I had a call from Tom (http://www.organtechnology.com) last week about the possibility of checking out one his Hauptwerk PC models on my console and sound system. Appears his console is still in the construction phase (mine is, too, and one of these days I'll get a Round To-It and add another manual and wire up the toe studs).
Living in the same metropolitan area, when it's as spread out as the Dallas/Ft. Worth area is, isn't exactly like being next door neighbors. So I think Tom packed a sandwich and headed over here with what was essentially the entry level model OT-1 and an M-audio 410 firewire audio module.
I moved 4 stereo speaker channels (Behringer 2031A) including the sub channel to the 410 from my Audiofire 12. the PC was configured to have HW start up on boot, and we had St. Anne's playing in short order using some midi files that Tom had on the machine. Because of the location and cable lengths required to use the 410 for the console interface, we downloaded the drivers for my E-MU 0404 USB which sits at the console, and quickly configured HW to use the E-MU for console midi. We weren't using a screen with touch, but as a creature of habit I kept leaving fingerprints on the screen anyway
The HW dongle for the OT-1 wasn't licensed for the Advanced version, so we used my key and had multi-channel audio and related features all working as expected. Tom had some other sets loaded besides the default St. Anne, and we also installed the Milan Cappel (using the license on my dongle), and played that one for a while - it's still one of my favorites.
Not surprisingly, the system proved to be trouble and glitch free, looked the part (small innocuous black box), and played well. No "fiddling" was needed to get it up and running and the Vista install had already been cleaned up to get rid of the gremlins. Now clearly, it might not be the box to run the Caen Surround in all of it's 24-bit glory, but appeared to have all the resources needed to run most of the more modest sample sets - which still includes much of what's in my own collection.
I believe the OT-1 is spec'd to ship with the E-MU 0404. We didn't try it with the E-MU audio, but I used that interface in my original HW setup with external amps and different speakers, and it's hard to find fault with it for use with a single stereo output environment or headphones. I also think Tom is planning to deliver the M-audio 610 rather than the 410 in the OT-2/3 versions.
Living in the same metropolitan area, when it's as spread out as the Dallas/Ft. Worth area is, isn't exactly like being next door neighbors. So I think Tom packed a sandwich and headed over here with what was essentially the entry level model OT-1 and an M-audio 410 firewire audio module.
I moved 4 stereo speaker channels (Behringer 2031A) including the sub channel to the 410 from my Audiofire 12. the PC was configured to have HW start up on boot, and we had St. Anne's playing in short order using some midi files that Tom had on the machine. Because of the location and cable lengths required to use the 410 for the console interface, we downloaded the drivers for my E-MU 0404 USB which sits at the console, and quickly configured HW to use the E-MU for console midi. We weren't using a screen with touch, but as a creature of habit I kept leaving fingerprints on the screen anyway
The HW dongle for the OT-1 wasn't licensed for the Advanced version, so we used my key and had multi-channel audio and related features all working as expected. Tom had some other sets loaded besides the default St. Anne, and we also installed the Milan Cappel (using the license on my dongle), and played that one for a while - it's still one of my favorites.
Not surprisingly, the system proved to be trouble and glitch free, looked the part (small innocuous black box), and played well. No "fiddling" was needed to get it up and running and the Vista install had already been cleaned up to get rid of the gremlins. Now clearly, it might not be the box to run the Caen Surround in all of it's 24-bit glory, but appeared to have all the resources needed to run most of the more modest sample sets - which still includes much of what's in my own collection.
I believe the OT-1 is spec'd to ship with the E-MU 0404. We didn't try it with the E-MU audio, but I used that interface in my original HW setup with external amps and different speakers, and it's hard to find fault with it for use with a single stereo output environment or headphones. I also think Tom is planning to deliver the M-audio 610 rather than the 410 in the OT-2/3 versions.
Grant