Henrik Müller

Yep - QuickTime is a life-saver, one of my main tools. And if you have a steady hand, you can locate the tricky part with the little handles in the player's timeline - it helps to pull the player window as wide as it goes = your screen, with the lower right corner. That gives you more "resolution" in the handles. Put the player in "Loop" (Command-L) and "Play selection" (Command-T). If fine-tuning the selection is difficult (with a long track), select a bit more than you need, copy, open new player window and paste. Draw out the player window to full width, and Bob is probably your uncle. Fine-tune away... This is nitty-gritty stuff... but it has made the penny drop more than once with my slow brain (ears?). As Larry points out, this is not quality pitch/speed change, but it does the work. Interestingly, there is no real reason why Apple couldn't implement higher quality - the component is there already, deep down in the OS core: The problem is to get at it - you will need a special (free) tool for that and maybe c.net isn't the right place for that description. Unless I hear pleas, of course or is contacted off-forum. /Henrik

Homemade papers - very neat! How's the pattern made? *** As promised - here are a couple of photos of the Aeola-bellows (from 1976): - after use: From a distance, they looked alright (OK in a museum, if never played ), but in my eagerness to make them soft and pliable, I used very thin leather - ("split"?), almost like paper. Not good (as "after use" shows). The parts were hand-skived: sharp knife and a glass plate, lots of time, lots of leather and lots of "Blast - have to do it again...". The "bellows"-paper isn't paper - it's the thin leather. Surface: I was fascinated by the shiny surface of the original bellows but couldn't find the varnish (shiny, elastic and definitely non-sticky). The otherwise knowledgeable leather folks at the institute where I worked at the time, shook they heads when I described it - "doesn't exist". A phonecall to Colin Dipper proved otherwise, and he was kind enough to send me a small bottle of elastic, spirit-based leather varnish (still have it - thanks, Colin). Amazing stuff - still don't know what it is. /Henrik

Absolutely - we will! /Henrik

Allright! Congratulations! They look great - handskived? Would you have a photo of the mould? /Henrik Hi Henrik - how's the kitchen concertina coming on? Yes, all hand skived leather (although I also use a Dremel & attachment to 'fade' down some of the leather sides. Causes a lot of leather dust to kick around but I reckon its worth it - frankly it means less waste than using a knife). I'll try and put a pic of the jig later - answering this in a hurry! God Bless AL Hi, Al -There has been a lot of silence around the kitchen concertina for a long time, but that is because I am busy playing it (that was a lame attempt of a pun). I am making a radical change to it - to be thrust upon the unexpecting folks at the Bradfield Trad Music Weekend in August. I actually made three bellows, about 32 ( ) years ago. One is still sitting one a 56 key EC that needs repadding, a new set of bellows and selling. The other was for an Aeola I played for a number of years (and eventually had John Holman make "real bellows" for). I'll put up some photos over the weekend. The main outcome was - not unexpectedly: there's more to bellows than meets the eye. I hope my eyes will meet some more in Bradfield! /Henrik

Allright! Congratulations! They look great - handskived? Would you have a photo of the mould? /Henrik

Already done. This photo is from Dublin, yesterday: (Source: the "www-dot-havhingsten-dot-dk" web site (in English and Danish)). "Havhingsten af Glendalough" ("The Sea Stallion of Glendalough") is a scientific project that started last year when the Sea Stallion sailed to Dublin, where it has spent the winter in the National Museum - it left Dublin yesterday to head back to Denmark and Roskilde, its home town. Who knows - it might be for hire later on? /Henrik

Yeah, sure - grab 50-80 fiddlers, put them around the May pole, and away you go! Only problem is to stop them again... On a serious note - as far as I know there isn't any specific repertoire for the Midsummer, except a 'childrens' tune, involving frogs... (darn, I left the seriousness again). There is a festival, though, 50 km from here, always on the weekend before Midsummer, where the tradition is that a couple of naked, male fiddlers place themselves in the middle of a rushing creek (cold...) and play for a while, to enact The Naecken (English: The Neck) a shapeshifting water creature (read more here) and no, I will not upload the photos... Mythology says that Naecken's idea was to play music so wonderful that it lured women etc, etc - but note this: "If properly approached, he will teach a musician to play so adeptly 'that the trees dance and waterfalls stop at his music,' " - now, how's that for a pub session? Anyway - the outdoor temperature will be 10-14 C, a real treat... so I can tell you: nobody were lured or tempted (exept to go indoors...) But don't try this at home, kids (with your father's or mother's fiddle) /Henrik

I am all ears On a serious note: do you have access to machinery of any sort? /Henrik

Huuh - I feel so guilty but if one wants to demoralize people I can think of worse ways . Cool with 3D tools - Viel glück! /Henrik

Real bodgers use a screwdriver Please educate an ignorant Scandinavian - "bodger"? - my Mac's New Oxford American Dictionary and Oxford American Writers Thesaurus come with with "badger", "bodega", "codger", "dodger" and "lodger" /Henrik

Thanks, Larry - I'll demo a couple of new ones in August, in Kilrush /Henrik

So very sad to hear this, Peter - she reached far out in the world and inspired many. My kindest regards - to you and your family and to the folks in Milltown, /Henrik

Lovely! Thanks for the pointers, Leo! I really enjoy programmes that takes the time it takes to get around the subject. /Henrik

Question/comment for me, I assume? If given the possibility, I would have chosen "crimped" or bevelled ends (the edges you are "missing"?), but at that point in time I didn't know how that was done, so I opted for the "inset into the wood"-ends = a flat plate. I know now how the crimp is done - last year, Geoff Crabb posted a couple of Aha!-photos of the necessary tool here . And with that knowledge I would still have opted for the flat ends . Nothing fancy about the tool, except you need to have it... The "Jeffries"-part only applies when we are close to the edges - it stops as soon as we approach the buttons /Henrik

Maybe I can offer a little enlightment on the matter... If you watch the status field (provided it is ON) on your browser (at the very bottom), you will see this (track 1): http://cdbaby.com/mp3lofi/sarahblair-01.m3u Extension ".m3u" means that it's a MP3 play list file, i.e. it isn't the audio file itself, but a pointer to it. If you download the .m3u file and switch on your curiosity by opening it with a text editor (TextEdit/Mac, WordPad/Win)), you will see it contains only the line (for track no.1): http://audio.cdbaby.com/99022ab1/mp3lofi/s/a/sarahblair-01.mp3 If you copy that line and paste it into your browser's address field and hit return, you should get a browser window where the file is playing. From that you should be able to download the .mp3 itself. If you have iTunes installed (which a couple of folks have), a click on the track name will make it play in iTunes - as a stream, meaning it is depends on you being connected to the internet. Hope it helped - /Henrik

My experience exactly: the instrument I built has now been played for two years and when I play in F (which I rarely do) the Bb sounds different from its closest neighbours - a little harsher. /Henrik

Well, apart from the Ferrari Testarossa I met last week - he overtook me, surprisingly - this is the coolest thaing I've seen in years! /Henrik

Fine photos, Henk - The photo of Ernestine with the Duett takes the prize (at least mine) - /Henrik Edit: price?! Eh?

Will I see you in Bradfield this year (so we can bore each other ) /Henrik

Less, I am sure - but I may be disqualified for cheating This one took about 10: I never managed, though, to get the "cool inside-edges-roll-off" as Bob mentions. But I think we should silently bow in the direction of Geoff Crabb who does the same...in stainless steel! /Henrik

Eh... excuse me? If you play your instrument while riding a fast steed, would he become a Doppler-ganger? (That pun's for Henrik.) Jim - I didn't know you were into quantum mechanics /Henrik

Hi Yvonne, Goram, and all, nice piece of work, Goram! It puzzles me that so many people seem to run Göran's two names together. He is Göran Rahm, or just Göran. It's not surprising that non-Swedes leave off the two dots from the "ô", but as far as I know, he doesn't call himself "Görahm" or "Goram". If anyone wants to use Google to look for other of his works, I think they'll have best luck if they spell his name with an "n", not an "m". I thought he presented his video well.the problem with Gorans erection is that it will make the instrument heavier to hold. will it effect the abilty to swing ones instrument with abandon,to get the Doppler effect, Eh... excuse me? /Henrik

Audacity. It runs on Linux, Mac and if you must - Windows. Audacity home page. For the Mac (OSX) users, there is a free and very, very flexible solution. I will not spend time describing it here, but if anybody wants, feel free to ask . /Henrik

Hi stella24, I do like to play the Irish style. I use to play the keyboard, but switched to the concertina. I live in an isolated area so it's pretty hard finding a teacher. There is a lady who goes to one of the local markets to which my dad and I go to, who has had about 30 experience. When she goes there again, I'll ask her for a few tips. I love the style that Noel Hill plays. I'm not quite sure about what styles there are. Could you possibly explain a few to me? Thanks, Patrick Hello there, Patrick and welcome to c.net! With no teacher around the corner, a good place to start is to listen as much as possible to different people playing Irish concertina (I am aware that this will eventually create a certain frustration, leading back to the lack of teacher ). But I speak from experience: though I actually play English concertina, I have dabbled in Irish music for many years, and most of those years Noel was basically my only source. Which was great, of course - he is the undisputed master of the Irish concertina. But when I discovered - a few years ago - all the new, young players (that also means people of your age or younger), I became very, very inspired, simply because I heard tunes played in different ways. I had tons of "Aha - you can play it that way"-insights. That was very useful. Of course it doesn't directly teach you how to play, but it conditions your perception of the music, much better than sheet music can. If you read music (it sounds like you do) you have a big plus there, but it is the listening that opens the mind. If you like fireworks, Micheal O'Raghallaigh (pronounced "O'Reilley") is your man. Simply astonishing. Two records: "The Nervous Man" and "Inside Out". For simplicity and clarity, Dympna O'Sullivan has recently released a very nice record, "Bean Chairdin" ("Woman's Accordion"). The Comhaltas site has lots of videos: Here are two examples: Micheal O'Raghallaigh (with Danny O'Mahony on accordion) Edel Fox /Henrik

Hello, Dirk - You've certainly proved your handyness. I understand also that some obvious restrictions are in play here: any change should be reversible, so the instrument always can be returned to its original condition. But isn't that interesting: "i don't have pain in my thumbs after having played for several hours yesterday." Good luck with more experiments! /Henrik