Voicing for a big, dead hall

[Richard Brekne]

You might take a look at how heavy the hammers are. I know there is a 
lot of back and forths on this subject, but as far as my experience 
takes me there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that heavyier hammers 
impart more carrying power to an instrument. If you have light 
hammers... say hammers on a munber 7 curve... then its likely you will 
have problems getting that big boomy sound that has the brilliance and 
fullness you want.

If thats the case... a nice little experiment is to temporarilly add 
about 1 gram of mass per hammer via those clips that Pianotek sells with 
Stanwood kits. Attach and ask folks to play and listen in different 
parts of the hall.

Otherwise, as Andre and others have alluded to... you are after anything 
else that can increase power.  Closer letoff, deeper dip, longer blow 
distance are contributors to this... with all the tradeoffs  implied.  
:) Andre has a cute trick with back checks that somehow increases the 
fullness of the sound... but I'll let him get into that.

Cheers
RicB

Barbara Richmond wrote:

> Hi all,
>  
> In the past I successfully voiced a couple of (New York) Steinway Ds 
> for a small, somewhat dead, concert hall.  It was pretty routine 
> during my career (before my maternity leave) for me to find Steinway 
> hammers that were *generously* lacquered, with no give in the 
> shoulders.  Fortunately, I managed to soften the shoulders a bit, get 
> some sustain and produce a nice responsive tone that every one seemed 
> to like--well, nobody complained and folks liked to record there. 
>  
> Now I am faced with a "whole nuther" situation---a really big, 
> cavernous, suck up the sound sort of hall.  What does it take to reach 
> the back of a place like this (besides redesigning the hall).  I was 
> thinking perhaps a brighter attack than I usually go for, still 
> keeping the give on the shoulders--after all, adequate sustain should 
> help (shouldn't it?).  A local tech, whose concept of tone is a bit 
> different than mine, once told me that you have to have that granite 
> sound to carry. 
>  
> What's your experience? 
>  
> Thanks.
>  
> Barbara Richmond, RPT
> Peoria Chapter