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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>OK, all of you who ever attended the =
PTG seminar
class taught by Dr. Tom Rossing (a physicist) at Northern Illinois =
University
back in the mid to late 80s raise your hands. (Were you =
there
Stan?) If I remember correctly, he played recordings of =
instruments (or
maybe just the piano) without the attack. The piano (without the =
attack)
sounded remarkably like a pipe organ. It was amazing.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Barbara Richmond, RPT</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; =
BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=jstan40@sbcglobal.net =
href="mailto:jstan40@sbcglobal.net">J. Stanley
Ryberg</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, August 20, 2004 =
8:02
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: backchecks, =
magical mystery
tour</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="comic sans ms" color=#0000bf>Isaac Oleg
writes:</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#0000bf></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV>I stay on the concept of the synchronism or a sequence that
works<BR>better for energy reasons. The noise indeed is "masked" in =
the
attack<BR>tone, that is what we do when tuning.<BR>I have seen =
experiments
where the action noise and attack noise was<BR>separed from the tone, =
and if
the tone of the piano was heard without<BR>it it was barely recognized =
by an
audience.<BR></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="comic sans ms" color=#c00000>While I am =
not in a
position just now to verify the following, I remember speaking with an =
engineering professor who was a TA (teaching assistant) during the
Fetcher-Munson studies (which had to be mid-50s at the latest). =
One of
the items from that study that we encounter daily is the existence on =
our
stereo systems of a "loudness control" switch, or in some cases, a pot =
or
slider. It was determined by the study that the human ear, at =
soft
volume levels, loses high and low frequencies more quickly than =
mid-range
frequencies, thus the adjustment to bring both ends of the spectrum up =
for use
at low volume levels (the Fletcher-Munson Curve). Of course, we =
just
flip the switch and leave it there, but that's a whole other
story!</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#c00000></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#c00000>A part of =
the study
which I believe was NOT included in the final version, was several =
months of
work painstakingly editing (cutting and splicing) audio tape, with =
different
instruments (pretty much the entire orchestra) playing the same note, =
with
differences in register accounted for by lower instruments playing =
lower
octaves, upper instruments upper octaves. The attack and the =
decay were
carefully excised, leaving the middle body of the tone, with the =
premise
(dangerous thing to have in pure research) that without these, =
especially the
attack, one would be hard pressed (like some hammers) to tell the =
difference,
say, between a clarinet and an oboe. After all this work, they =
rounded
up the usual suspects...er...experiment volunteer subjects, and found =
that
indeed, most of them couldn't tell the difference. UNTIL, that =
is, a
musician spoke up and asked if the volunteer subjects had any idea of =
what
these instruments sounded like in the first place!!! Back to the =
drawing
board, but this time, the same experiment with music students--and the =
premise
fell apart completely.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#c00000></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#c00000>This is not =
exactly the
same as what Isaac is relating, but it does seem to =
obtain...interesting
parallel, in any case!</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#c00000></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#c00000>Regards,</FONT></STRONG></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV>Stan Ryberg <BR>Barrington IL
<BR><U>jstan40@sbcglobal.net</U></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>