Hello all, first post.
I have two possible long term Hauptwerk projects, the first is as a simple practise organ for home. The 2nd is using a Johannus Opus 5 console at one of my churches to drive Hauptwerk as myself and the other organist are not too wild about it's two sample sets.
At the moment I'm messing around with the free edition on a macbook (2.1Ghz dual core, 2Gb ram) using a cheap midi interface and the inbuilt audio, and trying out the free sample sets. I'm prepared to buy the Advanced edition as soon as I am happy (or happier) with the sound. The two things I'm keen to improve are latency and broadness of sound (in terms of frequency spectrum)
At home I've tried connected into the audio input on my Kawai digital piano, and the sound is pretty good down to 8ft, the 16ft aren't too great and only prominent 16ft stops (e.g. trombone on St Annes) are really audible. For practise purposes I could live with this.
At church I've tried connected into the audio inputs on the Johannus (it has no external speakers just console speakers) but this seems to have no top end to the sound, I suspect the input only goes to one speaker internally. I've also tried the PA system and a fairly nice DIY amp with varying results, but so far nothing I'd be happy to play in front of others. So clearly I need to get in some higher quality hardware.
I'm trying to work out the order to spend money. After reading the forums, my thinking is the following:
1) ECHO Audiofire to improve midi latency and allow multiple outputs
2) Set of Mackie MR5's for church
3) Sub woofer, not considered which yet.
Does anyone have an opinion as to whether latency issues are most likely down to the cheap midi usb interface I'm using or the spec of the mac, or both!? The St Annes Moseley organ seems much snappier than the Prudhoe Methodist Organ and I wouldn't have thought the latter is using more ram. I've got no other evidence that the macbook isn't coping, no sound break-up or distortion.
I also wondered what the least complicated speaker setup anyway has happily used in a small church? Is adding a subwoofer pretty much mandatory to achieve reasonable 16ft results? Am I mad to hope that a pair of monitors would be good enough for the moment?!
It seems quite a big brave step to starting putting money behind this dream so any positive experiences welcomed! I'm particularly interested if anyone is using Hauptwerk in a small church with a fairly minimal setup.
I'll stop waffling now, thanks for any comments.
Tim
PS the demos of the St Georges Casavant organ have just blown me away while typing this, WOW.
I have two possible long term Hauptwerk projects, the first is as a simple practise organ for home. The 2nd is using a Johannus Opus 5 console at one of my churches to drive Hauptwerk as myself and the other organist are not too wild about it's two sample sets.
At the moment I'm messing around with the free edition on a macbook (2.1Ghz dual core, 2Gb ram) using a cheap midi interface and the inbuilt audio, and trying out the free sample sets. I'm prepared to buy the Advanced edition as soon as I am happy (or happier) with the sound. The two things I'm keen to improve are latency and broadness of sound (in terms of frequency spectrum)
At home I've tried connected into the audio input on my Kawai digital piano, and the sound is pretty good down to 8ft, the 16ft aren't too great and only prominent 16ft stops (e.g. trombone on St Annes) are really audible. For practise purposes I could live with this.
At church I've tried connected into the audio inputs on the Johannus (it has no external speakers just console speakers) but this seems to have no top end to the sound, I suspect the input only goes to one speaker internally. I've also tried the PA system and a fairly nice DIY amp with varying results, but so far nothing I'd be happy to play in front of others. So clearly I need to get in some higher quality hardware.
I'm trying to work out the order to spend money. After reading the forums, my thinking is the following:
1) ECHO Audiofire to improve midi latency and allow multiple outputs
2) Set of Mackie MR5's for church
3) Sub woofer, not considered which yet.
Does anyone have an opinion as to whether latency issues are most likely down to the cheap midi usb interface I'm using or the spec of the mac, or both!? The St Annes Moseley organ seems much snappier than the Prudhoe Methodist Organ and I wouldn't have thought the latter is using more ram. I've got no other evidence that the macbook isn't coping, no sound break-up or distortion.
I also wondered what the least complicated speaker setup anyway has happily used in a small church? Is adding a subwoofer pretty much mandatory to achieve reasonable 16ft results? Am I mad to hope that a pair of monitors would be good enough for the moment?!
It seems quite a big brave step to starting putting money behind this dream so any positive experiences welcomed! I'm particularly interested if anyone is using Hauptwerk in a small church with a fairly minimal setup.
I'll stop waffling now, thanks for any comments.
Tim
PS the demos of the St Georges Casavant organ have just blown me away while typing this, WOW.