Reaper

Hauptwerk AU/VST Plug-in Tutorial

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Tutorial: recording, playing back and editing live solo performances with a MIDI sequencer dedicated to Hauptwerk: Reaper on Mac OS X or Windows

This tutorial features Cockos' Reaper version 4.76. In this tutorial MIDI is routed between Hauptwerk and Reaper via the Hauptwerk VST Link, since Reaper fully supports MIDI sys-ex via VST.

The tutorial covers how you can set up Hauptwerk with a MIDI sequencer specifically for recording and playing live solo organ performances in a similar way to Hauptwerk’s built-in MIDI recorder/player, and using the same special, fixed, combination set-independent and hardware-independent MIDI implementation, for the reasons covered in the 'Recording and playing back live solo performances: the built-in MIDI recorder/player and its fixed MIDI implementation' section in the Hauptwerk user guide. This type of configuration, and the associated fixed MIDI implementation, are intended to be appropriate specifically for solo organists playing live and then replaying and editing their performances. To be able to achieve this you need to configure your MIDI sequencer in a particular, and non-conventional, way (covered below), which wouldn’t normally be appropriate for other uses.

In particular, this type of configuration would not normally be appropriate if:

the MIDI sequencer needs to control multiple virtual instruments simultaneously, as in a conventional recording studio, or:

MIDI parts need to be recorded or entered by hand directly within the MIDI sequencer (for example, when composing pieces), or:

the MIDI sequencer is sometimes used with virtual instruments other than Hauptwerk (since it probably wouldn’t then be convenient to reconfigure it before and after using Hauptwerk each time).

In any of those situations, we recommend not configuring Hauptwerk and the MIDI sequencer in the way covered in this tutorial, but instead configuring them in the (more conventional) way covered in the applicable one of the two sections in the user guide: 'Composing pieces off-line from a MIDI sequencer configured conventionally' or 'Composing pieces off-line from MIDI notation software'.

Part 1: Setting up Hauptwerk and Reaper

Follow the instructions from part 1 ' Setting up Hauptwerk and Reaper ' of the previous Reaper (live reverb) tutorial, if you haven't already done so.

Part 2: Creating a Reaper template project

Follow the instructions from part 2 ' Creating a Reaper template project' from the previous Reaper (live reverb) tutorial, if you haven't already done so.

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Part 3: Creating a Reaper test project

Select 'File | Project templates | HauptwerkReaperTemplateProject '(or whatever you named your template) in Reaper:

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Go to the 'File | Project settings … | Project Settings' screen tab. Tick 'Project sample rate' and set the sample rate setting to the same as that of the sample set (virtual organ) you will be using for this project (usually 48000 Hz or 44100 Hz; for St. Anne's you should select 44100 Hz):

Click OK.

Make sure Hauptwerk is running with the organ you want to use loaded (for example St. Anne's).

Turn on some stops and click some keys. You should hear the pipe sound through Reaper and see the level meters move in Reaper's tracks/mixer:

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Make sure that the circular red button is lit on the first 'Hauptwerk VST Link ...' track in Reaper. Click on it to turn it on it isn't. This ensures that MIDI will be recorded.

Make sure that the circular red button is not lit on the 'HW 01/02', ..., 'HW 31/32' tracks (unless you also want to record the audio output from Hauptwerk into Reaper, along with any reverb effects you might want to apply in Reaper). This ensures that audio will not be recorded for those tracks:

Press a 'reset all' piston/button in Hauptwerk (for example, on the 'Audio, MIDI and Performance' large control panel), so that the MIDI recording will start from an all-off registration/state.

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Click on the circular red record button on Reaper's transport bar (in the middle of the screen, above the mixer strips):

Click/play some keys or play the St. Anne's default demo MIDI file.

Press the stop button on Reaper's transport bar. Reaper will ask you whether to save the recording. Click 'Save All':

Press the 'rewind to start' button on Reaper's transport bar.

Reset Hauptwerk again, so that the piece will play back from an all-off registration/state.

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Press the play button on Reaper's transport bar. The actions you recorded should play back exactly as you recorded them: