Floating Divisions | Hauptwerk

[@MarekMichalakMusic]

Nice overview and presentation, Jerry. Having a 2 manual keyboard blocks, floating divisions have been absolutely essential to me for well over 6 years nows. It allows me to play all the samples sets which have more than two manuals and I cannot stress what a game changer this functionality has been to me. I have eight pistons in two groups of four under each manual and use pistons 1-4 (left hand side) for my floating division routing. I set it up with the divisional routing options you mention in such a way that the piston number under each manual corresponds to the virtual manual I want mapped onto that keyboard. So say on Salisbury, pressing piston 1 on either of my two manuals will have the Choir on on that manual, piston 2 gives me the Great, 3 gives me the Swell and 4 gives me the Solo. It can be a bit of a hard thing to conceptualise in your head to start with, but I love it and it works so well for me. It has certain limitations to it but nowhere near as limiting as having 2 manuals only and wanting to use a 4 manual sample set. I only wish we could optionally capture and recall floating division mapping in the registration sequencer so I could achieve registration changes AND floating division changes with the push of one button rather than two buttons. I have submitted a suggestion to that effect to Hauptwerk.

[@jerrymartin79]

Thank you so much Marek - this is a great example of how to use this feature, and a really good suggestion for the HW team!!! 😊

[@SecretsofOrganPlaying]

You have an amazing way to do things Marek!

[@MarekMichalakMusic]

Well.....when "confined" to a two manual console, one has to get creative and make use of the tool available in HW to make one's life a little bit easier 😉

[@benjamindaniel8467]

@MarekMichalakMusic in the setup you describe, does selecting whichever manual you require then cause the other four pistons to work as divisionals for that manual?

[@MarekMichalakMusic]

@@benjamindaniel8467 I can't answer the question directly as I don't use divisional. My second group of pistons has the registration sequencer controls as that is what I use. As Hauptwerk uses hard MIDI device IDs to map to divisional pistons, I can't imagine it would dynamically change your piston assignment based on your floating division, but without ever having tried it I can't confirm one way or another.

[@BrooksLehnig]

Jerry, thank you for this clear explanation for another potential Hauptwerk pickle (or would that be a Hauptwerk Gurke?). I have always done it the other way and ignored floaters. :)

[@jerrymartin79]

Thank you so much 😊

[@RalphLooij]

Thanks for another excellent explanation video, Jerry. I use the floating divisions for almost a year now. I don't think it adds very much when you have 3 manuals on your console, as you mention. But with only 2 keyboards and 3 or especially 4 manuals in the sample set, it's really helpful. Although, having 3 physical keyboards is very nice, however, in theory having just 2 keyboards could be enough with the floating divisions function.

[@jerrymartin79]

Thank you Ralph - I really appreciate that! I've never used it before, but realize it's not terribly complicated to set up. It's good to see so many people using it, and I hope this will help others in a similar situation.

[@vyvianspipes]

This is so so helpful, Jerry. I’ve been attempting this for such a long time!! You are amazing!

[@jerrymartin79]

Fantastic! I'm so glad this was helpful!

[@thomaslai5303]

I quite often find the user manual not very intuitive and sometimes even hard to read. But your videos as this is definitely of great help! thank you.

[@jerrymartin79]

Thank you so much 😊

[@AlejandroConsolacionII]

Jerry this is awesome. Honestly, it took me a lot of hours just to figure out how this floating division works. This is so informative. Thanks!

[@jerrymartin79]

Glad it helped!

[@RienSchalkwijk]

Wow! Thank you so much Jerry! This helps me a lot. Sometimes I want division 3 speak with the Grand, and sometimes division 2. But with my two manual this isn’t possible if I use both divisions on my second manual. With this method, I can change it on the flight. I gonna try this later today. So again, thanks!

[@jerrymartin79]

You're very welcome! See also Marek's comment - it looks like he uses this system and has a good setup with his pistons!

[@OrganGuyPhil]

I can admit I don’t understand any of this since I haven’t attempted Hauptwerk, but I watched it all anyways! Lol. Great job, Jerry! 😊

[@jerrymartin79]

Thanks so much Phil! This one is particularly nerdy - it's been in HW since the beginning - a way to play multiple manuals when you only have one and hop around on the fly.

[@ClaraOrgan]

Dear Jerry! You are an expert at Hauftwerk! I don't know much about computer operation, so I'm not satisfied with the sound sometimes~ I think I'm a Hauftwerk with a lot to study~ I envy you! thank you! Jerry 💕💕💕

[@jerrymartin79]

Thank you so much 😊

[@michaelandrews9901]

I've been using the Haverhill Binns on a 2 manual console since 2010, it's a breeze with HW's built in floating divisions facility. (...been waiting for floating divisions to be changed by the stepper ... it's on the list for future improvements). Love your videos - and music choices.

[@jerrymartin79]

Thank you so much 😊

[@DanielOberzaucher]

Now that's a neat new feature! Thanks for the great explanation!

[@jerrymartin79]

You're welcome! It is a cool idea - it's been well hidden in the hauptwerk menus, but good to know it exists!

[@grahamtwist]

Wonderful explanation. Of course, I do it the way you first mentioned (great when there is 'unison off' with the manual couplers . . . but not so helpful if such couplers are not available!).

[@jerrymartin79]

Thank you so much 😊 I am enjoying digging around for novelties and curiosities in our wonderful software. Meanwhile Stanford is grumbling that I'm not practicing...

[@adamtov9717]

Thanks for the really useful and helpful information.👍👍👍👍

[@jerrymartin79]

My pleasure 😊

[@davidhart5284]

Thank you Jerry, it is simple when you know how!

[@jerrymartin79]

I'm so glad this was helpful - let me know if there are any other mysteries of Hauptwerk that you might like me to cover. 😊

[@Wirsindda]

Even if I don't have or use Hauptwerk, I just wanted to tell you, that you have a really good style and lovely way to explain in your videos. It's very understandable and well edited ^.^

[@jerrymartin79]

Thank you! 😃

[@Goodchappy]

You've done it again Jerry. 👍🏻

[@jerrymartin79]

Thanks Goodchappy 😊

[@ferryorganmusic]

That is so helpful. Thanks for your explanation.

[@jerrymartin79]

You're very welcome!

[@mmaybrown]

Thanks. Very useful!

[@jerrymartin79]

Glad to hear that!

[@Roerfloejte8f]

Nice and comprehensive video👍🏻💪🏻 Is using floating divisions also the way to realize a coupling manual? Or is a shorter way to get one?

[@jerrymartin79]

I think I may know the answer: Floating divisions is for the situation when your sampleset has more keyboards than you. I THINK a coupling manual is when YOU have more keyboards than your sampleset. Do you mean you would have one manual swell, another great, and your third would be both coupled? If so you can do that using "input 2" for swell/great - I can make a short video on that if that is what you need 😊

[@Roerfloejte8f]

@@jerrymartin79 Very right, Jerry! That is exactly what I wanted to accomplish in conjunction with the Swieta Lipka sampleset by Piotr Grabowski. You can find this constellation on some "deutsch-romantische Orgeln"/german-romantic organs here in Germany. I tried using autodetecting one keyboard twice. But I found no "switch" to direct this to the second inputs. And I didn't like the idea to do this key by key. If you see no easier way to show your "howto" a video would be highly appreciated (and maybe not only by me)! Thanks for the kind offer!!! Regards, Henning (aka Rørfløjte 8')

[@jerrymartin79]

@@Roerfloejte8f Thank you for being the inspiration for this video - hope this helps! kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJK9aYSqYph1Y9E

[@SecretsofOrganPlaying]

Very helpful guide Jerry! Thank you! I can do this on my folding keyboard like you did. But I’m wondering how practical it would be. If I had just one keyboard with me I would probably choose single manual music. Or am I missing something here?

[@jerrymartin79]

Thanks Vidas 😊 I agree - it's perhaps not super useful for a single manual (after all, to quickly change registrations we would probably use the sequcner - although you could use this to quickly jump between a sweel/great setup... all the possibilities!)

[@MarkusDrejaOrganist]

Hello Jerry, I've never understood the floating divisions, because I was of the opinion that this job is actually done by the manual divisions, which you can pin to if necessary. there you can arbitrarily control the manuals where you want them to be. Or can the floating divisions simply do it faster and better? Thanks for the explaining videos. They are all great and so helpful.

[@jerrymartin79]

Thanks so much Markus! Usually I just connect, for example, both a virtual solo and choir to my single choir manual and play everything from there - just like you suggest. But the floating function does give you some more flexibility if you have less physical keyboards than the virtual sampleset has. It's a peculiar thing alright :D Ralph and Marek in the comments do a better job than me in explaining why this is useful. But I will keep it simple for me in my every-day setup 😊

[@james.flores]

Thumbs up just for the thumbnail 🎉😍

[@jerrymartin79]

Floating... hahah!