Special E

I have a standard moka, and I've run out of coffee, so I'll be off to buy some shortly. I'm wondering if the moka take medium-coarse coffee, as well as if it would take course or fine. What is the best consistency for the coffee beans to be ground to?

Thanks for any answers, I need my caffeine fix soon.

Hi,

I'm trying to build a 30 minute recital around Wolf's 'Michelangelo Lieder' (10 minutes long), but it's proving surprisingly difficult to find appropraite pieces.

Here are the criteria:

1) My range is about F#2 to F#4, with my most comfortable and resonant area around B2 to F3. The tessitura should not be above C4.

2) The songs will preferably be longer pieces, or serious repertoire. Songs above 3 minutes are especially good, and more 'beefy' repertoire or sets/ cycles of songs are best.

3) I am especially looking for songs in Italian and English.

4) No serialism or absolute atonality please. Thank you so much if you can help. I realise it's a very specific question, but that's precisely why it's so difficult to look it up myself.

Thank you so much for any answers. It's a very specific question but that's precisely why I'm asking here.

I am interested in how consciously composers like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven would have written pieces in sonata form, and whether they wrote any treatises or descriptions of their pieces that approach a modern understanding of sonata form (i.e. exposition, theme one in tonic, theme two in dominant, development, recapitulation).

It's highly likely they would be aware of common sonata form features in sonatas, but did they actually acknowledge it?

Thanks for any answers, it is quite hard to find any useful information on this online but apologies if a similar question has already been asked.

Hi,

My brother would like a change in scenery and wants to go scuba diving somewhere warm and not too crowded. It would be helpful if they offered good facilitys for beginners, and a website that can tell you approximate water temperatures for the time of year would be really helpful.

Thanks for any help.

I might be buying an OEM Radeon HD 7870, so I would be overclocking it myself and don't trust whatever cooling might or might not come with it (and it will probably be loud). So what are your recommendations for some good, quiet cooling that can take some gentle overclocking on the card?

Hi,

I've been rethinking the purchase of a Gigabyte 7770 (£93) GPU for a new desktop and wondering if it is powerful enough.

The card should still be in the refund period and the box is unopened. So I was wondering what you thought of this HD 7870 (£155.40): http://i.ebayimg.com/t/AMD-Radeon-HD-787%E2%80%A6

It looks unbranded to me, which is weird and frankly I don't understand, so any explanations would be appreciated. Also, do you think the performance increase is worth the 65% price increase for casual gaming?

Hi,

I've been rethinking the purchase of a Gigabyte 7770 (£93) GPU for a new desktop and wondering if it is powerful enough.

The card should still be in the refund period and the box is unopened. So I was wondering what you thought of this HD 7870 (£155.40): http://i.ebayimg.com/t/AMD-Radeon-HD-7870-OEM-2-GB...

It looks unbranded to me, which is weird and frankly I don't understand, so any explanations would be appreciated. Also, do you think the performance increase is worth the 65% price increase for casual gaming?

I was wondering if there is much difference between two 24x DVD drives which seem to offer the same thing, but one costs £10 more. Does the more expensive one read data more accurately, or write data better? Would sound quality from it be better?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plextor-PX-891SA-Super-Int...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009DF373A/ref=...

The Asgard case says it can accomodate "up to 160mm tall side-blow tower coolers" (I think this means CPU coolers):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xigmatek-CCC-AD34BT-U01-As...

The Be Quiet Shadow Rock Pro SR1's dimensions are: 98 x 122 x 158 mm (WxHxD):http://www.scan.co.uk/products/be-quiet!-shadow-ro...

The Be Quiet Shadow Rock 'Top Flow' SR1's dimensions are: 137 x 171 x 100 mm (WxHxD):http://www.scan.co.uk/products/be-quiet!-shadow-ro...

So I'm basically confused whether the height or depth is the important dimension here, and thus don't which fans will fit.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could clarifiy this for me, so thanks for any answers.

Hi,

I am undecided between two desktops:

A USED desktop for £239 (I think it has a Windows operating system):

RAM 2GB, 1600 Mhz

A 64GB SSD

A 160GB 7,200 RPM SATA HDD

Asus P8 Z68-V LX Motherboard (quite a good one but lacks PCI 3)

PSU: Cooler Master 460W

A DVD drive

Case: Gigabyte Midi-Tower ATX

I would want to upgrade it with: 1TB HDD (same as below): £50

GPU (upper entry level/ lower middle range, maybe used): ~£60

8GB of 1333mhz RAM: £30 (CPU can't handle above 1333Mhz)

And add a sound card I already own

So the upgraded price is £380.

OR build my own desktop (out of NEW components) for about £630 (including operating system):

CPU: i7 3770k

RAM: 8GB 1600mhz

HDD: 1TB 64MB cache 7,200 RPM

GPU: Gigabyte HD 7770 (decent mid-range graphics card)

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77 D3SH (basically a better mobo than the other desktop)

Good DVD drive

PSU: Corsair 650W Modular

Case: A fairly cheap one

+ Operating system and my sound card

Which do you think is better value, and do you think building my own desktop for almost double the price is worth the price difference?

This is a big purchase for me, so thanks a lot for any answers.

Hi,

I'm looking to build a fairly decent desktop with these components:

i7 3820

8GB of 'Crucial Ballistix' RAM

WD Caviar Green 1TB HDD

SDD (undecided on which one I'll get)

Gigabyte ATI HD 7770

Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard

Asus Xonar D2X (sound card)

Internal wireless card

DVD-RW drive

What I am unsure about is what case and PSU I should get, or how much power this would need (at the moment I am thinking about 600 watts, but I don't want to buy an insufficient PSU).

Another thing is how much cooling would this need?

Thanks a lot for any answers, I don't have enough experience to understand PSUs.

I tried a few dictionaries but to no avail.

For example, when the conductor wishes to go from rehearsal mark A, should he say 'Let's go from A' or 'Go from A' or 'Can we go from A'. Or when the conductor wants something played clearer, he/ she could say 'We need to make this as clear for the audience as possible', 'Make this as clear for the audience as possible' or 'You need to make this as clear as possible'. I hope the examples make sense.

I am concerned that 'you' would distance the orchestra or imply that the conductor is above them while 'we' may come across as patronising or reducing the conductor's authority.

This question may seem pedantic but it is an annoying issue for me.

If the next paragraph is too long: In the aria 'Con queste paroline' what are the 'paroline' (little words) the singer is responding to, and an even more basic question: is the singer meant to be Pulcinella, Furbo or another character?

In specific I would llike to know how to approach the piece 'Con queste Paroline' and how it fits in the context of the work. I have a vague idea that Puclinella, a married man, is basically causing trouble by seducing the local women and later must feign his death to appease the locals (then everyone gets married for an oligatory happy ending), but in specific what is this aria about? Plot summaries I have found have not gone into much detail, and the score is still in copyright.

Hi,

I want to write a piece for choir that has to be based on plainchant and has to be suitable for performance during the Easter period.

I only know of one or two suitable plainchants from my experience in choirs (Ego sum Resurrectio and Gloria in Excelsis Deo), and it would be great to know a few more to choose from.

Thanks for any answers!

I would like to compare some melodies to plainchant and see if they are, or bear similarities to, a plainchant.

I would also like to write a piece based on a plainchant other than the ubiquitous 'L'homme armé' and thus would like to look through a collection of plainchant to find a best candidate.

Libraries of plainchant seem the best way to do this, and I was wondering if there were any good ones other than IMSLP.

Hi,

I have noticed a worrying ringing (i.e. possibly mild tinnitis) recently, like the sound a TV emits when turned on with the sound off. I read that if you remove the frequency of sound of the ringing from music you listen to, it can actually reduce that ringing (probably to do with 'recalibrating' the brain).

So I was wondering how I could go about doing that. The best thing I think would be to get some software on my computer which is always active and can filter out the specific frequency of my ringing sound.

Thanks for any answers!

This is an awkward question for me to ask, but I'm no longer a teenager and I've never had a girlfriend or kissed a girl. The only girl I ever asked out (and for whom I ever really felt what might have been love for) said no, though admittedly I did not know her that well. I have been worried for a while now that I will die alone (at my present success rate, I'll die without even having kissed). I'm not asexual.

I want to change this, but I just simply don't have a clue. I used to have a passive attitude and hope that I would just happily fall into a relationship, but now I realise that doesn't work. Frankly, I don't even know if I want a relationship; maybe I just want to feel like someone cares for me and is attracted to me, or I just want to confirm myself that having a relationship is still possible.

I was depressed, shy and focussed on other things at that age when people become interested in the other gender, so I didn't go out much and completely missed out on the social training that comes with that stage of life. I'm not so shy anymore, and don't have any problems talking with women I know.

So, basically, is there a way to learn from the beginning? Are there online guides that might be useful? How would I express attraction to a friend, and how would I express attraction to a stranger in a library or nightclub?

I have already tried searching for the record label, which I think is 'Artone' but gave up trying to find a website. I have tried Amazon sites in other countries, but they offer no more information (though the American site lists the pieces in the boxset).

What I am mainly interested in is when were these recorded, and have they been remastered?

Hi,

I am fairly experienced writing for voice but not opera.

I'm looking for a libretto that I can set for an opera lasting under 20 minutes. If no-one can think of any, what kind of size should a libretto to last 20 minutes be?