Convention musings

[Roger Jolly]

>Well golly Roger this is what I said......isn't it?  Dealing with little 
>pianners with rocks for hammers takes some extraordinary steps sometimes and 
>this Wurlitzer y'all worked on sounds like it was a good candidate.   From 
>all the comments I heard about the improvement of the tone on the thingee
you 
>did good...............but I still say "rough" voicing is just that, 
>"rough"...................

Dang it awl Jim, it's dat Florida accent that had me fooled.

>
>I don't know how you are using this term but tuning 'only' adresses string 
>tensions, therefore pitch. Other factors such as voicing, in all of its 
>various facets, addresses the color or tone of the thingee, be it spinet or 
>grand
 
 The only place and time that the frequency is correct is when you have set
the A440.
As usual you are right and wrong at the same time, I know you hate to be
simple. Big smile.
 
>   Hard hammers excite different partials than do softer hammers but they 
>don't change the tension on a string. Exciting different partials will give 
>the apparent effect of changing pitch but this is a perceptual thingee and 
>not a reality. Is it?? However since we  hear with, and through, perception 
>and not an oscilloscope we need to adjust strings to our perception of them. 

Since we tune all notes to partials and then do some voicing to change
inharmonicity and sustain time. Two things have happened. 1. By changing
the the inharmonicity of the second partial by as much as 1.5cents in the
mid octave, the octave will now have to be tuned less wide. 2. In the
absence of the 2nd partial your ear goes on auto pilot and reverts to the
fundamental, or what ever it fixes on, that is why the bass/tenor
transition causes so many problems.
Calculated inharmonicity is a linear equasion, and assumes a zero contact
time of the driving force. The real time measurements that I have made,
proves that dwell time has a large effect on partial pitch and sustain.
Trying to factor dwell time and energy transfer into the equasion.
What I omited in the class was a deeper explaination with a longer string
of partials at the bass/tenor transition. This area is the Achillies Tendon
of electronic tuning devices and why aural correction is frequently
required in this register. If the voicing is smooth corrections are rarely
needed.

Clear like mud, maybe by next year I will have enough data to publish some
very promising results.
Regards Roger
Roger Jolly
Baldwin Yamaha Piano Centre
Saskatoon and Regina
Saskatchewan, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505