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Home installation drawing to a close

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TomBentley

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Home installation drawing to a close

PostSat Jun 22, 2013 8:50 pm

Hello all.

I have been posting mainly in the audio/midi section of this forum and a couple of other spots within HW forum while building on a budget my home VPO. Most of my hardware is now in place (scattered somewhat around the room awaiting final assembly before designing a console.) I have successfully converted an Allen 32 note princess pedalboard to MIDI via Roman Sowa board (Pedalboard was advertised as a "Princess" but when it arrived I believe it is a full concave 32 since it nearly exactly matches the one on my Rodger 320 Trio organ upstairs and nearly killed an old guy like me to carry it downstairs). The new computer is installed and running beautifully (i5 processor, 10GB ram, 9 USB ports), my two midi keyboards are functioning just fine, and my speaker system (so far two Rodgers MC-10's (6 6x9's and 4 tweets each) hooked to a sherwood amp are putting out acceptable sound tho a bit sparce on the bottom end, and I am awaiting the arrival of an Allen speaker with a 15 and 12 inch speaker inside hopefully by July 1-5). I'm about to click the "buy now" button on an additional used amp to run the expected Allen speaker, and have decided pretty much to connect an external ESI gigaport HD+ as my external audio interface (8 channels). I am using the free edition currently to get things going and intend in the near future to upgrade to at least the basic edition of HW.

Now comes the sought after opinions and advice. I will have 8 channels of audio available. Doing this mainly because I want to have control over for example boosting the base (which I plan to be cafrried by the Allen15/12) and thru adding speakers as deals become available to create at least some semblance of a surround sound atmosphere in my space. I am under the impression that in order to do this I MUST have the advanced edition of HW to gain that much control.

Is this correct or am I missing something? I am so impressed and pleased with HW in general that I have NO problem uspporting it by purchasing the full license, but its gonna take a little time for my little black organ money box to be replenished after relatively heavy spending on hardware and equipment and those darned shipping costs thru EBAY so I was wondering how much actual sound manipulation I can achieve thru the free version to tide me over to a few months til I can afford a license.

I also seem to have great confusion about other software packages that might be able to manipulate sound from HW before outputting it to the audio interface -- I think they are referred to as DAW's. The Gigaport HD+ comes with something called Deckadance but I seem to be thinking that these are more for recording than for live output of sound as you actually play live but I don't know if that is fact or just my lack of knowledge. I hear a lot about "Repaer" and "Pro-Tools" and don't have a clear understanding of what these types of software are capable of in terms of assisting me in my goals.

Sorry for the length of this but I am hoping someone here in the free support area may have had the same type of confusion and might be able to nudge me in the appropriate direction.

AGAI -- I really wish to thank HW for making the free version available. It has served me wopnderfully in making me feel confident that the investment in a license will be well worth the price when all is said and done. I'm just trying to make sure I'm making the most informed decisions on these final pieces of hardware before I hit that infamous "BUY NOIW" button.

Thanks for any input you might feel inclined to give. (Oh I forgot one more piece of hardware I have yet to get -- a swell shoe) - while not immediately necessary I know I'm gonna what at least 1.

Tom
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Andrew Grahame

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Re: Home installation drawing to a close

PostSat Jun 22, 2013 11:19 pm

Hi Tom,

There are numerous options regarding swell pedals. I offer just one of them.

There's a device from MIDI Solutions which converts the analog signal from an ordinary volume pedal into a MIDI signal. It can be placed in series into an existing MIDI input line. Configuring it can be tricky, but not impossible.

The MIDI Solutions device is shown here. You may need to google around to find a retailer near you. Here in Sydney, New South Wales I purchased mine through a supplier in Brisbane, Queensland. Purchasing through a supplier closer to you will minimise shipping costs.

http://www.midisolutions.com/prodped.htm

To program it you'll need MIDI OX (for PC).

http://www.midiox.com

This particular method is admittedly expensive, especially if you end up with more than one pedal (I have three on my console). The big advantage though lies in the fact that it is "plug and play" - once you've dealt with the programming. For a single pedal you may find that the default setting works OK and no programming is necessary.

Other forum members may offer different, less expensive solutions.

The pedals I use are Yamaha FC-7 units.

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical- ... mode=model

Regarding purchase of a licence - don't hesitate further. Apart from the increased facilities, even in the Basic version, you'll then qualify for official support, the value of which can't be overstated. Also, bear in mind that the purchase price goes towards the further development of Hauptwerk.

Good luck, and welcome aboard!

Andrew
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cthart

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Re: Home installation drawing to a close

PostSun Jun 23, 2013 11:32 am

TomBentley wrote:... The new computer is installed and running beautifully (i5 processor, 10GB ram, 9 USB ports) ... I am using the free edition currently to get things going and intend in the near future to upgrade to at least the basic edition of HW.


My I suggest you buy the Advanced edition instead of the Basic? The Basic is limited to using 3Gb of RAM for samplesets which rather wastes the resources you have available. I'd continue using the Free edition for now until you can afford the Advanced edition.

Cheers,

Colin
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steve till

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Re: Home installation drawing to a close

PostSun Jun 23, 2013 2:22 pm

Also, even the Basic edition is limited to two channels only.
I would also suggest taking the financial hit and going straight to Advanced.
Put off a couple of sample sets until later.
You will be glad you did...
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TomBentley

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Re: Home installation drawing to a close

PostMon Jun 24, 2013 8:11 pm

I do berlieve all of your advice. I am planning to go str8 to the advanced edition. I still have some confusion about the audio interface and what a DAW can do for me.

I am heavily considering the ESI gigaport HD because of its 8 output channels and the fact that it is usb and I have discovered (somewhat disappointingly) that I indeed do not have a PCI slot only 2 PICe slots available thus pretty much eliminating the M-Audio 1010LT which was my first choice since I have heard such positive things about it here on the forum.

I have also heard positive about the ESI gigaport. I am just a bit confused as to how the audio interace (External) interacts with the bundled Deckadance software (I believe its a DAW sort of thing which allows some shaping of sound). There is much reference in all I read about VSTi and how the DAW and VSTi interact to produce sound for the speaker outputs on the audio interface which I assume would allow for boosting the lower frequencies, adding reverb, etc. but I don't know exactly how that all goes down.

Is there a simple explanation somewhere that I should read before purchase or will it become clear after I install it and play with it a bit?

Thanks again for your support and help.

Tom

PS -- its summer, I'm a waiter, and hopefully with good tips the advanced edition of HW should only be a couple of months away!!!!!!
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robinsmh

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Re: Home installation drawing to a close

PostTue Jun 25, 2013 4:45 am

I can't comment on Deckadance - not used it - but it seems to be aimed squarely at DJ's. I would try it by all means, but it may not do what you need.

Reaper will certainly work well acting as a mixing/routing/EQ layer between Hauptwerk and the Gigaport outputs. It's quite a beast though - bit of a sledge-hammer to crack a nut in this situation, so you really do need to read the manual first! Its free to try, and cheap to buy.

I use Reaper to create a low-pass filtered mixdown to my sub, high-pass filter the feeds to the other speakers, and also to host a IR reverb engine (Freeverb3). In my case, HW is set up to provide 6 channels of audio (3 stereo pairs) in two groups (main and rear) as a VSTi instrument in Reaper. Reaper then feeds 8 channels out via the Gigaport (main 1, main 2, rear, and sub).

The other thing you will need is to ensure that 48kHz sample sets (i.e. most sample sets!) will play correctly with the Gigaport locked to 44.1. Going through Reaper this works just fine, but they sound 145 cents flat unless you adjust the organ's tuning to compensate.

I generally feed Great/ Sw and Ped stops through the 'main' group (4 channels) and the Choir or Positive through the Rear channels to simulate the effect of having a ruckpositive behind your back. The reverb is fed from a mix of all 6 inputs, and send to the rear speakers only. That all seems to work quite well.

Martin
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Andrew Grahame

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Re: Home installation drawing to a close

PostTue Jun 25, 2013 6:19 am

If you are planning to use theatre organ sample sets then you'll need something to add reverb since most theatre organ sample sets are dry. Reaper works well for me, and there's plenty of information here on the forum to show how to set it up.

Andrew
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TomBentley

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Re: Home installation drawing to a close

PostTue Jun 25, 2013 8:47 pm

Dear Martin,

Thanks so much. That is the clearest explanation I have run across. It helped a great deal to clarify some terminology and shed some light on the actual "path" the sound takes to get at its final destination (the speakers themselves). I have been exploring Reaper only briefly but plan to look much closer at it and at least download the manual so I can get an even clearer picture.

I am assuming you are using the Advanced edition of HW and I guess I'd better factor that into the budget as a priority before increasing my speaker compliment further. I will of course investigate Deckadance once it arrives but from what I've read about it on-line it seems to be very DJ oriented rather than live performance via instrument but we'll see.

Plan to order the gigaport this week, the Allen speaker should be here within a week to week and a half, and we'll see where we go from there.

Thanks again to all -- don't stop the suggestions -- the more info the better - its always appreciated.

Tom

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