Partial Pitch Drop

Richard Brekne Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
Tue, 13 Mar 2001 20:24:09 +0100


List

Was tuning a Steinway C today and managed to put my finger, or
ear as it twere, on something thats been bothering me for a long
time. I think all this talk about pitch drop, and other string
anomolies that made it finally gel. Course I cant be hundred
percent sure but it sounded like there was definate drop in pitch
for just one (or at least in particular) one partial for several
notes in a row in the killer octave area. Let me be a bit more
specific...

Tuning octaves as usual, I reached C6 I think and then I noticed
that playing against C5 I could definatly hear the beating of the
4:2 get faster and faster as the string energy dissapated. At the
same time the 2:1 didnt seem to change at all.. Took me a second
or two to define exactly what was going on but when I did I could
quickly hear and identify the same thing for 10 - 12 notes in the
area.

So what I am wondering then is this... is it possible for this
pitch drop phenomena to affect only one partial, or perhaps
affect each partial a bit differently, even perhaps leaving one
or more partial uneffected ?

One last thing... I only noticed this affect in the so called
killer octave area, tho I will pay a bit attention in the nearest
few days to see if I can get a handle on this in other areas.



--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no




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