Play Hauptwerk on Allen MDS25

[Snoble]

I have an Allen MDS25 with MIDI ports under the manuals. I have an advanced edition of HW. I have a MAC Powerbook running HW. I have a USB to MIDI port connector. I activate the MIDI to Swell, MIDI to Great tabs etc.. I put them all together but I am unable to get HW to play through the console. Does anyone have any ideas what I might be missing?

[Admin]

I put them all together but I am unable to get HW to play through the console. Does anyone have any ideas what I might be missing?

I'm not sure what you mean by "play through the console." If you're expecting Hauptwerk to play your Allen organ for you, you've go it backwards. It should be the other way around, you should be able to play Hauptwerk from your console.

Assuming that you understand that, your first step is to make sure that your MIDI cables are connected properly. MIDI Out on the console should go to MIDI In on the MIDI adaptor, and MIDI Out on the MIDI adaptor should go to MIDI In on the console. Next see if MIDI messages from the console are being received by Hauptwerk. There are four MIDI indicator lights in the lower right corner of the Hauptwerk screen. One or more of them should flash when you press a key or activate a stop on the console.

If you don't see that, try swapping one end of the cables between the MIDI In and MIDI Out jacks. Unfortunately, some of the cheap MIDI adaptors are mislabeled, and the cables need to be swapped to work correctly.

Once you've confirmed that your console is talking to Hauptwerk with MIDI, we can troubleshoot your problem further.

[Snoble]

Thank you for responding. I really appreciate your help and advice. I did verify the midi in/out with the appropriate cables. I am getting a midi signal from the organ. It is not registering at the bottom of the HW window but I see the light on the MAudio cable lighting up. I tried reversing the cables and nothing is any different. Right now I'm just using the St. Anne's sample set. And to clarify, what I am hoping is that HW will receive midi input from my console and return a signal back to the console and produce the sound through the amps on the Allen. I have the fabulous Mt. Carmel sample set that I am hoping can really work well.

[samibe]

The MIDI cables do not transmit any audio (only MIDI messages). To get Hauptwerk to play through the console, you will need to run an audio cable (1/8" phone to RCA) from your computer into one of the mixerboard inputs inside the organ. The mixerboard has RCA connectors and probably has a couple of open inputs.

With the MIDI cables plugged in, can you hear audio from Hauptwerk through the computer's speakers?

[Snoble]

I do hear the HW organ through the computer speakers. I'll pull the back and check for the RCA inputs. Thank you.

[Admin]

I am getting a midi signal from the organ. It is not registering at the bottom of the HW window but I see the light on the MAudio cable lighting up. I tried reversing the cables and nothing is any different.

If you're not seeing MIDI activity in Hauptwerk, choose General Settings/Midi Ports... in the Hauptwerk menu. This should display a list of MIDI ports under two tabs. Make sure that there are entries there, and that the corresponding check boxes are checked. If you don't see any items in the lists, there is something wrong with the MIDI configuration on your Mac. I'm not a Mac user, so if that's the case, I won't be able to help you with that. Once you've verified the presence of MIDI ports, you should see the Hauptwerk MIDI activity lights flash.

[Snoble]

Thank you.
S

[jbird604]

I want to copy here part of what I sent you privately for the benefit of all:

Since you are getting audio in the laptop speakers, you should be able to come out the headphone jack with a 1/8" stereo to dual RCA adapter, then run RCA cables to the ADC Mixer board inside the organ. This will let the Hauptwerk sounds play through the organ amps and speakers.

The most convenient place to connect incoming audio is to remove the reverb return cables from the ADC Mixer on J500 and J501 and connect your stereo input signal there. That will distribute the signal to the four channels with one side going into the swell speakers, the other side into the great speakers to preserve the stereo effect.

When I did this at church, I found there was a hum in the system. I cured it by adding a clip lead from the ground of J500 to the ground of J512. This was needed because the grounds on the mixer board are not all interconnected they way they are in a normal audio system. Adding the jumper makes the mixer compatible with the external input device (laptop).