Clean unisons

[JIMRPT@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 10/05/2000 11:28:57 PM, John F. wrote:

<<"However, lest anyone should

get the wrong impression of how much, could you clarify and describe the

amount of "outness"?">>

John;
 No I can't even begin to do it! :-(
I found this effect when I was working for a S&S dealer and tuning a goodly 
number of S&S 1098s and S&S models 'S'. In dealing with the inherent 
falseness of the upper scale I discovered that the notes where I could cancel 
the false beats would tend to 'bloom' more than where I could not cancel the 
false beats. Also on those notes where there were no significant false beats, 
and the unisons were tuned "clean", there did not seem to be the same amount 
of 'presence' as in the canceled notes.
 
 I played around with my observations on good quality grands and was able to 
reproduce the effect there as well. I have had numerous conversations with 
some of our tuning luminaries and they say that I am not "bloomy" :-) As you 
have noted below this effect is reproducable.

<<"the sound sort of "expanded" or

"bloomed" as the note was held. After figuring out this was what you meant,

I went back to the totally still, dead-on unisons. There was a slight

difference, but a difference nonetheless. From a musical perspective, the

unisons were better that tiny bit off. There was more life.">>

 John "bloomed" is a very appropiate term here I think. I am not well versed 
enough in the technical side of tuning/tone generation to be able to give 
technical reasons for this.

 Perhaps it can be compared to a block of wood just tall enough to 
comfortably step up onto and then step off the other side...as opposed to a 
block that is wide enough to require a very small intermediate step in 
between stepping up and stepping off.  In both instances you have moved the 
same amount upward and downward but in the second instance you have covered 
more ground in the process and taken slightly more time to do so.

 Perhaps it is the effect of two slightly off unison strings reaching their 
peak at minsculy seperate times each reinforcing the other. Perhaps it is 
this stretching of 'peak' tone time that is responsible for the perception of 
more presence. I don't know the answer and will defer to those who are more 
comfortable with the technical side of this tuning/tone thingee.
  As for "how much" out of unison?  It varies with the instrument but is 
always just verrrrrry tiny. 
  I don't want to give the impression that I use this technique on each and 
every piano I touch. Usually I use it only on those 'problem' notes that 
sometimes rear their ugly head by being flat sounding or dead.
Have I muddied the water sufficiently? :-)
Jim Bryant (FL)