How to use the Inspired Acoustics Surround Customizer with Hauptwerk 4

Transcription

1 How to use the Inspired Acoustics Surround Customizer with Hauptwerk 4 Dr. Sven Rakers The Adjustable version of Inspired Acoustics organs are delivered with a VSTi plug-in, the so-called INSP_DEC. For many users who are not used to virtual studio software it is not clear what a VSTi plug-in is and how it is used. The manual of e.g. the Kispest Pipe Organ Sampleset doesn t explain how to access the INSP_DEC tool and how to connect it with the Hauptwerk software. This is what this little how-to has been written for! To be very clear in the beginning: don t expect that you can use the INSP_DEC with your builtin motherboard-based sound card! You will need a multi-channel ASIO sound card. I have good experience with the inexpensive M-Audio Delta 1010LT, but also others will work well! 1 Set-up Hauptwerk 1.1 Set up Audio Output Groups Open the Audio Output Groups menu: General settings Audio Output Groups. Rename the first group to Base. Insert two more groups named Depth and Width. Confirm the Information Message (Message code 2324).

2 < How to use the Inspired Acoustics Surround Customizer with Hauptwerk Set up Audio outputs Use the menues General Settings Audio Outputs Set the Audio output Device to Hauptwerk VST Link. Give it the Alias Base Click on the right tab Routing. Select the output group Base.

3 Set-up Continue to work in the Audio Outputs window! Create another output groups with the name Depth. For this purpose, click in the bottom left on Insert. Then select the Audio device like above and assign the device channels 03/04 [L] and 03/04 [R]. Don t forget to set the routing in the Routing tab to Depth.

4 D How to use the Inspired Acoustics Surround Customizer with Hauptwerk 4 Repeat the step for the third Width output group with channels 05/06 L/R. Close the window by clicking OK.

5 Set-up Hauptwerk G 1.3 Load the organ and define the routing In this step you load the organ, thereby defining to what outputs the samples are routed. The loading of the organ takes a while, on my computer (i5 processor) it takes about 15 minutes. So don t bother! Use the menus: Organ Load organ, adjusting rank audio/memory options/routing Here you also have the chance to disable annoying sounds like the blower engine! If you want to do that later, it will again take hours to load! Further, you can select (as with every organ) whether you want to load multiple loops/releases. Select the ranks and noises you like to play, and assign them to the groups. We start with the Base group: Per default, this is already assigned to Base.

6 I How to use the Inspired Acoustics Surround Customizer with Hauptwerk 4 Continue with the Depth samples: And then with the Width samples:

7 Download and install VST Host J If you like engine and other noises, this is now the time to repeat the steps with the noises. If not, select also all noises (remember, if you don t do anything you will hear them in the Base group!) and set Rank enabled to NO. Don t forget to do this for all sample groups! Check again for correct settings, press OK and go for a coffee! 2 Download and install VST Host What you have installed now is the organ with all sound outputs routed to VST links. You can imagine VST links as virtual audio cables which transport your sounds from one program to the other. What you likely want now is to connect the Hauptwerk outputs ( Hauptwerk VST links ) to the surround customizer. This tool transforms the samples to your speaker configuration and takes your adjustments into account. The sound will leave the surround customizer again via a VST link. In the end, you will want to route it to your Audio card where it is converted into real beautiful electric signals, and from there we again understand the world take some cables and plug them into sound card and amp! 2.1 VSTHost At this point we need some additional software. Well after spending hundreds of Dollars or Euros for Hauptwerk and the sampleset, we might be fed up with spending! Luckily, there is a Shareware tool on the Web called VSTHost. If you like it, you may donate to the Author, Hermann Seib. Please download the program from Even if you are German, Austrian or just love the language, please download the English version almost all texts on the Web refer to the English commands!

8 M How to use the Inspired Acoustics Surround Customizer with Hauptwerk 4 Please select the vsthostx64.zip as a download. If you have nowadays no 64-bit machine, stop here and go shopping. Unpack the ZIP to a folder in the directory you like, e.g. C:\vsthost. There is no installer, VSTHost runs directly from the VSTHOST.EXE. You d like to create a link to the desktop, and if you later want to load it automatically, link it into the Startup folder. If you have another version than the English, please delete the vsthostdeu.dll and the vsthostfra.dll! 2.2 VST folder VSThost expects the VST plug-ins (or VSTi, makes no difference at this point) in one directory folder. We will need the 64-bit plug-ins for Hauptwerk and the surround customizer INSP-DEC. Hauptwerk creates a plug-in folder during the installation in C:\Program Files\Hauptwerk Virtual Pipe Organ VST Link Plug-In This is the location where you should also copy the 64-bit version of the INSP-DEC to. Please remove all 32-bit versions from this folder (you might create a 32-bit sub-folder).

9 Download and install VST Host P 2.3 VSTHost configuration Now we have everything where we need it, and we can start play ball! Start the VSTHost application. If will display an empty window with engine input and output boxes Initial set-up In the file menu, disable Plug-in Auto Connect. Rather, click in the File Menu on Set PlugIn Paths. In the small window that opens, click on the button with the three little dots on the right. Select the folder with the plugins (cf. Chapter 2.2 of this how-to). For later purposes (if you start to like the concept of VST plug-ins): you can add more locations here!

10 QR How to use the Inspired Acoustics Surround Customizer with Hauptwerk 4 Now we configure the sound card output (yes! Cables!). Click in the Devices menu on Wave. Select your sound card and define a sample rate of and a buffer of 256. You can adjust the value later to minimize latency (but the Kispest samples have anyway a slow attack and you won t recognize a 5 ms improvement). If you don t have an ASIO sound card, press cancel, leave the program and go shopping! If you get an exception error here, consider that you maybe work with a remote desktop Next, configure input & output devices. In the Devices menu, select ASIO Channel Selection. In the opening window, select the outputs that you want to use. We need e.g. 6 outputs for a typical 5.1 configuration: Front L/R, Center, LFE (= Subwoofer), Rear L/R. INSP_DEC allows up to 8 outputs if you have enough loudspeakers. In this example we continue with 6 outputs.

11 Download and install VST Host QQ To cross-check, select from the Engine menu the Configure command. Click the Assign output channels and make sure that all Engine outputs are connected to the Wave devices in the right order. Now we have defined the output. Let s go for the input and load the Hauptwerk VST-link. In the File menu select PlugIns and select the Hauptwerk VSTLink. If it is on display, check/correct the plug in folder and select Rescan in the File menu. Sometimes the plug-in appears only after rescanning. Repeat the step with the INSP_DEC plugin! On the screen you have now four little boxes: Engine input (you don t need this as long as you just want to play organ) Hauptwerk VSTLink INSP_DEC Engine output

12 Q< How to use the Inspired Acoustics Surround Customizer with Hauptwerk 4 On the side of the boxes are tiny blue square boxes. Click on the right box of VSTLink, hold the mouse button and release it with the pointer over the left box on INSP_DEC. Repeat for INSP_DEC and OUT. Save your set-up using File Save performance. The next time VSTHost starts up, it will load the most recent performance automatically.

13 Configure INSP_DEC surround customizer 3 Configure INSP_DEC surround customizer Start your Hauptwerk organ (by now it should have managed to load the organ!). Select some ranks. Double-click in the VSTHost in the INSP_DEC box on the tiny green button with the clock. The user interface of the surround customizer opens. Enable Expert mode and select the speaker configuration (example: 5.1). Attention: the program does not remember the configuration and you have to select 5.1 each time you start! If you now play a note, you should see some kind of bargraphs in the black arrows on the left hand side for Base, Depth and Width. If you already have connected your amplifier and speakers to the sound card, you should also hear the note! For debugging you might mute (little M in the output secion) some speakers and check the correct cabling. Now start your experiments with the adjustments. As there is no fourth group Height yet available, the TILT adjustment won t yield any effect, but the speaker setup and the directivity adjustments are remarkable. You can also download dozens of more, partly free, plugins from the Internet and use them in VSTHost.