Stepper - display, buttons, functionality?

Afternoon all!

I'm currently looking at adding a stepper (general piston sequencer) device to a Hauptwerk installation. A few hours around the forum and the internet at large suggest that there are a lot of stepper devices, displays, button interfaces etc available, but little in the way of standardization.

The following seems to model the widest range of possibilities - which is where the registration system stores registrations for zero or more players, and where each player has zero or more pieces and where each piece contains zero or more general registrations and zero or more divisional registrations.

1. Player stepper - this stepper selects the player number. Buttons for this stepper include '-' and '+' (select different players), and insert (add new player at this position) + delete (discard player at this position). One display plus four buttons used to configure the player stepper.

2. Piece stepper - this stepper selects the piece number belonging to the selected player number (so each player can store lots of divisional and general registrations for lots of pieces of music). Buttons for this piece stepper include '-' and '+' (select different pieces), and insert (add new empty piece at this position) + delete (discard piece at this position). One display plus four buttons used to configure the piece stepper.

3. General stepper - which controls general registrations for the selected piece of the selected player. Thumb pistons attached to this stepper are '-' and '+' to trigger the previous and next general registration. Beside the general stepper display, there are left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the list of general registrations for the selected piece of the selected player, plus set (set the current general registration at this position), plus insert (insert the current general registration at this position), plus delete (delete general registration at this position). One display plus two thumb pistons used while playing and five buttons to be used while configuring the general stepper.

4. Divisional stepper - which controls divisional registrations for the selected piece of the selected player. Thumb pistons attached to each divisional stepper are '-' and '+' to trigger the previous and next divisional registration. Beside each divisional stepper display, there are left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the list of divisional registrations for the selected piece of the selected player, plus set (set the current divisional registration at this position), plus insert (insert the current divisional registration at this position), plus delete (delete divisional registration at this position). One display plus two thumb pistons used while playing and five buttons to be used while configuring the divisional stepper.

5. Pedal stepper - which controls pedal registrations for the selected piece of the selected player. Toe studs are '-' and '+' to trigger the previous and next pedal registration. Beside the pedal stepper display, there are left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the list of pedal registrations for the selected piece of the selected player, plus set (set the current pedal registration at this position), plus insert (insert the current pedal registration at this position), plus delete (delete pedal registration at this position). One display plus two toe studs used while playing and five buttons to be used while configuring the pedal stepper.

So, say there's a IV/P instrument, the total comes to - a player stepper display plus four buttons, a piece stepper display plus four buttons, a general stepper display plus two pistons per manual and five buttons at the display, four divisional stepper displays (each with two thumb pistons and five buttons at the display), plus one pedal stepper display (two toe studs and five buttons at the display). Total of two toe studs, eight stepper displays, sixteen thumb pistons, thirty-eight at-display buttons.

While this seems to cover off all the possibilities within one flexible design, it does come to an awful lot of displays and buttons.

Comments?

Presumably you are aware of the Combination Stepper which is already built into Hauptwerk?
(See page 90 of the HW User Guide.)
This is completely independent of any divisional and/or general combinations that may be included in the sample-set.
Each sample-set allows you a minimum of 32 Combination Sets (Combs 01-Combs 32), each of which may contain any or all of Divisional and/or General Combinations and/or Stepper sequences.
Additionally, these Combination Sets can be re-named, or added to, for different players and/or individual pieces (e.g. John - Bach G minor; Fred - Franck 3; etc; etc).
The only console hardware necessary for this is pistons for '-' and '+' (perhaps also '000' - which is NOT the same as General Cancel).
I find it helpful to have the Mini Control Panel for the Combination Stepper docked at the top of my screen.
Beware: It is easier to use the Combination Stepper as a stand-alone feature - in addition to Divisionals and/or Generals - rather than trying to combine it with what is often found on large organs in the English-speaking world - i.e. 8 General pistons and umpteen memory levels.

Hope this might be helpful.

Thanks Doug.
I have been using the Stepper as you suggest but what is the best way to edit combinations that are already in the Stepper sequence?

Thanks Doug.
I have been using the Stepper as you suggest but what is the best way to edit combinations that are already in the Stepper sequence?

I think there isn't (yet) an easy way of doing this, but this question came up here on the Forum a couple of times recently.

Thanks Doug.
I have been using the Stepper as you suggest but what is the best way to edit combinations that are already in the Stepper sequence?

I think there isn't (yet) an easy way of doing this, but this question came up here on the Forum a couple of times recently.

You can edit a stepper combination but you cant really change where it is in the sequence yet. I bet someone will come up with a way soon. Like using an XML editor to edit a certain file in a particular directory.

Thomas

Thanks Thomas and others.
You say you can edit a stepper combination.
Eg in the third combination I want to change from a 4ft Pricipal to a 4 ft Flute.
What are the steps to follow to do this please?
At present the way I do it leads to chaos.

@ Erzahler: to use your example

1. navigate to step 3
2. change the stops as desired
3. set
4. button 3 of the units array (either the main registration or stepper mini control panel)
5. (turn "set" off)

An insert step (and delete step?) function is needed to tweak the otherwise excellent HW implementation