Ever since laying eyes on Decware's site back in the late 90s I was drawn deeper into Steve's work. His site pictorial design kept drawing me back. He seemed to have a knack of turning my eyes over to my time, ears, and eventually wallet. He also offered a free set of plans for the Wicked One at the time. And so it began...
I built a lot of his designs over the last 25+ years with information that is available on his site. Also I purchased kits and plans that are offered by him. I even waited 3 years for the SE84UFO25! Don't get me wrong, finding Decware helped fulfill a life long interest in our surroundings and workings of such. I don't have any regrets and started another project that was inspired by yet another visual of Steve's.
The chimes in his listening room always stood out to me. It seemed odd to have a set of chimes in an audio listening room. The leather wraps made sense to stop unwanted resonance when playin music. I thought it was a just another pleasing visual of the artist in Steve.
A couple of weeks ago I attended the Decfest in Oregon Illinois at the Stronghold Castle where the chimes were on display hanging from the spiral staircase going up one of the towers in the castle. There was a nylon tipped hammer provided to strike the chimes. It was a great experience just striking the long tube at the base of the steps then climb the steps listing to the resonance play out.
This experience stuck out as one of the highlights for me during the fest. Still fresh in my mind after arriving home I remembered reading a blip in this forum of his journey with the chimes. A search began with finding the following:
Quote:The chimes in the room started with an eBay purchase of 1 inch diameter aluminum chimes from India. These were 9 chimes, tuned to the solfeggio frequencies from antiquity. These specific tunings had nothing to do with music, they were for healing and transformation. From my research despite being used in biblical times all mention of these 7 and later 9 tones have been omitted from the Bible. The highest emphasis you can give to anything is to delete it therefor I became interested in it.
I enjoyed the chimes for about a year and realized two things.... they were not precision tuned and the lower ones like 174Hz did not play 174Hz but rather a harmonic of it like 930Hz or something. Now... if 174 Hz is said to have a specific effect on the human condition, I don't want to waste my time listening to 920/930Hz or whatever it was. I want to hear the fundamental, 174 Hz.
This lead me on a journey to figure out what it would take to make a chime tuned to that frequency that played that frequency instead of some higher harmonic of it. You see, the 1 inch chime did actually play 174Hz, but I remember after measuring it that the 920/930Hz harmonic was 42dB louder!!!!
Through some experimenting I found out that an 1/8 wall 3 inch extruded pipe cut at 60 some inches will hit 174.0 Hz with no harmonics and a sustain time of over 3 minutes. Not to mention the surface area and mass of the chime is like a million times more so it's LOUD. Seems reasonable to me. If a dim flashlight is good, a bright flashlight is better. Make no mistake, large chimes like this can change in frequency by as much as 1 Hz with as little a 10 degrees shift in ambient temperature. I got all of my chimes to within a few 10th of the target frequency, most with adjustable tuning pins that can added or removed if the temperature in the room changes by that amount or more.
I started with the lowest ones, 174Hz and worked my way up. Then I needed something for the other side of the room, so I found the closest chakra frequencies I could to match so I could have chimes on the other side of the room that visually somewhat matched. I got 172Hz on that long pipe, and again worked my way up. Once I got to higher that around 500Hz, the pipe thickness stopped working and the chimes no longer rang. I then found that 1/2 inc wall (8 times thicker) pipe was needed to continue up the scale with similar results.
So these have nothing to do with sound treatment other than being handy little diffusers of high frequencies, they do nothing unless left un-clamped at which point the ring with the music but not being tuned to 440Hz scale they are never actually in tune with the music so the music is ruined by it.
I have figured out that there is no more accurate source of pure tone, or scalar energy than one of these large chimes. If you spend 20 minutes with them getting them to sink up together when you play them all at the same time is a pretty serious rush.
I have tried to record these and on the DSD recorder once you hit more than 3 chimes at the same time the recording falls apart. You can only do it with reel to reel tape. So I did. Then I played the reel to reel tape back on me favorite speaker of the night, and guess what it sounded just like the chimes! But there was no scalar effect and you could tell it wasn't real...
I have been experiencing these chimes along side two very special singing bowls from Nepal. If I was forced to choose between my stereo or these chimes, despite enjoying the stereo quite a bit more, the chimes are the keys to the universe and must have tools for long term survival.
It's like choosing between Chocolate bars, or fire sticks when on a survival mission and you know if someone makes you choose between your stereo or your chimes, you are on a survival mission.
I built chimes in the past with success. I was always attracted to chimes and the pleasant random tones created. My first set of chimes was inspired by a visit to the Gay Dolphin in Myrtle Beach SC. GD is a multi story store of patched together novelty items. It has a section of wind chimes from very large to small. Swept into imagination and just finishing a new workshop, I shorty build a set of four for each of my family members. The picture below is one on my back deck after 7 years of being beat by Pennsylvania's weather.
The search began for pipe to build a set of Chakra and Solfeggio based chimes. It did not take long to find some brass tube from an old tavern's bar rail. This acquisition took some wild turns that turned out just prefect for my intended use of the chimes.
I usually spend some time in the mornings to check out new offerings on Facebook Marketplace. If something gets my attention and is in good condition I'll save it and let it brew in the old noggin. If the item becomes more center in my vision, I'll send an inquiry and eventually make an offer. If the offer is rejected, 99% of the time I'll let it go. That is how I roll.
The brass pipe offering showed scant pictures of it leaning in the corner of a stuffed storage room. He wanted $500 for it. I asked what size and lengths of the longer pieces. He replied it was 3" and the longer ones were 18' and 15'. Right away I'm thinking heavy .125 wall pipe used most likely for foot rest in the bar. At that price, I ran to meet up with him!
Turns out that the bar was in the valley of my old tromping grounds as a kid. We precariously dug out the pipe. His dimensions were a bit off. It was 2" pipe. The longest was 15' and had a joint about halfway. Hesitating with the sale we worked out a lower price. After, we had a good conversation and reminisced finding common ground with mutual friends shared in the past. I loaded and cut some of the pipe to fit the 8' trailer.
There is one more twist to this purchase that will surface later!
It took a couple of hours to disassemble the pipe from couplings and fittings. Ended up being 114 pounds of brass with 57' of 2" tube and a bucket full of fittings. Just a small percentage over todays scrap price. A good fair deal. 60' of new tube today is $2250!
What I did not shell out in money will be made up with labor. Two cleanings are done at this point. One cleaning with Dawn to remove dirt and oils and another with brass cleaner to remove tarnish. A third and final will remove light scratching after the tubes are cut and drilled.
Pipes are drying after a good rinse. Years of use are evident with scratches and spotting from cleaning. The tavern owner said he took down the pipe after his cleaning crew retired. The spotting was cause by not properly removing cleaner after cleaning. Maybe the new crew did not meet his expectations!
Time to take a break and play with the cats
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Ultimate Decware Accessory (Read 148 times)
