brightness of Steinways

[Newton Hunt]

Voicing is a matter of taste, just like food is.

A couple of issues, the brighter a piano the narrower the dynamic
range.

At the other extreme the softer the tone the narrower the dynamic
range.

Hammers need two elements, resilience and elasticity.  Resilience to
be compressed when hitting the strings and elasticity to push off the
string to raise the string higher and to move out of the way to allow
the string to vibrate.  The lover the hammer is on the string the less
intense the higher harmonics and visa versa.

Power and projection are best attained in the middle range between
dull and bright.

Hammers change after voicing for several days or even weeks.  Some
hardeners take months to stabilize.  What you have today will NOT be
what you have next week.  So wait a while.

Voicing is the final operation after regulation and it is not just
hardening or softening hammers, those are the end stages of voicing. 
First and foremost the hammers must mute each string in a unison when
it is lifted to contact the strings and the strings are plucked with
the dampers off the string.  If this is not the case then no amount of
"voicing" will get you a good sound.

Personally I find the typical Asian piano sound obnoxious and very non
music.

Voicing must be done with the desires of the customer, the environment
of the piano, the capabilities of that instrument in mind at all times
and it is an involves extremely complex interactions of all those
elements and soundboard response, sustain, decay and musicality as
well as other factors, concrete, objective and subjective.

Just my not so humble opinion.

		Newton J. Hunt, RPT (1965)
		Rutgers University Keyboard Specialist, retired
		New Jersey