Hauptwerk exposed to more than 60 Bristol organists ...

[kaspencer]

Hello all ...

I am delighted to report that more than 60 members of the Bristol & District Organists' Association and others were given an excellent opportunity to see, hear, and discover Hauptwerk last evening at the St Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol. Several members of the Hauptwerk forum attended.

David Butcher (Lavender Audio) was responsible for the main events of the evening. A summary of the evening may be of interest to those who were unable to attend:

1. Paul Walton (Bristol Cathedral, and President B&DOA for 2010/11) played two pieces - Cesar Frank on the Trost, and David Briggs on the Metz organs. (For this part of the proceedings, Paul played Douglas Henn-MacRae's console, see (3) below, not the Makin);

2. David Butcher gave a presentation on Hauptwerk, what it does, how it works etc

3. Douglas Henn-Macrae explained aspects of the Hoffrichter console (3M 32P) which he had set up in the Undercroft, to the audience;

4. Kenneth Spencer gave a very brief account of his experiences of Hauptwerk leading up to the building of his Hauptwerk console;

5. There was then a period set aside for the audience to play Douglas' console, to view Kenneth Spencer's slide show of his console and of some of the Hautpwerk principles, to talk to all of us, and to use a single keyboard and headphones to experiment with the most simple of methods of using Hauptwerk;

6. The audience then went up into the church, where Charles Braund of Silver Octopus Studios, had connected a PC containing his Silver Octopus sample sets to the Makin console, which was in use during refurbishment of the H&H organ. Charles explained aspects of his sample sets to the audience, following which Paul Walton played a piece twice, first on the Makin, and second using Hauptwerk and Silver Octopus sets through the Makin console and speakers. The audience was easily able to distinguish the difference in clarity and organ quality between the two, not withstanding the severely limited preparation time available for anything more than loading the sample sets. (Clarity and organ quality clearly in favour of Hauptwerk and Charles' sample sets of course!)

Personally, I was delighted that Hauptwerk had such a successful evening, with many thanks due to David Butcher, Charles Braund and Douglas Henn-Macrae. Considerable preparation had been carried out for the evening but it was definitely worth it.

Maybe some members of this forum would like to suggest to their own local Organists' Associations that such an evening would be a suitable item for their programme diaries.

Regards

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Pity that there wasn't also a comparison with the pipe organ!

I did suggest something like this for our Association's programme next year, but there was little inhterest.

Every Blessing

Tony

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

I have offered on any such future occasions to bring along some speakers which would enable Hauptwerk to sound as real as it can be. They would also show up any shortcomings, and then a comparison with a real organ would be very valid.

Having heard Carlo Curley play a Makin through Makin speakers in competition with a one manual pipe organ, frankly I preferred the pipe organ. It would be interesting to put the Makin and Hauptwerk through good speakers and then compare with the pipe organ.

However, in the cause of supremacy of pipe organs, I'm all for electronics to be let down by the speakers!

Best wishes

David P

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Agreed.  If I want to just sit and play for enjoyment (as opposed to practicing for something specific) I tend to use my Harmonium in preference to the various electronic options that I have available, which really don't satisfy in terms of sound quality.  It's a pity that I've had to abandon my pipe organ rebuild FTTB.

Every Blessing

Tony