Echo-cho-ho-ho-ho-o-o-o-o~~~~~~~~~~

[Alan R. Barnard]

Proven on-the-spot solutions for the tuner in high reverb environments:

1. Use 79 1/2 cans of Gillette Foamy to create a large foam bubble encasing
you and the piano.

2. Use ear plugs covered by ear defenders filled with cotton and hum while
you work. Use a Sanderson or Yamaha and just "stop the lights" like all the
deaf tuners do.

3. Roll the piano outside under a shade tree. Tune it. Roll it back.

4. Get inside the piano--with the lid closed--and quietly tune it by
plucking the strings.

5. Call in sick.

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@cox.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2002 6:37 PM
Subject: Echo-cho-ho-ho-ho-o-o-o-o~~~~~~~~~~


Had an interesting tuning appointment yesterday morning. A small church
congregation had built a VERY much bigger facility, and were chasing the
more pressing finishing touches getting ready for their grand opening
tomorrow. Their Yamaha C-6 had been moved into the sanctuary about a week
ago, and my mission was to tune it and the new P-22 in the even newer choir
room. No Problem. It's what I do.

The sanctuary turned out to be about a half-acre, octagonal,
concrete-walled echo chamber. It wouldn't have mattered where the piano was
put with eight reflective wall surfaces at 45° from one to the next.
Anywhere in the room was nearly equally as bad as anywhere else. The echo
effect was unusual and bizarre too, not at all like the usual annoying
"rifle shot" and diminishing ricochets I'm used to fighting everywhere. Oh
no, not this one. For the first couple of seconds, there was a general
continual (no pulse or ricochet) sound at the same pitch as the note
struck, which gradually lost volume, clarity, and organization over the
next five seconds or so, and finally died in a sudden total disorganization
that sounded like a grubby buzz. Brown noise, very unpleasant. It reminded
me of multiple generation Xerox copies that lose clarity, resolution, and
detail with each generation, still being mostly recognizable until finally,
one copy looks like a Jackson Pollock Rorschach that someone cleaned fish
on. That was the buzz that finally killed the sound abruptly in phase
cancellations. At least that's what I thought it sounded like. An extremely
strange sound. The interesting thing was that it acted like a sort of
extended super duplex! A very lively one. I got beats from the echo when I
changed the pitch of a string, but the sustain was fantastic! I was getting
three+ seconds from C-8 putting my finger on the string immediately after
striking it. The mid-tenor was good for over seven seconds with all the
dampers down immediately after striking a note. You can't get that sort of
response most places, tuned duplex or not. Fortunately, about ten minutes
into the tuning, someone started vacuuming in the hall, and I had a
familiar enough acoustical point of reference to finish up without severe
psychological damage.

The lady who set the appointment said the choir was becoming dangerously
depressed trying to practice in there where they couldn't tell who was
singing what when, and from which direction. I suggested she advertise for
a basso profundo and break out the Gregorian chant sheet music. Heck, I'd
even attend the service for that. She said she was seriously considering it.

I'm told a high-dollar acoustical engineer's disaster recovery team are
coming in a couple of weeks to try and conjure up a fix that doesn't
involve going back in time and shooting the architect before the thing was
built. I hope they get it under control before the Fall tuning, but I
expect it's going to be expensive. I can hardly wait to see what they do.

Another day in tuning land.
Ron N