Upgrade / Retrograde / Options

Greetings all,

Well, I must say...I was not expecting this. The upgrade to V and it's subsequent re-configuring is, in my opinion, somewhat of a mess. As a recording engineer who has mastered using Pro Tools, Logic, Sonar, Vegas, etc, I was stunned and disappointed on how convoluted and confusing the whole "audio routing" has been re-worked. Kudos to all who have taken the time to offer videos, blogs, tutorials, etc...and I mean that with utmost sincerity!

My whole purpose for upgrading to V was the internal reverb. It would be great to have, but it's not the "hill to die on" at this point. So unless I can get my desired audio routing achieved in another day or so, I will simply go back to 4. Fortunately I have the original HW4 DVD, but the update to 4.2 is gone, and it's nowhere to be found (that I can see) on the HW website.

So, in my opinion, there are a few "faux pas" moments happening here at Milan Digital Audio....

-- the Audio section needs considerable cleanup regarding its interface and intuitive nature.
-- v4.2 should still be available on the website for download for those who either want to go back to it, or are upgrading their equipment and need access to the install files again. It's fine if you don't want to sell it anymore. But I think it poor form to eliminate it completely for those who still need / use it.

My home setup is fairly simple....I have 4 bookshelf speakers across up front that I use for most of the ranks, 1 pair of full range speakers (15" subs/horns) that I use for the Pedal ranks, and a pair of bookshelf speakers in the rear whatever is remaining. I'm going to keep trying, but if I continue to strike out, it's back to 4 and I'll wait for an update that hopefully simplifies things. Again, cheers to all who have figured it out!!

HW is the absolute best at what it does. What it does NOT have to be is this difficult to configure.

Best to all,
Joe

[micdev]

Hello Joe,

You can easily get back your Hauptwerk 4 audio configuration in Hauptwerk5. Restore your last Hauptwer4 backup

When launching Hauptwerk v5 after restoring your v4 backup (as with the first time after upgrading from v4) the General Configuration Wizard will appear automatically. If you want to keep your migrated v4 audio routing then make sure that both of these two options are *not* ticked:

- 'Discard migrated Hauptwerk v4 audio settings and reset audio device settings'.
- 'Discard migrated Hauptwerk v4 audio settings and reset audio routing settings'.

(Also, when asked on the subsequent panels of the wizard whether you use and want to enable MIDI output, make sure that that you select 'yes' if you were previously using any MIDI output at all, otherwise your MIDI settings for any virtual controls that used MIDI output would be cleared.)

Then, when you load each organ for the first time in v5, the Organ Configuration Wizard will run. Make sure that the following option is *not* ticked:

- 'Reset general audio routing settings (mixer buses and groups)'.

All of your v4 audio routing should then be retained.

Regards

[mdyde]

Hello Joe,

Sorry to hear that you've found it tricky to understand. We do hope to add various things in the future to try to help with that, but if you persevere with the manual I do think you'll find that v5's audio routing really isn't that difficult (and it's extremely powerful, and quick to use, once one grasps the basic concepts).

To add to Francois' reply (I see he just beat me to posting):

My home setup is fairly simple....I have 4 bookshelf speakers across up front that I use for most of the ranks, 1 pair of full range speakers (15" subs/horns) that I use for the Pedal ranks, and a pair of bookshelf speakers in the rear whatever is remaining.

In the main Hauptwerk user guide's routing sections, 'Example 6: multi-channel audio with 24 (or more) speakers configured as stereo pairs in 3 groups of 4 pairs each, with different organ divisions routed to different groups, optionally plus a sub-woofer, optionally with an additional pair of ‘rear’ speakers for surround-sound, optionally with an additional pair of speakers as an ‘aux reverb mix’ with added reverb (which can be bypassed, or its wetness adjusted, on a per-organ basis)' (pages 196-201) gives an example of routing different divisions to different groups. (If you only want to use a single stereo pair of speakers for each division, then you would only want one mixer bus, i.e. speaker pair, in each of your groups/divisions).

You might perhaps also find the following to help understand v5's routing in terms of how it relates to v4's:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17916&start=30#p137697

v5's underlying routing architecture is exactly the same as v4's -- the screens have just been renamed slightly (and they can also now do a lot more that v4 couldn't, and quicker, and all in real-time, and with visual feed-back).

For example:

- v4: 'General settings | Audio outputs' screen is now:
- v5: 'General settings | Audio mixer' screen.

- v4 'primary audio outputs' on the 'General settings | Audio outputs' screen are now the:
- v5 'primary mixer buses' on the 'General settings | Audio mixer' screen.

- v4 'aux mix-down outputs' on the 'General settings | Audio outputs' screen are now the:
- v5 'master mix buses' on the 'General settings | Audio mixer' screen.

- v4: 'General settings | Audio output groups' screen is now:
- v5: 'General settings | Advanced audio ... | Audio mixer bus groups' screen.

- v4: ranks were routed to audio output groups using the ''Organ | Load organ, adjusting rank ... screen.
- v5: ranks are routed to audio mixer bus groups using 'Organ settings | Advanced audio … | Rank routing …' screen.

Hence if you like, in v5 you can just imagine you're using v4, and use the differently-named screens above in the same way that you would use them in v4. I.e.:

- Set up some primary buses on the mixer for your speaker pairs ('General settings | Audio mixer' screen).
- Put those buses into groups as desired ('General settings | Advanced audio ... | Audio mixer bus groups' screen).
- Route ranks to the desired groups ('Organ settings | Advanced audio … | Rank routing …' screen).

[For v4-type audio routing, just ignore the additional new 'audio output perspectives' on the voicing/panning and rank routing screens, since they're intended for surround/3D sound. You can also just ignore 'mixer presets' 2-7 if you want all organs to use the same audio groups, as would have been necessary in v4.]

v4.2 should still be available on the website for download for those who either want to go back to it, or are upgrading their equipment and need access to the install files again.

I'll send you a forum P.M. (However, I do think and hope you'll find it worthwhile persevering with v5.)

I thank both of you gentlemen for taking the time to reply, and for the PM!

I will take your tips and continue onward! Hopefully it all gets cleared up before my son comes home for college break and needs to practice!

Cheers,
Joe

[mdyde]

Thanks very much, Joe.

Hope it helps.