Jeff, There are tests to help determine which partials you are hearing. I'm assuming you probably know them. The most helpful one for me (for the 3:2 partials) is the M6-M10. Say you're tuning F3-C5. You'd play those two notes with G#2. And you can also "ghost" it to help the ear focus on the correct partials. I'd have to be at a piano to know whether I listen inadvertently to 6:4 partials. I know I sometimes hear them if they're prominent, but constant ear training helps your focus so you can avoid getting off track by tuning with the 6:4 partials. In my tunings, the P5s at the 3:2 level don't get faster in either the bass or treble. In fact, they hardly beat at all. But I tend toward a pure 5ths tuning. Not quite, but close. My tunings are somewhat expanded compared to some, but that helps eliminate those nasty narrow P5s and P19s in the treble. -- JF On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 11:11 AM, Jeff Deutschle <oaronshoulder at gmail.com>wrote: > List: > > I have read threads where someone mentions that the beat speed of 5ths > should decrease in the treble and that 5ths even become wide of just > intonation. I have been trying to figure out how this could be, both > theoretically and in practice. > > Theoretically, it seems that this could only occur if each octave was tuned > more than 2 cents wider than the octave below it. In practice, my 5ths beat > rate increases, not decreases, in the treble. If I try to stretch the > octaves so that they beat slower, this results in unbearably busy octaves > and 4ths. > > The only thing I can figure out is that the threads are referring to 3:2 > 5ths and I am listening to 6:4 5ths (which I believe I am). I imagine when > taking into account inharmonicity that a 4:2 or 6:3 octave could result in > the 3:2 5ths beating slower going up the treble while the 6:4 5ths beat > faster. But then what about going down into the bass? Wouldn't the 3:2 5ths > beat faster going down into the bass? That is hard for me to believe. > > So, can anyone one help me to understand this? I feel like there is a piece > missing in this puzzle. > > -- > Regards, > Jeff Deutschle > > Please address replies to the List. Do not E-mail me privately. Thank You. > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20081105/8036a4d3/attachment.html
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