Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:37 am
Hello, Taco -
I would move slowly on the audio system if I were you. It can be the most expensive part of your Hauptwerk system, and in some ways the most complicated, or at least the part with the most flexibility and therefore the most choices to make regarding its size and setup.
In any case, you will need the advanced edition of Hauptwerk to support multi-channel audio, and to allow you to voice the organs, which you will very likely want/need to do. And while you figure out what to add to your audio system, you can enjoy playing through what you currently have.
There are many many threads on the forum with data and opinions on how to configure multi-channel audio -- numbers and kinds of speakers and how to configure them. Some members have dozens of speakers, some prefer just headphones, some have active monitors, others passive, some have mixed kinds of speakers and others all the same. I suggest a thorough review of the multi-channel audio parts of the users' manual, and a lot of searching on the forum for what's already available, then post questions for further opinions.
I started with a pair of active monitors which I configured in Hauptwerk as a single stereo pair. I now have, over a period of time, from my old stereo system and gift from a friend, a set of four speaker pairs plus a good subwoofer; the speaker pairs are all different, three being old but excellent classic '70s technology and the fourth a newer active monitor, and the sub is shared with my home theater system. I run them as four multi-channel groups from Hauptwerk, with the subwoofer and one speaker pair handling all the 16' and 32' ranks, and the other ranks split among the other groups with the intent of having as few ranks as likely playing from any pair at any time. It's marvelous sound, but ...
... if I were starting from scratch, I'd probably have all speakers be the same, perhaps a dozen of them plus a sub, as having all the same seems to give the most flexibility in terms of configuration. (That is, different speakers do have different character, and while matching kinds of ranks to them to take advantage of that is probably possible, I expect a better overall result from simply trying to get as few notes as possible being played through any single speaker at the same time.) Careful balancing of output levels for the speakers, however configured, is essential.
It's a great adventure. I found that every change I made to my audio system was an improvement, often quite significant.
Good luck,
Barry Gerken
