Jim's excellent research (Voicing & Inharmonicity)

[Jim]

Hi Bob:

Thank you for your astute observations of my work.  When one is
plowing new ground, there are bound to be discovered some new obstacles.

I also was surprised by the 7th line which you queried, the 2.50 reading.
I went back to my original notes, and yes it was there.  That points out
the danger of taking only one reading with the automatic system.  We don't
really know what all went into that reading. It could have been a passing
car on the busy street beside my house. If in the tuning exam
procedure, we were to have an anomaly such as that, it could be very
disconcerting.  I had hoped that we would have a more dependable way of
reading piano strings.  I had thought that an averaging system would be
better.  Of course taking 10 samples at a time as was done in the test
is more accurate, but very cumbersome.

Your observation about SAT users developing a skill to read the stopped
dots is important to them in their normal tuning experiences.  So far, I
have only measured one note on my L which is original except for new
keytops.  Can you imagine the keytops wearing down to the wood before the
hammers were worn out?  They really made some great hammers back in '52.

I will take measurements of other notes when time and motivation arrive
together.  There are beating strings in the higher range.  One thing which
the SAT does that the RCT does not do is to indicate the higher freq. and
lower freq. readings of a beating string.  The RCT averages, while the SAT
oscillates back and forth between the two frequencies.  The oscillation
is at the beat rate. When tuning octaves with this kind or phenomenon,
the tuner can decide wheather or not to use the higher frequency.

In general, I would say that the felt muffled tone just starts farther out
on the decay curve and therefore shows a lower reading.  However, a
confusion factor exists where in a softer sound, more energy goes into
the lower partials which may in some instances increase the frequencies
measured. I don't really have a handle on this yet.

I did download your TuneLab97 program last nite.  I will try it sometime
today.

Jim Coleman, Sr.

PS How did you like my home made striking device?  One would think that
if necessity is the mother of all inventions, we would have had this a
long time ago.  In previous studies of inharmonicity change, I did not
have even a semblance of even stroke. So at one more variable has a
measure of control.