Beltower Bell Ringing Software: Raising and Lowering

You can practise ringing with the whole band or individually, incl. Devon Call Change competition style (ie. raise, ring test piece and lower) either manually or entirely automatically with Beltower making all the calls etc. There are 3 start styles (Immediately, After Count and 1,12,123...), and 7 rates of speed change. A few concessions have been made to help you start as there are no ropes to follow. You can set the first and double strike stages to suit your bells, either from user entries or simply by tenor weight, and there are options for variable signal-strike delays.

Lowering

offers After 3 Miss+Catch, for both ringing with Beltower and Free-Strike modes. The Miss & Catch option is natural/realistic enabling the physical catch, incl. facilities to fine tune the strikes to suit your particular bells, plus optional Add'l Pulls Before Call to allow the striking to settle, and a 4 seconds silence after the catch to allow time for you to stop the bells moving.

After 3 Miss+Catch

Screen Shot 1

shows After 3 Miss & Catch with Beltower's automated ringing and the optionally enlarged font for viewing across the ringing chamber.

Raising

with 'After-Count' Start Style, Beltower will count you in, and in Free-Strike mode there are options for the treble ringer to start the count-in by calling 'One' at the first pull or 'One Two Three' him/herself.

The alternatives, in ringing with Beltower or Free-Strike modes, are either for all bells to start Immediately, subject to the Chiming Intervals, or to be added in sequence ie. 1, 12, 123... without a count. All Start Styles also offer Close together options, avoiding or reducing the overlap when the back-strokes start, and there is now an option for 'Close' Start Styles to be only half as close.

Generally

In Chiming Intervals, the real-time sensor interval is provided for adjusting the settings, and a Chime-As-Sensor option allows you to use the chiming characteristics of other bells.

The ring speed is updated in the status bar, while raising and lowering, in both ringing with Beltower and Free-Strike modes.