Unison beats good?

[Richard Moody]

Since a beat that takes 20 seconds to occur might give the illusion of
longer sustain, it is possible a tuner might favor this in tuning unions.
But this is no where near 2/3 beats per second mentioned below.  That is
how much a fifth has to be flattened to get ET.  Someone's ears or figures
are off.

	
----------
> From: Pianosold@AOL.COM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Unison beats good?
> Date: Thursday, November 05, 1998 1:43 PM
> 
> List,
> "Even the unison strings of a piano sound better when de-tuned to a
minute
> degree (app. 2 cents total spread, corresponding to 2/3 beat per second
@
> a440). Fortunately a good piano tuner attempting to achieve true unison
gets,
> on the average, a similar result"
> 
> Dr Daniel W. Martin
> H D Baldwin Co
> Tech Jo. April 1964
> 
> This interested me greatly because I had always considered my unisons to
be
> beatless, when they were right - if you know what I mean.  However, when
one
> talks to an organ tuner he will say that he can wait 20-30 seconds or
more for
> a beat!  This leads me to believe that there is truth in the above.
> 
> Any thoughts greatly appreciated
> 
> 
> Rob Thornton
> UK  
>