division routing?

I have read through the relevant manual sections for this and think I understand the basics here. Having said that, I'm not sure of the wonderfulness of this approach:

This specifically applies to the Salisbury sample set but should apply elsewhere. I should note I am probably more of a sound tech than an organist... though I'm sure you will figure that out shortly:

I would like to be able to play some of the softer sounds of the various divisions while playing some of the louder ones from other divisions. I thought to do this by routing divisions to separate channels. I use an MOTU 2x2 interface which gives 4 channels. If I run the divisions in mono, I can send the 4 outs to my mixer and set volumes as necessary.
I appreciate this is not the way organs were designed to be used but it may be a bit of an enhancement anyway. What I am not sure about until tried is: How much 'quality' is lost by running divisions in mono? Would acquiring an audio device with more outputs be useful?
Any comments are gratefully received.
Paul

Adjusting division and stop volumes is better done in Organ settings | Rank voicing, rather than doing special things to your audio system that may only make sense for a small subset of your organs in the long run. You'll want your audio setup to be generic and robust enough to handle a wide variety of samplesets without a lot of fiddling.

Stereo samples generally sound better than mono, giving a better spacial impression of the organ. Some people do mono, but usually they use a lot more than 4 speakers.

Are your 4 speakers the same model? If so, 2 stereo pairs in one group can make good use of their capacity, letting Hauptwerk allocate pipes to stereo pairs.

Another common approach with 4 speakers is a stereo pair in front and a stereo pair in back, as separate groups for surround samplesets, with another group of both pairs as above for non-surround samplesets like Salisbury.

Do you intend to add a subwoofer and/or expand to more speakers? Then you could look at a larger audio interface, but for now I'd test and learn with what you have.

I do send each division to separate audio groups on many organs, but I have 3 - 4 pairs of speakers in each group. I wouldn't chop up a small number of speakers by division, personally. But you can certainly try SW CH on one pair and GT PD SO on the other (or any split you like) to see what it does for the sound.

Edit: In Danny's terms below, I use divisional routing with a Hauptwerk array for each division. But only 4 groups (arrays of speakers), so I combine divisions where applicable as GT + BD, SW + SO, CH + EC. PD separate. But for some smaller organs I use pitch-based layers with manual 16 - 8' to one group, 4'+ to another, pedal to another. In those cases, I group speakers differently. You can have overlapping groups, so I have more than one group scheme in the same preset.

Mnailor summarizes the key points nicely. The advantage of this forum is you can learn from members who have already been down a certain path thus saving you time and or making poor purchases.

Here is an excellent report on an early experimentation using multiple audio channels.
http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=13679

Granted you are just starting out with 4 speakers. From my experience, multichannel audio falls into 3 (very) basic categories:
- Divisional routing also known as the 'classic' design as this what digital organs have done for years and still do, a pair of speakers per organ division.
- Like Sounding Ranks, as the name implies you divide ranks into those that sound alike; mutations and reeds can share the same channels. It's also a good opportunity to have all speakers working regardless of the organ division. This category would also include an odd speaker mix, say small book shelf speakers where say only a 2' Flute would be satisfactory.
- Hauptwerk array, this requires all speakers or active monitors to be identical. One of 7 HW algorithms will divvy notes and ranks into a group of speakers.

Enjoy,

Danny B.

Thank you both for your thoughtful replies. I should have noted one thing at the beginning. Where Hauptwerk refers to speakers, I assume this means a separate amplifier and at least one pair of speakers. In my case, I am using a small desk to take the separate channels (or speakers) and mix them down to a stereo pair.
My room does not lend itself well to a more extensive audio installation (yet). The question here is more about adjusting quieter divisions to allow them to be heard and I think you have answered that very well.

It also now becomes clear why Hauptwerk provides 4 independent configs.... there is a lot here and thua a lot to mess up.

Thanks again

Paul