Amati Geometry Sketch

Violin Scroll Progress

Violin Scroll

The scroll in progress..

Violin Plates

The tops of the plates are just about fully shaped at this point.  I've begun carving out the backs but I'm waiting on a thicknessing caliper to finish up.  Next comes plate tuning.  I aim to do this by tapping the plates and using an iPhone tuner/spectral analyzer to recognize the pitches of the different modes.

There are two major modes in each plate that need tuning.  These are different areas of the plate that respond to different frequencies.

Violin Making Workbench

So I'm making a violin.  I figure I should start documenting this at some point.  The sides have been glued to the mold with the linings.  Now I'm working on carving the edges and roughing out the shape of the front and back plates.  So far this is the most satisfying step in the process.  The sound and feel of a large gouge cutting across the spruce tonewood is heavenly.  More to come..

CS-50 Tape

I'm partially finished making and distributing a run of 30 copies of a textural/ambient music tape I made using my CS-50. One of the tracks utilizes my modular as well but other than that, there is no sequencing or effects involved.
The label is pretty subtle,. maybe a little too subtle. It was designed in Illustrator in the style of an old blank tape or library cassette.
Both sides are available for listening and download here..
LINK

Yamaha CS-50 Synthesizer

This is one of the few cases where the expense and amount of time it would take to try and build one of these is so immense, it is worth my while to just buy one in nice condition.
This instrument is a joy to play and sounds amazing. This was the first instrument with aftertouch and it feels so good.
I spent some time this evening learning how to tune it. It's a lot easier that the service manual makes it out to be really. It just involves adjusting two trimpots for each voice..
VR2 for the lowest key and VR3 for the highest.
What was confusing though, is that the voice boards don't switch in consecutive order. It's more like 1,3,2,4
If you have one of these I recommend going through the procedure. It sounds even better in tune.