Hauptwerk IX Early User Experience

[IainStinson]

{Hauptwerk IX has been announced on the Hauptwerk web site...]

I’ve been fortunate to have been trying out Hauptwerk IX for a little while as apart of MDA’s testing programme. Hauptwerk IX continues to provide excellent sound quality and works reliably and stably on my Windows 11 environment. The points below highlight the changes between Hauptwerk VIII and Hauptwerk IX.

I’ve written two documents following my early user experience:
Hauptwerk IX first impressions https://iainstinson.com/hauptwerk/hw9- ... ience.pdf
and a
Tutorial on using simple audio routing https://iainstinson.com/hauptwerk/hw9-s ... orial.pdf in Hauptwerk IX.

In my view the benefits of moving to Hauptwerk IX are:
1. A significantly improved user interface.
2. An easier way to make better use of your available audio output devices, particularly if you found the full mixer over-complex.
3. More accessible documentation.

These represent my own views, not those of MDA.

Hauptwerk IX summary
The Hauptwerk IX the user interface to Hauptwerk has been significantly improved. Access to Hauptwerk’s functions is now via a much-enhanced Touch Menu – the top-line menu now only includes a button access the touch menu and to read the documentation. The Touch Menu is organised into tabs, and each tab groups related functions together. The Master Control Panels, have largely been subsumed into the Touch Menu: Mini Control Panels are now called Control Panels and many of these have been revised. Whilst this is a major change to the interface, it does not take too long to begin to get used to it (and indeed to prefer it). All the access to Hauptwerk functions through midi continues.

There is an additional, new interface for managing multi-channel audio output know as simple audio routing. This provides a simpler way to set up audio routing which will probably meet the needs of many users of the system. At its core is the idea of setting up the routing of audio output to the speakers (etc.) and adjusting how this is assigned to the ranks in sample sets and not changing the output routing configuration for different sample sets. It is straightforward to use less involved than the full audio mixer in previous version of Hauptwerk. The full audio mixer is in Hauptwerk IX, simple audio routing is an alternative way to set up the audio. Some setups will no doubt continue to need the power of the full audio mixer, but many will be able to use simple audio routing.

The new user interface can be simplified. Some of the less frequently used functions in Hauptwerk can be removed from the user interface. There is a configurable list of items which can be removed; by default, for new installations the interface is set at its simplest level. The functions that are removed do not appear in the user interface (and they don’t appear in any of the output displays/controls). For existing users migrating to the new version, no functionality is lost from the user interface. Using simple audio routing rather than the audio mixer is one of the items in the list.

The documentation has been split into two volumes: one volume contains information required by all users and the second volume gives details of those parts of the system which many users will not need. As ever, the documentation is clear and concise. Well worth reading.

There are other minor enhancements.

Iain

[mdyde]

Thanks very much, Iain -- much appreciated. I expect lots of people will find those useful.

[ldeutsch]

I have not seen an announcement of HW IX nor it does not seem to appear on the main Hauptwerk.com web site. Can someone point me to the correct site with the announcement and download instructions?

[ldeutsch]

Never mind. I had to refresh my browser to see the announcement in the title bar of the forum page!

[vpo-organist]

I only found out about it through the “Upgrade to HW 9 - Missing Screenshoots” thread...

[JulianMoney-Kyrle]

I have just read through the release notes. As far as I can see, the main difference between HW 8 and 9 is a simplification of the interface. Apart from that I can't find any differences in functionality (I may have missed something). Since I already know HW 8 quite well now, with a lot of time and effort spent trying to get to know the mixer, I am not sure that I will gain anything from having to learn yet another way of doing things.

Enhancements that I might find more useful (and have previously requested) include:
1. A different and more flexible way of using floating divisions. The existing system is quite confusing and yet rather limited.
2. The ability to have more than one favourite organ page. I have more than 64 sample sets installed, and I would appreciate being able to group them in various ways, such as by suitability for playing particular genres of music, or number of manuals, or how much I like them. It looks as though the new interface has gone backwards here, as it doesn't seem to have a way of showing all the favourite organs together, and having to page through 64 organs one by one to find what you are looking for only makes sense if you are using a digital display with just one line of text. (maybe I have missed something here)
3. The ability to allocate specific favourite organs, temperaments etc. to different MIDI controls, including the previous one used.
4. Something that works like a reversible "Great and Pedal Pistons Combined" coupler. Essentially it would be grouping and ungrouping two sets of internal scoped pistons.
5. Something that works like the Cavaille-Coll split wind chest, but applicable to other organs. I envisage being able to define certain groups of stops as Anches which can be activated and deactivated on a divisional basis.

I haven't tried the touch menu in HW 8 as it crashed my computer whenever I tried to open it. I haven't tried to work round this as I didn't need it. I just have to remember to hide it every time it pops up (usually after installing a sample set).

[mnailor]

Julian,

1. I'd like floating divisions to MIDI learn keyboards and expression pedals globally. I'm getting better at setting routes to divisions by now, but it's a bit of a chore -- not sure how improve it in the existing organ/settings screens. I easily lose track of which Input# and keyboard+route I'm setting.

5. Would enhancing the reversibles to be "scoped reversibles" cover your generalized Anches/Combinaisons function? Same pistons as the current reversibles, but the Scope button would apply to reversibles the same way it does for the current scoped pistons. For example, you'd set the scope of a reversible to the chorus reeds and upperwork, then setting the registration only includes the stops in that reversible's scope. That way, preparing and (de)activating the Anches works like a French organ. (This is already a requested future enhancement.)

You can emulate that now with 2 scoped pistons per division, of course, but I can't remember not to press the same toe stud again to toggle the ventil, instead of pressing an "on" or "off" piston. I guess I could practice by assigning two toe studs to each Anches lever on C-C samplesets, and it would become a habit eventually. But that's wasting limited toe studs.

Also, the mixer and most other settings windows are quite recognizable. You just access them from the touch menu instead of the dropdown menu. There's very little required learning curve from HW8 to HW9, other than which settings tab to go to.

[va3ets]

Hi all, I use VoiceOver, which is Apple's screen reader here. Curious if there are improvements in HW 9, in regards to accessibility with VoiceOver, and screen readers in general Thanks. Dan

[IainStinson]

Julian said “It looks as though the new interface has gone backwards here, as it doesn't seem to have a way of showing all the favourite organs together, and having to page through 64 organs one by one…”

You can.

The release guide says
“Functions that select things directly from lists (such as favorite organs), which previously had sub-menus for the purpose on the main menu, now have downward-pointing arrow buttons on the touch menu and control panels for popping up their lists as menus.”

I didn’t see this and had to ask the same question…

Julian also said he would like “The ability to allocate specific favourite organs, temperaments etc. to different MIDI controls, including the previous one used.”

You can set a midi control to load a favourite organ in IX and in earlier releases. I use this with my Launchpad and Streamdeck. Offhand I don’t know if you can set “load previous organ” to a midi control, but I think you can. Did you want something different?

I agree a generic Great and Pedal combs coupled would be useful. I would imagine it needs to couple scopes together and somehow name the scopes.

Iain

[mdyde]

Hi all, I use VoiceOver, which is Apple's screen reader here. Curious if there are improvements in HW 9, in regards to accessibility with VoiceOver, and screen readers in general Thanks. Dan

Hello Dan,

Thanks very much for the interest in v9, although there are no enhancements in this version relevant to accessibility or Apple's VoiceOver screen-reader, I'm afraid -- sorry.

[mdyde]

I have just read through the release notes. As far as I can see, the main difference between HW 8 and 9 is a simplification of the interface. Apart from that I can't find any differences in functionality (I may have missed something). Since I already know HW 8 quite well now, with a lot of time and effort spent trying to get to know the mixer, I am not sure that I will gain anything from having to learn yet another way of doing things.

Hello Julian,

Thanks very much for the potential interest in v9, and for the suggestions/thoughts.

(Aside from the user interface changes) there is one significant new feature in v9 that's likely to be of benefit to many technically-advanced users: the per-bus option for impulse response reverb settings on the Audio Mixer to be per-organ.

Enhancements that I might find more useful (and have previously requested) include:
1. A different and more flexible way of using floating divisions. The existing system is quite confusing and yet rather limited.

Julian,

1. I'd like floating divisions to MIDI learn keyboards and expression pedals globally. I'm getting better at setting routes to divisions by now, but it's a bit of a chore -- not sure how improve it in the existing organ/settings screens. I easily lose track of which Input# and keyboard+route I'm setting.

Yes -- we do have high-priority enhancement requests logged for a new and more convenient interface for configuring floating division routes, and for allowing floating division MIDI keyboards to be configured globally (rather than per-organ). I know they're things that would be of benefit to a lot of people. I've added your notes to the requests.

2. The ability to have more than one favourite organ page. I have more than 64 sample sets installed, and I would appreciate being able to group them in various ways, such as by suitability for playing particular genres of music, or number of manuals, or how much I like them. It looks as though the new interface has gone backwards here, as it doesn't seem to have a way of showing all the favourite organs together, and having to page through 64 organs one by one to find what you are looking for only makes sense if you are using a digital display with just one line of text. (maybe I have missed something here)

As Iain mentioned, you can still select favourite items from drop-down menus. In v9 those menus are accessed via the downward-pointing arrow buttons on the touch menu (and also now on the control panels).

I've also logged in our enhancements database that you'd like more than 64 favourites and the ability to group/filter select/assign them via a convenient dedicated screen.

3. The ability to allocate specific favourite organs, temperaments etc. to different MIDI controls, including the previous one used.

Yes -- as Iain also mentioned you can actually do that in v9, as you could in previous versions (since v6 if I recall correctly). Also in v9 you can trigger the 'all types' individual favourite slots directly from MIDI/buttons.

4. Something that works like a reversible "Great and Pedal Pistons Combined" coupler. Essentially it would be grouping and ungrouping two sets of internal scoped pistons.

I agree a generic Great and Pedal combs coupled would be useful. I would imagine it needs to couple scopes together and somehow name the scopes.

I know that function is common on British organs, and we do have an enhancement request logged for potentially adding something that would couple master scoped combinations together, for the benefit of sample sets that don't natively have a 'Great and Pedal pistons coupled' coupler. I've added your notes to the enhancement request.

5. Something that works like the Cavaille-Coll split wind chest, but applicable to other organs. I envisage being able to define certain groups of stops as Anches which can be activated and deactivated on a divisional basis.

5. Would enhancing the reversibles to be "scoped reversibles" cover your generalized Anches/Combinaisons function? Same pistons as the current reversibles, but the Scope button would apply to reversibles the same way it does for the current scoped pistons. For example, you'd set the scope of a reversible to the chorus reeds and upperwork, then setting the registration only includes the stops in that reversible's scope. That way, preparing and (de)activating the Anches works like a French organ. (This is already a requested future enhancement.)

You can emulate that now with 2 scoped pistons per division, of course, but I can't remember not to press the same toe stud again to toggle the ventil, instead of pressing an "on" or "off" piston. I guess I could practice by assigning two toe studs to each Anches lever on C-C samplesets, and it would become a habit eventually. But that's wasting limited toe studs.

I've added those notes to our existing enhancement requests regarding some convenient means to model ventils for sample sets that don't natively have them.

[mnailor]

Thanks, Martin.

[smfrank]

Still trying to get used to the touch menu.
Miss my large panels
I hope this move is evolutionary.

Overview doesn't fit vertically
Floating divisions don't fit vertically
No zoom sizes available except larger.
Too many assumptions about what people want on which screens. I'd like to configure my own overview.
Fingers crossed for the future.
Steve

[mdyde]

Hello Steve,

Thanks for the thoughts. We do have an enhancement request logged for potentially allowing the user to customise what's shown on the Overview tab on the touch menu, but that wasn't something that could be done within the time available for v9. Note also that if features are disabled on the "Settings | General: Preferences | Simplify" screen tab (e.g. master reversibles) then controls for those disabled features are hidden on the touch menu.

In the absence of a fully-customisable Overview tab, the intention was that one could use the (mini) control panels (and/or piston toolbars) for any additional controls that one wanted to keep on-screen at all times.

No zoom sizes available except larger.

Do you mean that you would find a value less than 100% (such as 75%) useful? I didn't include values <100% on the basis that I thought people would find them to be too small to see or use from a touch-screen.

[mdyde]

P.S. With regard to what's included on the Overview tab, and in case it's relevant to you, the reason that the master generals are positioned near the bottom is that the stepper and scoped combinations (which are placed higher up, and thus accessible even on small screens) can be used as alternatives to master generals, whilst also providing greater flexibility.

Edit: Also, and likewise, the following controls are intentionally placed near the top of the Overview tab, since I think almost everybody would agree that they're among the most important controls for day-to-day use, and so need to be as conveniently accessible as possible:

- Functions for selecting/loading/assigning/installing organs, combination sets and temperaments.
- The controls for the built-in audio/MIDI recorder/player.
- Overall registration controls (setter, general cancel, hand registration, etc.).
- Stepper controls.