Tuned front duplexes

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phillip L Ford" <fordpiano@lycos.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: November 08, 2001 12:00 AM
Subject: Re: Tuned front duplexes



Thanks, Phil, for bringing this up. I've been kind of pondering the question
this afternoon and found myself increasingly bothered by this whole issue.
Specifically, the idea that the piano must 'project' out to fill an
auditorium way bigger than it was ever intended to accommodate and filled
with way more people than can comfortably hear and enjoy the performance
regardless of what that 'projection' does to the musicality of the
instrument. Perhaps it's time to put a Wal-Mart keyboard up there with a
gazigawatt amplifier and umpteen dozen speakers and be done with it. Surely
it wouldn't sound much worse than some of the poor pianos that have been
stretched way beyond their limits.


>
> What constitutes 'projection' is an interesting question for which I don't
> really have an answer, even though I'm the one who cavalierly tossed out
> the term.  If pressed I guess I would say tonal content that allows the
piano
> to be heard over the output of an orchestra or a bit of extra power or
volume
> that allows the piano to be heard further back in a large hall (that
definition
> seems sufficiently nebulous).  In any event I think most of us would agree
> that we're talking about something that only applies to a large hall and
this
> situation represents a tiny fraction of the situations in which pianos are
> used.  So the question of whether or not to used a tuned duplex would
> really only apply to a concert piano.  For other pianos, why torture the
> pianist in order to get a little more 'projection'.

Well, you're assuming that this tuned-duplex system actually does improve
that mystical 'projection.' I'm unconvinced. It seems to me--and I've not
done any tests at all to confirm my ideas about this--that 'projection'
depends on a rather percussive attack sound and, while that can be aided by
a precisely tuned duplex, it is more a function of a very hard and/or dense
hammer. But, as you say, why torture the pianist in order to get a little
more 'projection.' It always comes at the expense of sustain and dynamic
range, specifically at the bottom end. The piano loses the softness and
warmth of pianissimo. It becomes simply loud and less loud.


>
> As to whether the
> performer should have the worst seat in the house, that's another
interesting
> question.  Since he is there being paid to do a job and to perform
> for his 'customers' then if a design changes makes things better for the
audience
> and worse for the pianist should it be incorporated?  Maybe.

Then why not simply install a PianoDisk and be done with it. I don't go to
concerts to hear a mechanical performance. I go to see and hear a real live
human, one with emotions and a passion for the music. And, hopefully, some
of that passion will come across during the performance. I don't see how a
performer can get too excited about a performance when the piano sounds like
a tin can and we tell him/her that this is to be expected because the piano
must 'project.'

But then, I find I don't go to very many concerts these days that are held
in large auditoriums. Increasingly, I find them dead and boring and
frustrating. On the other hand, we furnish a piano for a small recital room
that holds about 50 to 65 people where I've enjoyed some of the most
exciting performances in my experience. While the performers may not be
World Class Pianists by most traditional definitions they are real people
who are in love with their music and passionate about their performances.


>
> I think we already expect them to make some accommodations, such as
> limiting dynamic range on the low end so that the sound will 'project'
into
> a large hall and to use a piano that is perhaps overpowered in, or biased
> towards, the bass end and perhaps has a less responsive action than a
> smaller piano.  If they also have to put up with a little noise perhaps
that
> comes with the territory.

And then we wonder why their performances are sometimes mechanical. And it's
the main reason why I no longer worry about achieving a high level of
'power' in a given piano. Power will take care of itself. I'm much more
concerned with the dynamic range and the bottom end performance.


>
> I think we have created an untenable situation with a concert hall that
> holds thousands of people.  It's pretty hard to have an intimate musical
> experience with an artist when he's seated several hundred feet away.
> If we didn't insist on having recitals and concerts in spaces the size of
> football fields we wouldn't need to design pianos to fill them up.

I think you're right. I wonder just what the optimum size for an auditorium
is considering the realistic performance potential of the modern piano. By
that I mean one that is not stretched beyond its musical limits simply for
the sake of 'projection.' I would guess one seating around 500 to 750. But,
again, I've done no definitive tests on this. Just some observations.

Del