The Last Post Game!!!!

[Swatopluk]

At my university ether has more or less disappeared from the labs and we had to use MTBE (methyl-^tertbutyl-ether). Not only does the stuff stink like rotten eucalyptus but it is near impossible to get a Grignard reaction started in it.
About drug production, one organic chemistry workgroup got into some trouble when they ordered a barrel of acetic anhydride. They simply wanted to save some money since before that they bought it by the bottle, which is far more expensive. It was a nasty surprise when the police showed up. None of them knew that the stuff was used in cocaine production too.

Before national reunion there was another thing few chemists at university (in West Berlin) would have known about. Any purchase of compounds containing Lithium needed clearance from the Allied Control Council. Why? Lithium deuteride is the stuff going bang in H bombs. I guess heavy water, HEU and plutonium were also controlled substances

Last _{if US college kids can build nukes as a science project, then some German eggheads should be able too} Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Last _{chemistry as simulation only?} Post

[Griffin NoName]

Sneaking in early to get the

Last Post

[Swatopluk]

Last _{chemistry as simulation only?} Post

Sooner or later it will come to that.

Last Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Not much chance of casual discovery that way.

Last _{or is it?} Post

[Swatopluk]

Drug companies do a lot of their research these days by simulation because the number of potential compounds is simply too big. Only after a long process of elimination will actual synthesis take place.

Last _{admittedly ASS would never become a candidate today} Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

As long as the simulation can manage impurities correctly...

Last * Post

*I had this discussion with a pianist friend in music school who also studied Electronic Engineering, and we argued if it was possible to create accurate electronic versions of instruments. He said that it would never be the same, to which I generally agreed although I argued that that would be true until accurate simulation models were developed. If you can do the physics simulation of the vibration of the air in the instrument and control the variables at play is to be expected that the wave generated by the simulation be the same as in the real instrument.

There is the problem of the speakers, of course, as most of those aren't accurate enough, but I once saw some very sophisticated ones made about 15 years ago that started to come close to the real thing.

[Swatopluk]

It already works for church organs. We had a demonstration over here when the decision had to be made either to repair the old one or to get a new one. The one demonstrated was based on existing German organs but could be tuned. So the sound was at least partially artificial but none present would have been able to tell that from the sound alone. The sound was sharper than that of the old organ but that has little to do with the question of real or simulated. Had this one been installed the speakers would have been placed behind the pipe prospect of the old which would have probably muffled the sound a bit bringing it closer to the tone of the old.
Before the demonstration I was extremly sceptical, afterwards I was not anymore.

Last Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Synthesis for pipe organs is quite advanced and the wave form is relatively simple so it makes sense, besides in concert halls where there are no pipe organs, works that require them (say, Saint Saens symphony) use a synth.

Last _{with reed, mouthpiece, or worse bow instruments synthesis becomes far more complicated} Post

[Swatopluk]

I think strings are the most difficult since the colour of the tone is highly dependent on the way the instrument is played. upstroke v. downstroke, fast or slow movement of the bow etc.
I see far less variations in wind instruments and I think even those are for the most part relatively simple in physical terms.

Last _{except the overblow in flutes} Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

You can manipulate lots of things with the mouthpiece, or the different reeds you use in winds. With a flute the embouchure can do lots of things. Even in a recorder you can change color, and add vibrato according to how you use the column of air.

Last ^{whatever simulation it needs to allow for the subtle variations made while playing a real instrument} Post

[Swatopluk]

I still think that the variations for wind instruments are 'easier' and more regular than for strings. Vibratos are regular and therefore not a real problem
Again there are certain playing techniques for the flute that would be difficult to simulate but they usually do not occur in classical European music (but are very common e.g. in Japan).

Last _{I am the last one to underestimate the recorder} Post

[Griffin NoName]

Last _{the great recorder in the sky is noting your every thought} Post

[Swatopluk]

Last _{and one day we will have to pay the piper} Post

Edit: Some cake with that?
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2011/07/overselling-it.html

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Last _{weren't coins for the trip on Charon's barge?} Post