Honky Tonk sound

[Clyde Hollinger]

Stephen,

My hunch is most technicians have never done it, so you may get limited
responses.  It does make me curious enough to try it on my own piano,
just for fun.  I'll probably never get around to it.  If the honky-tonk
sound is basically what most of us would consider out-of-tune unisons,
then pick a method for a sound the client likes and go with that.  The
benefit of detuning to emulate this sound, rather than just having an
out-of-tune piano (some would call them one and the same), is that you
can plan for a consistency across the whole keyboard.

Regards, Clyde

Stephen Airy wrote:

> One honky-tonk sound I like is to detune the 2-string
> unisons about 25-35c, and other unisons at varying
> degrees (A-440 beating about 3bps for example), beat
> rates of unisons in top half-octave equaling
> fundamental frequencies of lowest few notes.  I have a
> recording of a piano that was about 150c flat and
> several unisons were out.  I'm curious:  How far out
> do you guys like to put the unisons to get the
> honky-tonk sound?  I like about 30c in the bass, 15c
> in the midrange and treble, with some notes out more
> than others, but none out more than 50c.
>
> --- A440A@AOL.COM wrote:
> > Wally writes:
> > >>But my idea was to tune one of the trichords DOWN
> > >>slightly. No one has taken me up on the offer yet,
> > so I haven't actually
> > done it.>
> >
> > Greetings,
> >      As I understand it, there exist particular
> > relationships between
> > frequencies  of  impelling force and a resonant
> > period.
> >     If the frequency of an applied force is higher
> > than the resonant period
> > of an object, the two will be out of phase with one
> > another.  If the
> > frequency is lower than the resonant period,  they
> > will be in phase, though
> > not necessarily in sync.  I treated the altered
> > string of the unison as the
> > impelling force in regards to the two that were
> > tuned as mathematically close
> > to one another as possible.  I was hoping to create
> > a slight cancelling
> > effect within the unison, the aim of which was to
> > produce a rather shrill,
> > percussive sound.  I think it worked, but perhaps
> > will try the opposite, as
> > Wally suggested, next time.   Why not, "Out of tune"
> > is out of tune, no?
> > Which is why I tuned the tonk slightly sharp.
> > Regards,
> > Ed Foote
>
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