Violin sound.

[rob aylestone]

The thing with trying to create an organ sound with a different class of instrument is that you have two separate things to consider. The sound. You can produce an organ sound (piano, or even a saxophone), but you have to play them differently, or they sound wrong. A violin can play or off the exact note, they start notes differently to a key on an instrument. They can increase in volume after you start the note. Most importantly, you can go to one note without stopping the previous one.

To achieve a realistic organ melody on an organ sound, played on anything other than keys on a keyboard, it is very hard. Your standard of musicianship has to go up quite a few notches with your playing technique changing to match the new instrument’s demands.

I have a MIDI guitar with a synth attached. It has piano, organs, strings, synths, but despite some being very good Roland sounds, playing it, expecting to sound like the name in the display, is quite difficult. Plus, you have to cope with miss-triggering.
Sometimes your fingers make noises that are mistakes not notes. The gizmos dont know. If you treat them totally as an effect you can have great fun, but i have never been successful trying to be realistic.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks rob for your interesting explanation and suggestions; what you say makes a great deal of sense to me. I've already noticed as I start to play a note it comes on quietly then quickly builds in volume; (POG2) it's particulary sensitive on the A string; the G & D strings are much louder than the A string but I pressume with practice I'll be able to compensate for this; the E string is very quiet indeed and not needed with the songs I'm learning. This is with my Yamaha YEV-104 violin.

I'm finding it very interesting though playing with the pedals; it's opened up an whole new world. My circa 1880 German trade violin now sounds really poor even when played through the Yamaha amp with a Fishman bridge pickup.

It was set up and tuned with new strings when Bron bought it for me by a now retired luthier; but that's maybe four years ago; it will need new strings by now? There are so many types of strings available the choice is bewildering. I'm using a carbon fiber bow with pernambuco wood veneer which cost £300 new.

I'm slowly improving with practice and the few songs I play I'm now feeling comfortable with and can play without the score. My sight reading too is starting to make sense as long as the score is reasonably basic. It looks like a nice violin pactice day again today; it's dark and raining.

Kind regards, Col.

 

[rob aylestone]

The thing to remember Rob, is that not every instrument is a good one, for tone or just ease of playing.

I have a friend who was told classic saxophones are very collectable. Last time I was at his house he was going through his collection. He had a Yanigisawa he had paid quite a bit for, and a Selmer Mk VI - always the ones people go on about. A nice looking Yamaha Tenor and a Keilworth. ALL of them are simply horrible. Some just sounded worn out and dull, most clacked like mad, they had hard pads so they leaked a lot making tuning iff and not one of them I would wish to play - my collection consists of old student through to nice ones and even a fake one and they ALL play better than my friends. His are worn out, unloved and probably the ones made on a Friday afternoon just before the factory shut!

I very much doubt the difference in sound is down to strings. My guess is that even with new strings it will sound very similar.

 

[R D Smith]

We have tom baker coming to our theatre next year, if he is still with us. Looking forward to that!

Wow, he has to be in his 90's by now. I hope he makes it.

 

[rob aylestone]

Yes - he is very frail but we have one other doctor too, we hope. Don't know much about it yet, but we've said yes to whatever it is!

 

[Papanate]

It is a British thing. Look up 'TV Licensing Goon' on YouTube.
I made a video covertly the first time they came. Got him good and proper, harrassing me after I told him to leave.
Tell them to leave, and if they don't leave immediately, they are trespassing.
It is still out there, because people steal your videos and re-post them to make money.
In America, you have the right to buy a machine-gun.
In Britain, we need a license to watch TV.

Unbelievable - so do these goons work for the Government or are they independent?

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks rob, I've a great deal to learn; I was going into the garden this afternoon but it's come over very dark so I can spend time in the studio instead. I've not yet connected my three pedals together so I'm keen to see what they will sound like; with 16 x 13a sockets in the studio I won't have problems plugging in the mains adaptors. I'll stick with it.

I well remember the first Dr Who; William Hartnell 1963-1989; I was 16 at the time and in those days it was a must watch program. Bron used to watch "Emmerdale Farm" and we both used to watch "The Great British Pottery Throwdown" but PC has now ruined lots of what were decent programs.

Have a look at this video @Papanate;



Kind regards, Col.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

Unbelievable - so do these goons work for the Government or are they independent?

They work for a private company which has a lot of contracts with the government.
In this instance the company is contracted to 'TV Licensing', and that is a trading name owned by - the BBC.
The BBC are the bastards behind all this, and all the license fees collected go to - the BBC.

 

[TalismanRich]

I find it curious that the TV license covers things like broadcasts on Amazon Prime, Youtube or Netflix (real time) or from broadcasts originating outside the UK, yet the funds go only to the BBC. I could see it if the BBC provided the content and broadcast it via transmitter or cable/internet, but they have no stake in Amazon or Netflix.

As always, it's a money grab. Once you get the fee system set up, you just keep expanding it.

I do appreciate you folks paying to put out BBC America so I can watch 60 year old reruns of Star Trek, reruns of Law and Order, NCIS and Bones (oh wait... I have all those on DVD). Maybe next they can run the 24 series, CSI, Green Acres and Hogans Heroes. I've got those on DVD too.