Sat Nov 13, 2021 9:42 am
I haven't personally heard any audio improvements with each upgrade. The only real benefit I noticed with my latest upgrade to Version 4.2 was better untilization of RAM and the "auto-detect" feature which simplified things immensly but no perceptible improvement in audio quality.
The audio differences seems to be more with the sample set rather than the Hauptwerk software. Microphone placement during sampling seems to offer the perception of better audio. In the beginning when sample sets were recorded with one micophone, the choice of the best position was always a compromise as to where to place the microphone. Close up microphone placement gave a more realistic pipe sound at the expense of the impression of being in a large acoustic space, which is so desirable. Now we have Front /Rear, Front, Middle, Rear, Front Left, Front Right, Rear left, Rear Right, Direct, Diffuse, etc. plus many more. It seems that each sample set has something unique to offer based on how the sample set producer created their sample.
My all time favorite "big organ" sound is the Inspired Acoustics Esztergom. Magnificent sound when played slowly with its huge acustics but the up front and close sound is not there. There is no Front/Rear mixing.
I'm probably going down the wrong rabbit hole. Since I use headphones ( left and right channels) and a subwoofer, perhaps all the myriad of options and channel choices is not taking advantage of what new upgrades can offer.
When I asked for an A-B comparison of Version IV to V or VI, I didn't realize that wasn't possible with Hauptwerk since upgrading to V or VI destroys Version IV ( i'e once you go forward you can't go back).
Antoni