Violin sound.

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In the U.K., we have always had telecoms infrastructure from originally the Post Office, then British Telecoms. Then all the others appeared and the compromise was that BT set up Openreach, who would do the infrastructure for everyone. Openreach run the ducts from telephone exchanges to the local boxes, and own the poles, that do the final wires to premises. For the past few years in towns, new build estates have underground entrance to homes in tubes.

the deal the the government did was to allow new companies to install the complete thing, so as the experiment went, the new company put their own ducts in. Every street had the pavement dug up and a nice purple tube buried, and these led to BT poles. Yes, they were allowed to run the fibres up the poles of the big firm who could not actually supply fibre, because their ducts were full! Worse, these pavements (sidewalks, I think in the US) are all sliced with a foot wide trench, slit with rotary cutters, then dug out. Not in straight lines, but randomly zig zagging down the road, because, having watched the man with the machine, they would drift one way under its own power, he would then kick it, and it would go the other way, and he’d kick it again. A huge mess, and because they were the only fibre option, the take up was good and they’d return to many areas multiple times to add more ducts. Now BT can offer fibre to the home, but in my road, those who wanted fibre have it already. What a cock up. We do get decent speeds now, and it’s reliable, but what a mess. Every single road in our big town is a total trip hazard.
 
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TalismanRich said:
Several years back, Google Fibre came into the city. They embedded the cable on the edge of the roadway in a few parts of town as a start. However, they were doing "microtrenching" which made something like a 6 inch deep x 2 inch wide trench. After they laid the cable, a asphalt/rubber sealant was put into the trench. All was well, until the sealant started to pop out of the trenches all over town. Big rubber ropes were being pulled up. That led to the next problem. Snow and rain went down the trench, froze and started to make instant potholes with the winter freeze.
t
After 2 years, Google pulled out of the city, and paid to have all the streets that were affected repaved. However, we still get little "cave-ins" along the edge of the road in spots. They went back and filled them with tar. We'll see if it holds up another winter.

So for now, we get all our cable and internet off a pole... as God intended! 😜
Click to expand...
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Hi,

I bet it cost Google a great deal of money TalismanRich not only to lay their cable then having to remove the cable and make good. We had Cityfibre down our local lane a few months ago causing chaos with lots of temporary traffic lights some of these four way meaning lots of frustration but as yet they haven't connected up.

Your choice Raymond; 5 ton or 25 ton new manhole cover; we've lived here for 36 years with I think a 5 ton cover in front of our bungalow on the pavement; years ago a large car parked directly on top cracking the cover across its center but not smashing it so it's held together until the skip lorry attacked it; if your cover is located where only cars are likely to drive over it then the 5 ton cover should be fine.

I'm starting to think all ISP's are giving customers a hard time if the customer wants to leave; it's been terrible trying to leave Virgin Media costing me days of stress.

Thanks rob for adding your story; everything in the UK is upside down and messed up; how can all the gas & electricity suppliers be cheaper than each other; we used to have the post office delivering mail and parcels now lots of companies deliver parcels; surely one big company can supply lowest prices? lunatics are now in charge of the asylum.

We've enjoyed basic Netflix for over a week supplied as part of our new BT bundle and not as yet paid a penny to BT; our new account is fully set up with BT and direct debit in place; BT will be here on Thursday to do the installation so it will be interesting because it's over 30 years ago NTL installed their cable; we're sorry to be leaving NTL/VM but it's impossible to contact VM by landline and there reliability has deteriorated over the last few years whilst they've become more expensive; I'll lose my NTL email address but can use my Gmail address it means spending time letting everyone know of the change. VM told me I'd lose my NTL email address.

Back to the plot; I've enjoyed two short violin practices during last week; and as the thread title is violin sound I'm now on topic again; I don't know if it's my imagination but the sound from my Yamaha YEV-104 coupled to my Yamaha amp seems to change; could it be studio temperature or the amp taking a bit of time to warm up because of short sessions; some days it sounds much better than others; I'm starting to notice such things. The studio temperature has been all over the place; it's even been too hot to spend time in the studio then other times I've popped in it's felt a bit chilly but because of my time constraints I've not put the heating on; my arms too often cause problems due to aching after days of heavy work in the gardens; the change in sound could be a combination of everything; whatever the sound poor of good it's always a pleasure to pick my violin up.

Winter will soon be upon us so I hope to get more studio time without aching arms.

I'm grounded today; my wife is very anxious awaiting two phone calls from the hospital the first from the neurologist hopefully with test results regarding her two MRI scans; CAT scan & x rays; the second regarding the medication she's taking; she's very unwell worried if she has Parkinson's Disease on top of her other health issues so it gives me some free time.

Kind regards, Colin.
 
There is another factor to the manhole cover. Thieves will take any metal. They've already had all the lead flashing.
I know they take manhole covers from streets.
 
Hi,

How the months and years fly by as we become older. Unfortunately my wonderful wife not only tested positive for Parkinson's she is now in intense pain awaiting a knee replacement; she's on 17 tablets daily 6 of these to control the Parkinson's where they so far are brilliant in stopping the shaking.

Yesterday I finally got into the studio and picked up my violin; over the last few months I've seldom even been into the studio due to so many demands upon my time. My wife could no longer use the bath so I've removed the bath and installed a walk in shower whilst giving the bathroom a comprehensive makeover doing the lot myself it being extremely difficult due to the bathroom needed full time. Two weeks ago I cut back a lot of overgrown laurels and last week spent five days removing a large conifer hedge of 18 conifers; then of course comes hedges and grass to keep on top of; shopping; laundry; ironing and constantly making meals then doing the dishes; I'll do anything I possibly can to help my wife and never ever begrudge a minute of it.

All the hard heavy work is now completed and I'm enjoying bits of spare time so hopefully I can spend some of this time practicing playing my violins; strangely I expected having to start from scratch again but although I'm not yet at the level I reached I'm not far off; violin playing must be similar to riding a cycle; once learned never forgotten.

I agree Slouching Raymond; nothing these days is safe from being stolen; the criminals are stealing railway and EV charger cables.

Kind regards, Col.
 
Hey Colin, good to see you back. Your attitude towards your wife reminds me of my dad. When mom was finally moved to nursing care, he stayed there in the room with her for her last year and a half. A lot of people today don't show the same love and dedication.

Hope your wife's knee replacement goes smoothly. One of my golfing friends' wife just went through shoulder surgery. Another friend is finally back to playing golf after his second knee replacement, but he's resigned to using a cart instead of walking the course.

Most these maladies seem to be the result of simply getting older. The good part is that they repair and replace so much stuff now. Knees, hips, eyes, backs, etc. 100 years ago, you just became an invalid, or blind, or died.
 
Hi,

Many thanks TalismanRich. It's surprising how many bionic people are around these days; hip & knee replacements have been common along the street where we live; yes these replacements greatly enhance quality of life. Modern NHS is much better when you can finally get into an hospital.

I've resumed my violin practicing at last enjoying half an hour this morning and I'm about to enjoy another half hour; I'm more relaxed and my arms no longer ache not having done lots of heavy work over the last couple of days. I'll be delighted once my wife has her knee replacement allowing me more studio time. I need to start learning how to use my recording kit again especially my 8 track Tascam pocket studio;

1723138690372.webp


Kind regards, Col.
 
I too got myself an 8 track Tascam pocket studio.
They are very capable.
 
Hi,

These Tascam pocket studios are brilliant aren't they Slouching Raymond. When I've recorded to the Tascam I then export to "Audacity" do you use a different editing program? I've so much to learn but I'm delighted to be playing my violins once again. This morning whilst awaiting Aldi to open I enjoyed reading a violin tutorial book for beginners. I shop at Morrison's first arriving at 7:00 am then pop round to Aldi in the car which doesn't open until 8:00am often giving me 30 minutes peace from the daily hostilities so I make good use of the free time.

At the moment I'm only playing what I'm familiar with until I settle back into the studio; I'm picking up playing from the music scores reading the score because I tried learning three notes at a time but my memory is so poor I kept forgetting the notes so now I'm grasping how to play from the score I'm making progress. Can't help falling in love page one I find pretty easy; Scarborough Fair; Ode to joy and Lara's theme are so far my favourites; playing these is helping me to pick up where I left off.

Strangely; now I've had a long break from practicing I find now when I play it sounds a great deal better and more relaxed. I hope to post samples of my playing when I've settled into the studio a bit more.

Kind regards, Col.
 
The pocket studio is great value for money. I've just dabbled yet, but exporting is a ueful feature.
The rough plan is to take my electro-classical guitar somewhere scenic locally, and plug it straight into the Tascam.
This should allow me to record the guitar, and shoot a video, without picking up all the surrounding noise.
Am just using Cubase so far, but I did look up a DAW to run on linux yesterday.
 
Slouching Raymond said:
The pocket studio is great value for money. I've just dabbled yet, but exporting is a ueful feature.
The rough plan is to take my electro-classical guitar somewhere scenic locally, and plug it straight into the Tascam.
This should allow me to record the guitar, and shoot a video, without picking up all the surrounding noise.
Am just using Cubase so far, but I did look up a DAW to run on linux yesterday.
Click to expand...
Just for grins, I loaded up Reaper 7 on my Linux Mint box last year. It looks and operates just the same as the Windows version. I didn't go through the setup for Jack or anything, just tried it out for playback.
 
Hi,

I'm 77 years of age this month and it's three years since my lovely wife treated me to my first violin. During the three years all I've had are interruptions and problems whilst trying to practice playing

A couple of days ago I got into the studio at last and played two of my favourite violin tunes using sight reading and as it's been so long since I last played and recorded I thought I did OK. I recorded two tunes to Tascam then exported the tunes in WAV format to my computer; from their I converted to MP3 then I tried to add this onto YouTube but it was rejected. I then converted the tunes to MP4a and once again they were rejected by YouTube. Next I tried to convert the tunes to video without success. Yet another wasted day.

I'm stubborn and don't quit so I've now bought a new 4K Sports Ultra HD video camera through eBay at an excellent price brand new; it's just arrived together with 32GB card which I had to by separately.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186119759592

Maintenance never lets up on our bungalow and gardens; now I'm painting exterior metal railings which will take a few days. I've always said to my wife if we lived alone on a desert island we'd get out of bed to find 2,000 shipwrecked people on the beach.

I'm determined not to be beaten; perhaps with winter approaching I can get away from outside maintenance but not betting on it; we still have tall trees which usually suffer storm damage. I'm not complaining it's just my life as usual. Yet another job is now I need to set up the camera and learn how to use it; one of these days I'll be able to concentrat in the studio?

Kind regards, Col.
 
I've got a load of those, bought for a project and the quality is surprisingly good. It's 4K in terms of file type, but is more akin to a good 1080 camera. Perfectly good enough. I suggest you set it to 1080, as the file sizes are about 25% of 4K.

When you say YouTube rejected it - this is because you must have submitted a file type, or file length they don't like. You cannot upload audio files to YouTube. If you find a nice image and put music to it, then save it as an mp4 v video file, YouTube will be happy. I don;t know what your DAW is, but in cubase, I could bring in a picture or pictures and add the audio file then export it as video - this works fine on YouTube.
 
I assembled a picture montage for someone's piano composition a couple of years ago. It was exported as a video file as I had various wipes and fades from images that were supposed to relate to the song.

However you can upload audio to Youtube, adding a static photo for the visual. Here are instructions:

 
You can't go wrong at £15. They are probably refurbished rejects, but who cares?
My GoPro cameras are very similar, but only do FullHD. That's plenty for YouTube.
Mind you they are a bit old and grumpy now. I need a new one.
Youtube videos with just a static image always annoy me. I want to see videos.
 
Hi,

Many thanks Rob for your information; I've watched a few YouTube tutorials which also recommend 1080 x 60. Yes YouTube rejected it because it was only an audio file; at first I didn't understand until I realized YouTube only accept video files hence I bought the video camera; I have a much more expensive DSLR camera that does videos but I want to keep it simple. I have a card reader so it should be easy enough to export from video camera to my PC but as usual I simply don't have the time to play around; I'd done the supermarket shopping and home by 7:30 this morning now I've metal railings to paint; maintenance never lets up living here. I'll post about my progress time permitting.

Thanks for taking the time to include the video link TalismanRich; much appreciated. I did use Veed a couple of years ago thinking it was free which it was for a few videos then it was closed to me unless I paid for it so then I left it alone.

https://www.youtube.com/@colinwood495

It's so long ago I added these to YouTube I'm having to relearn once again but everything is taking so much time it drives me mad with frustration. I'm fully retired but working flat out every day trying to keep on top of all the daily chores and jobs with very little time for myself.

Thanks Slouching Raymond. Yes at around £15 delivered these video cameras are amazing value; the only problem is they aren't made here in the UK. I too prefer proper videos with both visual & audio but at the moment given my limited spare time I'm struggling to post anything; I'm nearing the end of all my big jobs and hopefully my wife will have her new knee joint then perhaps I can back off a bit; I'm not at all complaining because I like being busy but a bit of spare time to myself would be nice; I used to enjoy a visit to Rufforth Auto Jumble once a month but am unable to do this because I daren't leave my wife home alone in case she takes another tumble; she's been in A&E twice over the last few months.; she comes first every time and I'll never ever begrudge a minute spent helping her.

Got to go I've a very busy day ahead of me again.

Kind regards, Col.
 
Hi,

Here's surprise; not only do I now have a bit of spare time; yesterday I bought two lovely guitars and a amp. My wonderful wife is still very unwell needing her knee replacement but a few days ago whilst watching a YouTube music video; she mentioned she'd like to have a go at playing a guitar? I'm 77 next week and my wife generously offered as usual to buy me absolutely anything I wanted. At first I didn't want anything being content with everything I already have; but after a bit of thought I decided to look at guitars for sale.

I firstly tried eBay but this wasn't easy trawling through posts that didn't show sellers location on the front page so it was taking forever and the ones I did look at I needed a plane to reach them for personal collection; I couldn't find one in Huddersfield or nearby area.

I then browsed Gumtree and there was an acoustic/electric guitar on sale locally but I wanted fully electric only. I had seen an advert for a Fender guitar with Fender amp but it was an hours drive away in Oakworth. I didn't really want to leave my wife home alone for over two hours but she said she wouldn't do anything silly to make her fall so told me to go if I wanted. Looking closely at the advert the guitar had been on sale for about 18 days but then looking further down the advert there were actually two guitars for sale; the Fender & Fender amp at one price but both guitars and amp at a higher price accepting offers.

I placed an offer which was quickly accepted and arranged to visit to collect setting off at 5pm yesterday arriving at the sellers house just after 6pm. I'm a total novice when it comes to guitars preferring my violins but I was mightily impress by not only the two guitars but also the amp; all looked brand new being unmarked. The Fender in particular looked absolutely beautiful it being a limited edition in red & black. 30 minutes later I headed back home; on the outward journey the rush hour traffic was a nightmare but by the time I was on my way home the traffic had greatly decreased and the SatNav chose a shorter route.

Back home I briefly showed the violins to my wife who too was very impressed by their excellent condition.

One guitar is a Lindo ZST Series the second a Squire Strat Fender Affinity. The amp is a Fender Mustang 1. These also came with a pair of excellent unmarked soft cases; a rechargeable tuner and good quality jack cable. I've just been playing around with both guitars and am mightily impressed by their sound; the amp on full output would most likely lift the roof off my small studio. I love the sound they make.

This afternoon I set the Fender guitar and Fender amp up in our front room and placed the guitar in my wife's lap for her to play around with it which she enjoyed. We're both amazed by how heavy these guitars are. I've also played my Yamaha violin this afternoon so today turned out very well indeed.

Got to go; it's tea time again so I'm busy.

Kind regards, Col.
 
Hi,

Guitar _0008.webp

The Fender Mustang 1 amp bought yesterday.

Guitar _0012.webp

The Lindo ZST Series guitar bought yesterday.

Guitar _0014.webp

The Fender Squire Strat Affinity limited edition bought yesterday.

Guitar _0016.webp

Both guitars & amp are in wonderful condition.

Kind regards, Col.
 
A whole new area to learn about, Colin.
I'd never heard of Lindo, so I looked them up. A British company.
Also I've never played a Squier.
They're both lower cost guitars, but if you ignore guitar snobbery, they are probably perfectly good guitars to play.
From what I've heard, Squires can be quite nice.

The next step is getting somewhere with playing them.
Metal strings can give you sore finger tips, when you start.
Classical guitars are kinder to beginer's fingers.
I play electric, acoustic, and classical. But I don't play them all the same way.
Classical is all about sight-reading, and finger-picking.
Steel acoustic for me is a mixture of strumming and finger-picking, sometimes with or without a plectrum. But hardly ever sight-reading.

My approach to electric guitars is smoke and mirrors:
My goal was 'How can I best emulate my guitar hero Andy Scott, from the band Sweet'?
Learn a few basic chords, improvise on a pentatonic scale, and throw in a bit of string bending.
String bending sounds naff on a classical guitar, but good on an electric guitar. It is good for putting a bit of vibrato on a note.
Over the years, I've learned just how far I can bend a string without it snapping. I haven't snapped a string for many years.
That's pretty much what I've been doing for decades.
After all that time, it does sound good.
Add to that a little bit of distortion from the amp, to give the giutar a bit of character. I see your amp has a gain knob, which shoud help there.
Some of my favorite chords are made with an index finger right accross the fretboard, plus one other finger on a string. (Sounds good, and not difficult).
Clip-on guitar tuners are a godsend.
All in all, I'm saying you can get somewhere with guitar playing, by playing simply.
 
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