Master General Piston Sequencer

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SKresge
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Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:55 am

Master General Piston Sequencer

Post by SKresge »

I know that HW does not have this capability from reading the manual and seeing other posts.

I have a visiting recitalist coming in about a month who is used to this feature.

I am thinking the only work around might be to set the Master General Pistons (I have 1-28 on the four manuals) and make the 1-28 on the sequencer have the identical settings, then he could use the up and down arrows for the master general pistons, but he could also select the actual number piston on the manual directly if he wanted to. This was his request.

Is that the best work around or does someone else have a suggestion that would give him the flexibility of using next and back (I would also assign those to functions to the toe studs) and also being able to select the actual numbered master general piston as well.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

Scott
mnailor
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Re: Master General Piston Sequencer

Post by mnailor »

The combination stepper is a sequencer where the frames are, effectively, general pistons called by a different name.

Replace your 28 general pistons with 28 stepper frame triggers, x00 to x27 for example, found on the Stepper large control panel or the General Settings MIDI key/triggers list. The "x" digit allows 10 memory banks (within each combination set) navigated by Stepper Cued +100 and -100. Advance through frames using Stepper +1, go back using Stepper -1.

You can set up 10 sequences of up to 100 frames each, numbered 000-099, 100-199, 200-299,..., 900-999, or split those ranges up into shorter sequences if you wish.

The big difference between a piston sequencer and this stepper is that each stepper frame stores a complete registration, while a piston sequencer only stores an ordered list of piston numbers so each sequence is a different ordering of the same general registrations saved on pistons. Either approach has its good points, but HW allows each sequence to have unique registrations instead of drawing from the same ones.

The user guide chapter "Registration menu: Combination stepper" should be studied before you set it up. Visiting organists can just be told how your scheme is to be used -- so don't do anything too tricky.

In that chapter, on page 120 for the version 8 user guide, this section is a good approach to get going easily, along with assigning Stepper +1 and -1 to pistons or toe studs:

"Instead using the stepper as a basic ‘simple stepper’ which steps sequentially through a set of general
pistons"

"Some digital organs have a ‘simple stepper’ which just steps sequentially through their general pistons. If you don’t need the full flexibility of Hauptwerk’s stepper, and just want something quick and easy instead, you can set it up in this way if you prefer."
SKresge
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Re: Master General Piston Sequencer

Post by SKresge »

mnailor wrote:In that chapter, on page 120 for the version 8 user guide, this section is a good approach to get going easily, along with assigning Stepper +1 and -1 to pistons or toe studs:
Thanks for the great information.

I was able to set up the pistons to the x00 to x27 and able to get the toe studs to the +1 and -1, but my question is "Is there a way to have a forward and backward piston" in addition to the toe studs?" Sort of let either the hands on the manual or the feet move it up and down.

I set the toe studs and it worked, but when I set the two pistons on the manuals the toe studs didn't work, and vice versa. I got the pistons to work and when I set the toe studs, the pistons stopped. I thought you could assign the same action to multiple inputs.

Thanks in advance,

Scott
mnailor
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Re: Master General Piston Sequencer

Post by mnailor »

You need to assign the extra piston to Input 2 (or other inputs) on the Adjust MIDI settings screen for the Stepper +1 button. If you keep assigning to its Primary Input, you're just replacing one toe stud or piston with another, overwriting the previous assignment. There are even additional Stepper +1 and -1 virtual controls with extra inputs in the MIDI key/trigger list so you can assign a lot of pistons to the same function. I forget but it's at least 10 inputs available for those two functions.
SKresge
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Posts: 145
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:55 am

Re: Master General Piston Sequencer

Post by SKresge »

mnailor wrote:You need to assign the extra piston to Input 2 (or other inputs) on the Adjust MIDI settings screen for the Stepper +1 button. If you keep assigning to its Primary Input, you're just replacing one toe stud or piston with another, overwriting the previous assignment. There are even additional Stepper +1 and -1 virtual controls with extra inputs in the MIDI key/trigger list so you can assign a lot of pistons to the same function. I forget but it's at least 10 inputs available for those two functions.
Awesome! That makes complete sense, glad to know that there are extras for that same function.

Thanks for letting me know that.

Scott
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