What happened to the old website? www.h-pi.com ?
H-Pi Instruments began in 2006 under the domain name h-pi.com. In April 2015, I let my ownership of that domain expire, and changed the domain for H-Pi Instruments to hpi.zentral.zone, making a completely new website for the business. You may notice that hpi is a subdomain of the parent domain zentral.zone. At zentral.zone you will find links to all my online endeavors. As the name suggests, this is my way of collecting the various strands of my work together in one place, to organize them under a common parent domain. This is an easier and more flexible way for me to work.
What is this transaction fee added at checkout?
Since its opening in 2006, H-Pi Instruments has accepted payments primarily through PayPal. PayPal charges fees for every transaction. They also charge fees for currency exchange. They charge additional so-called "cross-border" fees for international transactions. As a one-person business operating in Germany as "Einzelunternehmen" (similar to "Sole Proprietor" in the US) I pass these fees on to you. These fees fluctuate slightly from time to time, and I update them to try to maintain a fair rate for everyone. The fees are not the same for everyone. The final amount depends on your location, whether your country is a member of the EU, and whether your country uses the Euro or not. The fee used to be listed as a tax, with an explanation here that it was not a tax but a fee. However, German tax authorities insisted that the fee be listed as a fee and not a tax. I agree with them, so as of 28 March 2019, the fee is listed on the invoice as a separate item called "PayPal Fee".
Can I give you my non-German EU member state VAT-ID to place my order tax-free?
Yes, if you live in an EU member state other than Germany and have a VAT-ID in that state, then you can place a tax-free order by sending an official document proving current ownership of your VAT-ID. But before asking to do this, please make sure you understand the following.
The Point-Of-Sale system used for this website employs automated transaction creation, software license creation, stock updating and customer email deployment. When you order normally, you get the results of your purchase almost immediately, and all the necessary information is correctly created and put in its proper place, without having to handle the transaction manually.
There is currently no way to automate tax-free invoicing. When you request to place a tax-free order, the whole process has to be handled manually, like this:
H-Pi Instruments is a one-person business, and unfortunately asking to place a tax-free order instead of paying normally is the same as asking me to personally do a lot of extra work for you. Therefore, I add a handling fee to the invoice (see also bank transfers and special invoices). Please be advised that it is not always possible to complete step 2 above (follow the link to read about why this is), and in that case a tax-free order simply cannot take place.
Can I pay you by Bank Transfer?
Yes, but only for large orders. For small orders, PayPal's fees are high but bearable considering the added value provided (see below). For large orders, PayPal's fees become unreasonably large, and bank transfers make more sense. But before requesting to pay by bank transfer, please be sure that you understand the following.
For many reasons, including speed, accuracy, security, liability, and ease of use, the Point-Of-Sale system used for this website expects payments to arrive only in the form of PayPal notifications. When a notice of payment is received from PayPal, an automatic process is set into motion, including transaction creation, software license creation, stock updating and customer email deployment. This means that when you pay, you get the results of your purchase almost immediately, and all the necessary information is correctly created and put in its proper place, without having to handle the transaction manually.
H-Pi Instruments is a one-person business. Considering the above information, it must be understood that asking to pay by bank transfer instead of using PayPal is the same as asking me to personally do a lot of extra work for you. For example, a pro-forma invoice must be made, address and telephone contact verified, transfer made and verified, required licences created and stored in the database, license emails written and sent, stock and transaction data in the database — all manually. Therefore, I add a handling fee to any payment which is made by bank transfer.
From 2006 to 2016, H-Pi Instruments operated out of the US. Since October 2016, business is done from Germany. Sending a bank transfer within Germany is usually free, but not always. Sending within the EU may be free, but often it is not. Paying in any currency other than Euros requires currency conversion fees. It is the responsibility of the sender (you) to pay all fees associated with the transfer, and to make certain that the correct amount arrives in Euros.
At some point in the future I may update the user account and checkout system to simplify the process of paying by bank transfer, but for now it must all be done manually. If you understand all of this and accept the terms, then the process of paying by bank transfer can be started by sending an email containing the following information:
Can you provide another PDF download of the bill for my order please?
The PDF copy of your bill can only be downloaded once and it is deleted from the server after you download it, but yes I can issue a request for the system to produce another downloadable copy for you. This cannot be done for purchases made before mid April 2019, because the billing system did not issue PDF invoices before this date (PayPal invoices were considered sufficient).
Can you make a special invoice for me?
Yes, but please don't ask for this unless it is absolutely necessary, and you must promise to actually pay the bill. You may not think that someone would ask me to make a special invoice for them, and then simply not pay it, but people tend to do exactly that. Since I prefer not to have my time completely wasted, I will ask you in advance to promise to pay the bill, though this may seem absurd. I charge a fee for my time, which includes making the invoice and handling the rest of the order manually (see above).
I can't register my software and it doesn't work anymore. Can you help?
Sorry for the inconvenience. Please first read What happened to the old website? above. When the website domain changed, I also developed a completely new software registration system to improve security and to automate the process of issuing licenses. (Previously I had issued all software licenses manually which is extremely tedious.) The old software tries to connect to the old website which now doesn't exist; this is why you can't authorize or deauthorize your old software. Everyone who owns an old manually issued software license needs to open an account at the new website and update that old license. I sent out an email to everyone on the H-Pi Instruments customer list explaining everything back in April 2015, but apparently a lot (maybe most) of those emails went straight to the spam box.
Here is all you need to do:
I bought your software at the Mac App Store. Can you change it over to a license I can see in my account here?
Sorry, but no. When you buy a license through the Mac App Store, everything is handled by Apple and I have no record of your purchase. For your licenses to appear in your account here, you need to buy the license here.
After I buy a software license, how many times can I install it?
At least twice. Some licenses allow 3 or more installs.
Is it possible to deactivate the software from a computer?
Yes, with all the software you just use the menu item AppName > Deauthorize (Remove License).
I want to use the software on both a Mac and a Windows PC. Do I have to buy two licenses?
No, not if you buy the license from this website. If you bought a license from the Mac App Store, then you would have to buy a separate license here for Windows.
I bought a software license through your website, or I bought a device that includes a free software license. Does that include updates for the software, or will I have to pay for an update later?
Software updates are free for all license holders, and all licenses give you free updates for life.
I bought a hardware device that includes a free software license, but I already have a license for the software. Can you give me a license for a different software instead? Or can you refund me the difference for the price of the software license?
Sorry, but no on both counts. A free license included with a hardware item is for the stated software only. The license is also "free" as stated, so there is nothing to refund in the case that you don't need the license.
What's the difference between a software "update" and a software "upgrade"?
Updates happen all the time and are completely free. An app can be expected to get free updates for years to come. Upgrades happen only very rarely, if an app has to be completely rewritten, or if the authorising process for the app license is forced to change for some reason, then a small fee is charged for "upgrading" to the new version, since rewriting an existing app is a lot of work, and in some cases in fact there is no possible way to "update" the old version to the new one.
On Mac, Help > Documentation > Open in a Window started crashing all of a sudden.
It's the fault of Adobe Reader internet plugins. Go to /Library/Internet Plug-Ins and delete the following files which cause this crash (they are not needed):
I upgraded my Mac OS to Catalina, and now I get a message that your software can't be installed and needs to be updated, and something about malicious software. Can you help?
Please update to the latest version of the software. All current versions are notarised by Apple, so if that warning appears it means you are using an older version and you need to update.
What's the difference between CSE and UTE?
CSE began in 2006 and is increasingly more difficult to maintain. UTE is from 2018 and receives the most development attention. If you are trying to decide between them, get UTE.
Can I transfer my software license to someone else?
Yes, for a fee, when you follow these steps:
Then I update the license information manually in the database. Your license will no longer work, and the recipient gets a new license. Without your license you are no longer allowed to use the software. I trust you not to revert to a stored image on your system to try to circumvent that.
Why do I have to offer you money for a feature request?
Developing software for H-Pi Instruments is very time consuming work. I enjoy it, but nobody is paying me for developing the software. After making an application, I earn only a very small income over a long period of time by selling licenses for the software. Of course I do not charge for bug-fix updates. I also often update software with new features at no cost to anyone. However, you may have a specific feature in mind, and in that case you should tell me about it.
Each software has a menu item Request a Feature which opens a window in which you are to describe the feature and make an offer to pay me something for adding it. The idea is not to put you in an awkward position, but rather to negotiate a fair price for the functionality you want, based on your needs and what the feature is worth to you.
You should estimate the amount you are willing to pay for the feature by asking yourself the simple question: "What is this feature worth to me?". If it is worth less than 20€ to you, I am not likely to add it unless it is trivial, because issung a software update requires several hours of work regardless of what is being updated. The main thing is that you are determining the value of the feature, for yourself and your individual needs. Please do not try to estimate an offer based on any of these things:
I hope these guidelines will help. For features that require a lot of work, it would make sense to pool resources with other users of the software so that one person is not burdened with the whole cost.
Are any of your products supporting MIDI 2.0?
This has been in the news recently (Jan.2020), but no specification has been released. That means there is no public information about how to implement MIDI 2.0 yet; there are only some general descriptions. We can't do anything with it until exact technical information is available. I say "we" because we are 2 people designing the products (I contract JDP as my engineer). Neither of us can afford to be a member of the MMA, so we don't have inside information on MIDI 2.0 What we do know is that the advanced features of MIDI 2.0 appear to work in a totally different way from MIDI 1.0 (though it is claimed that MIDI 2.0 is backward-compatible), the hardware requirements will be completely different, meaning a device designed for 1.0 cannot be upgraded to 2.0 through firmware, it will have to be a completely different hardware design. We would like to be more "cutting-edge" here, but in this case we have to let the big companies do the development work and wait for an official specification to be released. Since development is very expensive and the spec will change during that phase, it is actually better for us to leave it to those with deep pockets anyway. After they have gone through that process with their prototypes and the official spec is finally decided and released, we will work with that defined standard. I'll be sure to make an announcement when that happens.
UPDATE August 2020: The "Core MIDI 2.0 Spec" has been made available for download by the MIDI Association. The information is still incomplete, but we are of course reviewing the documents as they become available.
Will you make more of these?
Yes, a small quantity is prepared for sale periodically. To find out when they are available, please subscribe to the newsletter.
Why can't you sell these all the time?
Preparing synths for sale, handling orders, and shipping units is very time consuming and stressful work, and the synths sell very quickly. After going through this process for hundreds of units at a time, it was decided for reasons of sanity to produce the synths periodically only in small quanities.
Why don't you sell the synths through music stores?
We have no desire to deal with distributors.
For more information, see the Tonal Plexus webpage.
When will you start making the Tonal Plexus again?
A donation has been received to make a new Tonal Plexus prototype, scheduled for
Spring 2020 [2021 depending on what happens with the pandemic].
If and when that will develop into a product available to the general public remains to be seen.
Please be patient. With great regret, I have to inform everyone who was waiting on the
new Tonal Plexus prototype that the COVID-19 virus took the life of
Jordan Dimitrov Petkov, the engineer
with whom I collaborated over the past 20 years on the Tonal Plexus and all other H-Pi hardware (the 'π' in
Hπ stands for Petkov). Earlier in 2020, Jordan delivered all the PCBs needed to make the 5 octave
prototype. The project stalled for various reasons before his death in early November. I intend to complete
the prototype if possible, but there is currently no chance that this prototype can be duplicated or developed.
Jordan and I worked closely together on these projects and nobody else was involved. Please support his
family business MIDI Boutique, which his wife and
daughters continue to run without him.
I know you stopped making them, but could you make one for me please?
See above.
Can you help me find a used keyboard?
No, I don't deal in used keyboards.
How much does the Tonal Plexus cost?
Formerly I sold the keyboards for between $600 and $3000 USD. I do not know how much the keyboards might cost in the future.
Does the Tonal Plexus have the same span as a piano?
Previously I made the keyboards with between 2 and 6 octaves.
Can I use TBX2/2b to retune all my synths at once?
Generally speaking, no. TBX2/2b is not designed to be connected to more than one output destination, but there are some ways to do it.
If you want to layer the synths all with the same output, then yes it's possible if your synths all have MIDI THRU, or if you use a MIDI Repeater / THRU Box. Just connect TBX2/2b to the first synth, and connect THRU from that synth to the next one, and so on. Of course all the synths have to be compatible with, and set up the same way to respond properly to, output from TBX2/2b.
You can also layer two synths by connecting one of the synths to the USB-Host port of TBX2/2b and the other to the MIDI DIN OUT. TBX2/2b sends the same output data over both lines simultaneously, so in this case you don't need MIDI THRU between the synths.
If you mean sending different tunings to different synths, in general the answer is no, but if you're an advanced MIDI user it's possible with strict limitations using a MIDI Repeater / THRU Box. Only one of the synths can be expected to receive TBX2/2b POLY or MONO output and the other synths must be using MTS or USR sysex retuning, so you would have to have just the right gear to make it work. You also have to be very clever about handling MIDI channels.
For the general user working with the most common TBX2/2b use case (POLY and MONO presets) TBX2/2b is expected to be connected to one output synth (possibly the same device with LOCAL CONTROL OFF).
Can I connect multiple input controllers to TBX2?
TBX2 does allow the USB-Host input and the MIDI-DIN input to be used together as long as input data is not sent to both at the same time (if you do, you'll get very strange results). The correct way to connect more than one input controller is to use a MIDI Merger, so you can merge all of the data sent from the controllers before sending it to one input.
TBX2b has a 3-position switch on the bottom to select the MIDI input (USB-Host, USB-Interface, MIDI-DIN), so that the device does not listen on the ports which are not selected.
Can TBX2/2b retune my [insert name of your synthesizer here]?
A list of compatible synthesizers used to be maintained for TBX1, but in many cases it caused confusion for users. For TBX2b, please first check the compatibility page before buying.
Can TBX2/2b retune software synthesizers?
Yes, although it is designed to retune hardware synthesizers. Please see DAW / VST / AU / RTAS / Softsynth below.
What kind of tech support do you offer?
All tech support is free and handled via email. Various cases arise:
When you write for help, your email will be answered as soon as possible, on business days often the same day. Please do not try to contact me through Facebook with tech support questions. I probably won't even see your question there. Use email. Please note also that there is no dedicated tech-support personell. Your questions are answered by me, the owner, the person who does everything in this business. So I kindly ask that you please use all other available resources before contacting me. In other words, if the information can be found elsewhere, please find it there rather than asking me for it, because my time is limited. I take time to write clear documentation for everything I make and sell, so before asking questions, please be sure to have read through the documentation.
Deutschsprachige Kunden: Der Tech-Support kann auch gerne in deutscher Sprache erfolgen.
Can we have a quick video (or audio) chat?
Please see "What kind of tech support do you offer?" above. If email is really not enough, then a paid consultation may in some rare cases be arranged, but in almost all cases it simply isn't necessary, and I don't have time for it.
Is there a warranty on hardware?
All of our hardware is produced in small quantities by hand. In the rare case that you receive something defective, send an email and you will get individual attention. If you live in the European Union and your purchase was received within the EU, you have specific rights defined by the EU (see below). For customers in other locations we may offer extended warranties on hardware which you can optionally add to your order at point of sale.
Can I return hardware that I bought?
This is a very small niche business with no distributors, where all hardware is hand-made and sold directly to each customer, often via pre-order over a significant span of time. Please do not expect to purchase a unit and then return it as you might do with something bought from a retail distributor. Instead, please take time to carefully consider all purchases with the intent of owning the product. There are of course cases where a hardware return or exchange is necessary, for example if a unit arrives broken or is found at the outset to be defective. Such cases are handled on an individual basis. If you live in the European Union and your purchase was received within the EU, you have specific rights defined by the EU.
Where do I install .sf2 soundfont files?
On Mac OSX, the directory is: ~Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks
On Windows, there appears to be no standard directory, so you may put them wherever you like.
The software opens with a font installation error on my Mac. What do I do?
Please update the software to the latest version which fixes this problem, or install this font file manually.
Put the unzipped font ARIELL.ttf in this directory: Library/Fonts
Can I use your software (or TBX1/2/2b) to retune synths in my DAW?
Yes, but unless you have a plug-in synth in the DAW which already supports MTS microtuning or MPE*, in most cases it is not exactly easy to do this, and there is really no way to make it easier.
*MPE is a new part of the MIDI specification which standardises the algorithm used by H-Pi products for over a decade.
If the synth in your DAW can load a standard tuning file like .scl or .tun, then all you have to do is export the tuning file from UTE or CSE and load it into the synth.
If the synth in your DAW supports MPE, then the synth should be easily retuned by any H-Pi product. You can skip the next two paragraphs and start reading below at the number 1.
You might expect there to be a microtonal plug-in which would allow you to retune all your non-natively-microtonal synths, the way TBX1 or TBX2 can retune so many hardware synths. The problem with that idea is that it expects plug-in softsynths to behave like hardware synths, which in almost all cases they do not.
If a non-microtonal softsynth supports pitch bend with the pitch bend range set to +/- 1 semitone, then it CAN be microtuned using either UTE, CSE, or microsynth; however, the number of microtuned voices possible with the softsynth corresponds to the number of MIDI channels it supports. Most softsynths support only 1 MIDI channel, which means one instance of the synth will give you a MONOphonic microtuned result. Be careful with an input channel setting of ALL or OMNI for a softsynth, because this does NOT necessarily mean it is responding to 16 channels individually, but rather it can mean that it is simply ignoring the channel information, which will NOT result in correct tuning.
Some softsynths, like Apple's DLSMusicDevice or the Cubase default synthesizer, are General MIDI (GM) compatible, which means they do properly support 16 MIDI channels. These GM synths will give you up to 15 voices microtonal POLYphonic output. The reason this number is 15 and not 16 is that GM synths reserve channel 10 for percussion. An input setting of ALL or OMNI is correct for any GM synth. If the synth is not GM, receiving only on 1 channel to give only MONOphonic microtonal output, it is still possible to acheive polyphony, by setting up multiple instances of the sofsynth and routing MIDI input channels accordingly. The following three-step plan should help you get things working.
1. To use H-Pi software or device with a DAW, first you have to understand how to route MIDI IN and OUT of each software, because none of H-Pi Instruments software is a plug-in; they are (so far) all stand-alone applications. On Mac, H-Pi software provides virtual MIDI input and output ports for this purpose, but it is recommended to use Apple's IAC Bus ports instead, which are created using Apple's Audio-MIDI Setup utility, because these are more reliable. On Windows, you must install a third-party driver for virtual MIDI ports, such as LoopBe1 or MIDIYoke. These are free.
2. You must understand how to work with MIDI output channels according to the capabilities of your destination synth(s). Each MIDI port supplies 16 channels. Each of these channels will carry data to produce 1 microtuned note. If your receiving synth is GM, then you can route all channels to it for up to 15-voice POLYphonic output. If the synth responds only on 1 channel, it will be MONOphonic.
3. You must have a clear understanding of the MIDI signal path from beginning to end, and make sure you do not create an infinite loop, also known as a MIDI Feedback Loop, which happens when your input source and your output destination are the same. Data goes out, then comes back in, and repeats ad infinitum so that your software will immediately crash. A correct MIDI path is as follows:
(A) MIDI INPUT SOURCE ↠ (B) RETUNING APPLICATION OR DEVICE ↠ (C) MIDI OUTPUT DESTINATION
You must make certain that the output from (A) reaches the input of (B), and the output of (B) reaches the input of (C) handling the incoming MIDI channels properly at (C). You must also make sure that the output of (A) does NOT go directly to the input of (C). This can be a problem if (C) is set to listen on all incoming MIDI ports and channels. In every case, (B) will be the H-Pi software or device. (A) and (C) vary depending on how you are using your DAW and what you are trying to do. For example, you may want to record MIDI live from your keyboard controller into your DAW. In this case, (A) is your keyboard, and (C) is your softsynth(s). To make that work, uniquely connect your keyboard's MIDI output to the MIDI input of the H-Pi app, and then send output from the app to your DAW's MIDI input, with your softsynth's channels matching the channels you have selected in the H-Pi app.
Problems getting this to work normally fall into these categories:
These kinds of difficulties are generally non-issues when working with MIDI hardware, because MIDI hardware tends to adhere better to MIDI standards, inputs and outputs are physical so routing is easier to see and manage, and crashing is not an issue. So some of the problems in the above model can be minimised by using hardware instead of software. For example, using a hardware keyboard for (A) and a TBX2/2b for (B), you may still use your DAW for (C) and possibly your workflow will be easier to manage.
P.S. More recently, quite a few companies have released microtonal plugin tools for use in various DAWs, which would be the recommended way to work with microtunings there (in 2023, Ableton released their own microtuner plugin, for example). For these situations, UTE remains a useful tool for creating tunings.