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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi all,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Joe said: "</FONT><FONT =
face=Arial><FONT
size=2><SPAN class=250450316-03032005>Tone is nothing like what the =
past was,
IMHO." </SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN =
class=250450316-03032005>Alan
responded: "</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN =
class=250450316-03032005>I had asked [Ari Asaac] how a person can =
learn to
really hear the subtleties of voicing and what a piano should sound =
like. His
response was 'Listen to piano music recorded in the
1950's.'"</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN =
class=250450316-03032005>Later, Horace
commented to Barbara, "<FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The piano =
aside, the
real problem with the recording, however was the use of Crown =
pizeo-electric
crystal pickups which were placed on the
stage."</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=250450316-03032005>And =
there's *almost*
the point!</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN =
class=250450316-03032005>There's a very good
reason why the older pianos didn't sound particularly bright. The
*recordings* didn't sound particularly bright. I wish I could =
speak more
authoritatively as a recording engineer. I can only speak from =
general
knowledge, which may or may not be up to snuff in this area. =
Anyhow,
recording equipment from long ago simply wasn't capable of the broad =
frequency
responses available to us today. Particularly at fault were the
microphones, which were abysmal at best. The transducer elements =
were HUGE
and clunky and didn't vibrate too well at high frequencies. The =
amplifier
circuitry was adequate (not great), starting around the =
1940's.
The magnetic recording equipment could pull a lot of media through at =
any rate
desired, but the recording heads were fairly massive and didn't respond =
too well
at higher frequencies. Some of these shortcomings could be =
overcome by a
competent recording engineer, with the help of filters, but the primary =
limiting
factor was still the microphone, which was usually about the size =
of a
submarine sandwich. I doubt the recording engineers were =
particularly
motivated to reproduce the higher frequencies, because consumer sound
reproduction equipment of the day was incapable of reproducing it. =
Frequency augmented recordings would only be of interest for archival =
purposes
-- recording for reproduction equipment that wouldn't be developed for =
many
decades. I do have some experience with this, and I can assure you =
that
not even academic people are interested in doing this.
(Sad.)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=250450316-03032005>Today, =
we have some
very nice equipment available to us. We are now capable of a =
fairly flat
response curve up to 20kHz and beyond. Some of the research =
equipment I
have designed and constructed for sound reproduction has been flat =
+/- 1 dB
from 10 to 6 kHz and flat +/- 5 dB from 6 kHz to 20 kHz. That's =
pretty
good, and I could have done even better with a higher budget and fancier =
equipment. The B&K condenser microphones I used were much =
flatter
still -- almost magically so.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=250450316-03032005>So the =
pianos from back in the 1950's may have sounded much darker, as
recorded. However, I wouldn't be too confident that they were =
really
that dark when heard live. Some people may remember the =
pianos from
back then, but how *well* do they remember them? I don't think we
really can have any idea what those pianos sounded like from =
any
recordings. Our only hope of understanding these pianos is to =
reproduce
their construction as faithfully as possible and to attempt to voice =
them the
way we think we remember having voiced them back then. But since =
voicing
is a subjective thing, with an end target in mind, I think this is =
where
our ability to reproduce the past will fail us. I =
seriously,
seriously doubt we can have any good appreciation for the evolution =
of
piano sound, beyond the performance ramifications of design changes that =
have
been made throughout the eons.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005>Peace,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=250450316-03032005>Sarah </SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>