Help: assign ranks to pedal without coupling

Hello,
I‘m a new Hauptwerker and I’m the first time in this forum. I’m playing the Rötha Silbermann-Instrument and I’m very happy with its charming lean silver-sound. Thanks to those, who recorded it and did all the work necessary to make it sound!!!
Yet there is something, this organ cannot “do”: J.S. Bach demands 4’ (solo) ranks this in some Choralbearbeitungen, where the cantus firmus is in the pedal. “Rötha-Silbermann” doesn’t have this.
So: I need some ranks of this organ being played with the pedal independently from the actually used registrations.
I found a possibility doing this by going to “organ settings/advanced midi applications/direct MIDI input/output for ranks and pipes”: I assign the ranks I need to the pedal via “auto-detect settings”.
But this is not a smart solution, since I have to click through all the menu and back again, when the piece is finished.
Is there a better way? Normal coupling doesn’t help, since I need ranks registered independently from the registrations already used.
Besides this, I created the Hauptwerk and Oberwerk divisions as “floating divisions” and succeeded in playing them from the pedal, but I experienced that they can’t be registered independently from the normally registered divisions.
Can anybody help me with this? Thanks for your help!
Wolfgang

Dear Wolfgang, this actually is not possible. Well... if you really want you can spend quite a few evenings "reprogramming" the organ using the Custom Organ Design Module, but that's really involved.

The reason that this cannot be implemented in a straightforward manner is that ranks might be involved in complex coupling schemes, specific wind model behaviour, etcetera.

[mdyde]

Hello Wolfgang,

Yes -- the only way to do it would be to create your own organ definition using the Custom Organ Design Module (see also its user guide on the Help menu in Hauptwerk) from scratch, with whatever virtual specification you wanted. However, that's moderately technical and involved.

When Hauptwerk installs it automatically gives you one icon called Hauptwerk, plus three other icons labelled Hauptwerk “alt config 1” to “alt config 3”. If you allocated your usual playing configuration to the main icon, and the one with a 4ft pedal to “alt config 1”, switching between configurations should involve just three steps:

(1) Close Hauptwerk

(2) Click on the other configuration

(3) Go to the Organ menu and choose the appropriate sample set. If you are only using one sample set, Control + F4 will automatically load the most recent organ.

I'm trained as a musician, not a computer programmer; so far as I can see this ought to work, but apologies if it doesn't!

[mdyde]

Hello organsRgreat,

Yes -- you could potentially do that (although it's more fiddly and time-consuming than switching on a coupler of course).

Hello, dear „helpers“
I see clear now. Its impossible the easy way. The “Custom Organ Design Module“ seems too far away from my computer skills, I‘m only a musician. Thank you josq / mdyde however, for the hint.
OrgansRgreat, I tried your suggestion last night and its a practicable way since my computer has a SSD which makes it fast enough. I’ll do it that way, problem solved , thanks!
Yet, I still thought about a possible software solution. It could work with an additional software-feature like: there could be a window with some virtual divisions on the left side and the organ’s ranks on the right. You could drag and drop any rank to any virtual division. A floating panel would then would show one of these divisions with stops to engage the ranks. Then you could couple to any real keyboard. would be more helpful to me and perhaps also to other players, than many other features already provided. Just dreaming…

[mdyde]

Yet, I still thought about a possible software solution. It could work with an additional software-feature like: there could be a window with some virtual divisions on the left side and the organ’s ranks on the right. You could drag and drop any rank to any virtual division. A floating panel would then would show one of these divisions with stops to engage the ranks. Then you could couple to any real keyboard. would be more helpful to me and perhaps also to other players, than many other features already provided. Just dreaming…

Hello Wolfgang,

That wouldn't be possible for us to implement in general, I'm afraid, since many sample sets have complex connections and relationships internally between pipes and keys and divisions, which couldn't automatically be overridden reliably. Hence something like the Custom Organ Design Module needs to be used (although we would like to include a simple graphical user interface for it at some point in the longer-term future).

I'm delighted that my suggestion works Wolfgang – thanks for letting us know. I've received so much helpful advice on this forum – it feels really good to be able to give something back

Dear Martin,

thanks for your clear explanations regarding my "dreaming". One more question I have: Back again to the "organ settings/advanced midi applications/direct MIDI input..." -way: It would help much for my problem, if I could first select all ranks on the left side and then "auto-detect" them in one step. This is not possible at the moment. The way back (disabling) it is possible. Is that intended?

regards,
Wolfgang

[mdyde]

Hello Wolfgang,

Yet, I still thought about a possible software solution. It could work with an additional software-feature like: there could be a window with some virtual divisions on the left side and the organ’s ranks on the right. You could drag and drop any rank to any virtual division. A floating panel would then would show one of these divisions with stops to engage the ranks. Then you could couple to any real keyboard. would be more helpful to me and perhaps also to other players, than many other features already provided. Just dreaming…

A correction to my previous reply on that: it would actually be possible for user-designed specifications to be completely independent from, and in addition to (but not to interact with or replace) the organ's native 'relay'. I've logged it in our enhancements database for that for future consideration anyway. However, the end result would effectively be similar to what the Custom Organ Design Module (CODM) already does, except in that you wouldn't need to recreate the rest of the organ in it (e.g. if you only wanted to add a few stops to an existing sample set) and in that you're proposing a graphical design interface (which we do hope to add one day for the CODM anyway).

One more question I have: Back again to the "organ settings/advanced midi applications/direct MIDI input..." -way: It would help much for my problem, if I could first select all ranks on the left side and then "auto-detect" them in one step. This is not possible at the moment. The way back (disabling) it is possible. Is that intended?

You can currently highlight an item in the left-hand browse list, then click the 'Auto-detect' button for it, then highlight another and repeat, etc.

Do you mean that you'd like to highlight multiple items simultaneously, click 'Auto-detect' and for Hauptwerk to prompt you (e.g. with a new wizard) to auto-detect each one in turn automatically, so that you don't need to click on the next item each time?

You can currently highlight an item in the left-hand browse list, then click the 'Auto-detect' button for it, then highlight another and repeat, etc.

Do you mean that you'd like to highlight multiple items simultaneously, click 'Auto-detect' and for Hauptwerk to prompt you (e.g. with a new wizard) to auto-detect each one in turn automatically, so that you don't need to click on the next item each time?

Hello Martin,
yes, about that way. My thought is: since the command is the same for all items, it could be possible to do it with one click, as it is possible with the reverse command "no input/disabled".
Wolfgang

[mdyde]

Thanks, Wolfgang.

I've logged it in our enhancement requests database for future consideration, since it could potentially save two mouse clicks per control. Note also that if you instead used right-click auto-detection directly on the graphical controls (stops, pistons, buttons, etc., as opposed to via the settings screen) then you would potentially need only one additional per-control mouse click (plus the click on the Done/Next button, which would be needed in any case), instead of two.