Our Hauptwerk Setup

Ausra and I use a small Lithuanian-built two manual and pedal mechanical practice organ with two flutes at home but recently decided join the Hauptwerk world. Our practice organ is great for practice purposes but not so much for recordings, especially now when we are locked inside our home because of quarantine and can't go to play in church anymore.  For this Hauptwerk idea we have to thank our friends organists James Flores and Auke Jongbloed whose organ videos on YouTube are very impressive.

At first I contacted our Lithuanian organ builder Algis Stepanauskas who built our house organ to ask if he could midify it and prepare it for Hauptwerk. He said he could do it but only after a year since his workshop is now busy with several restoration projects. So Ausra and I agreed to wait for this opportunity to midify our mechanical organ which would allow us to practice using Hauptwerk sample set as well.

However, with the global pandemics hitting hard, I understood that we will no longer be able to go to our church to record. James Flores advised my to try out Hauptwerk with my MIDI keyboard that I already had at home. I downloaded the trial version, got very excited and started recording manual-only music - all on the basic St Anne's Moseley sample set which is built-in in Hauptwerk V. Hauptwerk seemed like the way to go so I ordered the Advanced version and Velesovo sample set from Sonus Paradisi. That's when I started recording my improvisations and Clavierubung II and III by Johann Ludwig Krebs. Then Ausra joined in in recording Krebs' Clavierubung I a little later.

Here's the obvious problem - I didn't have the pedals. But I already had advanced version of Hauptwerk! Oh well, this can't be avoided, I thought... So without telling Ausra, I knew I couldn't wait and secretly decided to buy what I needed to play and record music with pedals at home. Instead of buying a ready to use, fully functioning digital organ, I wanted to have the flexibility to set up my own customised solution with MIDI keyboards and pedalboards. After looking up some keyboards online, I've settled with Thomann online instrument store which have a great selection of everything I needed plus they offer free shipping. ​So in early March I ordered these items from Thomann (without telling Ausra, of course). The links to the products and banner at the end contain my affiliate links so if you buy through them I get a small commission for recommending them. Thanks in advance!

Thomann Drum Rug

We have a rug for the fitness machine to place under the instrument but I think Thomann Drum Rug would have worked even better because of the dimensions. So at first I placed the rug in our music room next to the window.

JASPERS 3D-120B Keyboard Stand

Then we assembled this Jaspers keyboard stand. It's quite light and the setup was easy. The tools were provided with the package. I only had to approximate position of the handles for the keyboards which could be adjusted later. It was a fun exercise to adjust them. It took quite a few tries after the keyboards were set up. As you can see it in the photo, keyboards overlap a little but once you get used to the layout it's not really inconvenient. Oh, and by the way, the stand has still some space left for the 4th manual if we wanted one.

​Nektar Impact GX 61
Since I already had one Nektar MIDI keyboard, I naturally wanted 2 more keyboards of the same kind to work together. The touch is very light, doesn't have any resistance so it takes a while to get used to, if you come from hard mechanical action organ like we have at Vilnius University St John's church. The good thing is that it has USB connection so it plugs into the computer right away. No extra cables are required besides the USB. Another thing I like about them is that they don't weigh much at all and if we travel, we can put one MIDI keyboard in the trunk of the car and still can practice and even record while on the road.

K&M 10062 Music Stand Robby Plus
​
I wanted wide enough music stand to accommodate 4 sheets of paper so standard music stands weren't really an option. I ended up buying Manhasset 54 Conductor`s Stand Regal but  ​K&M 10062 Music Stand Robby Plus would also be wide enough.

Viscount MIDI Bass Pedal 30 Concave

At first I thought we needed only 25 keys and for this I saw the light-weight solution - Clavia Nord Pedal Key 27. It's really light and weighs only 15.5 kilos. And this would have worked if we only wanted to play early music. But in order to have a pedalboard which could play organ music from any historical period we needed to have at least 30 note pedalboard.

Viscount MIDI bass pedal (concave 30 notes) proved to be very comfortable and elegant pedalboard. It even has two swell pedals which we haven't used yet because we don't have a sample set which would need swell pedals. I'm sure in the future we will do that too.

M-Audio USB Uno

You can't connect MIDI Out cable of the pedalboard directly into the computer USB port so we need this adapter. I struggled at first setting it up because Hauptwerk wouldn't recognise our MIDI pedalboard as a separate devise. It turned out I plugged the pedalboard MIDI OUT cable into MIDI IN port. Once I sorted this out, everything fell into place.

 Lindy 7 Port USB 3.0 Hub

Currently I'm plugging USB devices into separated USB ports of the computer which consumes a lot of power from it. There are 4 USB-C ports on my computer. And one port is needed for charging. Therefore an obvious solution was to get a powered USB hub. It hasn't arrived from Thomann yet. When I will set it up, I will only need to use one USB-C port to connect all my keyboards and pedalboard.

Viscount Organ Bench Light Oak 30

I also wanted to have a separate organ bench for our Hauptwerk setup because we might need our pipe organ bench if we ever decided to play both organs at the same time. This Viscount organ bench hasn't arrived yet. I guess with the global pandemic and quarantine delivery times are much longer now.

Apple MacBook Pro 16 i7 16GB

Although I haven't used Apple products in the past, James Flores convinced me to get this MacBook Pro which I don't regret doing. Of course Hauptwerk would have worked with a Windows computer and I tried it out first for a while but now I understand the saying that once you try out Apple, you don't want to go back to Windows. That's what happened to me. At least 16 GB RAM for Hauptwerk is a must, although minimum requirements for the basic version are much lower. 

​Apple iPad 7th Gen 10.2 32GB

I also got an iPad because it will be handy if I want to change the stops by touching the screen. This is really handy if a tablet serves like a second display with Duet Display app. I have yet to learn to program combinations on Hauptwerk so I could do more sudden registration changes when music demands.

Duet Display App
​In the beginning this app would to crash after opening and I couldn't use it with my MacBook Pro. I reached out for support and had to wait patiently until I received their reply in which they recommended I would uninstall the app and download the fresh version. I did this and it worked! Now I have a second display. I just need to teach myself how to use it with Hauptwerk properly.

​ForScore App

I knew I would be playing and recording a lot of new music on Hauptwerk but I wanted to reduce the amount of paper that I need. James Flores recommended I download forScore on iPad right away. With it can import any PDF file that I want. After playing from forScore for more than a month and recording entire Clavierubung II and III by Krebs, I find it very handy and efficient tool.

Sony WH-1000XM3 Bluetooth Noise Cancelling Headphones

I bought those headphones because I can use them when practicing or recording and when I don't want to disturb Ausra. They work really well and fit nicely and not too tight on the head. Could be used with a chord or wirelessly via bluetooth. I use it not only to listen to organ music on MacBook Pro but also on iPad as well as wirelessly on my phone too.

IK Multimedia iRig BlueTurn

For organists who want to play without assistants, an obvious challenge is page turns. A table like iPad provides new solutions and so I bought this bluetooth device to turn pages with the foot. It rests nicely on Viscount MIDI pedalboard. It takes some practice to get used to the foot movement but it works flawlessly with forScore app.

Since I haven't told Ausra at the beginning about what exactly I had ordered, you can only imagine how surprised she was when big boxes started arriving to our house!

But because she loved playing on a single MIDI keyboard and Hauptwerk sample sets, she quickly got used to the pedalboard and 2 extra keyboards as you can see in our videos. It might be the tool that we will happily use for years to come. Oh yes, we still have room for that 4th manual but I think even these 3 keyboards will keep us really busy.

There you have it! This is our entire Hauptwerk setup. And if you want to copy what we do, simply click on the links to check out these products.  Hope this helps!

Sibelius Ultimate

The beauty of Hauptwerk is that when you record your playing, it automatically saves 2 types of files - MIDI file and WAV file. I use WAV file to edit audio and to convert it to mp3 to upload to online streaming platforms. MIDI file is useful if you want to create sheet music directly from your Hauptwerk recording. For this purpose I use Sibelius Ultimate music notation software. I can import all kinds of music files, including MIDI and with some editing and cleaning up my organ playing recording can become a nice organ score. Of course I use Sibelius Ultimate for any other music notation purposes, including composing, transcribing my improvisations, arranging, transposing and just about any other score manipulation that I can imagine.

Rode Wireless Go

Rode Wireless Go microphones are very handy if I want to record my organ playing in a church. I use them for live-streaming and recording organ recitals on my phone. It's very small and can fit into my palm. The transmitter can be put in the front of the church if I want to record the sound that my listeners would hear without external organ key action. To connect the receiver with the phone I just need an extra SC7 patch cable. Once it's done the audio quality of organ music recording is superb. It's very handy to have a power bank at the location of the recording and not to worry about charging the mic. I have 4 of them. Two at the church and two at home.

Spotify

I upload my organ videos to YouTube and audios - to Spotify, Deezer, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes etc. But in order for your music to appear on Spotify, you have to do it through some kind of distributor. I've tried 3 distributors so far - Distrokid, Mixnauten and Soundrop. Some distributors, like Distrokid operate on yearly subscription business model and some, like Mixnauten and Soundrop - on commissions. With Distrokid you pay a yearly fee but receive 100 percent of royalties from Spotify. With Mixnauten and Soundrop - you don't pay anything for uploading your tracks but they take some percentage from your royalties as a commission. You can choose whatever works for you best. If you sign up for Distrokid through my link, you will get 7% discount. Also I recommend uploading your audio tracks to Emanate, a platform which aims to reward musicians fairly, instantly and directly. Here is my profile on Emanate.

UPDATE

To accommodate larger sample sets, now our Hauptwerk runs on Windows 10. We use DELL tower expanded with additional 64GB RAM and DELL touch monitor and DELL single arm monitor stand which you can see in more recent videos. Very convenient to change stops.

The problem with Windows 10 is that their sound card isn't powerful enough therefore there is a sound delay (latency) between the time you press the note on the key and the time you hear the sound. So we bought and attached external sound card Steinberg UR22C. Now the sound delay is tolerable. Not perfect but manageable - 53 milliseconds.

I also have Behringer Xenyx X1222USB mixer with sound card which I may use in the future but haven't figured out how to plug it into the DELL or Steinberg. I needed 2x Mono jack 6.3 mm to stereo mini jack 3.5 mm audio cable to connect the sound card to the speakers (you can see the links to these devices with pictures).

VIDEO/AUDIO EQUIPMENT

I have usually recorded videos with my phone plus maybe with Ausra's phone for a second camera angle but now I ordered 3 Zoom Q2N-4K video recorders. Hopefully I will have a better video quality. To supplement Rode Wireless GO microphone which I will attach to one of the video camera, I also will have Zoom Lavalier GO mic with Rode SC1 cable. Ausra and I will need both mics during our recitals when we talk. Hopefully the Zoom cameras will work with Benro mini tripods which I use every day. To have a superb sound quality, I use Zoom H4N Pro recorder which I can connect to Rode Wireless Go transmitter and place it further away from the camera and the receiver. To finish my current gear upgrade I have ordered double LED lights to have a better lighting quality.

UPDATE

Recently we have purchased one more Nektar keyboard and have expanded our Hauptwerk into 4 manual setup. We needed a different music stand and a table. Instead of the keyboard frame we put thick books to support the keyboards.
Later we ordered a proper wooden frame from our friend carpenter. It turns out we will need to order a more stable table from him too in the future so stay tuned for future updates.

UPDATE

I recently bought Audio-Technica ATH-M50 X headphones and they appear to be quite comfortable to use for long practice sessions: https://www.thomann.de/intl/audio_tec...

Also I listen quite a bit of organ music on the bluetooth invisible earbuds. Highly recommended. I bought 3 more of them in case I lose one (yes, I think I already lost 2 in the past). They are so tiny but so handy.

Portable Hauptwerk Setup

In the summer of 2021 I decided to built my own portable Hauptwerk setup so that I could play in other locations which don't have pipe organs. For this I bought:

Jaspers 2D-120S, 
Clavia Nord Pedal Key 27, 
Millenium Triple Flex Light Lamp Black, 
Lindy 7 Port USB 3.0 Hub, 
Thomann Midi USB 1x1, 
Jaspers Holders 30S, 
Jaspers Monitor Holder 40S, ​
Nektar Impact GX 61, 
Jaspers Strengthening Set 120S, 
Jaspers Laptop Stand 30S, 
Millenium KB-2007 Keyboard Bench, 
Drum N Base Vintage Stage Mat Grey, 
Pace iLok 3 USB-A, ​
​Jaspers MIK 964 Nickel
Bose S1 Pro System portable speaker

Yesterday I finally succeeded in assembling and testing my new portable Hauptwerk setup. Since the weather was nice, I did it in my garden. Hope you will enjoy this little time lapse video!

I also tested out my new portable Hauptwerk setup in the garden. It was really easy to assemble and set it up. Even easier to put it back to storage afterwards. I decided to play the 1st movement from Trio Sonata No. 1 in Eb Major, BWV 525 by J.S. Bach. Hope you will enjoy the amazing sounds of Velesovo sample set by Sonus Paradisi!

Here are the links to the products which comprise my new portable Hauptwerk setup:

USB MIDI Roll-Up Piano

It's summer and it's fun to be able to play outside, maybe even on the beach. But carrying a real-sized MIDI keyboard sometimes can be impractical. I've always been curious about how these Roll-Up pianos work so I recently I bought this one:

USB MIDI Roll-Up Piano

Yesterday it was delivered and today I'm trying it out in the garden while playing Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, Op. 122 No. 5 by Johannes Brahms. Hope you will enjoy the sounds of Hauptwerk Salgareda sample set by Inspired Acoustics! I had to put a plank under the keyboard because it's made out of silicone and on the soft grass it is tedious to play. It took a while since I got used to the touch. It takes a bit of effort to press the keys evenly so that MIDI signal would not break. It's easier to play an early music piece which doesn't require perfect legato touch but I was glad to meet this challenge. Next time Ausra and I go to the beach we will certainly take this little guy with us too. The roll-up piano could be good for practicing on a silent keyboard to build precision in your technique while traveling, provided you don't use too much force with your hands which creates too much tension.

49 Note Foldable Travel MIDI Keyboard

While the roll-up piano is difficult to press the keys evenly and actually it requires quite a bit of force from the fingers which might not be healthy long-term the above foldable 49 note midi keyboard is really easy to play. Yesterday it was delivered and I tested it out on Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele by Georg Philipp Telemann and some manualiter pieces by Leon Boellmann from Heures Mystyques. Both articulated early music and legato romantic music was enjoyable to play as you will see in this Telemann video below. This little keyboard fits in the backpack and I will carry it with me to some visually interesting locations to make some videos. I hope it will be durable enough because it is very light, weighs less than 0.5 kilograms and when folded takes up the size of basically 2 octaves, or a little more than the size of the laptop. The size of the keys is quite similar to that of early keyboards (shorter keys but distance between C to C in an octave is the same as on a modern keyboard). The only thing to keep in mind about this one is that you need to have a hard surface underneath it to avoid folding while playing. In the video below I used 2 planks on this X-shaped stand on which I placed this foldable 49 note midi keyboard.

Bose S1 Pro System

For my portable Hauptwerk setup I use Bose S1 Pro System. I played it in medium sized venues, such as auditoriums, churches, chapels and open air spaces. I'm very happy with the deep, powerful and sonorous sound and of course portability of the speaker which could be connected to the Hauptwerk laptop via Bluetooth and or a mini jack cable. I prefer cable because of some delay with Bluetooth. This PA system has 2 XLR inputs which allows me to connect a mic or two if I need to talk. When I play outdoors I can use it without power outlet. Fully charged battery runs for up to 11 hours. Might even buy one more such speaker for larger venues.

Recording equipment we use at the church

One of the most important aspect when recording organ music at the church is microphone placement. Earlier we used to place the camera without external mic on the organ balcony but the result wasn't ideal - in such videos you could hear only rather direct sound coming from the organ without beautiful blending of the acoustics. After recommendation of our YouTube friend James Flores we started placing audio recording equipment downstairs in couple places - one in the middle of the church and the other - closer to the balcony but still downstairs. The camera would be placed near the organist but muted in the editing process. This way we would get the best of 2 worlds - up-close view of the organist (sometimes even a second camera for the feet) and a nice surround sound from the nave, exactly the way the listeners would hear.

So here is the list of the equipment we use when recording from the church:

​Zoom Q2N-4K video recorder
Zoom H4N Pro 
​Zoom H1 N

We also recommend:
Mic Boom Stand
https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_ms2003.htm
​LED light:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/fun_generation_ring_light_300.htm