Restricted "silence" from one sample set in HW7

I am stumped about a peculiar pattern of silence from one new (to me) sample set.

After François Ratté helped me obtain a complete download of Hauptwerk 7, I had no further problems regarding the installation and enjoyment of it. Everything sounded rewardingly better and worked perfectly.

Recently I obtained a discounted “box” version of the IA Urakami/Mander sample set. I installed it with the expectation of using the Mixer Preset that I had already set up (in HW5 using a pattern outlined by Iain Stinson) for dozens of “surround” sample sets. I run 3 stereo loudspeaker channel pairs in the front of the room and one stereo pair in the back. The front channel assignments are primarily based on the organ divisions represented in any given sample set. The rear speakers receive all rear information, whether sampled, generated, or – rarely – antiphonal. A stereo headphone mixdown output derived from ALL audio information is available at the front of my MIDI/audio interface (RME UFX+).

Urakami is the only sample set I have installed after upgrading to HW7. I do not know that this is relevant. In any case, after installing the sample set, applying my Mixer Preset #1 to it, selecting channel assignments for the front loudspeakers, and routing ALL rear outputs to the rear speakers, I consistently obtain the following absolutely unique and imperfect set of results:

1. Sound is ALWAYS complete and correct in the headphones. It does NOT seem to be limited to rear channel information.
2. Rear loudspeaker sound also seems to be fully correct for what it should be (milder, somewhat delayed and “muddy”).
3. NO SOUND ever emerges from any of the front loudspeaker channels, even at the same time that it is perfectly apparent in the headphones and rear channels.

I have not found any error in the General “Audio mixer” and “Audio mixer bus groups” screens. Besides, these are the same General settings that still work perfectly for other sample sets that use my Mixer Preset #1, including when loaded immediately prior to or after failure with Urakami.

I uninstalled my original Urakami ODF and reinstalled it from a fresh internet download. (The original “box” source was a thumb drive.) There was no change in the pattern of sound presence and absence, though see next paragraph.

My observations of the Organ settings “Rank routing…” screen are less than informative: all of the blue indicators are lit for the front ranks, but I suppose that the universally successful headphone output could explain that. I will admit that before I replaced the ODF, I did observe infrequent occasions where illumination of the green and red indicators seemed somewhat disconnected from actual activity: one key playing a single pipe might sound in the headphones without the appropriate green/red indicators lighting up, though adding keys would typically bring them “on.” I have not observed such indicator irregularities after replacing the ODF, but the problem with silent front channels continues unchanged.

Temporarily using any of my other established Mixer Presets does not bring (allow) sound through the front speakers.

On one occasion (I believe with the first ODF installation), Hauptwerk crashed when I tried to unload Urakami – a different kind of rare or unique event. It is possible that I had “rushed” the Unload command. I also had to force-quit when Hauptwerk froze while I was rushing through Urakami polyphony limit calculations to arrive at the correct setting, errantly using the 'slow' (single arrow) command.

Any ideas about the silent front loudspeakers?

Info:
16 cores (MacPro tower)
Estimated static polyphony limit: 16,064 (never have polyphony crackles at that – or any – setting)
Both HW7 “Higher” audio settings used
Highest available bit loading used for all ranks, with no compression
RAM 192GB

[mdyde]

Hello Don,

I have no experience myself with IA's Urakami/Mander sample set, but my thoughts would be:

- First, set "Organ settings | Organ preferences | Audio engine: Tremulant/wind supply/swell box/relay model quality" to 'Medium' for now, since the 'Higher' option may require extremely high per-core CPU performance for very large/complex organs, so it 'Medium' is safer as a starting point.

- As a test, try re-loading the organ via "Organ | Load organ, adjusting rank audio memory options" and temporarily set all ranks to be disabled except for a single 'front' rank. That will eliminate any possibility of memory being overfilled, and it will also make it very easy to tell whether/where you're hearing that rank. I.e. if you hear sound then you know that it must be front that 'front' rank, and not from a 'rear' rank.

When you then play that stop/rank, do you then hear hear the rank through your headphones?

Do you also hear it through your relevant pair of 'front' speakers?

If not, open the "General settings | Audio mixer" screen, and (within the 'mixer preset 1' node) watch the green and red virtual activity LEDs for the primary buses as you play that rank, so as to see through which primary bus the rank is playing.

Dear Martin,

As always, I thank you for your kind attention. It did not take long to do what you prescribed (all the more shame that I did not do the part of it that I had also envisioned until after your encouragement). The results led me to make further efforts, some of which took a bit longer, as interspersed with invalid care and chores. Here are the results, sans historical structure:

1. The sound in the headphones is and always was 100% derived from REAR samples. My bad.
2. Limiting the load to one (or eventually 2 – one front and one different rear) voice(s) gave no benefit, including with the Audio engine reset as you suggested.
3. Rear samples can be directed to any of my four loudspeaker destinations and, as also in the headphones, they always speak.
4. I have never heard ANY sound from ANY of the FRONT samples, regardless of where I sent their output (including to the rear speakers). This is true despite (i) the constant illumination of the blue indicators for loaded Front voices, and (ii) the continuing proper, brief illumination of the green/red in/out indicators when keys are played that affect activated stops.
5. All of the above observations remained true even after I uninstalled the Urakami sample set and thereafter performed a complete re-installation using the downloaded (as opposed to the original thumb drive) Urakami source. [Note: I did retain the "settings" file from the first installation for the second installation.]
6. Any other sample set that I load immediately before or after Urakami set functions with complete normalcy, whether or not it uses the same Mixer Preset.

I am better informed but otherwise no better off. Hmmm.

Don

[mdyde]

Hello Don,

Thanks for the update.

From your description I think the most likely explanation is that the sample set itself isn't currently actually producing any sound from its front ranks. From a quick look at Inspired Acoustics' description of the sample set it mentions:

https://www.inspiredacoustics.com/en/pr ... i#features

By using the provided sliders on the graphical interface of the virtual pipe organ and mixing the two acoustic perspectives you can achieve a balance that fits your actual taste or purpose whether it is professional performance or practicing.

The 7th image 'Interface' image on its 'Galley' page shows two sliders -- one for 'Church' and one for 'Organ':

https://www.inspiredacoustics.com/en/pr ... mi#gallery

Do you perhaps simply have that 'Organ' slider turned down?

4. I have never heard ANY sound from ANY of the FRONT samples, regardless of where I sent their output (including to the rear speakers). This is true despite (i) the constant illumination of the blue indicators for loaded Front voices, and (ii) the continuing proper, brief illumination of the green/red in/out indicators when keys are played that affect activated stops.

On the "Organ settings | Rank routing ..." screen, the virtual LEDs indicate whether ranks are loaded and being routed anywhere. They would still light/flash even if those ranks' pipes were playing silent audio (e.g. by having their levels turned fully down on the organ's virtual console).

On the other hand, the green virtual LEDs one the "General settings | Audio mixer" screen only light up if non-silent audio is actually playing through their buses, so they'd probably be more useful to look at in this particular case.

Dear Martin,

You are, of course, correct. Even before I wrote, I had 'looked' for a 'balance' page of some sort but managed to miss it altogether. I guess my brain was too focused on the concept "channel" to catch the word "Perspective" (which I am not exactly fond of in this context). And how is it possible to default to "100% Church, 0% Organ"?

Again, I apologize for my...age? I can at least take refuge in the fact that my current efforts at expanding my genuine tracker instrument have been proceeding much more intelligently.

Thank you!

Don

[mdyde]

Thanks, Don. No problem at all -- you're very welcome. Glad the solution was simple after all!