From Inspired Acoustics Knowledge Base
Hauptwerk
Version française: Hauptwerk (Français)
Hauptwerk is widely recognized as the world’s premiere virtual pipe organ software. It was developed originally by Martin Dyde to accurately simulate all sonic nuances of actual pipe organs, including realtime wind modeling based on fluid dynamics (Note: Wind modeling is not available in USA systems due to patent constraints). Several of the world's greatest pipe organs have been sampled exclusively for Hauptwerk allowing organists, everywhere, to play these world-class instruments in their homes, studios, teaching institutions, performance venues or churches. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, Milan Digital Audio is a professional audio engineering company focusing on classical music and instruments, specifically pipe organ. Since 2001, Milan Digital Audio has created and marketed eleven virtual pipe organ libraries for Hauptwerk, and has recently acquired Hauptwerk from Crumhorn Labs in the UK.
The word 'Hauptwerk' is a German word literally meaning 'head work', but in terms of an organ, it refers to the "main manual"; it used as a term to name the first or the second manual of pipe organs, the manual that features the main set of stops, also known as "Great Organ".
Notable features
The virtual organ console interface of PAB in Hauptwerk 3
Hauptwerk is recognized in the world of organists, because it is the only virtual organ sampler to date that delivers a true organ-like user interface capable of achieving individual stop selection (registration), combined with the benefits of low latency and high simultaneous note-/stop playing polyphony. It is important to note that this advantage of low latency and high polyphony comes at a price in terms of computing power required to achieve this fine degree of realism: larger organs work best in a computer environment of multiple processors; they consume copious amounts of computer RAM, in many cases more than 8 GB.
As an aside, the alternative to loading entire libraries into RAM involves streaming the first part of each sample from the hard disk into RAM. At first, this might sound like a plausible idea, but in reality, it limits one's polyphony to only a few hundred simultaneous notes, as opposed to up to 30,000 notes of polyphony capability in Hauptwerk. As a result, previous attempts to provide organ libraries using hard disk streaming (Kontakt and Gigasampler come to mind), but polyphony limitations forced the software makers to sample groups of stops at one time. In those cases where non-Hauptwerk libraries pre-select groups of stops to sample at one time, the end user is restricted in registering a given piece to a fewer number of individual stops and/or having to live with stop combinations that the vendor has deemed important. Hauptwerk organ libraries are not burdened by this limitation associated with streaming from hard disk, with the caveat of requiring high powered computers with as much RAM as one can afford, to accomplish these rather Herculean computing tasks.
Version and release history
- January 2006: Hauptwerk 2.0 was released
- November 2007: Hauptwerk 3.0 was released
The most current version is v3.30, released on October 29, 2009
Sample set developers and their mission
The musical and aesthetic values of Hauptwerk software, taken alone, are highly dependent of the sound content developed for it. There are at least ten independent sample set developers for Hauptwerk, producing over 80 different instruments of varying features and visual-/audio realism, but few of them are professional companies that employ full-time staff employees. Some of the developers are part-time or one-person companies and/or projects. Most of the developers are blessed with some scientific or audio background with a high degree of musical and pipe-organ enthusiasm; in addition, most of the developers treat creating Hauptwerk organs as a 'mission' or as a 'philosophy' which is definitely more than just creating a sample library. This 'mission' and 'philosophy' mentality helps convince the churches, cathedrals and people in charge of real pipe organs to accept sample recording proposals.
Some of the developers went even further than simply approaching churches to record samples for libraries. For example: A percentage of monetary proceeds from sales of Inspired Acoustics virtual organ products -- in a gesture being unique to the sampling industry -- support the real pipe organ installations financially. Their business model was introduced before Hauptwerk in 2004 with the Notre Dame de Budapest Pipe Organ Samples product. Inspired Acoustics released its first virtual pipe organ for the Hauptwerk platform in 2008, but followed the development of Hauptwerk since 2002. IA's first Hauptwerk instrument debuted as the largest ever virtual pipe organ with all functions faithfully virtualized, the Palace of Arts Budapest Pipe Organ Samples abbreviated as PAB. PAB produced a significant interest in the Hauptwerk community with its quality, size and graphical features, and among the first ten customers of PAB was a European music conservatory for a 2009 performance hall installation.
User Demographics
According to an online non-representative community survey whose data input was concluded in early April of 2009, the following demographics have been determined:
AGE:
Members of the Hauptwerk Community users are mainly (68%) home users with 54% of them in the age range between 50 to 64, while only 10% of the users are under the age of 35.
EDUCATION:
One-third of the users have either a university or a high school level of knowledge in pipe organs; over 80% of the Hauptwerk-licensed users have played the pipe organ for more than 10 years.
SOFTWARE USAGE:
The majority of the licensed Hauptwerk users employ the software for personal (rather than professional) purposes.
OPINIONS OF PRICING:
Almost 60% of the licensed Hauptwerk users believe that the sample sets for Hauptwerk are priced too high, although they reject the model of comparing sample sets on a price-per-stop basis. Although more than 80 commercial virtual pipe organ libraries are available, the majority of the users have not purchased more than 7 different sample sets at the time the survey was taken. Most of them, however, welcomed more sample sets to choose from.
HARDWARE UPDATES:
Most licensed Hauptwerk Users who responded to the survey stated that they upgrade their computer/hardware systems every 2 or 3 years on average, but there are plenty of users who upgrade them as soon as they can. Most of them would upgrade their systems if additional monetary resources (in the form of disposable income) were available.
COMMUNITY REACHOUT:
The Hauptwerk community is recently gathering together on a dedicated Facebook group as well. User-created recordings can be heard at the Contrebombarde Concert Hall website.
Hauptwerk-dedicated organ consoles
Examples of organ consoles that are MIDI capable and connected to a computer with Hauptwerk are shown below.
Where to start?
Hautpwerk is a wonderful playing experience for anyone interested in accessing the sounds and virtual operations of the world's finest and most historic pipe organs. For the first time, the computer and hardware MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) technology is available that allows one to play "the organ you've dreamed of, all your life". Of course, this available technology comes with software and hardware requirements:
- The Hauptwerk software license (free trial version available on [http://www.milandigitalaudio.com/Resources-Downloads.shtml Milan Digital Audio's website) includes the St-Anne's of Moseley (UK) organ for the customer to experience before deciding to purchase additional sample libraries. The free trial version of Hauptwerk generously furnishes a fully working copy of the St. Anne's of Moseley organ, with the addition of a deliberately annoying triangle "chime" sound that occurs every few seconds. In the event that the trial user decides to purchase the Hauptwerk license, one is emailed a key code with which to eliminate that annoying triangle chime sound heard in the trial version.
- A sound card (good quality) and a midi interface (often bundled with the sound card).
- One or more midi keyboards are required to perform music, live and in real time, for one's self; a midi pedal board is highly desirable as well. It is always possible to test Hauptwerk using only the mouse so you can hear the quality of the sounds.
- Associated Amplification/Speakers and/or a good set of headphones.
Of course, there are thousands of configurations possible for the computer, keyboards and other accessories; but first, take your time to explore the software; then establish a budget to prioritize the necessary hardware to buy and/or upgrade. There is no need to change everything at the same time.
You will find on this website many of Hauptwerk's customer home installations, from the most basic to the most elaborate. For those with technical knowledge, it is always possible to "midify" an old electronic or pipe organ console.
Take a few moments to read and follow the numerous threads/discussion topics that you will find on Hauptwerk's official forum; use the search engine to query the forums, finding answers about hardware and software; in this way, you will be in a much better position to understand the inner operations of Hauptwerk and its associated virtual organs.
If all of this seems too complicated, and you don't have the time or will to assemble your own personal version of a virtual pipe organ, some system integrator vendors will be happy to assist you with hardware / software configurations available in complexity all the way up to a complete turnkey installation. One of the best known system integrators, namely, ClassicOrgan is located in Montreal, Canada, but it does business all around the world.
You will find similar system integrators in the USA, in France, in Germany or this one also in Germany, in Netherlands and a second one in Netherlands and finally in Sweden.
Using ContreBombarde installation locator you will be able to check if there are any Hauptwerk installations near you and request a demo.
Configurations and tutorials
Hauptwerk Tutorials and Hauptwerk configuration - Tips and tricks contain useful information to continue.
What describes you best? (131 votes) |    3% | | 73% | | 0.8% | | 15% | | 0% | | 0% | | 5% | | 4% |
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How old are you (in years)? (21 votes) | 5% | | 0% | | 10% | | 24% | | 24% | | 14% | | 0% | | 10% | | 5% | | 5% | | 5% |
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How about your pipe organ knowledge? (131 votes) | 19% | | 7% | | 1.5% | | 0.8% | | 45% | | 21% | | 5% |
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| How long have you been playing the organ? (19 votes) |
| How do you use Hauptwerk? (102 votes) |
| Where do you use Hauptwerk? (107 votes) |
| I use Hauptwerk for: (110 votes) |
| What do you think about Hauptwerk's price? (15 votes) |
| What do you think about the price of Hauptwerk's sound libraries in general/average? (115 votes) |
| Do you think the price of equally high quality sample sets with similar features can be compared by a per-stop price? (113 votes) |
| Do you have a particular dream-organ in your mind for Hauptwerk? (109 votes) |
How many commercial virtual organ sample libraries did you buy for Hauptwerk? (107 votes) | 0% | | 0.9% | | 10% | | 4% | | 15% | | 35% | | 24% | | 7% | | 5% |
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| If you are about to buy a high quality sample set that you like, how much money are you willing to spend (price per stop model)? (104 votes) |
If you are about to buy a high quality 30-stop sample set of your dreams, how much money is the maximum you would spend (price range)? (14 votes) | 14% | | 0% | | 0% | | 21% | | 0% | | 7% | | 0% | | 7% | | 21% | | 0% | | 7% | | 7% | | 14% |
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| Do you think a given sample set for Hauptwerk should be priced less with time? (15 votes) |
| What do you think about the sheer number of Hauptwerk sound libraries (80+) that are currently available? (11 votes) |
Are you happy with the current Hauptwerk sound libraries? (107 votes) | 1.9% | | 60% | | 1.9% | | 7% | | 24% | | 1.9% | | 4% |
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| How often do you upgrade your computer? (114 votes) |
| Would you upgrade your computer for a sample library? (111 votes) |
