Conducting

Conducting

As well as ringing a pre-configured touch, Abel lets you call bobs and singles (and other calls), and method changes, whilst it is ringing. This lets you practise conducting.

To call a bob during the ringing, click on the Bob icon or press 'A'. This will cause a bob to be called at the next calling position. If you decide you didn't mean that, then press 'A' again (or click Bob) before the call is made, and it will be cancelled. You also cancel a call by pressing 'P' (for plain) or clicking on the Plain icon.

Similarly, for a Single, click on Single or press ';'.

Call X and Call Y (X and Y keys respectively) are special calls that you can configure to do what you want - extremes in doubles, half-lead singles in Surprise, or red bobs, blue bobs or pink singles. See Methods and Compositions for more detail.

You can also make calls by using external switches connected to the PC running Abel. This is particularly useful when you have external bells connected to the PC, such as in the tower.

Spliced

If you want to call spliced, make sure that the method collection contains all the methods you want to include in your touch, and that you have selected a generic composition such as Plain Courses. Then all you have to do to call method changes is double-click on the method name you want. If it isn't the method you are currently ringing, Abel will call a change of method at the next calling position.

It is also possible to mix manual splices into a composition that includes all the desired methods, with some restrictions. See Compositions.

As an alternative to double clicking the method list, you can change to one of the first 8 methods in the list by pressing keys 1 to 8. There are some small marks beside the method list to help you see which are the first 8 methods. If you've got a lot of methods in the method collection, make sure you haven't scrolled the method list, giving a wrong impression of which are the first 8! If the methods you want aren't in the first 8, you can add a composition that specifies the first method, then many plain leads, then the remaining methods: when you select this composition, only the specified methods appear in the method window, and Abel will leave all the calling to you.