Hive of activity

It has been several months now since I wrote in my blog. For that I'm sorry. Why I'm sorry I've no idea as I'm pretty certain that I'm the only person out of 6,500,000,000 people on the planet who actually reads this. Ah, already I've digressed!

Anyway, I'm off work poorly bad (AWWWW). I've got Impetigo which is pretty minging but as I work in education and it is very infectious (the impetigo - not the education) I've been told to stay at home. It's the best illness in the world. You feel spotty and scabby and have to watch that you don't pick bits off yourself but you feel fine and are able to tackle some of the jobs you've been meaning to do for ages so that's a result then!

On the right, you can see the results of what I've been up to thus far this week. Yes, there's some extremely oversized key cheeks there, you're right. How high they look. Don't worry, I've not got an elastic tape-measure. I was playing.

The hawk-eyed readers amongst you will spot what looks like a different MIDI keyboard from the ones I've been using until now. It's absolutely right. I decided the other day that I wanted them all to match, to have no cracks in them and for them to actually have tidy wiring (Ahem) so I bit the bullet and bought four keyboards from Thomann, a German company that I can't recommend enough. They're the best company in the world. Fantastic quality, service, prices, the lot. I got four brand new midi keyboards, including delivery from Germany to the UK (3 days) for £236.00. Bargain or what? Anyway, I ripped them all to pieces so I could just have the keyboard and the midi bits rather than the bells and whistles and the little oompa rhythm section. Now, what you see above is the result of one of the recently gutted keyboards with a very rough-and-ready mock up of what the keyboard setup will look like. Impressive, I agree.

I looked all over to ensure the depth of the manuals would be right. Too deep and it would be too high (as in the picture) and too shallow and there'd not be enough space to get the keyboards in correctly thus forcing me to move each keyboard further back to accommodate. I'd end up stretching further than I need to if I did that. I measured my own (keyboards... dirty buggers), measured one or two other instruments I know and came to the conclusion that the correct height for a 'cheek' is 2.5" or 5cm whichever you prefer. With that in mind, I marked up the oak lengths I'd bought. Once that was done I decided that I wanted to have the cheeks thicker than they currently looked. They were only 1" thick which made them look a bit cheap so I doubled up each edge which made them look MUCH meatier. I'm glad I did that. As you can see to the left the cheeks do look much more butch now they're twice as thick.

You'll have seen lots of pencil marks and a pretty little drawing on the side of the cheek too. Well' I didn't just want a plain edge like most organs have, I like a bit of show. I looked around on the internet to find a design I liked. That took a LONG time as strangely, people don't seem to put close-up shots of the corners of their pipe organ keyboards on the 'web for the world to peruse. Eventually, I found a design that I like. If you look closely above the top bow outwards, there's a tiny step. That is to echo the top of the key so that the key can sit just a couple of millimetres below it and run parallel. How posh, eh?

The design looks a bit fiddly and to be honest it's dead easy. You've just got to be brave enough to trust your eye for detail. I actually got a bit of cardboard, a £2 coin and a £1 coin. I put them both on the card and drew round the £2 above the £1 coin and just followed the line around and ended up with that shape. Here, here's a picture that I hope will help. Also the template is 2.5" high... remember? Thought you did.

So, now I've got my cheeks and, as you can see from the money shot (ho, ho, oo, er) above, there's a step cut out of the bottom. There is but that's only on the inside one. The outside one goes along the entire bottom too (the save level as the foot at the front of the template). The reason is so that the keyboard can slide in on the little MDF base I've made but not told you about so that you'll not see it at all from the front. Clever, eh?

As I don't trust my freehand precision cutting with a jigsaw that's slightly less accurate than a blind man wielding an axe hoping to take the top off his boiled quail's egg, I decided that I'd best get a coping saw. After thinking further on the idea I opted for a scroll saw. I ordered one off eBay which cost me about £75 inc. P&P which I was very pleased with. I'll use it a lot as I'm planning on doing several fretwork projects in the future. Yes, indeed my grandmother is going be be receiving the world's worst attempt at a bit of fretwork on a manky panel that you hang on the wall for her Christmas present and she's going to like it too... or else!

Tomorrow's plan, therefore, is, presuming the saw arrives, to cut out the inside (stepped) cheeks, screw them to the outside cheeks and then cut the detailing for the ends on the scroll saw. Ideally, I'll be able to at least knock up the four keycheeks with maybe one keyboard attached. If I can I'll put up a piccy or two of the setup. I'm determined to get that part finished by the end of next week so I can transplant the new keyboard setup into the bedroom and demote the four keyboards I have been using to the garage in anticipation of a quick journey to eBayland... or maybe two of them can go to work in my office to practice with. We'll see. The former I'd guess. My boss has already told me that he doesn't like my harpsichord that I took in. Damnitt!

It all happens together

The last time I checked in I was talking about the computer being ordered. It arrived! Hurrah! Very stylish piece of kit... until... It kept switching itself off and rebooting time and time again. I wasn't fussy on sending it back as we'd go through the 'did you do this? Did you try that? Can you wrap it up and put it by for our delivery man to turn up somewhere between now and 2014? You know the gist. Anyway, I thought that it couldn't be too much of a problem so I did lots of research and came up with a faulty ram stick. I contacted the guy who supplied it, he agreed wholeheartedly. I took each one out in turn and all of a sudden it was working 'champion' once one stick in particular had been removed. I've just got to pop it into the post and he'll send me a replacement. Dead easy. Then... Martin went out for a day mooching about in Carlisle with his mate, Steve. When Mart came back, he mentioned something about a sound system that Steve was wanting to put onto Ebay. Of course, I've been sort of looking for something now I know what outputs the computer has. I gave him a ring and to my HUGE joy, it was exactly the system I'd been coveting but not wanting to pay full price for or buy off the internet. He did me a really good deal. Steve being Steve, I knew that they'd be in the same condition as he got them so I had no worries whatsoever about condition. Brill, I've got the Bose Acoustimass 5 series iii. Wonderful. Now, I'll have to get an amp to run it through. Researched again. They're expensive. Hmm, not this month. You know what I'm like. I thought 'well, you could be dead next month' so out to Peter Tyson's (a local electrical/audio/visual company). I got what I wanted with best part of £100 knocked off. Still cost me £200 mind so don't think it was bargain of the century. This evening I've been faffing around AGAIN. Wiring up here, wiring up there, moving this here to there and back again trying to get it all to fit. It looks pretty hysterical at present as there's a lot going on but it sounds absolutely fantastic. My next project is getting a video up on this blog of me playing. If you're really lucky I'll even take my gloves off!

Another big day

Yes, I know, ages since I was last in but in fairness, it has been a bit of a busy time. So, the other day I decided that there must be a way where I can have the organ set up in the bedroom AND have room for the bed settee to be open at the same time. I've got sick of hauling it in and out of the house (as Martin said I would). A lot of jiggling, juggling, mingling and cajoling got it sorted out and now, I've got to say, that it's great. Lots of floor space and it's nowhere near as dominant as it once was. I've found myself a bit of spare money (at last) and today I ordered a computer that'll be exclusively for the organ. It's perfect as it's simply memory and processor. Not a great deal more to it than that really. I'm not going to bore you with the spec' but the gist of it is... 16GB memory 2TB hard drive Lots of high end stuff that come for a low end price. I've been looking at this for ages so am very happy with the purchase. I just can't wait for it to get delivered now! I'm very pleased that it has lots of audio output capabilities as the next thing for me to try to get sorted is the sound system... And on it goes again!

Nearer and nearer

It's the beginning of the New Year. All of the celebrations are over. The recycling bin is full of empties. I think the bin men will develop hernias just carrying our bottles let alone the chocolate wrappers. The decorations came down this morning as did the tree. The living room is looking particularly bare... and unusually clean!

Why am I talking about the beginning of the new year? Well, it means that the anticipated arrival of the Hauptwerk software is a little closer on the horizon. I'm very keen to see what you get and all that jazz. More's the point, I'm keen to receive the upgrade sometime soon. I'm very worried (well, no, not worried at all but interested) that there's no reverb. I like a bit of reverb. It sounds so unrealistic when you're playing it in the back bedroom without reverb. I know you can get 'dry' samples or 'wet' samples or whatever but I'll not be buying a new organ for the software for a little while as yet so it'll be good to have that to play with... Once the hand's a bit better at the end of Jan.

Not a lot to report, really. As you read!

keyboards galore

So, after the last update I was thrilled to announce that I'd got the swell pedals to work as they should. I was a very happy bunny. I had a couple of days worth of playing the instrument which was marvellous. I'm saying lots of nice things about it and building it up aren't I? I bet you're expecting me to bring it crashing down with a comment about it all going pear-shaped after blowing up or something. Well, sorry to disappoint but it was still fine.

We had a couple of good friends over for dinner a couple of nights ago. As these friends are such good company (that is, they like to get plastered too) I dismantled the organ to take it out of the bedroom (that's what the room is in all honesty) so I could pull out the sofa bed in case they ended up with too much booze in their systems that they'd need to stay over... they did!

Oh, already I miss it. The poor little thing comes apart in several very large pieces. Two lots of two manuals, two touchscreen monitors, the desk the bench and the pedalboard. Not really difficult to dismantle but when you're still trying to get your hand strengthened after a carpal tunnel operation it's not quite so easy. I managed to get pretty much all of it out to the garage and it is now strewn across the grand piano in there.

There is some VERY exciting news about the organ though... I've actually bought the Hauptwerk software at last. HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hauptwerk are doing a very good special offer over the Christmas period which is a bit late for any of you to benefit from now. The version 3.3 has been reduced by about 20% with a free upgrade to the version 4.0 which is due out in a month or so. God knows how long it'll take for the product to arrive as it is winging its way from Canada I believe. I'm also certain that I'll be stung by the VAT increase from 17.5% to 20% in the next few days. We've got to get the national debt down somehow I suppose... those of us who've still got jobs that is! C'est la vie. I think that in total it'll cost me £420 or somewhere in that region. I'm not even putting that money into the British economy anyway if it's coming from Canada... Hmm, didn't think of that!

The organ will have to stay in the garage for a little while now which is really killing me. I start to build up the strength in my hand and start playing a bit more confidently with not a lot of trouble, I buy the software I've been coveting for months and then get an appointment for my second operation for the 4th January. That means at least the beginning of February before I can consider playing again. BUGGER! What irony is that for you?

I was rooting around on Ebay again tonight. I've seen another couple of keyboards that would be great to convert. We'll see... I've already got 6 now. Did I mention the wooden ones I bought a few months ago? They're very nice although I might have to re-list them. They cost me £90 which was a good price but it'll cost me about £500 for the necessary hardware to convert them. I might let them sit in the garage for a few months to see if anything comes up. Ideally they'll be part of the main organ for the home instrument. I'd rather add them and take the keyboards off the top off the current stack of four as the colour doesn't match (as shown on the picture in the first posting).

I'm still not happy with the organ though. The thumb pistons don't work at present. They're all wired up correctly; that I know as I did have them working a while ago but then had to dismantle it and then forgot how I'd configured it when I put it back together!

Do you know what thumb pistons are? Well, here, have a butcher's;-

Now you know what they look like I'd best explain what they do and where they are. To be honest,they're simply pre-programmed combinations. The easiest way to explain it is to compare it to your car radio. You have your favourite stations tuned in already so that you just push a button and there they are. These do exactly the same job - except you don't get 'The Archers' if you press number 4! They pull combinations of different stops out all at once instead of having to pull them out individually. The pistons are easily reached as they're positioned directly beneath the keys on each keyboard. If you closely look on the picture you'll see the black notes of the keyboard below and the underside of the keys above.

That's it for now. You know when you're sure there's something you've forgotten to say? Why am I getting that feeling very strongly at present?

Oh, and one other thing... While I've been writing this the clock has ticked past midnight. That means that we're into the very last day of 2010. I'm sure that my next post will be in 2011 so with that in mind HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope it's a good 'un.

Christmas Presents

So, 'twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring... Except Stuart cheering 'cos he finally got the swell pedals to work! Yes, at last the big day arrived.

True, the big day of everything working well did arrive about 4 days ago but I've been so distracted by making sure it wasn't just a fluke and that it was totally reliable when it came to powering up, unplugging, plugging, powering down and the like that I didn't want to tempt fate by writing about it on here only to find it didn't work anymore!

The clocks have just started to strike midnight which does indeed mean that it is officially Christmas Day 2010. Merry Christmas everyone. I really do hope you didn't spend too much on my gift.

I'll post further photos sometime soon. Who knows, I might even manage to upload a sound file or even more excitingly a VIDEO! I'll be just like Norma Desmond "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. De Mille!

S

POTS Potential

Well, further developments - although only ickle ones.

Swell/crescendo pedals. That's what we're talking about now. Bet you're excited aren't you?

What is a swell pedal. It's dead easy, it's a volume pedal. Nowt more to it than that really. The crescendo pedal, however is a little more complicated. That adds more stops the more you push it forward. So if it's right back, it's very soft but if you push it all the way forward you get 'full organ'. It's basically a quick way of pulling out all of the stops. The pedals just look like sewing machine pedals. There are pictures further down on the original posting.

Now you know all about that I can explain what I'm on about. Because the pedals are part of a virtual instrument they also need to have midi connections. Sent off to Ron Coates to do the complex stuff, they arrived looking all lovely. That's where it all started to go downhill! I've been trying to configure them to the organ setup I've got and have managed to get nowhere. I do know that they're sending the signal but it isn't being recognised by the software. Oh well, keep trying. I'll check back in with you once it is done shall I?

If I don't get chance to say it before, 'Happy Christmas for 2010!'