Selecting Bells (and Towers) for Ringing

A Choice of Towers

The bells used for Virtual Belfry were the original eight bells of St. David's Cathedral in Hobart, Australia (since augmented). Prior to version 1.4 this ring of eight was the only choice offered. It still is, but with a little tweaking (cloning the 2nd and 3rd bells on screen) the eight bells have been turned into a "virtual ten", providing new options for choice of bells. You can "see the join", but only if you look carefully!

As well as a conventional ten-bell tower there is also a special option tuned and configured to resemble as closely as possible Worcester Cathedral's unique harmonic minor ten. With the bells half-muffled and ringing whole-pull changes (as they are by default when first installed), the sound is quite haunting.

Selecting a Tower

You can choose a tower at any time via menu options:

These two new ten-bell options must be installed separately before they become available to Virtual Belfry. For new users they can be found on the CD in a folder called "Towers". For owners of pre-1.4 CDs the new towers can be downloaded from the website. For more details about obtaining and installing these new towers, see the download page.

Selecting Bells

Most often you will want to ring all ten, all eight, or some other obvious combination of bells. These common choices are available on a menu (or via the tool-bar):

When you choose an option, the appropriate bells will be raised ready for ringing and any others that happen to be raised will be lowered. (Raising and lowering in this context is a dramatic and deliberate departure from reality - it happens quickly and smoothly.)

As well as the standard choices available on the above menu, one or two additional choices are available on the "Other" sub menu. But you can also choose any arbitrary combination of bells. To raise (or lower) a specific bell, just click on it (or on the rope).

You can find out which bell is which by holding the mouse over a bell (or rope) for a second or so until its identity is revealed.

(You can turn these tips off by choosing the appropriate preference.)

With the bells of your choice raised, you are ready to start ringing.