The biggest threat to HW is Johannus! And the results are disastrous! And I am quite fuming MAD about it!
Johannus has recorded the world famous Aa-kerk organ in Groningen, an organ I grew up with as organ student.
They call it part of their "Live-Familie" expansion; you can buy the samples and load it into your Johannus organ that is equipped to do so.
I listened to a few recordings of it on their website, and it's absolutely terrible. Sounds like a vacuum cleaner, and nothing (did I say NOTHING?) like the real instrument. What a horrible, horrible shame. I feel like crying.
And what a horrible threat and blow to Hauptwerk.
They have money, and thus power, and power corrupts. It sounds so wonderful: we have the Aa-kerk, until you hear the results.
That they want to improve the sounds of their digital organs is fine, and their right, but to utterly destroy the original organ in the final results is a terrrible shock to me.
MARK MY WORDS: This company (and possibly others) is a big threat!
This is a big problem, and I urge all the sample set makers and HW/Brett Milan to come together to seriously address this issue to prevent HW being swept away one day, and discuss ways to either:
1. step up our own approaches and expansions, and
2. perhaps (if you cannot figth them), fidn a way to cooperate with these companies by licensing our software technology to such companies (perhaps this has been tried already??)
THE PROBLEM we as HW-ians continue face is our consoles: we have to do it ourselves, and it remains primitive and hobbiest for many.
A digital console from e.g. Johannus is instantly playable and usable and probably way cheaper than a custom built fancy-pants HW console.
Building your own console remains an (expensive) headache for many, especially the pedal boards and stop control.
I see nothing wrong in at least probing the possibilities.
We need to do something to safeguard the future of this fantastic software called HAUPTWERK. At some point even Johannus will break through the "soundbaririer", meaning: they will vastly improve their sound realism and equal or even surpass what we have done in Hauptwerk so far. And that would spell enormous trouble for us.
I have been in touch with several sample set makers, who are still being energized by a rather competitive spirit and sometimes say bad things about one another. I find this very sad.
Since we have a bigger threat looming over our heads: the digital organ companies, like Johannus, et.al., I therefore feel strongly and even urge that sample set makers, HW console makers and the Hauptwerk company need to come together to address this threat and come up with strategies to safeguard and also expand the future of HW.
Things are too quiet here, and in the meanwhile Johannus is doing things behind our backs, or while we are asleep at the steering wheel.
Johannus has recorded the world famous Aa-kerk organ in Groningen, an organ I grew up with as organ student.
They call it part of their "Live-Familie" expansion; you can buy the samples and load it into your Johannus organ that is equipped to do so.
I listened to a few recordings of it on their website, and it's absolutely terrible. Sounds like a vacuum cleaner, and nothing (did I say NOTHING?) like the real instrument. What a horrible, horrible shame. I feel like crying.
And what a horrible threat and blow to Hauptwerk.
They have money, and thus power, and power corrupts. It sounds so wonderful: we have the Aa-kerk, until you hear the results.
That they want to improve the sounds of their digital organs is fine, and their right, but to utterly destroy the original organ in the final results is a terrrible shock to me.
MARK MY WORDS: This company (and possibly others) is a big threat!
This is a big problem, and I urge all the sample set makers and HW/Brett Milan to come together to seriously address this issue to prevent HW being swept away one day, and discuss ways to either:
1. step up our own approaches and expansions, and
2. perhaps (if you cannot figth them), fidn a way to cooperate with these companies by licensing our software technology to such companies (perhaps this has been tried already??)
THE PROBLEM we as HW-ians continue face is our consoles: we have to do it ourselves, and it remains primitive and hobbiest for many.
A digital console from e.g. Johannus is instantly playable and usable and probably way cheaper than a custom built fancy-pants HW console.
Building your own console remains an (expensive) headache for many, especially the pedal boards and stop control.
I see nothing wrong in at least probing the possibilities.
We need to do something to safeguard the future of this fantastic software called HAUPTWERK. At some point even Johannus will break through the "soundbaririer", meaning: they will vastly improve their sound realism and equal or even surpass what we have done in Hauptwerk so far. And that would spell enormous trouble for us.
I have been in touch with several sample set makers, who are still being energized by a rather competitive spirit and sometimes say bad things about one another. I find this very sad.
Since we have a bigger threat looming over our heads: the digital organ companies, like Johannus, et.al., I therefore feel strongly and even urge that sample set makers, HW console makers and the Hauptwerk company need to come together to address this threat and come up with strategies to safeguard and also expand the future of HW.
Things are too quiet here, and in the meanwhile Johannus is doing things behind our backs, or while we are asleep at the steering wheel.