Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:42 am
The key differences for me are:
1. Audio Quality - Particularly from 5 to 6, I thought there was a big jump with the higher resolution audio and the more detailed wind model.
2. Convolution Reverb (from 4 to 5) - While I wouldn't add it to any organ that sounds good on its own, this is particularly useful for smaller/drier sets (at least in my opinion!). I've actually spent time looking into other "convolution reverb" and standard reverb options, and none of them has as many cathedral or church-like samples as Hauptwerk does, or the option to buy so many more.
3 Less bugs - Many version 4 users feel they don't have that many bugs, but I found I encountered them fairly frequently in 4, but rarely ever now in 7. To be fair though, my hardware that was running version 4 was at the maximum limit of feasibility (a Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of RAM). I've been on this forum since version 4, and back then, and upon the release of 5, I recall there was some discussion about bugs, but hardly any now.
4 Compatibility with newer operating systems - I'm a long term mac guy, and I actually upgraded to Catalina and got Hauptwerk 4 somehow running on it. That would have been impossible with versions post Catalina though, and Hauptwerk 4 on Catalina was giving me a lot of trouble (lots of permission error messages). Being able to run it on the most modern OS's and know that it will keep up in the future is a big plus for me.
That's mostly it for me. The iLok system was a bit tricky to set up at first, but I like that I can move to another computer with minimal headaches now. I bought an iLok key, but I haven't used it (I will if I ever need to set up a temporary Hauptwerk setup somewhere that internet is spotty). There are some quality of life features that were introduced, but I rarely use them, like setting default pistons for all your organs. The iLok system also protects you in the case of dongle theft, loss, or damage, which the old system didn't (Especially now, if something happens to one of those old HASP dongles, there's not much you can do). I also like supporting MDA, which has produced software that has been a very good thing in my life.
The main downside is that upgrading is tricky (making sure it's installed right, sorting out the iLok stuff, new stuff like downloading and installing the organ licensing package, downloading the V5 samples of all your organs, navigating the license upgrading process from V4 to V5), and can be very time consuming. It was worth it for me though!
P.S. Welcome back Martin!