Hauptwerk Virtual Pipe Organ

OrganArt Media, Hauptwerk producer from the very beginning, is pleased to celebrate its 20th anniversary this year.

I discovered Martin Dyde and Hauptwerk-Software V1 on the Internet in 2002 after checking out the current technology of software samplers. There were previous attempts, e.g. with Native Instruments and the like, but none of them could meet the special requirements of organs, such as wind-model, playing aids, couplers, organ-specific graphical user interfaces, and a lot more.
At that time I knew immediately that this, not yet very comfortable software solution (at that time still from "Crumhorn Labs" , would be the future of the organ sampler and, above all, would allow a complete instrument to be mapped as a virtual organ and sound document.

The very first Hauptwerk V1 organs were the Griebenow Positif and the 1868 Mehmel organ, recorded in 2002, followed by the Reinhardtsgrimma Silbermann in 2003.




Listen to an old HW1 recording with the 1868 Mehmel organ:
R. Schumann, Organ transcription "Fast zu ernst"
Even from today's point of view, it's still amazing, how good HW1 already sounded!

OAM is happy to have done some pioneering work:
The world's first fully integrated Hauptwerk console with two touchscreens and three UHT keyboards was presented at the 2006 Frankfurt Music Fair. The organ builder-quality solid wood case contained computer and controls (such as mouse, keyboard, etc.) as well as swells, pistons and combinations (designed specifically for the HW2 Ducroquet CColl set at that time) became a model for many consoles made by later manufacturers. Two Genelec™ near-field monitors with a subwoofer produced an impressive spatial impression. Additionally headphones were provided for the visitors


The R&M/OrganArt-Media booth at Frankfurt Music Fair 2006


The integrated R&M organ console at Frankfurt Music Fair 2006
On the left, you can see specially made interchangeable pedals for historical French and Italian organs

The world-renowned organists Barbara Dennerlein and Hector Olivera, who have been working with Hauptwerk ever since, were particularly enthusiastic and impressed by Hauptwerk and its possibilities at the fair.


Jazz organist Barbara Dennerlein at the Music Fair 2005
Picture: Courtesy of B. Dennerlein


Hector Olivera at the R&M organ console playing the Ducroquet-CColl set at the Music Fair 2006
Picture: Courtesy of H. Olivera

The multi-level, multi-release technique made now possible by HW3, was introduced and first used with the Ducroquet-CColl.
A first instrument with native partially sampled tremulants was realized with the Trost organ Waltershausen, later the Silbermann-Metzler, Arlesheim, the latter now with complete sampled tremulants.

As we all know, Hauptwerk, later under the new owner Milan Digital Audio, has evolved over the years up to version 7 and today, with increasingly sophisticated features, allows a sound reality that was really unthinkable years ago.

Meanwhile, 25 OAM stereo and surround organ sets with historical importance are available. The most recent one, the OAM "Opus summum" after 20 years experience, will be Ottobeuren's great Trinity organ, which will be published soon.



Now listen to today's incredible sound quality of a HW7 set (Riepp, Ottobeuren, Dreifaltigkeits Organ)
D. Buxtehude, Komm heiliger Geist, Herre Gott

This is now also the place to thank the brilliant developer, Martin Dyde, who created this software with his exceptional software skills (I've never had a Hauptwerk crash!), coupled with his in-depth knowledge of organ building (just think of that wind model…).

Also a big thanks to all faithful OAM customers who have always been a motivation during 20 years

Special Anniversary Sales:
To celebrate with you, all OAM sets are offered with a 20% discount from 1st to 31st October 2022

Thank you very much, Helmut, both for your very kind words and for your outstanding contribution to the organ world.

- Sets like , for instance RheinhartdtsGrimma or Vollenhove or the small Cavaillé-Coll V1, were already of very high quality and in advance 15 years ago ( clarity and pureness of sound , no "bell effect" etc..) and certainly still stand very well the comparison with present sample sets.
So, congratulations for this anniversary and best wishes for future achievements !! ( including , if you could, a new recording of Frères Jullien organ ).

Thank you so much Prof. Maier for your dedication and providing us such amazing historic instruments in stunning fidelity thanks to Hauptwerk technology. The Organ Art Library is a treasure!!

@ Martin Dyde: Thanks so much, Martin!

@Bourdon:
Thanks a lot! Yes, the Frères Jullien is a very special interesting organ. All recordings (as many for the older instruments), including Rear-channnel are existing. Hoping to have enough, time, energy and health, to reprocess those sets in future, would be worthwhile.

@Jerry Martin:
Thanks, Jerry!
You also belong to the "bedrock" of Hauptwerk and you were one of the first customers, purchasing the HW1 Mehmel.
I love your wonderful HW1 recording of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15qcAmSdKVc&t=3s

A big congrats from your devoted end user and now beta tester of the latest set; it's an honor and dream come true!

WE ARE ALL HOPING FOR A FEW MORE GREAT ORGAN SETS FROM YOUR CAPABLE HANDS!

Congratulations to Prof. Maier on the 20th anniversary of OAM and thanks to him for the wonderful sample sets he has created to use with Hauptwerk. It is that combination of great sample sets and the outstanding Hauptwerk software which bring us these wonderful instruments to play at home.

Thank you, Prof Maier.

Thanks, of course, to Martin for his vision in creating Hauptwerk in the first place and for its development and evolution over the years.


Iain

IainStinson wrote:Thanks, of course, to Martin for his vision in creating Hauptwerk in the first place and for its development and evolution over the years.

I am also grateful for Martin Dyde's Hauptwerk software. It has definitely made my life more beautiful. I hope for a further development like Sweelinq: short loading times, less memory consumption and IR as a standard solution. Prospectum is the hero of IR and his suggestions for Hauptwerk extensions can be future milestones of further development.

And my new Logo: My Hauptwerk-CD Version 2.02

@Martin: Is this a Copyright problem?

Congratulations, Helmut! I remember very well the 2006 Frankfurter Musikmesse where you and I first met.
And on the next stand to yours was Manfred Hoffrichter. My Hauptwerk business began one month later.
I have very much enjoyed working with you, Manfred (RIP), Martin, Brett and many others these last 16 years.
Long may it continue!

Thanks very much, Iain, vpo-organist, and Douglas.

vpo-organist wrote:I hope for a further development ... short loading times, less memory consumption and IR as a standard solution

A new loading mechanism designed to take full advantage of the performance available from the latest PCIe/NVMe/etc. SSDs, and a means for sample set producers to supply pre-configured mixer presets (with IRs applied to appropriate ranks), etc., are both logged as very high priority enhancements, which I very much hope we can include in the not-too-distant future.

When loading in 16-bit-compressed, Hauptwerk already compresses memory about as much as is possible losslessly (typically comparable in compression ratio to WinRAR, or Apple's losslessly compressed audio, for example). When loading in 24-bit/20-bit it would probably be possible to compress the audio losslessly a bit more than Hauptwerk currently does (albeit with some cost in terms of polyphony), and that too is logged as an enhancement request.

vpo-organist wrote:And my new Logo: My Hauptwerk-CD Version 2.02 ;-)

@Martin: Is this a Copyright problem?

Thanks for the tribute! I'll check with Brett, since the names and logos belong to MDA now, and just in case he feels that it might lead to confusion over whether you're part of MDA.

@Iain: Thanks for your kind words and the appreciation!

@Douglas: Yes, I also remember our first meeting very well, thanks for the feedback!

Hauptwerk and Arlesheim organ have given a wonderful and unexpected new value, passion and meaning to this third third of my existence.
Every night grateful with you, Martin and Helmut.

Luis

Very kind, Luis, thanks so much!

The one thing that determines how much I use a particular sample set is how convincing it sounds to me when I am playing it. OAM sets have always had that "wow" factor, which is sadly lacking from those from many of the other producers I have tried over the years (I will make an exception for Sonus Paradisi, Voxus and Lavender Audio, which have also been consistently excellent).

OAM have also focused on documenting interesting and important instruments, many of which I have wanted for a long time to add to my collection. However, they are also expensive compared to other providers, which has put me off buying them. This sale is very welcome, therefore, though I am afraid that the current disasterous performance of the pound is going to wipe out any advantage here.

It would be very helpful to know what the price of the new Ottobeuren set is going to be, and whether it will be released before the sale is over, so that I can factor that in to my purchasing decisions.

Congratulations from me as well - I also started dreaming about and working on producing my first sample set in 2002… in 2004 I released the (venerable and now discontinued) FBR Schantz.

While I didn’t produce many sets early on, I always have had highest respect for OAM and your sampling abilities - we had some very friendly and good conversation early on, and I treasure the sets I have from you. Your mission to preserve and make available the sounds of European organs became one of the reasons I decided to do the same for American organs, as I saw a real gap in the market. Thanks for your unwavering commitment to excellence!

Let’s all raise a toast to our dear Professor, with best wishes and hopes for many more years of samples!