And Another Software Repository on GitHub

Greetings all! Here is the GitHub software repository for the user interface code for Organ Donor:

https://github.com/OrganDonor/Organelle

This is the code that runs on the "Organelle", which will be the console from which functions and basic operations can be controlled.

This is distinct from the console code, which is the code that makes sure that all the manuals (keyboards) are properly integrated into a single MIDI stream, and makes sure that not too many keys are pressed at once (which would pull too much current and pop a fuse).

Software Repository for Organ Donor

Software repository launched on github!

https://github.com/OrganDonor

Cipher Solver - Opus 1 Repairs

Cipher work on Opus 1 began today! Here's the tracking document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D6tU0KzxBT_n2KRq9RMQf1lhDpYGrcdHnSOyFiDY33A/edit?usp=sharing

With this many valves needing replacement, the question was to make a new windchest or renovate the existing windchest?

The windchest was designed for the older style Petersen valves. However, the older Petersens and the new Petersens have different screw points. Also, the new Petersens have a claw that is supposed to grip into wood. Because we have an acrylic top, this claw can’t dig in to the material and therefore it prevents the valve from sitting flat on the acrylic. The solution we came up with during initial construction was to make an adapter plate. These adapter plates relocated the screw hole, lifted up the valve so the claw did not impact the surface, and sealed the old screw hole.

We decided to replace three entire rows of the old Petersens with new Petersens. We decided this for two reasons. Almost all the ciphers were on old Petersens that had pads that were much larger than the hole. The ideal pad size in only 0.25 of an inch larger than the hole. This creates higher effective pressure on the valve, which helps to prevent leaks. This strategy required taking out the old Petersens, making adapter plates for these valves, putting in the adapter plates, then putting in the new Petersens. 

During initial research, it was misunderstood that the pad size needed to be at least 0.25 larger than the hole. It seemed like the larger the pad the better, however this did not turn out to be the case. The margin needs to be as close to an eighth of an inch all around in order to have the best seal.

Organ Donor Opus 2 Bottle Tracker Spreadsheet

How many and what type? Here's the stats!

Organ Donor Opus 2 Bottle Tracker Spreadsheet

Organ Donor Opus 2: We Need Bottles

TL;DNR:
Please keep some glass bottles (any size) to be used for Organ Donor Opus 2 (a Sol Diego project). The next organ will have pipes made out of bottles partially filled with fluid. Hopefully water. Or permanently filled in with resin. Still working on that part. Bottles to Michelle Thompson.

Friends, Burners, Countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to burn Organ Donor 1, not to praise it!
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft burned with their art on the playa!
So let it be with Opus 1. 

The noble Regional Coordinators
Hath told you Larry was ambitious,
If it were so, it was a grievous and most productive fault,
And grievously hath Larry answer'd it, for look at all we have done.

Here, under leave of Regional Coordinators upon the Midway,
Let us burn the Organ Donor Opus 1 (somehow).

And upon that burning, let us build a new Organ!
Let us bring forth an Opus 2!

With pipes of glass. Yes glass.
"Why glass?" Larry asks.
Because glass sings.
Sings with the power of wind and water.
Sings because of physics, because of strain.

And where, o where, shall we obtain these glass pipes?
These vases? These resonating objects?
These... bottles?

Ah yes! Bring forth the bottles!
Bottles of ale, bottles of wine,
Bottles of sake and small mouthed stein,
Bottles of fireball, whiskey, and rye,
Bottles of fermented apple pie. 

Bring forth the piccolo, the demi, the magnum,
Bring forth the Methuselah, the Solomon, the Sovereign!

Anything really, that makes a sound,
When fluid is added the right key will be found.

Bring forth the bottles!
And they will be racked.
For Opus 2 will be built
Upon consciousness, sacked.

Sol Diego Open Playa Project Proposal "Quake House"

Video



Here's a proposal for the Sol Diego Open Playa Project for Burning Man 2015.

Not an automatic fit for Organ Donor, but plenty of fun opportunities for engaging animated artworks!

Modeling Rests in Composed Music

There are at least two types of rests in music. The first are the ones the composer wrote into the score. The second are the ones that naturally occur during playing. Musicians pause, extend, chop, attack, cheat, and move notes around within the measure in order to emote, interpret, or express.

There are many more of the second type of rests in human-performed music than the first. The first type are represented on the score, but the second type makes an enormous difference in how the music is perceived stylistically. Recognizing, categorizing, and modeling both types of these rests is a goal of Organ Donor, with the expectation that introducing proper amounts of "space" into algorithmically produced music will create music that sounds more like a human is playing it. Being able to create different models of resting based on desired style would be a very powerful and useful result.

Another area of investigation is the minimum return distance from root notes, or Mean First Passage Times. I suspect that there might be some utility from these statistics in terms of creating believable phrasing - or uncovering patterns that reveal other hidden structures in composed music. Examining the minimum return distance for both types of rests as well as notes will help improve the understanding of the role and effect rests play in composition and style.

This area of math (MFPT) is used in a wide variety of fields to answer pragmatic questions about physical systems. There's no guarantee that it will provide repeatable or useful results in music, but we have the tools (thanks to the python library pykov) to start the process of finding out.

Here's some results from parsing MIDI files of performed music. The rests captured don't exist in the score. Some notes are staccato, and you can see the additional "distance" the musician included to create the desired effect. You can also see additional distance punctuating the end of the phrase. This is the violin 2 part from Beethoven's 7th, second movement.

Note 64 had tick duration 409
a rest had tick duration 66
Note 64 had tick duration 110 (staccato note)
a rest had tick duration 138 (results in longer space between notes)
Note 64 had tick duration 116 (staccato note)
a rest had tick duration 121 (results in longer space between notes)
Note 64 had tick duration 410
a rest had tick duration 67
Note 64 had tick duration 392 (ended a bit early, end of a phrase)
a rest had tick duration 91

Modeling music requires obedience to aesthetics, and this is where the difficulty - possibly the impossibility - lies. However, I cannot think of anything more worthy of analysis, modeling, machine learning, and algorithmic design. More soon!