converting hauptwerk 4 to 5

[cham-ed]

When it came out, I purchased but haven't downloaded version V5. One of the things that bothered me was that V5 destroyed (for lack of better words) V4. I play I don't computer hack etc. and now i have a well functioning instrument. I'm afraid if I switch I will have nothing but endless frustration. In part i was following the Hauptwerk forum and after V5 came out was a string of people who reported an array of problems. So I've stayed away from getting even more scared. When I bought the computer for Hauptwerk, it came with remote set up. And I watched how it took a long time for someone who knew what they were doing to get me functioning. I believe I have to download it by October but I'm scared. Have the initial problems been fixed? Am I going to hate myself for fixing something that wasn't broken? I know we have a few geeks who could build the entire system by their selves (and great for them) but I'd like to hear from a non geek, basically organist, if they have migrated and if it went well for them.
Sign me a nervous Nelly

[jbird604]

Dear Nelly,

I'm not the one who needs to reply to you, but I'll add myself to the list of folks asking the same question. I'm a novice in the VPO world, currently trying out Grand Orgue and jOrgan, along with HW4 (free version). I'm sure there are huge advantages to the paid version of HW, and perhaps I'll move up eventually, once I feel fully committed to the VPO concept. I sorta hate it that HW5 doesn't even have a free version to try out before you buy it, but I understand that it took a huge amount of time to develop and those folks need to be compensated for their work.

Perhaps some others will chime in here who, like you, are much deeper into HW and have paid versions of both HW4 and HW5 for comparison.

[Admin]

I understand what you're saying. Although I have no fear in making the transition, I've not yet convinced myself that it is worth the time and effort to do so. I wrote about that back in December.

It's likely that many of the initial glitches around the transfer of sample set licenses have been ironed out, but if you have version 4 copy protected sets, you'll need to confirm the possibility and method of transferring their licenses to the version 5.0 system with the sample set producer.

I can't speak to what other challenges you might incur in making the migration. I have friends who have made the transition easily and others who have struggled. The major sticking point, other than license migration, is the audio configuration procedure in the new version. I've seen it described as "confusing", "complex", and "non-intuitive." I would expect that the difficulty involved will be directly related to the number of channels in your current set-up.

One other factor that I'm not clear on is whether user voicing changes migrate with the sample set. I have a couple of sample sets that I've spent a considerable amount of time voicing, and I certainly wouldn't want to have to go through that again.

[LTDan]

Hello Nelly:

I too purchased the HW5 upgrade but haven't actually went through the sample set migrations. I have a sophisticated setup with 22 channels of audio and use 3 different Alt-Configs for various organs and music projects. All my rank routing and design notes are documented so I have road map in case I ever have to rebuild it by hand.

What I did was download HW5 to a spare computer, purchase an iLok key, then attached a spare MIDI keyboard. This gave me to flexibility to learn the 'new' multichannel audio paradigm and keep my HW4 organ intact for practice. I put 'new' in single quotes in that the basic design of audio groups and outputs still exist but there are now templates to assist with assigning the desired channels to right outputs. The inspiration came from the Dolby AV surround methodology where you have L&R speakers, rear speakers, subwoofer, etc. Thus any movie and now most cable shows have Dolby encoding to take advantage of the extra audio channels. Unfortunately with HW it was a little over done. This became obvious when 2 sample set producers and 3 HW power users wrote separate supplemental step-by-step guides to help us grasp the changes. Fortunately, when restoring your HW4 backup file to HW5 (the actual migration) there is a check box to preserve your audio groups and outputs or start fresh with the new audio design. For me I would choose to preserve.
There are instructions on how to ignore the new templates and resort back to the original groups & output design.

The other improvement related to audio is you can now switch between audio layouts without having HW rebuild the cache each time. You get 8 mixer presets. For example 1 preset can be the straight organ in stereo, another one you can add lots of reverb, maybe another with a different reverb design, and yet another the audio is sent only to headphones. You can easily and quickly switch between these configs.

One of the biggest new features for HW5 is the convolution reverb that can be applied to dry sets. This is especially beneficial for the theatre organ sample sets as they are bone dry.

The other feature is improved sample set processing. I've read and heard from several folks where the the audio is cleaner and more “present”. To quote the author "background models (wind supply model, pipe flow randomization, tremulants, swell boxes) are processed at higher resolutions".

In summary (my point of view):
Better overall sound
Convolution reverb
Easier audio route switching

One other factor that I'm not clear on is whether user voicing changes migrate with the sample set. I have a couple of sample sets that I've spent a considerable amount of time voicing, and I certainly wouldn't want to have to go through that again.

Hello Admin:
Yes, the backup and restore feature is basically the same. You would make a v4 backup which preserves all your settings. Its this same file that you use to restore once HW5 is loaded. You can always copy this backup file to a flash drive or separate folder for peace of mind.

Danny B.

[cham-ed]

LTDan you are WAY Over my head. I'm just running a simple stereo set up, as unsophisticated as it can be.
But I like the idea of loading it to a separate computer & drive. I'm so afraid of walking over a cliff and having nothing. For me, I wish there was a Hauptwerk lite version with a ton less options, a lot more plug and play. Even at the same price but less scary.

[voet]

I resisted getting Hauptwerk for a long time. It is a wonderful program and now that I have it, I am really pleased. However, I did not want to spend the necessary hours learning the system so that I could install and use it.

My solution was to use the services of an expert. I contacted François Ratté of Hauptwerk Consultants who advised me. Whenever I need his help, he accesses my computer remotely to do what ever I need done. Initially he advised me on the equipment I needed, built a computer for me, and installed all of the software. After my initial setup, I have used him to install new sample sets and upgrade from HW4 to HW5.

I realize that there are many tech savvy people on this forum who take delight in such challenges. I am not one of them. While I probably could have figured out how to do all of this on my own, I prefer to have someone else do it so I can just sit down and play.

[quantum]

What I did was download HW5 to a spare computer [...]

This is the route I would highly recommend.

Most of my VPO work is in jOrgan and Grandorgue, but a number of general workspace concepts can still apply regardless of the VPO software you choose. For my own setup I have at least two separate systems running the VPO software. The computer at the organ is a dedicated VPO system, it's only job is to do VPO work, I call this the production system. It runs stable and tested versions of the VPO software as well as stable and tested versions of the dispositions and samplesets I use.

When I try out a new version of software or disposition / sampleset, it gets installed onto a computer I label as the development system. It's purpose is to get acquainted with the new software or samples, and play around with them. This is also the system I do a large part of custom voicing for the organs. Only when I am satisfied with the performance on the development system, will I consider moving the new version over to the production system.

All the files where custom settings are stored are versioned and backed up, backed up again, and backed up again. When I want to take an existing VPO and use it in a new version of software, I make a copy of all files and upgrade the copy, not current in use version of the files. There are always backups of the current working state, so if a deployment of a new version does not go smoothly, I can easily revert to the last known working condition. I cannot stress enough the importance of having a good backup strategy. When you have backups upgrading to a new software version is a lot less scary.