Mixed Results - Concerns and Questions

Hello, all, I've been checking out the free version with an eye toward buying one of the full versions, and have experienced what I consider mixed results. So, before I spend money on the the product I thought I'd better ask a few questions and get the benefit of experienced users. I've read the FAQs and various of the forum postings here, but haven't seen anything relating to what I'll ask. Sorry this is long, but I wanted to give all the info I could.

First, my setup: MacBook Pro, 4GB memory, 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, onboard sound. This well exceeds the minimum stated requirements. I use a EMU Xmidi 1x1 USB MIDI interface to connect to my Rodgers Cambridge 730. The Rodgers is ca. 1994, an early PDI digital organ. I don't often play through its speaker system because I live in a condo apartment, so I use headphones. I have also tried the M-Audio MIDI Sport 1x1 interface, but I like the EMU better.

Installing Hauptwerk and getting it going was dead simple, so no issues there. I'm not far enough down the road to worry about programming the swell or crescendo pedals yet. The swell pedal graphic representation tends to "flutter" onscreen when I operate the pedal, and I'm not certain it's performing as it should, but unless I should be paying more attention to that, I'm not not worried about solving it yet.

I'm more concerned with learning whether I have enough computing power to run the software adequately. Since I don't know how to evaluate that, I'm asking the forum to very kindly tell me what your collective experiences say. Here is what I've been noticing:

-- some of the sample sets have what I can only describe as a faint "after-echo" after I release a key. Say, on the Brut-Leuchten Orgel I select the Swell Gedackt 8' and play a single note and release it. After release I hear a faint, almost garbled echo of the note. It's not a reverb effect. I have tried different buffer settings in the "Configure Audio Outputs" dialog, but can't shake that echo. I have heard the same thing on different sample sets. What should I try to get rid of it?
-- In addition to the sample set above, I've downloaded the Enigma wet, Jeaux d'orgues Stiehr- Mockers, St. Stephen's Anglican and St. Augustine's Neutral Bay sample sets. With the exception of, I think, St. Augustine's (and St. Anne's, Moseley), none of the preset combinations seem to work on these sets, and I haven't been able to program them. Is this a limitation of the free version of HW? A problem with the sample sets? Or lack of computer memory or processor horsepower? Or did I completely miss something else?

I'm sure I've left something unasked, but I've rambled on long enough. I have to say that the little bit I've looked at HW leaves me very impressed, and my mouth is practically watering over some of the great sample sets available. I can easily see eventually selling the Rodgers in favor of a dedicated HW setup, if I can work out the considerations I have outlined above -- and maybe others I don't know I have yet. Thanks very much in advance for any assistance you can provide me.

-- Chris

[mdyde]

Hello Chris,

Many thanks for the interest in Hauptwerk.

The swell pedal graphic representation tends to "flutter" onscreen when I operate the pedal

I think that's probably a result of your Rodgers' swell pedal sending the 'flutter' MIDI values. It isn't uncommon for MIDI expression pedals to have some degree of play in their mechanisms or in the MIDI encoding of their positions (hysteresis).

You could check by running a utility like MIDI Monitor (when Hauptwerk isn't running), which will show you all of the incoming MIDI messages in real-time:

http://www.snoize.com/MIDIMonitor/

However, there probably isn't much you can easily do about it unless you want to replace some or all of the Rodgers' pedal mechanism (unless other Rodgers users have suggestions for how to adjust it or tighten up its behaviour).

If the fluttering doesn't noticeably impact the sound you hear from Hauptwerk (movement of the virtual swell shutters) then it probably isn't worth worrying too much about it.

-- some of the sample sets have what I can only describe as a faint "after-echo" after I release a key. Say, on the Brut-Leuchten Orgel I select the Swell Gedackt 8' and play a single note and release it. After release I hear a faint, almost garbled echo of the note. It's not a reverb effect. I have tried different buffer settings in the "Configure Audio Outputs" dialog, but can't shake that echo. I have heard the same thing on different sample sets. What should I try to get rid of it?

Try using Hauptwerk's built-in audio recorder to see if its recordings also contain the effect, ideally using the St. Anne's sample set (just because that's a convenient point of reference that we all have readily available). You might need to burn the recording to a CD and play it on a separate CD player or computer to eliminate the possibility of some aspect of your MacBook's configuration or audio hardware giving the same result when playing recordings back too.

Hauptwerk's audio recorder records exactly (byte for byte) the audio stream that Hauptwerk sends to the audio driver/interface, so if its recordings don't contain the effect then you know for certain that the effect is being caused by something external to Hauptwerk (e.g. the audio interface/driver).

If you're not sure about the results, please send us a copy of the audio recording, along with a diagnostic file ('File | Create diagnostic file ...') to see if we can get a better of what might be causing the issue:

http://www.hauptwerk.com/forms/support-ticket/

-- In addition to the sample set above, I've downloaded the Enigma wet, Jeaux d'orgues Stiehr- Mockers, St. Stephen's Anglican and St. Augustine's Neutral Bay sample sets. With the exception of, I think, St. Augustine's (and St. Anne's, Moseley), none of the preset combinations seem to work on these sets, and I haven't been able to program them. Is this a limitation of the free version of HW? A problem with the sample sets? Or lack of computer memory or processor horsepower? Or did I completely miss something else?

There aren't any limitations in the Free Edition affecting the combination system.

My guess is that the sample sets you list just happen to have all of their combinations blank (all stops set to off) by default, so you would need to set them with your own registrations.

Basically to set a piston's registration you need to:

- Draw your desired registration on the draw-knobs.
- Click the SET piston (or use the corresponding menu option) to enter capture mode.
- Click the piston you want to capture the registration to.
- Click the SET piston again (or use the corresponding menu option) to leave capture mode.

From now on, when not in capture (=set) mode the piston will recall the registration you stored to it.

You also need to save the combination set/file (which stores the registrations for all pistons and the registration sequencer) if you want the registrations you captured to be available next time you load the organ.

Have a look at these sections in the user guide, which cover how to use the combination system, capture mode and combination files in more detail:

- 'Using Hauptwerk: the virtual console' (starts on page 72 in the current v3.30 version of the guide).
- 'Using Hauptwerk: capture mode' (page 114).
- 'Using Hauptwerk: combination files' (page 100).

I'm more concerned with learning whether I have enough computing power to run the software adequately. Since I don't know how to evaluate that, I'm asking the forum to very kindly tell me what your collective experiences say.

Your 2.2 GHz 4 GB Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro should easily be sufficient for most small and medium-sized sample sets. You should be able to load up to about 2.7 GB of sample data into memory (2/3 of the physical memory), so look for sample sets that will fit within that (or you can disable some ranks in order to load larger ones). I understand that it's unofficially possible to install up to 6 GB of physical memory (which would make 4 GB available for 64-bit Hauptwerk) in the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros (I have a 2007 2.6 GHz MacBook Pro myself, although I haven't personally tried upgrading it from 4 GB to 6 GB yet).

This document (now a little outdated) has general background information on how computer hardware (memory, polyphony, audio interfaces, etc.) relate to the performance of sample sets:

http://www.hauptwerk.com/clientuploads/documentation/PDF/TechnicalData.pdf

You can also use the polyphony testing organs to see how much polyphony your computer can manage, which is covered in the 'Performance tuning' section in the main Hauptwerk user guide.

When launching Hauptwerk you can also choose the option to evaluate one of the licensed editions, allowing you to see how well a sample set would perform in them.

Hope that helps.

Martin, thanks so much for your very detailed reply. I will check out your suggestions over the next few days and report back. As to the piston-setting, I see I was doing it wrong, by creating the registration, clicking Set and then just the piston I wanted to assign, without hitting Set again. I wasn't reading the manual closely enough!

-- Chris

Hello Chris,

I can advise that a MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM can receive an official Apple memory upgrade to 8GB. I have a MacBook Pro 15-inch for work needs and recently I had this upgrade carried out. However I don't use this computer for Hauptwerk so I can't comment on its performance in that regard.

Andrew

[mdyde]

Hello Andrew,

I can advise that a MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM can receive an official Apple memory upgrade to 8GB.

That's certainly true of the current and recent Intel i7/i5-based MacBook Pro models, but my understanding is that the early Core 2 Duo models like mine (2007 vintage) are officially limited to 4 GB and unofficially to 6 GB (trying to install 8 GB causes them to crash).

Hello Martin,

My MacBook Pro, purchased about 6 months ago, has the 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, not an i7 or i5.

I had the upgrade done about six weeks ago by Apple using authentic Apple memory. My main purpose was for running Parallels, which has allowed me to set up a virtual machine running Windows 7 which operates alongside the Mac OS. With the upgrade, each OS now has 4 GB to itself.

One of these days I should get around to installing Hauptwerk in it and see how it copes. When I do, I'll put it into the Mac section and run it with the virtual machine off.

Andrew

[mdyde]

Hello Graham,

Thanks for the info. Apparently it's just the earliest (late 2007, early 2008) Core 2 Duo models that were limited to 6/4 GB. I just double-checked on the Apple Store and 8 GB upgrades are available for all late-2008 onwards MacBook Pro models, but not models prior to that (like mine).

Thanks for the info. Apparently it's just the earliest (late 2007, early 2008) Core 2 Duo models that were limited to 6/4 GB. I just double-checked on the Apple Store and 8 GB upgrades are available for all late-2008 onwards MacBook Pro models, but not models prior to that (like mine).

And mine. I have a model similar to, or the same as yours, Martin. I had read about the unofficial possibility of getting up to 6GB, but since this is my only computer I was leery of trying it (did not want to take the chance of releasing the magic smoke), so I opted to increase the original 2GB up to the published maximum of 4GB. I am so impressed with Hauptwerk that I think I am going to sell the Rodgers and replace it with a MIDI-only setup to run HW. That would get the behemoth console and associated speakers out of my living room and into a church, where they belong. At that point I would likely include a memory-stuffed dedicated Mac Mini to run nothing but the program.