Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:09 am
Martin
The approach you suggested yesterday was very successful. I now have a better understanding of the 'General Settings/Configure MIDI Output Paths' and 'General Settings/List Rank MIDI Output' as well as the 'Organ Settings/Connect Organ Ranks to Rank MIDI Outputs' screens. Each serves a specific purpose in connecting the physical organ rank or other entity to the logical external rank or keyboard in the CODF. I had run them all together in my mind so I didn't see what part each played. This was caused by my using the same symbols in each screen. When I started using different symbols, I began to see what part of the job each screen did. When I discovered that the MIDI Output Paths screen was wanting me to describe the actual physical spreader board or vision of the rank as seen by its computer, I was pleasantly amazed. The division of this entity was accomplished in the connections made in the List Rank MIDI Output screen, i.e., I could label the two cables that came into that spreader board so that I could refer to them in the third screen. It was in the third screen that I could connect the "ExternalRanks" declared in the CODF to the individual cables declared in the second screen. I think this sequence is really spectacular. I now see why you implied that Hauptwerk could handle virtually any connection scheme.
HW has always pleasantly surprised me. The first whiff of the spectacular came when HW executed more rapidly as version numbers and functions increased. That never seems to happen in the software industry. In coming to grips with the Division in HW, I began to see some of the structure that you built to help implement a virtual organ. I'm still learning on that point. This last sequence of statements in CODF and screens is the most logical possible solution. Any other way that I thought of while getting to this point would have been ridiculously complicated if HW had really worked that way. Your logical arrangement of structures in HW is actually very simple, transparent, and the minimum needed to accomplish the job. I commend you on an outstanding program.
I got so carried away in building stops from the various ranks that I had wired onto spreader boards and built control computers for that I implemented a Resultant 32' stop at the end of the day yesterday. This one supports more of the harmonics of the 32' pitch. It'll sound kind of bassoonish.
Thanks for your help and congratulations on designing such a spectacular program.
Mike