarantee a high standard of quality control, only possible by means of an industrial manufacturing approach possible through the largest manufacturer of organs in the world, Viscount![/quote] So a hand crafted, all wood piece of furniture is poorer quality than a faux wood coated pressboard console?


If you buy a Hymmersive console you get:
1.) A plastic coated faux wood console in blonde. -
2.) OLED buttons which change with the sample set +
3.) Three simulated tracker touch, velocity sensitive keyboards and encoders (possibly Fatar) +
4.) A small PC using an i5 CPU and 16GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. (FCC Part 15 certification?) -
5.) Windows 10 CS operating system. -
6.) 6 channels of audio output -

What you must buy extra is:
1.) Hauptwerk Advanced Edition software and license key. -
2.) A pedal board compatible with the console -
3.) Sample sets that will fit within the 16GB RAM memory -
4.) Installation of sample sets by the dealer (no self install?) -
5.) Future upgrades to the Hauptwerk software, OS or BIOS available from the dealer. -
Complete Hauptwerk™ systems using real wood consoles, PC Sound Engines, Dante Audio for Home or Church. info (at) organtechnology.com http://www.organtechnology.com
Authorized Hauptwerk; Milan Digital Audio and Lavender Audio reseller.
USA and Canada shipments only.
Offline

GrahamH

Member

  • Posts: 618
  • Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 6:39 am
  • Location: Near Manchester, England

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostFri Jun 30, 2017 7:04 am

since it does not have a pedal board.


If I have interpreted the blurb correctly, you get a choice of pedal board (flat or AGO, 30 or 32 notes).

But having re-fettled one or two Viscount pedal boards, and recently having played one in a local church, I can't say I'm impressed with the build.

Graham
Offline

phjo

Member

  • Posts: 129
  • Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2007 4:27 am
  • Location: Bordeaux, France

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostSat Jul 01, 2017 1:06 am

The oled displays for individual stops are interesting, and they propose as an option the Schwindler keyboards renamed AWK (advanced wooden keyboards)

How easy will it be to install additional samplesets though I wonder... (they show what looks like an ethernet port for PC remote, but no standard output for an external screen or keyboard...)

Pierre-Henri
Offline
User avatar

organtechnology

Member

  • Posts: 1886
  • Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:58 pm
  • Location: DFW, TX USA

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostSat Jul 01, 2017 10:18 am

GrahamH wrote:
since it does not have a pedal board.


If I have interpreted the blurb correctly, you get a choice of pedal board (flat or AGO, 30 or 32 notes).

But having re-fettled one or two Viscount pedal boards, and recently having played one in a local church, I can't say I'm impressed with the build.

Graham


On page 3 under _______CONSOLE; It says Elegant wooden console, music rack, matching bench.
There is no mention of a pedal board.

On page 5 under PEDALBOARD;
It says; "can be completed with a MIDI pedalboard equipped with 2 (expression?) pedals."
Does not say anywhere that the PB is "included". From that I gather that the PB is extra cost but you get to chose which one you want to buy.

At any rate you are correct, there is a pedalboard of your choice available. I also saw an advert somewhere on the web that said the price of the console was $11, 500 +/- plus the Hauptwerk Key, plus the sample sets, and maybe plus the pedalboard so it will probably all come out to over $15,000 for a blonde, Formica counter top looking console with cute little OLEDs on it.
Complete Hauptwerk™ systems using real wood consoles, PC Sound Engines, Dante Audio for Home or Church. info (at) organtechnology.com http://www.organtechnology.com
Authorized Hauptwerk; Milan Digital Audio and Lavender Audio reseller.
USA and Canada shipments only.
Offline
User avatar

organtechnology

Member

  • Posts: 1886
  • Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:58 pm
  • Location: DFW, TX USA

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostFri Jul 07, 2017 2:17 pm

Speaking of 'cute little OLEDs', does anyone know who makes them for Viscount?

Thomas
Complete Hauptwerk™ systems using real wood consoles, PC Sound Engines, Dante Audio for Home or Church. info (at) organtechnology.com http://www.organtechnology.com
Authorized Hauptwerk; Milan Digital Audio and Lavender Audio reseller.
USA and Canada shipments only.
Offline
User avatar

engrssc

Member

  • Posts: 7283
  • Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:12 pm
  • Location: Roscoe, IL, USA

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostFri Jul 07, 2017 9:16 pm

Forgive my being in a "I'm from Missouri" mode, (Missouri having the motto of being the Show Me state), but are those close up "cute" little OLED's real? or the product/result of a graphic artist?

Not the correct thread to ask this, but I've often wondered are a majority of organ consoles "blondes" or "brunettes"? :roll:

Rgds,
Ed
Offline

Antoni Scott

Member

  • Posts: 982
  • Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 5:18 pm

Re: Viscount Hymmersive

PostThu Jul 13, 2017 11:12 pm

Scottherbert said "When will Allen hop on the wagon ?" My short answer is "never", they can't, its too late. Hauptwerk is too firmly entrenched in the organ community for anyone to come up with something better. Its not like they didn't have a chance a decade ago. They had all the advanced technology, were the first to introduce "digital" technology but seemed to stagnate in their success. When asked if Allen would ever come up with a similar concept as Hauptwerk they answered by making it seem that Hauptwerk was not of the caliber of Allen. Not to be unreasonably critical, I recently heard a recent 32 channel three manual Allen organ that sounded quite good, but the price tag was around $200,000. I suppose that puts it out of the reach of 99.9% of all us Hauptwerk owners.
I speak only for myself, but the most important factor in my choice of an organ is the realism of the sound followed closely by the cost. Fortunately Hauptwerk ranks tops in both those categories. I'm willing to accept an unorthodox console design and function (i.e minimalist console and touch sensitive monitors) for superior sound realism accompanied by low cost. Both these parameters do not apply to Allen.

Return to General discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests