Graphic for setting up Hauptwerk VIII - multichannel

I am just a hobbyist and have been using Hauptwerk for many years and have loved the way the program and sample sets have improved over the years. However, two things have happened that have become problematic for me. First is that I am in the middle of the 8th decade of my life with a brain that age and secondly, Hauptwerk has become so much more complicated that I cannot seem to figure out how to configure everything in the new version 8 that I have just installed. My setup includes three pairs of stereo speakers, a four manual keyboard, pedal board, and a pair of subwoofers. All of the speakers have their own amplifier. I understand how to configure the various parts of each organ to my physical layout, but the routing is where I seem to be unable to figure out things correctly.

What I am asking is: can some very generous Hauptwerkian create a set of graphics showing each step of setting up an organ configuration and especially routing for this kind of setup. Now, there are so many choices in each stage of the setup and no simple visuals for a setup like mine that by the time I have read through everything on all of the screens, I am totally confused. I would be very happy with diagrams based on the user not knowing anything about Hauptwerk and intended for the simplest configuration possible. I would also like to have feedback if possible regarding this situation: routing every pipe to all speakers vs. separating different divisions to different speakers.

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to take on this task.

Tom McKinney

(Not trying to discourage anybody from doing the requested graphics. That's not something I have time for.)

First, why are you starting over? Couldn't you restore your settings from a backup of user settings you made on your previous version? That's by far the easiest thing to do to get started. Even upgrading from HW 4 to 8 translates old settings for you and does sensible things. (That won't work if you have mostly new audio and MIDI gear, of course.)

Assuming restoring your old settings isn't possible:

Please read pages 239 to 243 (Multichannel audio Example 3) of the Hauptwerk 8 Installation and User Guide. Leave out one stereo pair of speakers, add a second subwoofer mixdown on a different master bus, and skip the options that don't apply to you (they generally start with the phrase "If you want to...").

It has step by step instructions with pictures. Just change what's different for your setup on the screens shown.

I'd definitely start with putting all 3 speaker pairs in one bus group, as Example 3 does with its 4 speaker pairs. That tends to make better use of a small number of speakers than routing by division, and it's easier to set up.

[mdyde]

Hello Tom,

First, thanks very much for upgrading to v8. [I'll move this topic to the 'Amplification' section of the forum once you've had a chance to read it.]

To add to and confirm Mark's reply (thanks very much as always, Mark):

If migrating your previous audio routing settings isn't applicable for some reason (e.g. because you've changed your audio hardware, or if you now want to configure it differently), I too would recommend following the step-by-step instructions in one of the following two sections of the user guide (on the Help menu in Hauptwerk):

a) If you prefer to have all three or your stereo speaker pairs in a single group (in which case pipes within ranks will be distributed cyclically amongst them), follow "Example 3: simple multi-channel audio with 8 (or more) speakers configured as stereo pairs all in a single group, optionally plus a sub-woofer ..." (pages 239-242 in the current v8.0 version).
- Ignore the bits about optionally adding 'rear' speakers for surround-sound.
- Ignore the bits about optionally adding an 'aux reverb mix'.
- Ignore the bits about optionally adding reverb.
- Since you have two sub-woofers (instead of a single mono one), when selecting device channels for the sub-woofer mix bus (master mix bus 3), select the stereo device channel pair that your sub-woofers are connected to, instead of a mono device channel.
- Also, since you only have 3 stereo pairs instead of 4, you would only need to select device channels for primary mixer buses 0005-0007 (not 0008), and on the "General settings | Audio mixer bus groups" screen, with group 0005 highlighted in its left-hand list, untick bus 0008 in its right-hand pane to remove that bus from the group.

... or:

b) If you prefer to route divisions (or individual ranks) separately to stereo pairs, follow "Example 4: multi-channel audio with 8 (or more) speakers configured as stereo pairs, with whole organ divisions routed directly to individual stereo pairs, optionally plus a sub-woofer ..." section (pages 245-248).
- Ignore the bits about optionally adding 'rear' speakers for surround-sound.
- Also, since you only have 3 stereo pairs instead of 4, you would only set up primary mix buses 0010-0012 (not 0013), and you would only route divisions/ranks ranks to those buses (0010-0012, not 0013).
- Also, on the "General settings | Audio mixer bus groups" screen, with group 0010 highlighted in its left-hand list, tick buses 0010-0012 in the right-hand pane to put them in the group, and set the group's name to something like "All speaker pairs".

Does that solve it?

If not, which of scenarios a) or b) do want to use? I.e. do you want all ranks to a single group, or do you want to route ranks to speaker pairs individually?

[mdyde]

Hello again Tom,

P.S. to try to make it easier to see the key steps, I've created a document "Some simple ways to route to four stereo pairs in Hauptwerk v8+" which is based on the examples from the main user guide, but with the optional bits (adding reverb, etc.) removed:

http://downloadhauptwerk.com/documents/SomeSimpleWaysToRouteToFourStereoPairsInHauptwerkV8Plus.pdf

I've kept it at four stereo pairs (instead of three), since people more commonly have four pairs, and in case other people find it useful. In your case, you would follow one of the examples in the document above (either example 3 or example 4) exactly, except that:

a) If following example 3 (all speakers in one group):
- Since you only have 3 stereo pairs instead of 4, you would only need to select device channels for primary mixer buses 0005-0007 (not 0008), and on the "General settings | Audio mixer bus groups" screen, with group 0005 highlighted in its left-hand list, untick bus 0008 in its right-hand pane to remove that bus from the group.

... or:

b) If following example 4 (routing divisions/ranks to separate speaker pairs):
- Since you only have 3 stereo pairs instead of 4, you would only set up primary mix buses 0010-0012 (not 0013), and you would only route divisions/ranks ranks to those buses (0010-0012, not 0013), and on the "General settings | Audio mixer bus groups" screen, with group 0010 highlighted in its left-hand list, keep bus 0013 unticked in its right-hand pane to exclude that bus from the group.

Hope that helps.

[mdyde]

[Topic moved here.]