It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 5:43 pm


Old age, poor brain and Hauptwerk

A discussion forum for anything even marginally Hauptwerk-related.
  • Author
  • Message
Offline

printteam

Member

  • Posts: 5
  • Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:02 pm

Old age, poor brain and Hauptwerk

PostSat Sep 04, 2021 5:09 am

Thank you for reading this. Around December last year I completed the putting together of my Hauptwerk Virtual Organ but regrettably I have had little time to do much more than tinkle out a few hymns on it. Nevertheless, I realise the extreme capacity I have to do many things with Hauptwerk.

My set up is Hauptwerk 6 Advanced edition running on a pretty fast Intel I7 multicore computer with 32Gb RAM and SSD etc., touch screen monitor, AGO pedalboard, 4 manuals made up from M-Audio Series 3 64-key midi keyboards mounted in a bespoke Acetal module with music stand and light. I am mainly running the Salisbury Father Willis (1, 2 &) 3 on the platform.

I am asking whether due to my lack of organ knowledge, Ianyone that knows Hauptwerk inside out that could help me or that I could employ for a few hours to get me over a few hurdles either remotely or in person (SW England, Dorset).

The sort of simple things I am struggling on at this stage are:
Being able to programme and save the open stops so that when I restart the organ, they are still available on those settings. I have read the manual on this many, many times but either my brain's dead or I'm missing something or the organ has a fault which I acknowledge is unlikely.
Understanding divisions well enough?
Although I have set up physical swell and solo pedals which do work, understanding how I should go about addressing the volume control on the other two manuals - I have delved into this a bit by adjusting the volumes for particular stops or ranges of stops in the "back office".
The possibility of loading a different organ which I can do but then getting back to the original one correctly seems difficult.
At the moment I don't have any pistons fitted but I have room and I am able to do that but I'm not sure what I would wish to control with them as if everything mentioned above functions o.k. I may not have the need . . . just yet.
Offline

larason2

Member

  • Posts: 752
  • Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2016 9:32 pm

Re: Old age, poor brain and Hauptwerk

PostSat Sep 04, 2021 8:21 am

Welcome to the forum and thanks for reaching out!

I would think from what I have read that for performance of English music, pistons are a necessity. They would also solve your first problem, that of the registrations being easily recalled. You can program a CODM or ODF file to automatically select registrations at startup, but no sample set that I know of does this, and there is no way to do this in Hauptwerk that I know of aside from editing the ODF, which I wouldn't recommend (could destabilize the organ).

As for the volume of stops or divisions, usually the organ has a pretty good balance at the beginning. How do you listen to Hauptwerk, headphones or speakers? Adjusting the volume of the headphones or speakers is the right first step. Voicing to your tastes is time consuming as you've found, and sometimes its tricky to get all the balances just right. It gets better over time, but if all you want to do is play, better to just leave these things as they are originally. There is a way to restore an organ to factory settings after you've voiced it, you may want to give that a try first.

Different organs should save their settings when you close them, so it shouldn't be a problem switching between them.

There are Hauptwerk consultants that can spend some time with you via zoom or similar helping you set things up. Many other users have found their services are well worth the price!
Offline
User avatar

engrssc

Member

  • Posts: 7283
  • Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:12 pm
  • Location: Roscoe, IL, USA

Re: Old age, poor brain and Hauptwerk

PostSat Sep 04, 2021 8:36 am

larason2 wrote:There are Hauptwerk consultants that can spend some time with you via zoom or similar helping you set things up. Many other users have found their services are well worth the price!

http://www.hauptwerkconsultant.com/

https://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18724&p=141066&hilit=consultant#p141061

Rgds,
Ed
Offline

Andrew Grahame

Member

  • Posts: 961
  • Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:51 pm
  • Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Old age, poor brain and Hauptwerk

PostSat Sep 04, 2021 7:37 pm

If I've read your post correctly, it seems you are expecting things which Hauptwerk doesn't do.

When any sample set first loads, the instrument comes up in a default state with no stops drawn. I know of no sample set which starts with stops drawn, nor is this a situation which would be expected in any pipe organ I know. To return quickly to your favourite registrations, set them onto pistons.

In the Salisbury sample set, only the Swell and Solo divisions are enclosed. The Great, Choir and Pedal are unenclosed, so their volume can't be controlled using a swell pedal. To establish the correct level of sound output from these divisions in your listening space you need to adjust the Hauptwerk master volume (which controls the entire instrument) then moderate that using the volume control(s) on your amplification system. To my knowledge, adding a swell pedal to unenclosed divisions is not an option.

Pistons on an organ this size are essential. With your touch screen you can use the on-screen pistons and make use of the piston toolbars. It's possible to program keys on your computer keyboard to operate as pistons. You can also set a range of unused keys on your manuals to operate as pistons. For example, if you are mostly playing hymns then you would have little need for notes above Top G on a 61-note manual. If you re-detect your manuals, indicating Top G as the upper-most key of each manual this would leave you with the keys from top G sharp upwards (5 keys) which can become pistons. If you terminate your manual at Top F you could then use the keys from top F sharp upwards as pistons, and this would give you 7 pistons per division. Limiting your manual to Top E would give you 8 spare keys to use as pistons - the same as on the Salisbury sample set. You could use keys on your computer keyboard for general cancel, set and for other functions such as organ loading, recording and so on. For general pistons you may care to utilise high notes on the pedalboard which you are not likely to use, by auto-detecting the pedals to a reduced compass and turning the top pedal keys into pistons. However, the sooner you can devise some actual physical pistons for your console, the better.

Again, I say that I hope I've read and understood your initial post correctly, and I hope also that my responses offer at least something by way of clarification.
Offline

printteam

Member

  • Posts: 5
  • Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:02 pm

Re: Old age, poor brain and Hauptwerk

PostSun Sep 05, 2021 1:22 am

Thank you all for your helpful replies.

I found the points about volume control very valuable; in some way confirming my thoughts. I can see I need to work on the chasm between the non-pedal controllable volumes and the pedal ones. I am sure that the interconnection with my registration dilemmas is also related to this: If II can get the one issue sorted, the other may then easily fall into place.

On the question of live stops, I am convinced the organ should be able to register these so that I can return to them but I am having difficulty in doing this however I try to save/set them. It is something I have managed to get partially working from time to time - I suppose it’s just the complexity of the instructions that overwhelms me and I long to understand the correct way of going about it.

Over and above these little snags, the unsurpassed enjoyment of being able to sit and play notes that resemble a known tune on my Hauptwerk organ needs to be celebrated.

I have been in touch with a Hauptwerk consultant (a category which I wasn’t sure existed until now) and I look forward to what solutions come forward.
Offline

Andrew Grahame

Member

  • Posts: 961
  • Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:51 pm
  • Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Old age, poor brain and Hauptwerk

PostSun Sep 05, 2021 1:54 am

It's possible that the feature you are looking for is the one called "Hand Registration". Check out Page 133 of the user guide. The "Hand Reg" piston takes the registration back to what you last had by way of hand-drawn stops following a series of piston changes. However, this only works for Hauptwerk's own stepper function, master generals, scoped pistons, master crescendo and master reversibles - not for the native pistons supplied within a given sample set.
Offline

printteam

Member

  • Posts: 5
  • Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:02 pm

Re: Old age, poor brain and Hauptwerk

PostSun Sep 05, 2021 2:19 am

Thanks Andrew, I'll try that and see where it gets me. Kind regards, Chris

Return to General discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests