non standard keyboard

I guess this question is directed to either Martin or Brett: How, in a custom organ definition, do you link a non-standard keyboard to a standard one? For instance, in the custom definition #2 for the St. Anne's organ, there is a non-standard keyboard for the Swell Reeds, but those Reeds play from the Swell keyboard, and I cannot see how that custom keyboard is linked to the Swell keyboard so that those stops can play. What am I missing?

[B. Milan]

Hello Mike,

This is a tricky one!

The linkage occurs from the Coupler attribute named:

<OverrideDestDivisionToSpecifiedDivisionCode>8</OverrideDestDivisionToSpecifiedDivisionCode>

Then the function of the switch is copied from:

<CouplerCodeFromWhichToCopyState>1211</CouplerCodeFromWhichToCopyState>

The part that you wouldn't know is that the Hauptwerk code (only when dealing with Unison off switches between standard and non-standard divisions) automatically inverts the linked non-standard division switch so that it actually acts as a normal Unison (on) coupler, therefore making the Swell Reeds automatically couple and play from the Swell division when the stop is activated for the Swell.

We're updating the CODM user guide to explain this as well as the CODM #2 example file coupler name to help avoid any further confusion.

So if you just copy that entire coupler code it should just work how you need it to if you are devising your own CODM file.

So I guess you must have a Unison Off coupler in the host keyboard in order for this to work? In other words, if I wanted to have certain stops from the Choir manual move to the Great manual, I must not only have a Unison Off for those stops (plus a stop to couple them to the Great manual), but also a Choir Unison Off. If so, I guess I could make the Choir Unison Off coupler invisible, but present within the definition file?

[B. Milan]

The example CODM file has the Swell reeds on a separate division from the main swell ranks, so that's the reason for it being done the way it was. So unless you are taking say Choir reeds (or another group of ranks on the Choir) and having them on a different non-standard division apart from the main Choir division itself (which is generally only needed if they have their own wind reservoirs and pressures) then you needn't worry about that and wouldn't need the Unison Off. Just use the normal coupling codes and methods. For an example see the other non-reed Swell ranks in the example CODM file and how they couple to another division. I.e. <CouplerCode>1111</CouplerCode> which is the standard SW to GT coupler.

But if you want to have only some Choir ranks able to be coupled then yes you would need to add them to a separate non-standard division and follow the methods used in the example file as I outlined previously.

OK, I guess that is the answer I needed. Thank you for the help, and for your prompt replies.

I guess, then, that it is not possible to have a Unison Off for only the stops from the non-standard division.

What I was trying to do was to occasionally separate some stops from the Choir division and play them on the Great manual. In other words, the Choir could be played as a full division, or split into two parts, playing each from separate manuals. But I gather that it is not possible within Hauptwerk as it is currently configured.

[mdyde]

Hello Mike,

If I understand correctly, that should actually be easy enough to do (but with one limitation, which I'll get to below):

- Put these extra 'separate stops' on a new non-standard (and hidden, and inaccessible by MIDI) division. E.g. name it something like 'Choir floating ranks'.

- Have a standard (unison), displayed and accessible, custom coupler that couples them to the 'real' Choir division (which itself has all of the other Choir ranks), and which defaults to engaged (so that they play from the Choir by default).

- Similarly, if you want other intra-manual Choir couplers (e.g. Choir Octave) then create a duplicate (displayed, accessible, defaulting to off) set for the 'Choir floating ranks division' (as in the CODM example 2 organ). E.g. a 'Choir floating ranks Octave' would be part of the *Choir* division (not the 'Choir floating ranks' division), have a key-shift of +12, and have a destination of the 'Choir floating ranks' division.

- Also have couplers that can optionally couple that 'Choir floating ranks' division to the Great, defaulting to off (maybe also at non-unison pitches if you wish).

The 'Choir floating ranks' would then simply be a separate division, but by default it would be coupled to the 'real' Choir.

The one relevant notable limitation in the CODM is that you couldn't make the 'Choir floating ranks' division un-couple from the Choir automatically whenever you coupled it (by any means) to the Great (since that would involve more complex switch linkages than the CODM supports). E.g. when turning on any 'Choir floating ranks on Great' coupler (or 'Choir floating ranks on Great Octave', for example), you would also manually need to turn off any couplers that were coupling it to the 'real' Choir (assuming you wanted to do that).

However, that probably isn't a significant limitation because you could assign pistons (e.g. scoped) to do all of the required parts of that composite action.

The only problem with your answer is that, when the 'Choir floating ranks' are playing on the Choir manual, I would like them to respond to the Choir combination pistons, but I guess that is not possible.

[mdyde]

Hello Mike,

You could make the 'Choir floating ranks' stops store their states in the (main) Choir division's divisionals if you wished. See the 'Stop: Sw: Contra Fagotto 16' stop in the CODM example organ 2 ODF for an example of that (its code, 2206, is a Swell division code so that its state is stored in the Swell division's divisionals, but it has OverrideSourceDivisionToSpecifiedDivisionCode=8 so that its pipes are actually connected to the floating 'Swell Reeds' division instead).

You could of course alternativey (or additionally) use Hauptwerk's master scoped combinations to make any given stops be remembered (statically) in any piston groups at all.

However, there's no means by which you could make a stop sometimes be remembered within the divisionals for one division, and sometimes within another, depending on which division it happened to be coupled to at the time.

OK, I have set it up so that the Positiv to Choir rocker defaults to On, and when I want the Positiv stops on Great, a piston will simply turn that one off, and simultaneously turn on the Positiv to Great. That works. Thank you, Brett and Martin, for your help.