Swell box filters if swell pedal not used?

Under Organ Preferences / Audio Engine there is an option to disable swell box filters. I have disabled the swell expression pedal on all of my organs, setting swell to max, and replaced the pedal's action with a master volume control. Does this mean that I can disable swell box filters, pay no significant price in sound quality, and reduce CPU load? CPU load seems to be the main limiting factor in my system (though not really serious), so I'd love to do anything reasonable to cut the load without impairing realism. Thanks!

Just reducing the volume that way is in no way the same as closing a real Swell mechanism which affects the frequencies differently. For instance, when closed there is a muffled aspect to the sound which is not duplicated by simply lowering the volume.
In a nutshell, it will certainly reduce the realism which is what Hauptwerk is striving to emulate after all.

[mdyde]

Hello Tim,

To add to Rob's reply, if you're never using Hauptwerk's swell boxes, then yes -- you could technically disable the swell box filters to save some CPU overheads. However, as Rob said, just using a volume pedal would be losing a lot of realism compared to using the virtual swell pedals.

Yes, of course using the swell pedal as master volume instead of swell detracts from authenticity, and for this reason I wish I had employed three expression pedals in my design instead of just two. Poor planning on my part. But it's done, so now the choice is between swell or master (or lose the crescendo pedal, making it a master, which I may still do).

Which do my wife and I find more important? We decided that having a dedicated swell pedal is nice, but given the huge range of stop volumes, as well as variations in our mood, we would rather be able to quickly change overall volume with the pedal. Also, I am mapping the five manual divisions of the Rotterdam to my two-manual console with coupler pistons, so this kind of defeats the purpose of having a dedicated swell pedal; something would often get left out.

I'm still thinking about drilling a hole in the panel to the right of the keystack and mounting a potentiometer, which I would program as master volume. I have room in my MIDI hardware for another pot (several, in fact), so it would be feasible. But having to reach a hand for a volume control? Seems awkward.

I actually have a small but growing list of things I would do differently if I built another organ. Sigh. Live and learn.


Tim

[mdyde]

Also, I am mapping the five manual divisions of the Rotterdam to my two-manual console with coupler pistons, so this kind of defeats the purpose of having a dedicated swell pedal; something would often get left out.

In case it's relevant and helps, if a sample set has more than one virtual expression pedal, then you could certainly control them all simultaneously from a single physical MIDI expression pedal. (Just auto-detect all of them to the same MIDI pedal.)

Thank you. I do appreciate all of the kind and expert help I get here.

In my case, the problem with simultaneous expression mapping is that assignment of source organ divisions to console manuals is selectable by the organist while playing, even controlled by piston combinations. I do this by using Master Couplers mapped to lighted thumb pistons on the piston rail of each manual. So having expression tied to divisions instead of manuals would add a layer of confusion for the organist.

The bottom line for my wife and me, (and this may border on heresy here!), is that neither of us is very interested in historical authenticity. We are not organ scholars, just organists who want a great sounding instrument. In fact (and I can hear you all shudder at this!), I am considering digging into your organ construction tools to put together some kind of a hybrid instrument, pulling my favorite stops from multiple organs to make a Frankenstein instrument that would make purists reel in disgust but would satisfy my organ fantasies. Retirement is great!

Tim

If you really want to save CPU time on Rotterdam and Caen, disable wind modelling first (for Rotterdam, the wind model is just made up anyway since the wind on the real organ is steady). If you need more, then try disabling interpolation. See user guide page 206 - 207.

But before any of that, if using a Windows PC, make the changes on page 216 -218 where applicable. Something as simple as disabling Intel speed step or killing the BIOS sound may fix the CPU deficit.

I replaced an 8 core Xeon with a 4 core i7 a few months ago and thought I was doomed to buy a bigger machine. I was running into the red on CPU with Caen and even a St Maximin plein jeu.

Turned off speed step (on by default) and 4 cores turned out to be more than enough for Caen, Rotterdam, and Doesburg, my biggest CPU hogs.

P.S. Swell box filters don't take much CPU time on Rotterdam or Caen because most of the ranks aren't enclosed.

It's not just a question of authenticity. It's what sounds good and what sounds real. For example, volume reduction at home won't sound like your wife's church organ with actual Swell enclosures.
But it's all up to you ultimately.

I would just mount a standard potentiometer to use as the volume control, leaving the swell and crescendo to perform their normal functions. I have four potentiometers that I use for Volume, Reverb (Goerlitz direct/diffuse ratio), and two reserved for future control of either console lighting or surround levels.

If the restriction is with whatever encoder you are using then just add a Teensy set up to encode the potentiometer.