More CC vs RC questions was RE: Killer Octave & Pitch Raise

[Sarah Fox]

Hi David,

> So then, if I understand what you are saying, how do you (or anyone
> else) imagine that the balance between the fundamental and partials
> might be affected by CC versus RC&S?  Might the RC&S tend to produce a
> stronger fundamental with weaker overtones?

I suspect that with the right hammer voicing, the sound of the attack would 
be very similar, with the difference in sound becoming more apparent as the 
note sustains -- with the CC board's sound becoming darker faster.  (But 
again, I'm speculating, not having had the chance to hear CC vs. RC/S on 
similar pianos in the same room.)

Regarding your second question...  If the RC/S board doesn't require as 
bright a hammer to produce sparkly highs, perhaps the voicing technician has 
more latitude to voice the hammer to emphasize the fundamentals.  The result 
of the RC/S design may well be a richer sound spectrum.  Of course that 
would be my apriori assumption about any design that is more efficient.  In 
answer to your question, I suspect an RC/S board would be more capable of 
producing whatever tonal qualities the voicing technician wished to achieve, 
whether it is a darker sound (stronger fund. and weak overtones) or a 
brighter sound (weak fund. and strong overtones).  My point was/is that the 
more rapid changes in spectral content throughout a note's sustain on a CC 
board might result in a desirable expressive quality to that design.

When considering the efficiency of board design, I immediately think back to 
that steel soundboard I heard in the 5 lessons (???) series.  That board of 
course was a very efficient design, so much so that the treble notes rang 
like bells, while the bass had a rich, brooding quality.  It was an 
interesting instrument, to be sure!  However, it didn't sound entirely like 
a piano.  There comes a point that we depart so much from an established 
design that the sound is no longer identifiable with the parent instrument, 
and the expressive qualities and distinctive tonal properties of that 
instrument are lost.  I don't believe that is the case with the RC/S board, 
but I am suggesting that we *might* (heavy emphasis on this word) be taking 
a very tiny step in a direction that loses some of the expressiveness we 
enjoy in the piano.  That step may well be in the direction of what we would 
like to have in a different sort of instrument -- perhaps the next 
generation in the piano family -- more melodic, less percussive.  I would 
really love the opportunity, some day, to see the finest of both worlds side 
by side in the same room -- to better understand their relative merits.

I have no crystal ball, and I have no idea where piano evolution will take 
us.  I just hope/pray it's not in the direction of uniformity (as it was 
with the violin).  More than any other instrument, the piano has a 
"personality" and a "soul."  If people were all the same, they would be 
incredibly boring; the same holds for the piano!

Peace,
Sarah