Skinner in V2 format?

Is there any release date for the EM Skinner organ in Hauptwerk V2 format, from MilanDigitalAudio?

Thanks,

-Joe42

[B. Milan]

It is always difficult to project an exact release date. I can tell you that the Skinner is fully loaded and playing in Hauptwerk 2. There are still a few things left to create, one of the main things being the tremulant samples. This coming Monday we'll be back in Chicago for more recordings of the tremulants. The other main thing to finish is the crescendo pedal settings. Then a few graphics and some tweaking overall and it should be completed. So, a rough estimate would be within one month or less.

Hopefully in another week or two there will be some screen shots for you to look at.

That's good news, thanks!

-Joe42

Any screen shots available yet Brett? I love the Skinner for HW1 and can't wait to upgrade to the V2 format. Any idea what the likely V1->V2 upgrade cost will be?

Cheers,
Chris.

[B. Milan]

Hello Chris,

Good things come to those who wait! Work is still being done on the graphics, so it will be a bit longer for any screenshots to appear. If you want an idea of how the main cosnole will look, take another look at the current Skinner console image on our website found on the www.milandigitalaudio.com/skinner-requirements.htm page...bottom center picture. It is basically exactly that, but a bit closer to fill the screen. I hope that will tide you over for now. It gives a new meaning to the term Moving Pictures.

Upgrade costs will most likely be around $50-$60 for current Skinner ver. 1 users. The price of the HW2 version will also be raised the same amount for those that have not gotten the ver. 1 set. Considering the amount of work involved I feel this is a fair upgrade charge for the features you will have for both HW2 and the Skinner itself.

Thanks for the update Brett. That's a pretty good upgrade price, so I'll be earmarking some money for that!

Cheers,
Chris.

Brett,

Any further updates on release dates for the new and improved HW2 sample sets?

[B. Milan]

Brett,

Any further updates on release dates for the new and improved HW2 sample sets?

Still working on them! The reason for the lengthy time in creating these organs for HW2 is that every setting is hand created and hand adjusted, there are no mass/batch edits to make things move quickly. I could surely make a quick mass edited file to slap the organs together in HW2, but that would not suit the organs nor HW2. Others may be using a method like this, but I don't believe in that and will create each organ individually and adjust each setting by hand until it sounds as good as I can make it.

I hope you can understand this and that the end result will prove worthwhile of my efforts and show HW2 in the best possible light.

Not to keep nagging or anything, but.... any update? You should of course take the requests as a compliment!

Not quite so urgent now I can enjoy my V1 Skinner in HW2, but I'm eagerly awaiting the new bells and whistles V2 version.

Regards,
Chris.

[B. Milan]

Not to keep nagging or anything, but.... any update? You should of course take the requests as a compliment!

Not quite so urgent now I can enjoy my V1 Skinner in HW2, but I'm eagerly awaiting the new bells and whistles V2 version.

Regards,
Chris.

Hi Chris,

Hopefully we should have it ready in the next couple weeks. Of course the native version 2 format will be far better than importing version 1.

We're currently working on finalizing a special crescendo programmer (to act as a front end with the usual "grid" method) and also wind system settings. Once those are finished it will be ready for release.

As soon as it is ready I will add another update here for you. Sorry to keep everyone waiting.

Hi Brett,

Thanks for the update. You mention the wind system. Is there
any chance the release of the wind model feature to those of
us here in the US might be near?? A real shame we are deprived
of what all others on the globe can enjoy. It seems a "crock" to me
that Martin is forbad from selling it to US customers. Clearly,
whoever has the blocking patent claim is not selling outside the US,
or at least is not preventing sales of HW2 with the wind model outside
the US.

Obviously, there must be various ways to buy Hauptwerk outside
the US to obtain that feature, so why pretend that it is not available to
US citizens? But even if we had a cooperative friend somewhere
else in the world, we would also have to buy our new sample
sets through that same channel to obtain the correct unlocking
codes for that set's use through the dongle doo dad.

Yes, I know, such would not be legal and I have no plans to
do such, just fussing about the situation.......

[B. Milan]

Hi Brett,

Thanks for the update. You mention the wind system. Is there
any chance the release of the wind model feature to those of
us here in the US might be near?? A real shame we are deprived
of what all others on the globe can enjoy. It seems a "crock" to me
that Martin is forbad from selling it to US customers. Clearly,
whoever has the blocking patent claim is not selling outside the US,
or at least is not preventing sales of HW2 with the wind model outside
the US.

Hi Jim,

Unfortunately I have no relation to this and cannot give you any accurate information. I agree that it would be nice for everyone to have access to the wind model features, however I suppose you and others will have to make due for now without them. If there were something I could do I would, however it is not my place to become involved with this and must abide by the legalities of the situation. I hope you can understand that.

There are of course still many other numerous features which U.S. customers do have access to such as the new pipe voicing facilies and other excellent settings created by Crumhorn Labs. Considering what the virtual organ world has had up until Hauptwerk (software-wise), I personally feel we should be thrilled with what we have regardless of if there are wind model features or not. It seems to me that we always want more and more and are not content with what is currently available. And this is natural since we strive for perfection and want the best possible means of accomplishing our goals. I personally feel we are at a point now that should make everyone satisfied as far as organ simulation goes since just a few years ago things were severly limited in this software field. The generic samplers were OK, however not suited to organ and the interface and inner workings etc.

I use Hauptwerk everyday and am thrilled with the capabilities it has, so instead of wishing for this or that I think we should be happy with what we've currently got... wind system or not!

[B. Milan]

We're almost there with the Skinner. Until that date, I hope you enjoy the following demo. This is not the typical MP3 demo, rather a complete demo of the Skinner console in action playing the Widor Symphonie Romane 1st movement. A video screen capture was taken during playback so you may see how the console looks in motion.

In order to keep the high video resolution and high bit rate MP3, the file is rather large at 34 MB, so I would recommend only those with a fast internet connection attempt to download the file. You will need Flash Player installed as well as Active X controls to view the demo. You may download the file here:

Widor Symphonie Romane Video

You may need to let it run into the buffer for a little while before starting playback. You may also need to click the Pause button then click Play to get the audio to play properly. Also for best results you can use Full Screen mode in your browser to view the entire console at once. Optimum screen resolution for this video is 1024x768.

Please enjoy watching the virtual console in action!

What a joy to watch and listen!!
This brings a totally new diemnsion to HW demos, Brett, great job! I don't think I could tell that this recording was synthesized and not recorded from a real organ if I didn't know.

Thanks for the demo!

BTW, what's the memory requirement for the set?

Greetings
Reiner

The video is a very good idea. We can see registration changes, etc...

Is it possible to download it, instead of viewing it from your servers, each time? Even if the browser will try to cache the file, such large files will not stay very long in the cache, and we wouldn't want to overload your host bandwidth...

-Joe42