Stretching the Treble

[Dean May]

From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Susan Kline
Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 1:24 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Stretching the Treble

At 12:19 AM 7/24/2005 -0400, David Andersen wrote:
>and that great players &
>appreciators can hear.

They don't exactly say HOW or even WHAT they are hearing, but
they certainly do seem to respond. I think that they like round,
warm, even unisons and musical octave stretches, but I can't prove
that's what's making them happy. I'm just content that _something_
is.

Susan 


I've got a pretty powerful stereo system in my van with a couple of 12
inch subwoofers. I've installed lots of stereos over the years and
always been careful to hook up the phasing correctly (positive to
positive, etc) but it becomes very critical on a system that is powerful
where you are trying to build sound pressure levels. If you get a
speaker out of phase you can get loudness, but not sound pressure. It's
a whole different experience.

Several months ago there was quite a discussion on different kinds of
well temperaments. Somebody posted a link to a site of a guy who was
promoting a particular temperament and he had recordings of the same
piece played on the same instruments tuned to different temperaments. I
felt the difference was something akin to what I experience when a
speaker is out of phase on my stereo. With the well tempered scales it
was a much fuller and richer tone. The harmonics were building on one
another and complimenting each other, not clanging for their own
attention. 

I think this is what the artists you are talking about, Susan, are
experiencing. A good tuning, even if it is not well tempered, brings the
harmonics more back in line with each other than on an out of tune
piano. 

Dean