Violet Kantele Universum 6

 This is the last episode of the series. If there were more, it would look like until now. Other plans, probably even more important, also wait for realization. But they are partly connected to this project, so it's possible to see them also somewhere else. I'm not doing everything myself, many things couldn't be possible to achieve without help of more or less close people. In VKU dad and aunt were mostly helpful, but some others also, including plush-toy.

Plush-toy can be seen in some pictures. It looks like he could play some instruments and is interested in it. I play more guitar than keyboard, but anyway not enough to make whole compositions :-( Maybe someday I'll make it, but lacks of ideas and components that often break down may make it impossible :-/ I'm trying to make myself feeling ok with it.
 

Sometimes repairing of some elements helps. This time I'm trying to fit some of them to the system in a way they could work together. For example, to make loudspeakers, that I make with my dad once, get to work, I need to repair a plug to it. I wouldn't start the keyboard without laptop with some computer programs and cables. It is better with the guitar, on which I can play without connecting, but I should find a cable anyway.

To make any compositions it's also needed minimum one to few instruments. I have two, but I'm trying to write notes for 4-5 instruments in the way, which every of them could be noticed at one time. In a picture there can be seen a part of a score of one of best riffs I was possible to imagine. It fit more or less to other riffs imagined by me or someone else who likes similar style.

Ok, that's it. It seems that plush toy also wants, heh, or would like to do something else :-) Smartly avoid translations to english, german and swedish, but I need it for this project, so probably I'll take care of it today or tomorrow. Then it's needed to put the text and photos on server in a proper way and I'll match the project as finished :-) So, bye then :-)

Violet Kantele Universum 5

There will be 6 episodes probably. I rather won't be able to write some more. All the time there are more important things to do, so I shouldn't take care of it too long. I try to describe some things I've been doing recently and more or less fit this project. Picture of a plush toy is one of them. I wanted it to be a gift for a girl, but I don't have a good enough contact with her anymore, so it stayed by me. Looks nice on blue background, but is not in a good mood all the time :-(

         Most difficult thing to do was an electronic circuit for gloves, heh. Efect is similar to these in guitar and keyboard. Looks nice, it works well mostly, but there is always something that can brake down :-/ I'm not fixing some of these things again, they just are in use systematicaly. But now it's possible to connect them somehow.

Some of these looks used too much, but I'm still repairing them. I use guitar the most, so I made some elements to it too - paper labels with names of standard notes helps a little to find write notes, but whole guitar is getting more old and it doesn't look too good now :-/. It's harder to connect it to another electronic devices, so I usually play it like it was a classical guitar.

        I got also some more problems with translating texts to other languages, so this time I put some more pictures. There wasn't too many in the first episode, so I'm trying to do it now. Some of them are looking useless, but they are here, because they are connected with other projects and repairings, which I have to do, for example light at home, broken shoes or planning another things to do.

           I don't have enough time for everything, most of them are getting me tired and are stressful, but I have to do them somehow. If there is an equality between hard and easy things, it is usually possible. Sometimes I can rest a bit, watch it from the distance and find better solutions. Then I can be proud of myself and looks like on the main picture on this site :-) Ok, now I have to do translations and another episode in some time.

Violet Kantele Universum 4

Since last two years not many changes has happened. I still don’t have any plush-toy. But few days ago I received a blue towel. This kind of towel provides lower reverberation time in an empty bathroom, even more than one second. But usually I use it after the shower.

The rest of the equipment I still have in my room. Unfortunately because of higher vibrations in space-time sphere one of the stars turned off forever :-( But there’s no fear that it will become a black hole and absorb the energy that supply other stars. The rest of the intergalactic system for light signalization works perfect :-)

The bridge has been improved. Budget problems forced me to make precise adjusting system on my own. That’s why I have researched my dad’s workshop to find proper  screws

and nuts. Next I cut through the integrated part of the bridge and in every single module I bored 6 holes which fit screw and nuts.

Meanwhile the keyboard has also been improved through connecting module with MIDI/USB converter. Now I can connect it to the laptop, which I couldn’t do earlier. Unfortunately the microcontroller from MIDI/USB module doesn’t permit the communication between the system of servicing PITCH and Modulation knobs :-( Particularly the first knob was useful once.

Worth mentioning is also something about the installation of stars in the keyboard. Power supply of the stars has been connected directly to the whole system that supplies any other module inside the construction. Few volts of voltage-fall inside the star circuit influences any other elements of the system and causes for example visible weakening of backlighting the display. But the power supply module can still manage the service of whole system.

Workings on compositions that are making with the VKU-StarSystem describing here lasts in a snail-tempo of two riffs every three months, but one of them is usually rejected. The work title for the whole composition is “The Power of Futrzak”… How long it’s gonna last? Time shall tell.

Violet Kantele Universum 3

Some time passed by from latest upgrade, but I decided to continue this topic. In the last episode I didn't contained description of electronic connection between fretboard and guitar body. Therefore I shaped a narrow route for some wires in the guitar body, which lead to connectors made of springs unmounted from cannons triggers mechanisms, which were parts of soldiers ship and pirate island sets builded with Lego bricks. So that's how I neutralized potential war threat, obtained some elements from military stores and used it for peaceful solutions.

But, back to the main topic - at the end of the fretboard I have also mounted springs and thanks to that after puting the guitar together, connections fits well and electronic circuit is closed. After some months of practicing I discover that batteries works for about 100h, which is enough for at least 3 months of playing.

Apart from that I match frets with white nail polish and now matchings works fine during night and day - during day I'm saving some energy. I also watched some new constructions of solar diode lamps and I still don't exclude the option of mounting such cells in the guitar body - it's always something new.

I also found percussion sticks, which I bought about 15 years ago and they're not worn-out yet. Some lacquer just rubbed out with sweat but I upgraded them by winding with violet cotton yarn so now it fits the guitar. Felt overlay would be useful for making the sound softer a bit. It would be more reasonable if I had a percussion set, but I don't need it now, sticks are just an addition to the rest.

It would be good to activate the MIDI keyboard. Times changed a bit and old connection with soundcard with MIDI/joystick connector doesn't work anymore - lack of actual drivers and Yamaha probably will not write drivers for such an old hardware. So its time for USB. I found a place inside the keyboard case to mount such a converter, but I need to find one.

Meantime it's worth to implement night and day mode to the keyboard too. I'm not a good keyboardist, so I painted some fragments of C keys for a better orientation of positioning fingers on the keyboard. I installed 9 diodes for a night mode in different places to have better view for keys, switches, buttons and screen. I would give an exact description of it in the next episode, because it's more complicated and requires some photos.

I don't know how many years it may take for me to create small home-recording studio, but at least I have an idea for it. I would also need an acoustic adaptation inside the room. Some well selected and arranged plush-toys would be useful. Actually I don't have any plush-toy now, but it's not an obstacle for teoretic consideration. Some more of that problem I may consider in further episodes. But now I can say that the colour of a plush-toy makes no difference, so it can be blue.

Violet Kantele Universum 2

In the last episode I described plausible developmental ways of my universe. Because of limited budget I did not decide yet to change bridge or coils. It's worth to do it someday, but it won't be any brand name construction. The best choice for bridge will be still something like floyd-rose, because limiting to one-sided tremolo would be a loss when guitar body construction enables adaptation of two-sided. However I will search for some cheaper coils solutions, maybe there are coils magnetically shielded yet. I could use an active humbucker also.

Until now I have finished some toughest workings, I mean instalation of stars, power sources, regulators and a switch. During carving the traces for wires I didn't avoid some scratches on the neck and, unfortunately, once I drilled troughout it. Scratches are not visible too much, but maybe some day I would like to draw something on neck and the hole is actually on the 12th fret, so it also might be an advantage, because it's easier to orientate about position of hand during playing. If it will be helpful I may match some other frets this way.

I have installed 12 blue stars on neck and 6 orange on the guitar body. Brightness of its light can be adjusted with two potentiometers (500 Ohm and 1 kOhm). Junctions of electrodes appeared not to be identical for each of them, so it gives an interesting effect of shining with different intensity. Orange diodes shine dependently on actual position of 5-positional switch and show which coils are actually turn on. There was a problem with isolation between coils circuit (alternating voltage) and diodes circuit (direct voltage). It was necessary to do it, not to carry direct signal to a signal from the guitar (audible hum in loudspeakers guaranteed). Transformer separation was out of question - too much of thinking and not to much space. Configuration of photodiodes would have to be made very precisely, so mechanical separation was the best solution. There was needed a curved wire, head of a pin and unmounted ethernet socket.

Blue and orange diodes are powered by separate circuits. The switch (yes, I know it's rose, but only rose were tripple and had the best shape) enables turning on two circuits separately and gives a possibility of application other solutions. The whole thing is now powered by two 1,5V batteries places in a casket, which I got from an old clock-toy in shape of a duck. The casket with socket for electrodes endings fitted perfectly in space between springs retracting the bridge.

Meanwhile there is such an astronomical phenomenon like blueshift, which consists on a fact that spectrum lines of an electromagnetical radiation, that come from some stars or galaxies, are shifted to decrese in wavelength (increse in frequency), which in visible lights causes a blueshift exactly. It's because of Doppler effect connected with movement of a source towards the observer. This kinds of spectra can be seen for some stars placed quite near to the Earth in our Galaxy. Analogous phenomenon to blueshift is redshift, which is connected with objects that are moving away from the observer.

My stars depend on themselves, because they use the same power source, so intensity of their shining depends on regulation of resistance and actual position of 5-positional switch (in two positions shine 4 diodes and in other three - two diodes shine). It turned out that blue diodes shine the most when humbucker is turned on.

It's possible to expand the structure by adaptation a system of powering the diodes from outside using transformer or impulse adapter. I will also think about the instalation of a solar panel instead of a hatch at the bottom side of the guitar body, but it's still hard to find something cheap, which would be easy to adapt to efficiency of accumulators (in question of speed of charging and occupied space) and diodes requirements. But now my universe works quite well, especially with connection with usual kitchen clock, which I use as a metronome.

Violet Kantele Universum

Primary version of String Theory a.k.a. Bosonic String Theory was created in 1970. Present String Theory - Superstring Theory from 1984 take Supersymmetry into consideration (1971). One of Superstring Theory versions is a particular case of two dimensional p-brane from general M-theory (1995), that is 2-brane. String Theory predict that space, in which we are living, has at least 10 dimensions, 3 dimensions are open and others are reduced to subatomic sizes. In my instrument these strings are hooked on the bridge and the saddle on the other side. Their tension can be adjusted with worm gearboxes. The bridge is hooked on two pins, which are fulcrums and tonnage of strings is balanced by two springs fastened to a piece of aluminium which is attached to a bottom side of a guitar body. Using two screws it's possible to adjust position of the bridge in a plane parallel to the board and also influence the tension of strings. There is also a wire from electromechanical mechanism soldered to it. Thanks to that touching strings during playing in heavy electromagnetic activity field helps reduce hum.

Electromagnetic mechanism is a structure of three pick-ups, two of them are singles and one is a humbucker, which means two coils winded inversely in relation to the ground, which reduces some hum itself. Switching between these coils is realized by 5-positional switch, while two potentiometers which knobs are at the top side of a guitar body enable volume and tone regulations of a signal derived to a "jack" plug attached to the edge of the board coloured like a finnish sky.

In Finland kantele is acknowledged as a national symbol. Mythical creation of this instrument describes national epic novel Kalevala. According to it the founder of kantele was hero Väinämöinen. He uses reindeer's bones to construct it, strings was hooked on pike's jaws, which were descended from horse's tail that belonged to demon Hiisi.

In my guitar, board is made from quite hard wood and it's a separate part from neck and thanks to that it's possible to take it to pieces and put to a rucksack for example, of course after taken strings off. Guitars are often made from one piece of wood to obtain better sound propagation from strings that vibrate little more stable and longer then thanks to greater resonance (but just a little). Neck was cut off at the end and the head was carved separately and glued after that to cut the lines of grains in the wood and to reduce the risk (which is small anyway) of cracking the neck, which tension (and by the way the distance between neck and strings) can be adjusted with a special rod builded in. The neck is quite thin and frets also, so in Vai style rather than Malmsteen's, but i play with thick picks, about 2mm.

I've got it for 7-8 years and since that time it spoiled a bit, the board has some scratches, "jack" plug relieved. I made scalloped fretboard with knife and files, not to thorough, but I wanted it that way (it's made from hard ebony wood) just not to grapple the fretboard with fingers during playing and to have greater ability of tremolo. I rubbed off most of lacquer from the head and grinded edges, now it looks cool. I should change the bridge long ago, because I can't even adjust active length of a string separately, which hampers tuning the instrument right on the octaves, floyd-rose would be useful. I should also change coils from "no names" to Duncans for example. Besides I'm planning to match fretboard with diodes, but first I need to calculate resistance and loading current capacity with efficiency of batteries. But first I need to have some sleep, because it's 6 o'clock in the morning, but when I wake up, it would be worth to fix some things in the universe.