>the dog track. Some broken parts, a faulty memory and out she
>goes......replaced by "digitally-sampled bell sounds" at age 33.
> Cruelly, (I thought) the story points out that she's only getting what
>she deserved, having herself once replaced the original tradition of
>100,000 lb. bronze bells. Sure- try and stay healthy, lose a little
>weight- this is what happens. But at least she was real metal.
> Though this list is about visionary solutions, as with restaurants and
>journalism, sometimes the 'old ways' are visionary. Before spending
>$40,000 in donations for a digital 'grandson', could the Carillon
>Restoration... Project committee look into alternatives;
>l) "...many of the mechanical pieces needed to get the carillon back in
>shape are no longer available." Can the U. of Idaho's School of
>Engineering design/rebuild/repair them?
I doubt that this would be cost effective, and would be a band aide
solution. What would the life expectancy be with rebuilt parts?
>2) "... a digital- tape system...to trigger pre-programmed music..." is
>worn out. Can the U. of Idaho's Computer Science Department/Computer
>Engineering Dept. do anything for this?
The system used a punched tape, much like a piano role principle. This
is the 'digital' meaning here. To have the computer science department
come up with a computer to drive the machine is asking for the design of
a one-of-a-kind digital mechanical interface for a worn out system. Hmm...
in the 'real world' this would probably amount to about $400,000 to a
million in R&D costs. Sure, some students could kludge an old C64 to
drive some Radio Shack relays...but you get what you pay for. And even
such a system needs specialized, sophisticated software. Tack on another
50-100,000 bucks in in-kind value.
>3) "The carillon can still be played manually..."; I think that would be
>great! A daily School of Music production- live entertainment.
This is what we used to do at the University of California at Berkeley's
famous carillon, which of course had *real* bronze bells in it. It had
a monstrosity of big ol' levers, requiring unusual strength and dexterity.
So, the actual sophistication of the music that could be played was rather
limited. At least our UI system can play recognizable Beatles tunes in
multiple part harmony. Anyway, our carillon is set to go off at regular
times with musical offerings more than just at 12:00 noon. There would be
big demands placed on student performers, with the chance that there would
be plenty of gaps in the schedule, mangled performances from time to time,
and all kinds of administration/coordation demands. All this for a
department that already provides tons of 'entertainment' services to the
campus.
> Maybe none of these suggestions will be practical. Maybe, like so many
>other things, no one will really notice the difference between real metal
>and 'bell sounds'. Maybe after awhile I won't either.
> Jo Williams
> tajs@potlatch.com
The current system plays bell sounds through speakers...it is not a set
of real bells, BTW.
Real bells cost much more than what we're talking for our campus system.
Anyway, considering that a new grand piano runs a modest $25,000 these days,
or more, or a contrabassoon costs $15-$20,000, or a good violin or cello
goes for $20-40,000 or a couple o' million, the cost of a specialized digital
carillon is pretty reasonable.
***********************************************//*
* Bob Dickow (dickow@uidaho.edu) \\// *
* Associate Professor of Horn/Theory/Composition *
* Lionel Hampton School of Music/Univ of Idaho *
* URL: http://www.uidaho.edu/~dickow/ *
**************************************************