Narrow vs. Stretch

Richard Brekne Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
Wed, 20 Mar 2002 21:48:17 +0100


Jon Page wrote:

> At 07:57 PM 3/19/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> >I had lots of time and quiet today to narrowly tune a Baldwin L. I for one
> >like to open the 'window' as far as it will go. I was trying to hear
> >"bloom".<snip>
> >
> >Can someone describe 'bloom' to me?
> >
> >I really want to hear this.
> >
> >Phil
>
> Phil,
> Bloom in not a product of tuning, it is the production of the tonal
> spectrum by the
> hammer. Hammers need to be voiced properly to produce this unfolding of tone.
> A dead or poor sounding board will not allow its development.

Hmmm... I dunno Jon... I find that on unisons inside the descernable beat range
there is a definant tunable "bloom" like effect.... it matches your description
below to a tee. I find also you can get this to show itself in octaves, 5ths, and
double octaves.  I have been dinking around with this for about a year now both
with what Tunelab can show me and help me do... and with my ears... and I have my
suspicsions about this "bloom" and our friend with the  "natural beat" concept.

Tho no doubt a blooming can also result from hammers being voiced just so.

>
>
> The best I can describe bloom is: Strike a note and allow it to sustain. If
> the tone
> simply decays, there is no bloom. If the sound ethereally lifts and expands
> (partials)
> and wafts through the air as the tone slowly decays then you have bloom.
>
> A few times, I have heard what I can only describe as a low harmonic bloom
> in this tonal wash.
> Perhaps it was caused be the bass string sympathetically vibrating through
> the dampers.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jon Page,   piano technician
> Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass.
> mailto:jonpage@attbi.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html




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