Hello Adri,
I've moved the topic here, since this section of the forum covers multi-channel audio and speaker systems generally, and you'll find lots of other topics here discussing people's various preferences for those things. The '
Audio routing and multi-channel audio' section in the main Hauptwerk user guide (pages 164-168 in the current v4.2.1 version) covers how things can be configured from the Hauptwerk perspective (by way of some examples), but we (Milan Digital Audio) don't currently have any general guides discussing speakers, physical speaker layouts, etc. in general.
Since multi-channel audio is probably the most discussed topic on the forum, I expect you'll get lots of replies here, so I'll just give a few brief pointers:
- Using multiple speakers will need an audio interface that has at least one analogue output per speaker, so you would need to get a new audio interface. For example, some high-quality current audio interfaces that might be candidates could be:
- - RME Fireface UFX II:
http://www.rme-audio.de/en/products/fireface_ufx_2.php- - MOTU 24Ao:
http://motu.com/products/avb/24ai-24ao- - MOTU 16A:
http://motu.com/products/avb/16a- - MOTU 828x:
http://motu.com/products/motuaudio/828x- Active speakers have built-in amplifiers, whereas non-active models need separate amplifiers (at least one amplifier channel per speakers).
- Active studio monitors are the most popular, such as the well-regarded Mackie HR824:
http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/mackie-hr824-mk2-hr624-mk2- For home use, the majority of people prefer to use multiple stereo pairs of speakers for stereo sample sets, so that the sample sets are still heard in stereo (as opposed to routing in mono).
- You could optionally also add a single sub-woofer too.
- When using surround sample sets you would probably want to have a single dedicated pair of speakers for the 'rear' ranks, then use the remaining speakers pairs (ideally all of the same make and model) for the 'front' ranks (and for non-surround sample sets).
- You could either configure the 'front' speakers as pairs within a group (or a small number of groups), so that Hauptwerk would distribute pipes amongst the speaker pairs within the group automatically (and fairly evenly), or your could route ranks to 'front' speaker pairs individually. The former is probably the most popular (and the one that I happen to prefer personally), but some people prefer the latter.
- Probably the most common arrangement is to have three stereo pairs of active studio monitors for the 'front' speakers, another single pair for the 'rear' speakers, plus a sub-woofer. That would require four pairs of speakers in total, plus a sub-woofer, plus an audio interface with at least nine analogue outputs (such as any of the interfaces I mentioned above, some of which also have headphones outputs, which can be useful too).
I hope that helps as an overview.
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:18 am