Inharmonicity factors and your charts/tables etc.

[Lesher, Trent J.]

Hi again,

It occurred to me to add to my last post that in a larger well-scaled piano the lowest part of the bowl is quite low and centers somewhere around B2 plus or minus a handful of notes, and that's also the center of a heavily used zone and the zone for the most sustained harmonies and underpinnings, so it seems to work out rather nicely for the sound of music!  That might go against the trend of thought that the absolute level of inharmonicity in a region doesn't make much difference, only the smoothness of the curve, but I wonder if in this key range -- say low bass through tenor -- smooth AND lower inharmonicity is fairly important to perceived grandness and euphony of sound.  

The study I quoted in my last post actually seems of kind of limited significance (especially after listening to the samples) considering that just A0 and E1 were used, but it does say frequency-bandwith/amplitude-plot-shape AND inharmonicity are key to perceived quality for the very deep bass, and I wonder how high in the scale the latter remains more or less a signature trait.  

Trent

-----Original Message-----
From: Cy Shuster [mailto:741662027@theshusters.org]
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 9:37 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Inharmonicity factors


Trent,

Your idea is fascinating.  I think some of the best results that this list 
produces (when possible!) comes from standard empirical science: proposing a 
theory to describe Real-World observations, and testing it, including 
predictions of results not yet measured.

I've been puzzled by a casual survey of iH readings that I've taken.  I 
thought it would be obvious to spot the difference between a spinet and a 
concert grand, or to otherwise tell a "good" scale from a "bad" one, just by 
the numbers.  (Maybe it *is* possible, and I don't know how; or I've 
measured wrong; help welcomed).

For example, attached are some of the confusingly similar numbers I've 
gathered.  Which of these stick out to you?  Does this match your theory of 
ratios of different elasticity?

--Cy--





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