Introduction
Last winter, I was contacted by the titular organist of St-Paul Anglican church, in Knowlton Quebec. He wanted to know if it would be possible to use Hauptwerk to expand his 10 ranks, 1929 Casavant organ.
After visiting the church with a pipe organ technician, I proposed a system and a budget. The minister, very enthusiastic about it, presented the project to the community. Of course, money is the heart of the whole project and some members of the community were a bit skeptical about the proposed solution. So a concert using Hauptwerk was prepared “as a proof of concept”.
The Concert
On September 11th a concert was held in the little church, using Hauptwerk. 
Two organists from Montreal, Margaret and Rafael De Castro gave a great concert, composed of pieces from Lubeck, Buxtehude, Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Hesse and some hymns. Close to 90 minutes of music played on the Zwolle, Velesovo, Hereford and St-George’ Casavant.
A fugue from Mozart (4 hands) was played using both organs, the 10 ranks Casavant and Hauptwerk with the Velesovo. Another 4 hands piece, a Fantasie by Hesse was played using the Hereford Cathedral sample set. The Hymns were played using both organs and the St-Georges’
After the concert, comments from the assistance was excellent, most hardly believing that what they heard came from “a computer”!
The organists loved so much Hauptwerk that they are coming to my place pretty soon to plan and order their Hauptwerk system. During the summer they travelled Europe and played 12 historical organs from North Germany and Netherland. Rafael told me that, once he own a Hauptwerk system, he won’t need to travel anymore…
My “4 days” week-end…
For me it has been a long 4 days week-end. Thursday I prepared my computer for the concert (clone the disk for the new audio setup, cache many sample sets, test everything then disassemble and pack the car.
Friday, left Quebec City early; 3 hours drive to Knowlton, then unpacking and setting up everything in the church’ choir. Rafael, one of the organist arrived around 2h30pm . Immediatly we began our work.
First, some explanations about Hauptwerk, how to use it then we began sample sets selections for the various pieces; Rafael was explaning me the type of instrument he had in mind, the stops he was looking for etc. We loaded many sets, experimented registrations, and as time went by the final selection of sets became clearer. By the end of the day (10h30 pm) the sets were selected, some of the registrations saved.
Saturday morning I was at work around 8h30 am. Rafael arriving around 11h00. In the meantime I began voicing the the various sample sets. Voicing is an important part of the end result; while the acoustic of the small church is very dry, it was rather difficult to control load frequencies, standing waves.
Also, I needed to balance the output volume of the Hauptwerk with the Casavant since some pieces were played using both systems at the same time. Finally the used of 4 sample sets with different amplitude complicated the setting of the overall output volume.
To properly voice the sets, I needed to sit in the nave, since the sound was totally different when sitting at the console.Being alone, I needed to find a workable and efficient solution.
Technology at my service!
To voice by myself the organ while sitting in nave, I used my favorite remote tool. When doing remote support I’m using LogMeIn. So that’s what I did! I connected the HW computer to the internal network and using my wireless notebook I was able to control Hauptwerk, play notes and move freely in the nave to voice the sample sets.
To give you an idea of how important voicing is, here is a view of the “after voicing” settings of the Hereford lower 2 octaves of the open bass 16′.
A lot of standing waves needed to be corrected. I also used some midi recordings I had from my teacher and some recordings done by Rafael. This allow me to make ajustments during play back.
Later Saturday, Rafael played part of his concert while I continued the voicing, checked the CPU used, polyphony, making sure that the soundcard doesn’t saturate etc. The possibility to monitor Hauptwerk status and voice “live” was a very useful.
Since the second organist wouldn’t be in Knowlton til mid Saturday afternoon to register her pieces, Rafael was a bit nervous, being afraid that there wouldn’t be enough time to set the piece (Mozart’ fugue) played using both organs, same thing for the Hesse (4 hands) played on the Hereford (setting registrations, making sure polyphony is ok, sound balanced etc).
I proposed him to use Hauptwerk’ midi recorder. For the Mozart, he recorded the HW part, then sat at the Casavant and played while playing back the midi recording. This gave me the opportunity to balance the sound of the Hauptwerk system to the Casavant.
Mid afternoon Saturday, I worked with the second organist, Rafael’ wife, Mrs Margaret De Castro. She was at first nervous about using this “technology”, but after a few minutes she began to enjoy herself.
We didn’t have must time to work together since she needed to drive back to Montreal, but still managed to register her pieces and practice the duets with her husband.
Remaining of the Saturday was spent working with the titular organist so he can use the Hauptwerk system for the Sunday’ offices. End of the day… 8h30 pm.
Sunday morning the system was used for both offices; the titular organist “had a ball” and was sad when he saw me pack everything at the end of the day!
In conclusion
The concert was a success! The public discovered Hauptwerk, heard how their future system will sound. The two invited organists brilliantly used the system, giving very interesting information about the instrument used between the pieces… we virtually travelled during the concert.
I would have like to have even more time to fine-tuned the set-up. Because of lack of time with Mrs De Castro, I couldn’t voice as must as I would have like the Hereford used for her pieces, some standing waves remaining (some 8′ ranks from the pedal division weren’t voice).
During the Mozart Fugue, played using both organs, it was very hard to know which organ was playing which part. The blend was very nice and natural, even with the Velesovo reverb.
A local radio station recorded the concert and I should have a copy of it soon; the Minister is now hoping to be able to raise the needed money to realize the project.
Once again Hauptwerk proved to be a mature product, well adapted to be used in a professional environment and some of the new features in Hauptwerk 4 (live status monitoring) was very useful. Now I must wait and see if this project will eventually proceed.
Long week-end but very rewarding one.
