BEING an organist at decay and, if natural reverb is 2GB of RAM, and that's reasonably

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1 40 KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE 301 IN-DEPTH REVIEW Andrew Gilbert explores the virtual organ world of the Hauptwerk 2 software program from Crumhorn Labs, priced at 295 HAUPTWERK 2 BEING an organist at decay and, if natural reverb is 2GB of RAM, and that's reasonably heart, I must admit that I present, the reverb tails. Unlike painless at today's prices. am really glad to see the most large scale VSTi programs, it The CPU gets a bit of a workout variety of virtual organs doesn't just keep the attack portions as well as the RAM as there's a lot of now available for PC in RAM and then stream the rest of processing to be done. Just imagine and Mac. Most so far have been the audio from hard disk, the pressing four keys on one manual recreations of Hammond and other argument being that there would be using full organ, maybe ten ranks of electronic instruments, the most just too much data required to do so pipes. That's 40 pipes' worth, and notable being E-Magic's Logic-only properly. It does therefore really the CPU has to go and fetch all the EVB3 and Native's B4 and now B4- need a fair old bit of RAM in which to attacks, then the sustains, releases II. However, there have been pipe keep all this data. and reverb tails in the order that organ simulations too, such as There was plenty of Hauptwerk they're needed. Multiply that up by Miditzer, which was looked at in the forum chatter before Hauptwerk 2 using both hands and pedals and Computer Music series a month or was actually launched that you were the demands start to stack up. so ago. going to need 4GB or more to get it Eventually you'll reach a point The subject of this review, to run at all well, but clever beyond which the CPU and RAM Crumhorn Labs' Hauptwerk, is programming has meant that that just can't go and this will determine already well-known as a virtual hasn't come to pass. Although y o u r m a x i m u m p o l y p h o n y. classical organ, though as you'll find looking around the website Thankfully, for smaller organs, this out later, it's no slouch when it ( will certainly won't be a problem. comes to reproducing cinema organ reveal details of users who do The initial installation of sounds. I contacted its developer, indeed have as much as 8GB of Hauptwerk 2 takes a while, primarily Martin Dyde, some time ago about R A M i n s u p e r - f a s t b i t because of the sheer number of reviewing Hauptwerk 1 but, as Windows/Athlon systems, that sort samples involved in the St Anne's Hauptwerk version 2 was coming of thing is really only needed for organ and, once complete, the very near to the end of its development massive virtual pipe organs. next thing you should do is visit the programme, he asked me to hang As for me, I 'only' have a website ( on for a while and look at the new 3.0GHz P4 and 2GB of RAM to play and get the latest updates for the product. with, but I'm pleased to say that program. The current version being I should explain that Hauptwerk that's more than enough to use the supplied is 2.02 and you'll be works in a very different way to other two organs I'll be looking at in this notified by when updates virtual organs like B4 or Miditzer. B4 article. In fact, the first of the two is become available. These are of models its Hammond sound in real the default organ that's supplied course free for registered time and Miditzer uses soundfonts with Hauptwerk 2, the two-manual, customers and you'll also get a which are produced by either a 30-stop, 1907 Brindley & Foster of regular e-newsletter from Crumhorn Soundblaster type card or by its own St Anne's Church, Moseley. Labs. soft synth. Hauptwerk relies on Crumhorn Labs are at pains to point The next thing you should do, if samples, loads of them. It requires out that the demos you'll find on their you haven't already done so, is have that the sound of every pipe that's website were recorded on a 2.8GHz a careful read of the information on going to be used is loaded into RAM, P4 with just 1.5GB of RAM. For most that site and on the forum, to get and that includes attack, sustain, people, the only upgrade might be your system set up correctly for

2 KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE smooth running. This isn't really the place to get into the nitty-gritty of squeezing the very best out of your PC when running Hauptwerk, but you'll find plenty of advice on this, and just about everything else, on the forum. As with Miditzer, it's a real community and when you join as a newcomer you'll find that (a) you'll be warmly welcome, and (b) most of your questions will have already been asked and answered. However, it must be stressed that it is entirely possible to arrive at a very good running Hauptwerk 2 system without doing much work 'under the hood'. I know that for a fact, because that's just what I did at first. It's just that there is so much advice out there that taking your time over things will help you get the very best out of the Hauptwerk 2 installation on your PC. Don't ever Something that's easier to Although it's not a default be intimidated, you can do things operate on the virtual organ than on option, Hauptwerk can use the ASIO piecemeal if you like and remember the real thing is the setter board for drivers of your soundcard, which that help is always at hand. the combination pistons and means that low latency live Loading in any organ for the Crescendo pedal. Easier, basically, playback is perfectly possible. In very first time does take a little while, because you don't have to crawl fact, the response of Hauptwerk 2 is but after a little thumb twiddling, around the organ chambers or in the actually faster than the real pipe you'll be presented with a console depths of the console! The organ. As well as playing live, most something like the one in the screenshot shows the setter board people will want to integrate things screenshot. In fact, if you're using for the general ff and pp piston with their software sequencer and the default St Anne's organ, that's action. this too is no problem. exactly what you'll see, so let's have Of course mousing and clicking One of the big plus-points that a look around this particular isn't the way to play live, so you'll Hauptwerk has over Miditzer is its console. You can click on a next need to hook up a keyboard or ability to run as a VSTi, so you can drawstop on either of the two two, plus pedals and perhaps a simply load it into Cubase, Logic etc stopjambs to pull it out or push it swell and crescendo pedal too. The (assuming there's enough RAM) back in, and on a key or pedal to play comments that I made regarding the and sequence and record it. (This is a note. In between the manuals (and operation of Miditzer hold true here no criticism of Miditzer, by the way, duplicated immediately above the as well and you can use separate as both instruments were designed pedals) are the combination keyboards, or perhaps use a 'donor' differently and the two-manual pistons, and clicking on these will MIDI-equipped organ to play Miditzer is, of course, free!) This select a group of stops on one of the Hauptwerk 2. In my case, that old means that you can play live if you manuals. There are also two red Yamaha HC4 once again made the wish and just use your sequencer to lettered pistons, ff and pp, which trip indoors to act as a controller. edit out any errors. Or you can do bypass the drawstops and give full organ or a quiet setting respectively. The Swell and Crescendo pedals, located centrally above the pedals, can be operated by clicking on them with the mouse to move them forwards and back. Opening the Swell pedal will increase the volume of that manual's stops and operating the Crescendo pedal will gradually add in a pre-arranged selection of stops right up to full organ. You can decide to apply the Crescendo pedal's effect to the Great, Swell or Pedal divisions independently. You'll also note that there are drawstops that operate the inter-manual and intra-manual couplers. In fact, anything that the original organ has is to be found here and it all operates in just the same way.

3 42 KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE 301 things a bit at a time, at a slow tempo, or even draw in the notes! Whichever way you decide to do things, the result will make you sound like a demon player! As with all sample-based virtual instruments the quality of what you hear is determined by two main factors. One is the quality of the 'engine' used to process the sample library. In Hauptwerk's case this is all bespoke and has been painstakingly engineered to recreate the nuances and foibles of a real pipe organ. Even the way that the wind is delivered has been accurately modelled using fluid dynamics, and affects the sound of each pipe individually as it fluctuates. Hence each pipe can interact subtly and realistically with every other pipe. On the St Anne's organ, there's actually a screen that some time and developers have 'Trompeteria'. It has two manuals displays the air pressures at various therefore had quite a bit of and pedals, 40 speaking stops and points in the system! experience in producing high quality 79 ranks of pipes. You'll find more There's a random element in all sample sets. Some of the version 1 i n f o r m a t i o n o n t h e s e a t of this, and if you were to play back sample sets have now been ported two identical MIDI recordings of the to Hauptwerk 2, and many others Coming back to the default St same piece of music, you'd hear are in the pipeline. Full details of all Anne's organ for a moment, it is, as slight differences in the sound of the the sample sets that are now you'll have gathered from the earlier organ, just as there would be in real available can be found at description, not a large instrument, life. Temperament is adjustable, and but does feature a good selection of the current version of Hauptwerk 2 Hauptwerk-SampleSets.shtml. very 'British' stops. You'll find some allows you to recreate the original A good example of a Hauptwerk interesting information and a photo tuning of the organ you're using. As I 2 organ supplier would be the Czech o n w w w. s t - a n n e s - mentioned earlier, there isn't company Sonus Paradisi. They moseley.org.uk/organ.html. The full enough space here to go through all p r o d u c e a w i d e r a n g e o f specification is available from this of Hauptwerk's modelling and all the instruments from the historic website. The Hauptwerk 2 version 'fine tuning' features that you can Abraham Starck z Lokte organ at the of the organ represents it in its latest adjust but, once again, you'll find Monastery of Zlata Koruna in the state, with all the additions from its plenty of detail on the website and Czech Republic, to the 1762 Jordi 1989/90 rebuild. In addition, forum. Bosch organ in Santanyi, Mallorca. Crumhorn Labs has put on a few The second factor in the sound The latter example is a historic extra accessories not found on the quality is the sample set itself, and Spanish organ with a rich original organ: the aforementioned here Hauptwerk comes up trumps. Not only is it supplied with the excellent default St Anne's organ, but you can also install plenty of other alternative instruments. Some, such as the Ott Orgel sample set from Christian Datzko (which y o u ' l l f i n d a t EN.html) are available entirely free of charge, but most have to be purchased from their respective suppliers. This isn't surprising when you consider the immense amount of work that's gone into sampling, processing and organising what in some cases are very large instruments. Not only do the suppliers have to do this audio work, but they also have to provide a virtual console to play it from, with all its controls. It should be remembered that Hauptwerk 1 has been around for

4 KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE adjustable Crescendo pedal, adjustable ff and pp pistons, plus some extra couplers. None of this 'artistic licence' changes the sound of the organ itself, of course, but does make it more versatile and playable. Now I haven't heard the St Anne's organ in person so I can't therefore comment on how accurate the Hauptwerk 2 recreation is. I can, however, say that, comparing type for type against organs that I have played, I find the sounds to be very good indeed, with some of my favourites being the Lieblich Gedact, Dulciana, Gamba and Voix Celeste. I wanted to try out an alternative virtual organ, and settled on one that will make Hauptwerk 2 a serious consideration for a whole different set of potential users. Milan Digital Audio from the USA (you'll find at some time as well, and once this ASIO drivers instead. I then loaded operation was completed, I then had the Wurlitzer back in and found that has been producing sample sets for to actually load the organ in for use. Hauptwerk went through its Hauptwerk for some time and has a Again, something of a wait while 'preparation' routine again. Clearly wide range of church and classical Hauptwerk 2 loaded in all the something different was happening instruments for Hauptwerk 1 that samples and then made them ready so I crossed my fingers. Up came are being ported to version 2. for use (an action which means that the console screen and I set up However, the company also subsequent loads are much, much exactly the same registration. produces one rather different faster). Phew, definitely coffee time Bingo! A glorious cinema organ instrument. It's the 1921 Wurlitzer while this was going on, with just the sound came throbbing out of the cinema organ from the Virginia occasional mouse click. speakers. Theatre, Champaign, Illinois. It's not Then I was finally able to look at Rule No.1 then, is to make sure a big instrument, just two manuals the photo-realistic Wurlitzer console you set up the program so it uses and eight ranks of pipes plus shown in the screenshot. As with the ASIO drivers before loading in any percussions but it's worth St Anne's organ, you can click on organs! (How on earth did I miss that remembering the words of Jim notes, pistons and tabs to operate one myself?) If, by some slim Henry, Miditzer's creator, when he them. It can be a bit fiddly operating chance, your soundcard doesn't pointed out that most Wurlitzers the stop-tabs as they are rather have ASIO drivers, I'd strongly were actually rather small small, so there is a second screen recommend that you change it for instruments. Okay, we tend to think for this in which they're larger, one that does. You can get a very of the 'Mighty Wurlitzer', and making it easier to mouse around. good Terratec or M-Audio card for perhaps for some that means the Aha, you say, what about the under 50 and the difference either Radio City Music Hall, New York, sound quality? Well, I set up a will make in terms of latency and Fox San Francisco or the Granada, suitable registration, switched on sound quality is well worth it. The Tooting, but these large instruments the tremulants and was presented Computer Music article in issue 285 are comparatively few. Let's take a with some rather weird, out-of-tune was a 'soundcard special' and gives closer look at the Virginia Wurlitzer. noises! I was taken aback and more information on cards that are The actual installation of the hastily went back over the steps I suitable for computer music use. Virginia (and in fact, any Hauptwerk had just taken to see if I'd missed For details of back issues and article o r g a n ) d o e s t a k e s o m e anything. I turned off the trems and d o w n l o a d s, c h e c k o u t t h e considerable time, even with a fast found that the sound suddenly went m a g a z i n e ' s w e b s i t e DVD drive. That's purely down to the back to the same high level of ( huge amount of data and the way quality as the St Anne's organ, if not Right, back to the Virginia that it needs to be installed. Brett better. Trems back on, oh dear! Wurlitzer. Firstly, my Rule No.2 has Milan of Milan Digital Audio had sent I thought about looking around to be to always remember that the me the organ plus a Steinway grand the forum to see if anyone had organ has an on/off switch in the 'phantom' piano, so there were encountered the problem before form of an 'ignition key' at the right of three large self-extracting files on me, but first I thought I'd unload the the console. You'll never guess the DVD (as well as a superb set of Wurlitzer and look around who's just spent 15 minutes trying to instructions on installation and use Hauptwerk 2's controls and settings. figure out why it wouldn't make a of the instrument) and these first I very soon found the answer. It was sound! Again, I haven't played this had to unzip themselves to the nothing to do with the Virginia's organ, but I've played plenty of small correct folders. Once that had been sounds at all, but merely the fact scale Wurlitzers in the UK and am done, I had to fire up Hauptwerk and that, by default, Hauptwerk was happy to tell you that this one get it to install the three sections of using Window's own non-asio sounds just as good as it looks. the organ and piano. That took drivers, so I selected the Terratec's Some of my own MIDI files,

5 44 KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE 301 Crumhorn Labs Ltd, 25 Cadbury Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 9BH. Web: labs.com. originally intended for B4, were sent in its direction. The sonic results were superb, though the playing style wasn't totally suitable for the instrument, so it was back to the Yamaha to play in some 'live' tracks in more of a theatre organ style. That was more like it. It should be pointed out that, as the Virginia's sounds have been recorded completely dry, it's essential that an appropriate reverb be added. The choice is up to the player, and could be anything from room reverb for a 'home' theatre organ installation to something like concert hall reverb for the big 'movie palace' sound. However, Brett Milan tells me that the Virginia is not a big theatre, so something in between will help put it back into the theatre it came from. At the time of writing, he's sending me the data required for an 'impulse reverb' plug-in (I'll cover that in Computer Music next time!) to recreate the Virginia precisely. All in all, I was more than impressed with the sounds from the Virginia virtual organ. Some gorgeous fluffy Tibias, a whispering Vox Humana, smooth strings, and a couple of reeds, namely Clarinet and Trumpet. Initially I was quite surprised by the tone of this last stop as the console's stop tabs actually say Tuba Horn, so I did a little investigation. Details on the website inform me that the original rank of Tuba Horn pipes was damaged and has therefore been temporarily replaced with an Austin Trumpet rank. It was decided to leave the stop names as they were, for as and when the Tuba Horn rank is reinstalled in the real Virginia Wurlitzer organ, Milan will sample it and make the update available for the virtual organ. Then there's a nice set of tuned and non-tuned percussions plus the Wurlitzer 'toy counter' off effects such as Sirens and Whistles. It's all cracking good stuff and, if you'd like to hear just how good the Milan Virginia Wurlitzer can sound in professional hands, there's a whole half-hour of enjoyable demos on -wurlitzer-demos.htm. Overall, I have to say that I am very impressed with Hauptwerk 2. The idea of keeping all the samples in RAM did seem odd at first, in these days of streaming from everfaster hard drives, but it certainly works well. Setting up the program to perfection seems to be something of an art, but not an onerous task due to the immense amount of help If the quality of the two sample sets I used is anything to go by, you can't go wrong with Hauptwerk 2 and information available. As I said earlier, the 'out of the box' performance is good and, once the program is set to use the ASIO drivers, that may well be all some users need to do. There are some very large virtual organs on sale for Hauptwerk 2 and these definitely will require some careful setting up, not to mention a very fast PC with lots of RAM. In use as a VSTi, it not only allows for the production of some excellent solo organ performances, but also brings a whole new dimension to the recreation of works written for organ and orchestra. Okay, if you want to produce something like a 'last night at the P r o m s ' v e r s i o n o f P a r r y ' s Jerusalem, or maybe Saint Saëns' C Minor Organ Symphony, you might need to purchase one of the larger instruments available, but the St Anne's organ alone was enough to get me working on Albinoni's famous Adagio in G Minor, for starters. If the quality of the two sample sets I used is anything to go by, you can't go wrong with Hauptwerk 2, so if you need a versatile host for all manner of virtual pipe organs, it really has to be your choice. It's thoroughly recommended. Just go listen to some of those demos to be convinced! My grateful thanks go to Martin Dyde and Brett Milan for their kind help with this article. CONTACT