Organ Donor at the San Diego County Fair 5 June - 5 July 2015

What is a chord?

We've been working hard on the math that is underneath the surface of Organ Donor behavior. We're now beginning to grapple with pitches, or notes, instead of just pitch classes. A pitch class in western classical music is the name of one of the 12 semitones on the scale (C, F, G, etc).

A pitch also includes the octave or register (C4, F6, G2, etc)

So, up until now we've been working with 12-element vectors, where each position stands for a pitch class. A triad would be something like this:

[1,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0]

The 1's indicate the presence of a note at that semitone. There are 12 semitones, and three of them are played.

But this doesn't tell you which octave the pitches are in.

With a small change, this information can be recorded in the vector.

[1,0,0,0,2,0,0,3,0,0,0,0]

Here, the first note of the triad (at semitone position 0) is in the first octave. The second note of the triad (at semitone position 4) is in the second octave. The third note of the triad (at semitone position 7) is in the third octave. 

Now, when handling this vector, I can make a list of which octaves the pitches are in. When I rearrange or invert the chord, I can make sure that the octave information survives. 

Some transformations we don't yet have a method for preserving the information. For example, when getting the prime form of a chord, we are really calculating what class the chord falls into. The registration of the notes in the chords doesn't matter because prime form encompasses many variations of registration. Going from prime form to vectors means that when you generate the vectors, you are generating lists of pitch-class representations (the vector has all 1's), but not pitch representations (the vector has many numbers).

Something that occurred to us is that using 1's for generic presence of a pitch class gets confusing if you also take 1 to mean that it's from the lowest octave. This will be fixed, but we're not yet sure what the very best and most clever way forward is!

-Abraxas3d

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.