Musical Soundwaves

[Carl Meyer]

Terry, it might help to look at a piano as a high tension instrument rather than a guitar which is a low tension instrument.  When you bring a piano wire up to pitch it does kind of sound like a guitar when its several notes flat, but notice how it comes alive as it approaches the proper pitch. The high tension is what allows the piano to produce such a high number of partials when struck at the proper distance from one end.  Notice that a guitar sounds different when picked at different distances from the bridge.  The piano is unique in that it is the only stringed instrument (that I can think of) with such awesome tension.

Maybe that is just one more piece of the puzzle.

Carl Meyer  Assoc. PTG
Santa Clara, California
cmpiano@attbi.com  


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: Musical Soundwaves


> Interesting responses. Fairly consistent. Thanks to all. I'm surprised its that simple.
> 
> Oboe. Oboe. Oboe. OK, now I know how to spell it (never did hang around orchestras much).
> 
> One further question before I go get a book on the topic. What part of the piano is the greatest influence on its sound? More specifically, to what degree is the soundboard responsible for the piano-like sound pianos make. Even bad pianos with even worse soundboards still sound quite a bit like a piano, maybe a bad piano, but still quite a bit like a piano (you can easily tell it is not a flute). Is it mostly the hammers and strings, or perhaps more likely, it is the hammers, strings, soundboard, rim, etc. - everything combined. This may seem like a dumb question, but one response indicated that it seemed that a saxophone (thanks spell checker) sound was largely caused by the mouthpiece rather than the rest of the horn. Is there any chance the soundboard may well play a big role in helping us hear the piano wires (by acting as a transducer), but not actually have a whole lot to do with the "piano sound".
> 
> I'll try and stop asking questions............. if someone can answer the above!  :-)
> 
> Terry Farrell
>   
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Smith" <dsmith941@hotmail.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 9:59 AM
> Subject: Re: Musical Soundwaves
> 
> 
> > Terry, although I am a rookie's rookie as a piano technician, I do have 
> > education and experience in acoustics and engineering, so here is my shot at 
> > your querry.
> > 
> > When different instruments or voices produce the same fundamental tone, they 
> > all differ in many other ways which our ears interpret for us.  For example, 
> > differences in attack (beginning of the sound), release ending of the 
> > sound), frequency content (overtones, etc included in the sound in different 
> > proportions), degree of inharmonicity, vibrato, phasing as it reaches the 
> > two ears, and probably on and on.
> > 
> > Having spent many years workng with frequency and fourier analysers in a 
> > previous life, I noticed that many things can sound indistinguishable from 
> > each other, if you filter out the attack and just listen at a filtered 
> > fundamental frequency.  It is all the other "small" things that make all the 
> > difference.
> > 
> > Hope this helps without offending due to my simplistic thoughts.  Somewhere 
> > in my moldering boxes of books is a rigorous explanation which I would be 
> > happy to dig out if no one else fills that need.
> > 
> > Dave Smith
> > 
> > 
> > >From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> > >Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> > >To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> > >Subject: Musical Soundwaves
> > >Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 09:10:24 -0400
> > >
> > >Why does a flute sound like a flute? Why does an obo sound like an obo? Why 
> > >does a guitar sound like a guitar? And last, but certainly not least, why 
> > >does a piano sound like a piano?
> > >
> > >Does anyone have a simplistic explanation for what is the cause of unique 
> > >sounds/tones among various instruments? If you play A4 at a pitch of 440 Hz 
> > >on any instument, you will hear the pitch of 400 Hz. But they will all 
> > >sound different. So I guess they all do something different to the 
> > >soundwave that reaches your ear. What is that difference? How does a 
> > >speaker reproduce these differences of they only move in and out?
> > >
> > >Thanks for any thoughts.
> > >
> > >Terry Farrell
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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>