In a message dated 25/06/02 8:24:38 PM, tito@philbondi.com writes: << I'm assuming that you all are talking about tactile and touch in a Grand Piano..do you think it would work for a vertical also? >> Phil........... concepts such as heavy/light, loud/soft, deep/shallow, hard/soft, sharp/subtle, out of tune/in tune are all matters of perception without objective standards to apply to these quantifiers...... If you have learned nothing else it should be that the piano industry is bereft of truly objective standards beyond 88 notes do a thingee make. (there are even a few exceptions to that!) Carrying that thought further, and in to the tech realm, the matter of perception plays such a huge role in our trade that we overlook it at our peril. While Ed F. is correct in what he says, he is missing the point of "feel" in this instance I think............. Yes there 'is' a different feel for a hard hammmer returning off of a string and this 'can' be felt in the keystick...IF the action is fairly optimally regulated. Yes there 'is' a different feel for a soft hammer returning off of a string and this 'can' be felt in the keystick. While not nearly as pronounced in a vertical as in a grand it 'probably' could be felt if one were attuned to looking/feeling for it...I don't know, I have never tried it with a vertical.............. Can you tell that 'minor' voicing changes have been accomplished by the "feel" in a keystick? Of course not, probably, IMO. Can you tell that relatively 'major' voicing changes have been made from the feel in the keystick? Yes you can...... Is it possible to tell the gross condition of a set of hammers, without touching the hammers themselves, by simply playing a thingee and feeling the feedback through the keystick...yes it is.... in my opinion..... Another way to look at this thingee is.....if someone had told you three years ago that you would be relying on touch/feel in your regulation work as much, if not more than, specs would you have believed them??? As for muting out sound and telling anything about the quality of a note, hardness of a hammer.... I don't know, but didn't Beethoven do a fairly decent job of it? :-) Clear? or have I muddied things more?? Jim Bryant (FL)
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