Hauptwerk 3.30 released

[mdyde]

Thanks, Greg. No problem.

[Taco]

Hauptwerk 3,30 is just fine. What a sound we are getting with Hauptwerk! I am very, very glad that i can use HW.

A friend of us does love the Johannes organs. I let him hear my HW-organ, and he was very, very excited.
But later he bought a rather new Johannes-organ because (one of the reasens told him by the shop-assistant).......................................................................................the sound of big organs as Kampen and so on (i have Kampen) are not made for use at home.........................that's why he shouldn't use HW.....................

I was astonished ..........let's also throw away our (organ)cd's in the dustbin then.

Are they jealous


Small point: this person doesn't love to fiddle with PC's, files, mergers and cables. I think this is the BIG reason for a lot of people if they don't buy HW.

[engrssc]

Editorial - sort of

Small point: this person doesn't love to fiddle with PC's, files, mergers and cables. I think this is the BIG reason for a lot of people if they don't buy HW.

I might agree in part if I were to "walk" into Hauptwerk "cold turkey" off the street without prior knowledge and at least a basic computer hands-on willingness. To many, H/W is not easy or user-friendly. I just printed the 200+ pages to the User/Installation Guide for a possible H/W "inductee". I just gave it to him without much conversation to gauge his responce. After 2 days, this fella called me, first words - "No way". Now mind you, he is a college graduate and uses computers daily and is at least a fair organist, certainly not a pro. He was overwhelmed.

I apologized and spent several hours breaking down the various ideas on the how and why of the workings of H/W software, etc. The best I could get from him was a degree of his being impressed. I will continue to try to "impress" him, but one of his parting thoughts, he would rather pay more and get less then spend a lot of his spare time "tinkering".

This, to me, is more than a bump in the road. I know such as H/W may not be for everyone. (And Brett commented on this point a while back and I do understand). But how then, is there a way to make it more user friendly, or at least more understandable? I've thought of possibly creating an easy to understand web page that would simply summarize in simple language what this system (H/W and sample sets) is all about. The above fella did download a few demos, but played them using his computer (micro tiny) speakers and wasn't impressed, wonder why? I may have "sacrificed" him by what I did, but was seriously interested in seeing first hand how he would deal with all of this.

Rgds,
Ed

[micdev]

Small point: this person doesn't love to fiddle with PC's, files, mergers and cables. I think this is the BIG reason for a lot of people if they don't buy HW.

Hey Taco,

You should have told your friend to contact me... in a few hours of remote work I can get someone PC up and running Hauptwerk, set-up and optimise.

Of course I fully agree with the professional shop-assistant that we should NEVER use organs like the Kampen, Metz, Caen, PAB, Trost... Oh boy... a lot of education to do for sure... I don't blame the saleman, he's trying to earn some money, but can't believe your friend bought that argument! And the Hauptwerk library offers also many wonderful smaller instruments that you can play in "tiny homes"!

François

[pat17]

The above fella did download a few demos, but played them using his computer (micro tiny) speakers and wasn't impressed

This is a key point I guess - a proper sound card and speakers is a key point to really enjoy the great job done by, and done through Hauptwerk.

[amateurorganist]

Today, I upgraded from Basic to Advanced version of HW 3.3.

I could not get HW basic to work properly on Win Vista 32bit 3GB ram on my laptop. Now I have the Advanced version with WIn 7 64bit and 4gb ram (upgrading to 8gb soon) it runs much more smoothly

Anyone who is thinking of buying Hauptwerk, I would advise not to bother with the Basic version, go for the Advanced and load it on a 64bit platform. It will save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

I have to agree with the comments about the user manual. I think the set-up instructions are fine and clear, but for me, everything else is a struggle to understand. I sat down with the PDF of the CODM this evening and after about a minute, it seems that a degree in computer programming is required to understand it.

I am hoping that eventually the Hauptwerk system will have the ability to do all the optimising rather relying on the users having to do it. It would make things a lot easier for computer illiterates like me in using this super software.

[mdyde]

Thanks, Greg.

I am hoping that eventually the Hauptwerk system will have the ability to do all the optimising rather relying on the users having to do it. It would make things a lot easier for computer illiterates like me in using this super software.

That's certainly what we're aiming for, as our number one priority; for v4.0+ we're trying to make it as easy as possible for people with little or no computer or MIDI experience to have everything configured and working optimally 'out of the box', so that anybody who might be interested in organs finds it very easy to use, whatever their background.

I sat down with the PDF of the CODM this evening and after about a minute, it seems that a degree in computer programming is required to understand it.

Yes - the Custom Organ Design Module is currently aimed more at the technically-inclined users. In the longer term, we would like to make a very nice and easy graphical interface for it so that no technical knowledge at all is needed (e.g. allowing right-clicking on a console display and selecting 'add a stop' to open a wizard that walks you through the process in a simple, non-technical way, and showing rank-to-stop relationships with drag-able graphical connecting lines) although doing something as advanced but user-friendly as that for the whole CODM would be a rather huge amount of work (perhaps even as much as 1-2 man-years), so it needs to be a longer-term project (after making Hauptwerk itself ultra-easy to set up).

[amateurorganist]

Thanks, Greg.

I am hoping that eventually the Hauptwerk system will have the ability to do all the optimising rather relying on the users having to do it. It would make things a lot easier for computer illiterates like me in using this super software.

That's certainly what we're aiming for, as our number one priority; for v4.0+ we're trying to make it as easy as possible for people with little or no computer or MIDI experience to have everything configured and working optimally 'out of the box', so that anybody who might be interested in organs finds it very easy to use, whatever their background.

I sat down with the PDF of the CODM this evening and after about a minute, it seems that a degree in computer programming is required to understand it.

Yes - the Custom Organ Design Module is currently aimed more at the technically-inclined users. In the longer term, we would like to make a very nice and easy graphical interface for it so that no technical knowledge at all is needed (e.g. allowing right-clicking on a console display and selecting 'add a stop' to open a wizard that walks you through the process in a simple, non-technical way, and showing rank-to-stop relationships with drag-able graphical connecting lines) although doing something as advanced but user-friendly as that for the whole CODM would be a rather huge amount of work (perhaps even as much as 1-2 man-years), so it needs to be a longer-term project (after making Hauptwerk itself ultra-easy to set up).

This sounds really exciting. I am sure these improvements will be welcome amongst existing users and new converts to Hauptwerk.

[engrssc]

There is a true feeling of gratitude, Martin and Brett, for all the progress that has been made since the early days of H/W 1.0. I came in (to the fold) after watching for a while prior to that (it's only been relatively a few years) and the rate of progress has been made is superb. In a word - wow.

Way back, (don't want to recall exactly the date) when I started learning computer "stuff" , my first instructor mentioned that software, inherently, would lag hardware. Having said that, it might be difficult, looking at hardware progress, to dream and comprehend where all this progress will lead. Outstanding comes to mind. And again, thanks!!

Rgds,
Ed

[RoyKnight]

I must agree! When I first started watching the evolution of Hauptwerk, I was afraid to get involved; it all seemed so technically demanding. I considered myself an experienced computer user, and had been involved with MIDI since its inception, but back then just 1GB of memory was HUGE! I kept watching, though, because I was always convinced that the only way to sample a pipe organ was one sample for each pipe; now we have several samples for each pipe in some sets!

Of course I'm glad "I bit the bullet". Having watched this fantastic evolution from inside now, I too, marvel at how each upgrade renders Hauptwerk more user friendly. Much thanks to Martin's and Brett's constantly expanding Hauptwerk. You are providing us a wonderful opportunity to play some of the finest organs in existence!

Gratefully,
Roy