HauptwerkTM Version 2.02 Release Notice

March 2006

© Crumhorn Labs Ltd 2006


The most current source of information about Hauptwerk, known bugs etc., is the Crumhorn Labs website, which should also be consulted when required.


Overview

Hauptwerk version 2 supersedes version 1, and is now owned and developed by Crumhorn Labs Ltd., under the direction of Martin Dyde.

Version 2 has been rewritten from scratch, and includes many, many major new features aimed at provided the most realistic and best-performing model of an organ possible on current computer hardware, and to provide a solid foundation for future development for years to come.

Version 2.02 is a patch to version 2.00 or 2.01 which only includes bug fixes and work-arounds for problems found with version 2.00 and some minor enhancements. We recommended that you upgrade to version 2.02 as soon as possible if you have already installed version 2.00 or 2.01.


Compatibility

This release includes only the full edition of Hauptwerk version 2. An edition with reduced funtionality is planned for an early post-2.00 version, in order to ensure that a simple and low-cost edition of Hauptwerk, with lesser computer hardwdare requirements, continues to be available for those who do not wish to invest in the full quality of Hauptwerk version 2, whilst maintaining full compatibility with its sample sets.

Hauptwerk version 1 is no longer being developed, but, for a period of time, version 1 is installed with version 2, and a licence for version 1 is included with a purchase of a version 2 licence to provide backwards compatibility with older sample sets. Hauptwerk version 1 will continue to be sold until the reduced edition of Hauptwerk version 2 is available.

Hauptwerk version 1 licences are not valid for version 2. A licence upgrade is available for purchase from the Crumhorn Labs on-line shop.

Hauptwerk version 1 sample sets are not compatible with Hauptwerk version 2. Please contact the authors of any Hauptwerk version 1 sample sets that you may have for information about upgrading sample sets to version 2 format.

Licences for all previous Hauptwerk 2 versions remain valid with this Hauptwerk 2 version, so no licence upgrade fee applies to existing registered users of Hauptwerk version 2. However, if you wish to upgrade to this version from a previous Hauptwerk 2 version and require the updated software on CD, then it can be purchased from the on-line shop for a small charge to cover the media, handling and postage.


Installation

We very strongly recommend that you read the User Guide for Hauptwerk, which includes important prerequisites and installation instructions, and is included on the Hauptwerk CD and on-line on the Crumhorn Labs website before attempting to install Hauptwerk.

In particular, please ensure that you have Microsoft Direct-X version 9.0 or above installed (included on the CD), and at least 1 GB of memory, otherwise Hauptwerk's installer may not function correctly. Please also note that, depending on the speed of your CD/DVD drive, it may take several minutes for the installer to open after double-clicking on it, or for the installer file to appear in Windows Explorer, due to its size. During this time the drive activity light will remain lit.

If you have received this version on CD and wish to upgrade an existing Hauptwerk version 2 installation, simply insert the new CD and follow the instructions in the installer. The installer should detect your existing installation and upgrade it automatically as necessary.

If you have received this version as a download 'hot-fix' patch, then please instead follow the instructions included with the download. A moderate level of computer proficiency may be required to apply such patches, and we recommend instead ordering the update on CD if you have any doubts about the process.


Testing

This release has primarily been developed and tested on the following systems: Additional beta testing has been carried out for version 2.00 by third parties on many other systems, old and new.


Changes to Hauptwerk

Please note that enhancement and bug numbers refer to the corresponding pages on the website.


Changes in version 2.02

Version 2.02 includes only bug-fixes and work-arounds for problems found with version 2.00, plus some minor enhancements. The following are included:


BUG HW2-000047: If there was insufficient memory to load one of Hauptwerk's internal images, an incorrect error message was shown.

If Hauptwerk could not load one of its internal images (e.g. MainBackgroundPage.png) due to insufficient memory or resources, then the error was reported as ERR:4404 or ERR:4405, whereas the message should have been more explicit. Very minor.


BUG HW2-000052: Certain samples (especially percussion) could consume excessive CPU resources, leading to audio break-up at low polyphony with certain stops.

This behaviour is processor-dependent and partly unavoidable on processors earlier than the Pentium 4 (C1 stepping), i.e. Pentium III, AMD Athlon XP and other pre-Pentium 4 processors, since it is caused by the floating point handling of the processor. However, on Pentium 4 (C1 stepping and above), AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron processors, optimisations are available to avoid the problem. Alternative more limited optimisation techniques are possible for the Pentium III and Athlon XP. Although Hauptwerk 2 has always used the optimisations in the Pentium 4 and AMD 64-optimised builds (determined by the processor installation option), due to a compiler issue we have found that one of the optimisations was not being used in a key part of the audio engine. Although arguably not a bug in Hauptwerk itself, we have been able to produce a version that works around the problem for Pentium 4 and AMD 64 processors and, to a more limited extent, for Pentium III and Athlon XP processors. Note that no fix is possible for earlier processors. In particular, this problem caused the audio to break up on the percussion ranks of the Milan Digital Audio Virginia WurliTzer sample set.


BUG HW2-000064: Very occassionally could hang during deactivation or when closing Hauptwerk.

We found a further circumstance which could (very rarely) cause Hauptwerk to hang during deactivation of the audio system, such as when closing the program with a sample set loaded. Because the settings are saved on exit, this could prevent changes to the settings being saved.


BUG HW2-000065: If an audio device driver type (e.g. ASIO or DirectSound) was selected for which no drivers were installed on the computer, and then Hauptwerk was closed at that point, an error message was given preventing a different driver type being selected.

When the audio driver type is changed (either ASIO or DirectSound for stand-alone Windows configurations), Hauptwerk correctly raises an error if no drivers of that type are installed on the computer. However, if Hauptwerk was closed at that point then the message would be given whenever it was re-run, preventing the device driver type being changed back. To prevent that situation it now offers the option to restore the driver type back to its default for the platform (DirectSound on Windows) and then opens in maintenance mode.


ENHANCEMENT HW2-000066: Additional optimised Hauptwerk executable for Pentium III and Athlon XP processors included.

Although not all of the optimisations available in the Pentium 4 Hauptwerk executable are possible with the Pentium III and Athlon XP processors, some additional processor features can be used to give significant performance benefits over the 'generic' Hauptwerk executable (as much as doubling the polyphony that can be achieved on them). An additional processor option has thus been added to Hauptwerk's installer to install a new executable specifically optimised for the Pentium III and Athlon XP. This change has have no effect on other types of processor.


BUG HW2-000068: If a MIDI device driver was broken and could be queried, it could prevent Hauptwerk from opening.

If one of the MIDI device drivers for a MIDI device that is or was installed on the computer was broken, and Hauptwerk was unable to query its name from the operating system, Hauptwerk raised an error on initialisation, preventing the program from being opened. Since it was possible that the device was not needed anyway for use with Hauptwerk, such a device is now simply labelled as invalid, rather than a blocking error being raised.


BUG HW2-000069: The fields on the Routing tab of the 'General settings | Audio outputs' screen were not always enabled and disabled correctly and the aux send look-ups sometimes misbehaved.

If the output type was changed on the Routing tab of the 'General settings | Audio outputs' screen, some of the fields on that tab correctly became enabled or disabled. However, if the selection in the left-hand browse list was changed, the status of those fields was not updated. Also the aux send fields sometimes allowed incorrect (primary) audio outputs to be selected, with their look-ups not always being updated properly if audio outputs were inserted or deleted without clicking OK.


ENHANCEMENT HW2-000078: Processor type of build logged and shown on Help | About Hauptwerk screen.

The processor type chosen during Hauptwerk's installation is now recorded in the log file for diagnostic purpose, and also displayed on the Help | About Hauptwerk screen.


ENHANCEMENT HW2-000079: Processor type installation option can be changed without completely de-installing.

Since it is currently sometimes the case that 64-bit driver issues make it necessary to use the 32-bit build of Hauptwerk with certain audio and MIDI hardware, the processor selection (build type) can now be changed by simply re-running the installer, without having to de-install Hauptwerk completely first, thus preventing any settings being lost.



Changes in version 2.01

Version 2.01 includes only bug-fixes and work-arounds for problems found with version 2.00. The following are included:


BUG HW2-000006: [Sample set developers only] Windows Notepad could corrupt Hauptwerk XML files, which crashed Hauptwerk.

If Windows Notepad is used to edit XML files, it can write two-byte 'byte order marker (BOM) codes' to the start of the files, which strictly renders them invalid as XML files. Although not themselves a bug in Hauptwerk, such invalid codes could cause Hauptwerk to crash, so Hauptwerk has been changed simply to ignore such codes.


BUG HW2-000010: Component installer packages needed to be copied to hard-drive for installation.

In version 2.00 the component installer would abort incorrectly with error code 1161 (no read privileges) if installing a component package (e.g. sample set) from non-writeable media, such as CD or DVD. The work-around was to copy the files to a hard-drive prior to installing them.


BUG HW2-000011: [Documentation] Incorrect link in user guide.

In version 1.00 of the user guide, on the 'MIDI Implementation' page, the 'MIDI organ consoles section' link on the 5th line pointed to the wrong page.


BUG HW2-000013: [Sample set developers only] first column in diagnostic log files had no comma.

Diagnostic logging is possible for various internal virtual organ objects to aid sample set developers. The first column in these log files should be terminated with a comma, but was not.


BUG HW2-000015: Original organ tuning option only worked when sample set loaded with 'Organ | Load organ, adjusting rank audio output routing'.

If a sample set has been loaded two or more times consecutively using the 'Organ | Load organ' or stand-by/recent options, its samples are read from a special fast sample cache rather than the original files. In such cases the 'Temperament | Original organ tuning' option could cause no audio output or a crash. The work-around was always to load a sample set with 'Organ | Load organ, adjusting rank audio output routing' if the original organ tuning option was to be used.


BUG HW2-000016: Could not insert/update with 'General settings | Audio output groups' screen.

Clicking OK on the 'General settings | Audio output groups' screen gave error 0813.


BUG HW2-000018: If an organ was left active for a long period of time, the audio may crash (usually only with DirectSound drivers).

In such circumstances the audio output could become silent or make a buzzing noise, and Hauptwerk would not close or deactivate properly. The problem was extremely unlikely to occur with ASIO drivers.


BUG HW2-000019: Shutting the computer down without first closing Hauptwerk could prevent settings changes being saved.

If the computer was shut down from the Windows Start menu or by pressing the computer's power-off button, Hauptwerk may not have closed cleanly, and any changes to its settings may not have been be saved. This problem did not affect the 'File | Shut computer down' or 'File | Re-start computer' menu items in Hauptwerk, which shut Hauptwerk down correctly before shutting the computer down. The work-arounds were to ensure that you used one of these options, or quit Hauptwerk before shutting the computer down.


BUG HW2-000020: [Sample set developers only] Samples larger than about 8 MB in 32-bit resolution could crash Hauptwerk.

If a sample was loaded in 32-bit resolution, and its size exceeded 8 MB after conversion to that resolution, then Hauptwerk could crash. 8 MB equates to a stereo 32-bit sample at 48 kHz of about 21 seconds in length, hence samples should not exceed that length. This is an intentional limit, and is only listed as a bug because Hauptwerk crashed in such circumstances, rather than reporting the error properly.


ENHANCEMENT HW2-000032: Allow St. Anne's organ sample set to be used with Creative Audigy ASIO driver.

The sample rate of the Creative Audigy ASIO driver is fixed at 48 kHz. Since the St. Anne's, Moseley organ sample set is recorded at 44.1 kHz, the main St. Anne's organ definition file cannot be used with the Audigy ASIO driver because it requires 44.1 kHz output. As a work-around, we have created a special version of the St. Anne's organ definition file which produces audio output at 48 kHz for compatibility with drivers whose sample rates are locked at 48 kHz, such as the Creative Audigy ASIO driver. Please note that audio quality is not increased as a result, since the samples used remain at 44.1 kHz, thus this special organ definition file should only be used with audio interfaces with sample rates locked at 48 kHz.


BUG HW2-000033: [Sample set developers only] tuning scheme deviation in definition file should always allow zero.

When creating a sample set, the organ definition file should allow zero to be specified for the Pipe_SoundEngine01.Pitch_Tempered_BaseTuningDeviation if the Pitch_Tempered_BaseTuningSchemeCode is an increment type.


BUG HW2-000035: [Documentation] Incorrect reference to organ ID range in CODM User Guide.

In version 1.00 of the Custom Organ Design Module User's Guide, page 13, fourth paragraph the range should read 800000 to 899999.


BUG HW2-000039: Occassionally hung during deactivation or when closing Hauptwerk.

We found a circumstance which could cause Hauptwerk to hang occassionally during deactivation of the audio system, such as when closing the program with a sample set loaded. Because the settings are saved on exit, this could prevent changes to the settings being saved.


BUG HW2-000040: Computer keyboard key codes greater than 255 could not be used for switch (MIDI) inputs.

The 'General settings | Switch (MIDI) inputs' screen allowed maximum values of 255 to be entered for the engaging and disengaging event numbers for 'Computer keyboard key pressed/released' event types. Special keys (function keys, etc.) have higher key codes and so the limit needed to be raised accordingly.


BUG HW2-000041: [Documentation] Computer keyboard key codes for switch (MIDI) inputs were not listed in the user guide.

Key codes needed to be listed in the user guide for 'Computer keyboard key pressed/released' event types for the 'General settings | Switch (MIDI) inputs' screen.



Changes in version 2.00

Changes between Hauptwerk version 1 and version 2 are not listed in this release notice, since they are so extensive. Hauptwerk version 2 is considered to be a completely new product which supersedes version 1. Please consult the list of features on the Crumhorn Labs website for information about new features in version 2.