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Integrating HW MIDI Record/Playback with an Acoustic Piano

Connecting Hauptwerk to MIDI organs, sequencers, ...
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chrisdfrith

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Integrating HW MIDI Record/Playback with an Acoustic Piano

PostMon Dec 12, 2016 2:57 pm

We recently installed a four manual, moving draw knob Hauptwerk implementation at our church running the Hereford Cathedral XLv2 sample set. It is magnificent! We also have a beautifully restored Bluthner grand piano from Germany.

We are currently looking into implementing a MIDI record/playback system on the Bluthner piano such as available from QRS Music Technology. Once implemented, we’d like to record and playback songs played live on the piano and Hauptwerk organ together. My goal is to keep the production sequencer system to accomplish this as simple as possible. Ideally, I’d like to use the built-in sequencer in Hauptwerk to record and play back both the organ and the piano together. Assuming the acoustic piano could be connected via MIDI over USB to the same Mac computer running Hauptwerk, would it be feasible to use the integrated Hauptwerk MIDI sequencer to record and play back both instruments simultaneously? Having to integrate both the piano and the organ into a DAW is more than I feel the church could handle and operate. The key to a solution for the church is it must be “simple to operate.” Further, I am not up for a creating a highly complex solution for them and then maintaining a DAW, etc.

One thought I have concerns a feature built into the XLv2 version of the Hereford sample set in that it incorporates 20 additional MIDI ranks (five per division and a huge thank you to David Butcher) that are available to map to external MIDI devices/voices. We are using those MIDI ranks now to play from within Hauptwerk external voices running in Kontakt sampler software. The addition of the 20 MIDI ranks in Hereford allows the organist to use during performance all of Hauptwerk’s controls over the voices mapped to the MIDI ranks. Could one of those MIDI ranks be used to map to the MIDI address for the Bluthner acoustic piano? How would a 61 note rank record 88 keys? What else should I be thinking about here?

I am hoping someone else has worked on solving this issue of an “elegant” production solution for connecting a Hauptwerk organ and an acoustic piano for simultaneous MIDI recording and playback.
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oliver_mayes

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Re: Integrating HW MIDI Record/Playback with an Acoustic Pia

PostMon Dec 12, 2016 10:33 pm

I don't have the MIDI stops you mention, but I have taken a stop that I very rarely (almost never use) and not load it and then assign that stop to MIDI OUT. When I pull that stop, my Yamaha Clavinola plays the piano. Since HW records the stops, the piano plays back from the MIDI recording. I don't remember the mechanics of getting this done, but it is somewhere on this forum, since that's where I got the idea.
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mdyde

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Re: Integrating HW MIDI Record/Playback with an Acoustic Pia

PostTue Dec 13, 2016 5:09 am

Hello Chris,

Hauptwerk's built-in MIDI recorder/player can only ever record/replay actions within Hauptwerk itself (virtual key movements, virtual stop changes, etc.). If you used a virtual rank (e.g. one of the extended Hereford ranks you mentioned) to control an external MIDI device (MIDI piano, sampler, sound expander, etc.) and then controlled (by playing Hauptwerk) the virtual rank from within Hauptwerk, then the MIDI recorder should be able to record and replay that.

In that case you would need to auto-detect the MIDI piano's keyboard to the relevant virtual keyboard within Hauptwerk, so that you could play Hauptwerk from the piano's keyboard. You wouldn't be able to go beyond the compasses of the virtual keyboard and virtual rank (typically 61 notes), though, which would have been defined within the organ definition by the sample set producer.
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
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chrisdfrith

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Re: Integrating HW MIDI Record/Playback with an Acoustic Pia

PostTue Dec 13, 2016 5:48 pm

Many thanks to you Martin. You confirmed what I suspected.

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