Hi Folks. I have been increasingly intrigued by this whole theme in the past couple years. I feel reasonably sure I have a good handle on the root reasons for the classic false beat, but find myself querried about what I will for now term single string phasing. There seems to be at least 2 sorts... probably more. One seems hammer related and is relatively easily delt with by assuring solid contact between hammer and unisions and uniform hammer felt consistancy. The other is quite obviously non-hammer related in cause and seems to cause sound engineers no end of anguish when present in even very modest degrees. This second type seems at the same time to be a <<desireable>> in small amounts by pianists however... complicates matters quite a bit. The only way I have of addressing this second mentioned type is by changing strings, dressing up capo / aggraffes and bridge point terminations, and then restringing with new string material. Using the old string usually is a bad idea no matter what tricks you use. The sound this kind of phasing makes is typified by a phase like flimmering of the sound ... a kind of sideways beat if you will... one that does not change pitch but only timbre, that dissapears after a half a second or perhaps a bit longer. The sound of the string then flattens out pretty much... but seems a bit thin often enough. Thats my best attempt at a description at any rate. I'm wondering about how others deal with this kind of sound.... and for that matter what kinds of non-classic false beat falseness catagories any of you operate with and what you do about them... how you veiw them. Seems to me like there is a built in conflict between the needs of the acoustic oriented pianist, and the digital oriented sound engineer as to what constitutes good piano sound. And I'd like to look at ways for finding a comfortable middle ground... for not to say common ground. Cheers RicB
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