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Bach's barn...

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notdefined

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Bach's barn...

PostTue Sep 02, 2014 11:03 pm

I'm breaking out of my doldrums. It seems that something as a 20 year overdue visit from family and a design change have been the tonic I've sought. In approaching the wall treatment, that is the covering that was to go over the resonator panels, I've come up with a different approach. I looked again at some videos of the inside of the Bartok concert hall in Budapest. The bit about the light wood bisected with strips of darker wood, or the reverse was not executed like I remembered. Rather than cover the entire walls like I thought, it was only on the faces of the balconies or rings. When I saw it again, it made much more sense as the approach I was taking might actually disorient people walking into the room. I have since decided that instead of removing the loft, I will find a way to work it into the acoustical design of the room facing the front of it's floor with the same striped wood effect as done in Budapest, but instead of white alder and whatever the dark wood was, I'll be using birch (a cousin of alder) and black walnut. There will be a total of 3 strips, at the juncture of the wall and ceiling, the face of the loft floor and midway from the loft floor and the building floor. They will encircle the entire room with the exception of the front wall. The new approach will require far less wood and leave a really exciting possibility for the remainder of the walls. I'm looking at a combination of 13 foot vertical boards on the rear wall and the side walls enclosing the loft area as well as the front wall and about 4' of the side walls extending from the front. They will be sanded and oiled but not varnished, or I may go ahead and varnish them if they don't cause the sound to meet my expectations. The remainder of the walls will be covered with randomly sized square panels of wood with rounded corners. They will be placed pseudo randomly with their corners overlapping so to completely obscure the plywood underneath. They have to be thin enough (about 1/8") to prevent too much distortion.

The ceiling, my ultimate challenge has also had a change in direction. I've let go of the barrel vaulted ceiling that I wanted. It will just be too difficult to install. Instead, I will put up gypsum board, have someone else joint and mud it, and then I will prime it and follow up with a melamine enamel to give a rock hard surface. I will put a curved bit in the top gable so to tame the sharp corner. The metal trusses and columns that support the building will be framed and enclosed with the gypsum board and covered with same wooden panels as are the walls. The forward most truss will have remotely positionable lights installed in it, a couple video camera for IP streaming, mics that can be lowered and positioned, and wiring for whatever else I may want in the future. Might as well do it all at the start then to have to go back and do it later. I'm hoping that the condenser mic fairy informs me of some affordable ones that will work well in the space.

I put up an 8'x8' door in the front to enclose the double doors that exist there. When I installed it, I was pleased at how it looked, but operating it left a lot to be desired. Fortunately a friend of mine has given me pointers on how to make it operate smoothly. If it was not for the fact that I will need a wide door from time to time, I would just take it out and be done with it. However doing so would be something I would soon regret.

I went out and did some picking up to get ready for some photo taking this week. I need to post some images of my progress, mainly to convince myself that I have indeed made headway.
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Re: Bach's barn...

PostWed Sep 03, 2014 1:48 am

Happy to read that you´re picking up. And just right that you changed the heading. Am I right that this is the first time you mention my favourite composer (in the titel), or happens there to be a brook in the woods around?

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Re: Bach's barn...

PostWed Sep 03, 2014 9:19 am

Thank you and (with a chuckle) I think if you took a poll of organ people you would find that Bach would be soundly at the top of their list of favorite composers. Undoubtedly, he is the one responsible for making the organ the King of Instruments. The first book that was given to me as a child for an organ lesson was Bach's 8 little preludes and fugues. Yes, my teacher was very optimistic about my abilities, but it goes to show that in his mind, there was no other choice about what to use. I still have that very book! Because the space will primarily be used for organ, the choice of a name was simple. However, my favorite composer hands down is Tchaikovsky. He just did not do too much for organ.
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Re: Bach's barn...

PostWed Sep 03, 2014 3:35 pm

Now all you need is a Hauptwerk sample of the organ in Orgelzaal Boy and you will be set!
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Re: Bach's barn...

PostThu Sep 04, 2014 1:09 am

GLMounk wrote:Now all you need is a Hauptwerk sample of the organ in Orgelzaal Boy and you will be set!
Glen

I DID remember that! Thanks for freshing up my memory!

notdefined wrote:Thank you and (with a chuckle) I think if you took a poll of organ people you would find that Bach would be soundly at the top of their list of favorite composers. Undoubtedly, he is the one responsible for making the organ the King of Instruments. The first book that was given to me as a child for an organ lesson was Bach's 8 little preludes and fugues. Yes, my teacher was very optimistic about my abilities, but it goes to show that in his mind, there was no other choice about what to use. I still have that very book! Because the space will primarily be used for organ, the choice of a name was simple. However, my favorite composer hands down is Tchaikovsky. He just did not do too much for organ.

I have that same old music book! From Peters (Czerny, Griepenkerl & Roitsch) - 1978. But not my first book obviously...
Well, I do like the Op. 35 violin concert in D major of Tchaikovsky, but if we´re talking Russian composers, I would prefer the piano concerts no. 2 and 3 of Rachmaninov.

I think I´m very close to having all of JSB´s instrumental music in my audio library (and many in multiple), and some of his finest vocal works.
My second one for shure is Chopin.
I started this hobby with playing the piano, and still do. The funny thing is, when I play Chopin, everything comes automatic. It is built-in. Wen I play Bach (J S), I have to read every note and anticipation does not work. Chopin is the automatic pilot and Bach is a struggle. And then, several keyboards plus a pedal keyboard are complications for a (amateur) pianist as well....
But the organ has been a lifetime dream, though for a non-religious person in pre-Hauptwerk times unachievable. (I had my tries with analogue organs and reed organs).

Last night I heard a beautiful organ fugue (from my JSB library) and I thought, while enjoying the music, gosh, I guess I could play that! So I looked it up. And tried it tonight. I just can´t express my joy in hearing coming that of my fingers. SO beautiful.

They (mostly) say that Johann Sebastian Bach was the greatest composer ever - well, up to now then.
But is seems illogic that just he and the baroque should have been the one time highlight.
I have much music in my library, up to Oscar Peterson and Salsas and Merengues. My musical formation has been in the Romantic music. But nothing - for decades now - can beat my love for Baroque music with JSB as the pinnackle. It´s such a shame he is so inaccessible for amateurs like me.
But I guess there is a logic. But I don´t want to know that.

I´m afraid this has become very much off-topic. So let´s get back to your Barn...
(It starts with B anyway).

Ernst
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Re: Bach's barn...

PostTue Sep 09, 2014 11:48 am

Well heck, I thought one could edit their own posts, guess not, but I'm not going to start a new topic on this.

Last night I was shuttling back and forth between the barn and the house all the while dodging the rain. On the last trip out, I paused long enough to take a look around. Amid the clutter of tools, lumber and various other things that will be used in the final incarnation of the space, or to help building it out, it struck me, quite vividly in fact. The barn is backward! The part I am building out to be the front should be the back and the spot that contains the loft should be the front, at least in it's use. Reversing the layout would make effectively using the space so much easier. I have tried to compensate for the fact that there is a huge 8'x8' door in the front wall and all of the utilities penetrate the front. There is also an egress door in the front left corner in addition to the aforementioned behemoth door on the front wall. Working all of that into a functional design, especially by someone with limited design skills such as myself, is a tad difficult.

By removing the loft, sans a 3' ledge spanning the width of the barn, the logistics are much simpler and instruments put there would be more insulated from the effects of foot traffic in and out of the building. Installing sound, lighting and any sort of decorative façade or possibly real pipes, would be so much easier, especially with the ledge retained. By the way, the current loft is 12 feet deep, a bit too much to work with.

Thankfully, nothing I've done so far must be removed, nor is any of it a wasted effort, it will have been put up as it always would have, just in reverse order.

Nasty day outside, so I'll start the deconstruction process today.

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