spectral width

[Richard Moody]

I read with great interest some of what is on Alex Galembo's web site.

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| http://www.geocities.com/galembo  Differences between upright and grand
pianos

We synthesized twelve E1 piano-like tones differing by both spectral width
and inharmonicity. Four levels of spectral width were combined with three
levels of inharmonicity. The number of partials and the steps between
ascending values of spectral width were chosen to obtain the same
difference in spectral width produced in two ways: by changing
inharmonicity without changing number of partials, and by changing number
of partials without changing inharmonicity. The synthesized tone that had
minimal spectral width and minimal inharmonicity served as the standard
tone.
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Being ignorant of the term, I would like to know more about spectral width
since the claim that inharmonicity and sw are both important influences in
tone.   An interesting wav file can be downloaded. I thought it was of A0
on an upright, a concert grand and synthesized tone.   The pitch of the
concert  piano sounded much lower than the other two. Or were they E1 and
A0? I was not clear on that.   Illusion or due to stretching?   I noticed
some of Dr Galembo's articles dealing with musical illusion.
A very interesting site.  Especially the mention of a book in progress, a
technical history of the piano.   We are all ears on that one.  Any advance
tidbits?   ---ric




From: Alex Galembo <alex@speech.kth.se>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2002 11:12 AM
Subject: RE: String Tension Calculation


| Hi, Terry,
|
| Two ways.
|
| First, simple - go to
| http://www.geocities.com/galembo_alex/chc3.html
| fill the form:
| 587.3295358  (nonstretched D5, use dot to separate decimals)
| Inharmomicity 0
| semitones 0
| cents 60
| Press "Calculate"
| Receive result :608.0417 Hz
|
| Second: calculate (for examplee, using Excel:
| Freq(D5)*2^(60/1200)
|
| best luck again
|
| Alex
|
| ************
| Alexander Galembo, Ph.D
| Visiting Researcher
| Dept. of Speech, Music and Hearing
| Royal Institute of Technology
| Drottning Kristinas v. 31
| SE-10044, Stockholm
| Sweden
|
| Tel. work 46-8-7907856  home 46-8-7369978 Fax  46-8-7907854
| email: alex@speech.kth.se
| WEB http://www.geocities.com/galembo_alex/
|