OVER 2 YOU, 122 (18/03/03)

PIANO TUNING

Having spent a considerable time renovating an 1830's Broadwood Cabinet piano, including re-stringing in the original iron and brass wires, now comes the task of tuning.  Does anyone know of any software that can be used to measure the vibrations of a string either through sound or 'touch'?  I need to measure vibrations between about 30 and 3000 cycles per second.  It would need to be fairly accurate to within a few cps.

Alan Haddington, via email

Mr Haddington need not resort to complicated set-ups using computers, amplifiers and microphones. There are simple battery operated instruments available specifically designed for piano tuning, (and other instruments). I have a very good one, which measures from 32.7Hz to 3,951.1Hz, which covers from "C" in octave 1 to "B" in octave 7. Accurate tuning is achieved selecting the required note and then centring an analogue meter needle. It has input and output facilities for use with amplifiers and electrical inputs. Mine is a Seiko Chromatic Auto-tuner ST-1000 and cost about £80 a few years ago, but there were others available. A specialist music retailer should be able to help.

Don Cahill, Gosport, Hants

There is a free trial version of Tune Lab Pro, which he may find interesting or useful at: www.Tunelab-world.com. Bear in mind that the pitch used now (A440) will be far too high for such an elderly instrument but tuning it a semi or full tone flat will probably be acceptable. For further information, help, guidance why not contact the Piano Tuners' Association on our website at: http://www.pianotuner.org.uk

Nigel Donovan

I recall an article in the New Scientist: Hot-wired piano tunes itself

http://www.newscientist.com/

news/news.jsp?id=ns99993143

Jan Webb

I was impressed to read that Alan Haddington had rebuilt one of our mid 19th century Cabinet pianos but I doubt whether a program would help in tuning it. Such programs have been tried but have not been as successful as the human ear since they do not allow for the vagaries of the individual instrument. If Mr Haddington would like some help I would gladly put him in touch with a tuner who is an expert in early instruments and who maintains our collection.

Geoffrey Simon, Chairman-John Broadwood & Sons Ltd

GOLF SCORES

Could anyone please help me with a formula or otherwise to select automatically the best score on each hole over a given number of rounds of golf i.e. an eclectic competition?

Paul Lawry, via email

I work out eclectic golf scores using the minimum function in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.  The column headings (row 1) are the dates of the golf rounds, the rows (2 to 19) below are named 1, 2, 3, ... , 18, for the holes.  Each day's round is then entered in the appropriate column.  Rounds not played can be left blank.  The final column is then for the best score on each hole using the minimum function.  For example:

=MIN(B2:Z2)

for all scores in row 2 up to column Z.  Blanks are ignored.  Repeat for rows 3 to 19.  The built-in help features suggest a maximum of 30 scores can be used but in practice the limit seems to be much greater (I'm up to column EJ and still going strong). The final column can be totalled in the usual Excel way. Excel can also be used to work out average scores, average over par and consequently effective stroke index.

Andrew Whittle

I have used MS Excel to do this for 70 players over a golfing year:

Column A = Date; Columns B through S = Holes 1 to 18; Column T = Totals

Totals uses formula: =SUM(B3:S3)

Use the lines to enter date and scores for each hole

Bottom Line enters formula for each hole number: =MIN(B3:B16) allowing room for 14 matches. Repeat the table for each individual golfer. I then use Paste Special to copy the Bottom Line to a Table in a separate Worksheet to summarise each players' Minimum Scores for each hole played during the season, complete with total. The table is then sorted by Total to select the best score for the season.

Ken Goode

Anyone intending to create a program to manage a golf eclectic competition is taken on an interesting job.  However, finding the lowest of a set of numbers (scores for each hole) is the very least of their problems!  All spreadsheet software will have this basic operation among the many useful tools provided, and to go about this task in any other way other way would be unthinkable.

I produced a program for my Golf club using Microsoft Excel a few years ago, which has proved successful, and includes such features as automatically allocating handicap strokes according to the stroke index of each hole, and in the case of equal final scores for two or more players, carries out a countback over the last 9,6,3,2 &1 holes.  Printout of intermediate results is available, and different colour used to highlight birdies, eagles, etc., gold for a hole-in-one!

Terry Cowell

HERITAGE INTERVIEWS

I run a Heritage website (www.woodborough-heritage.org.uk) and an associated Heritage Data Group, the Group has about 40 important interviews of local people, each interview lasts between 30 and 60 minutes. They are on a mixture of cassette tape and mini CD's, we wish to transcribe them as soon as possible, but the time of an audio typist is expensive and for us to do it is very time consuming. Can anyone recommend any software or hardware that will either do the job or assist in doing the job?

J Hoyland via email

Get a free copy of IBM Via voice from a cover disc, or even buy it. It might take input from the line-in but if it does not then put the mike near your tape player's speaker. No doubt it will be a hassle to get it running but the main answer is there.

Brian Gilbert, Hampton, Middx

WINEWARE

Can anyone recommend software suitable for recording the contents of a wine cellar?

Richard Jewson, via email

It may interest you to know that our sister company Private Reserves offers an on-line cellar management service to its customers. Using a password and login ID, customers are able to access their wine reserves on-line, view tasting notes from commentators like Jancis Robinson, Robert Parker, Clive Coates etc, see original cost prices, current market values and drinking dates. For more information go to www.goedhuis.com and follow the links to 'my wine

reserves'.

Richard Weetch

CHURCH PRESENTATION

We are seeking assistance with regard to the use of PowerPoint (or similar) in our Church where we currently use three hymnbooks: Methodist Hymns & Psalms, URC Rejoice & Sing and Songs of Fellowship (all of which are rather bulky).

Is there readily available commercial software that would enable us to display the words (and numbers) of hymns from each of the three hymnbooks for use by members of the congregation?

The Choir will require the use of music editions of all three hymn books, could the words and music also be displayed for them? Have any readers tackled (and solved) similar problems or have experience or advice for sourcing such a system for a Church with around 500 members; any help would be much appreciated and acknowledged.

Ray Mackintosh, Music Co-ordinator, Trinity Church (Methodist/U.R.C.) Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 3BT

We are a UK reseller of 'EasyWorship' Presentation software, which like PowerPoint can display song words, but unlike PowerPoint is designed specifically for Church use. In brief, it can display song words, bible verses and even PowerPoint presentations. You can also display images and video under the words. You can import the whole of the Songs of Fellowship songbook easily! There is a 30-day version available for download. www.easyworship.co.uk

Andrew Hearn, Kingdom Vision Audio

BRIDGE SCORES

I thought it would be easy to produce my own Bridge Scoring Cards using tables but it all seems to go wrong for me. Can anyone help?

Derek Withey, Wirral

I have at various times printed scorecards for rubber bridge and Chicago.  For duplicate bridge I have also produced scorecards, travellers, and movement instructions with round-by-round schedules. In all cases I use a spreadsheet rather than a word processor to prepare the layout. Currently I use the MS Works spreadsheet, which came free of charge with my PC, and I find that the control of cell borders via the drop-down menus enables me to get some very

attractive results.

J.W.Gale

CAN YOU HELP?

Whilst trying to convince my 12-year old 'know-all' granddaughter that there was nothing new under the sun I pointed out that many years ago, long before computers and mobile phones, we used a form of shorthand Text Messaging on Telex machines to 'chat' to other Telex users but I couldn't for the life of me remember any examples. Can anyone help me out, to prove to her that I'm not going senile?

Pru Stevens, via email

In view of the current international situation I wonder if anyone knows of a source of inexpensive Geiger counters?

J. Delaney, via email

I am a very mature part-time student, trying to find a free or cheap software program that will carry out statistical analysis for variables that may occur in a questionnaire, and to be able to complete the analysis using percentages, bar charts etc.  There is one extremely good and comprehensive program called SPSS that is the domain of Sheffield Hallam University, but the licence will only last as long as you are a student there and they relieve you of about £25 each year for the licence.

Paul Farndon, via email