RE: Seeking recommendations: Which Organ should I buy for Hauptwerk?
pauloldmac wrote:
Beginner-level question, sorry!
Background: I have built a virtual organ with 3 x 6-key manuals, 25-note pedalboard (from an old Lowrey organ), two expression/crescendo pedals and a Macbook running Hauptwerk 5.
Upgrade Plans: I might add another expression pedal, and might extend the pedalboard to 32 notes.
Questions:
1. To take full advantage of my setup, and to produce wither a concert organ or cathedral organ sound, ... which organ and sample set would you recommend please?
2. If I replace the macbook running it: how much RAM is enough, and do I need an SSD drive or is a Fusion drive enough.
Many thanks!
Your two questions are closely related: You only know how much RAM you need when you have chosen your sample set(s). To start you should have no less then 32 GB since most of the newer sets are not easily loadable in 16 GB. I would recommend a SSD for the organ cache, but if a you are a patient person and load only small organs you might manage without one, as I did in the old days ;-)
So back to your first question: All depends on peronsonal taste and budget. I like the English cathedral organs like LA Hereford or AA Petersborough, but I never bought them because I cannot play them like the fabulous uploaders here on CCH. Same goes for the big French organs like SP Caen. So I stick to nice, cheap/even free organs like AVO Aeolian Skinner or PG Friesach or Prospectum Weissenau and many more of them. Therefore you should just listen to the various uploads here and make up your mind yourself - and believe me: You will end up with more than one wonderful organ on your PC sooner or later anyway ;-)