T.O.'s FAQ Page

last update: 08/05/2001


Back to English page
Terug naar Nederlandse pagina


 
Is it is possible to choose the Tenor bell when playing the method?  By default minor methods are played on the front six of the ring of eight bells.  It would sound much better if the back six of these eight bells were played. This is the single most FAQ.
Yes of course this is possible: on the "Play" tab you see three up-down variables; the rightmost is the 'Treble Bell'. Increment this to the value within the set of bell sound you want to use as treble. Or better: start playing first and then alter this value. The effect is immediately! The background color of the Treble Bell value is the color of the bell you actually use. This setup is more flexible than just taking the back six bells.
In the example below this value is set to 3. So the third bell of the set of bell sounds is used for treble. Of course this increment is limited by the number of available bells. The value is stored as a method class dependent value in the configurations file.
From version 2.0 on this is also solved with the 'Use back bells when possible' item. Check this item to maximize the 'Treble Bell' value.


 
On my machine the program plays bell sounds in two rows at regular intervals, then pauses quite a little bit,
(although the last bell still rings on), then plays through another two rows, pauses, and so on. Is this intended? I
cannot be sure since I am running it on a Mac using an Emulator.		 This is intended, and even better, you can switch it off! It is called "open handstroke" ringing. Without pause it is called "ringing cartwheels". The English strongly prefer the first mode, so the program defaults to this mode at setup. (Since Australia is at the other side of the world, probably everything is upside down |-) ... 
Now how to change it: on the "play tab", the six'th button from the left, you will see a button with a
hour-glass-like image which (obviously from your story) is depressed. Just click this button to the up status! Do not forget to store this setting with Settings-> Save settings.


 
The bells sound irregular during playing while I have a fast pc. Can this be improved? You  probably still use the default sound mixing settings (Sound mixing tab) which are really meant to be suitable on any computer. In the help file is described in detail how to optimise those settings. Do not forget to save the new found settings. Type 'optimising' in the index search page of the help file or start at page 1 which gives a link to:

Optimising sound mixing settings

These settings are dependent of the speed of your hardware and must be found by experimenting with different settings. Here is a working strategy:
1) Set the reduction to a value of 2.
2) Set the cycle size to the minimum value (3). 
3) Now increase the number of fragments per second and play a method at a high playing speed until ticks or cracks are heard.
4) Undo the last increment of fragments per second since cracking occurred.
5) Repeat step 3 and 4 with an increased value of the cycle size. You will find a higher value for the fragments per second value. Write down both values.
6) Repeat step 5 until you cannot avoid cracking anymore. You have found now the upper limit for the number of fragments per second that can be produced by your pc.
7) Calculate the time delay for each combination of settings as:
   average sound delay = (cycle size-0.5) divided by fragments per second.
8) Use the settings with the lowest average sound delay.
9) Now test for cracking with a reduction setting of 1 or 0.
10) Do not forget to switch on conversion to 16 bits in the sound tab / 16 bits conversion (item) in the Settings menu to get best results.
11) Now save these settings through the Settings menu: Save settings (item).