[CAUT] coupled motion and other myths

Richard Brekne ricb at pianostemmer.no
Sat Jun 16 05:19:35 MDT 2007


Hi Ric.. a couple comments below...


    Maybe one the strings had a false beat in it? 

He does mention false beat briefly later on in the paragraph about figs 
5 and 6.. so I think he probably would have been obs on this point.


    He doesn't write about
    talking to a piano technician in setting up his seeming elaborate
    laboratory
    like observation of piano stings in vibration.  Yet some of his
    "readings"
    might be due to a common phenomena known by technicians, but  not
    necessarily by Science Phds.   It seems in these "studies" the piano
    tuner
    is rarely mentioned, or if so, very offhandedly.  What other
    authority is
    there in scientific experiments on pianos? 

This is actually a very good point. Few times are knowledgeable 
pianotechs involved in such efforts.  Dr. Coleman is a noted 
exception.... and there have been others.  The point was very much 
illustrated to me personally last year in Rochester when I had a chance 
to look at Stephen Birkets' computer action model. There was an obvious 
error (to a pianotech) in the movement of the jack at escapement... 
which he was able to adjust immediately by changing a few parameters.  
Cool model tho... and no doubt when finished would be a very valuable 
tool for anyone wanting to do / learn about action designing


    OK, even if we all don't agree he knows exactly what is going on,
    the next
    step is replication.  Can anyone demonstrate "coupled motion"   Aurally,
    with tuning machines, only in a lab?    Rm

I think you could start by very carefully doing the exact same 
experiment on say.. middle C.  Allow just two strings to vibrate...  
insert a felt wedge about 10 seconds into things.... and watch the 
display.  Tunelab would be probably quite good at showing the results.  
I might try it today for fun !

Cheers
RicB
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