Robin Hufford wrote: > .... Asyou point out, the frequency of a true longitudinal vibration in the > duplex is > dependant on the lengths and wave speed of the medium, and this produces > frequencies far too high to be much relevant to normal piano sound. You see... this above point keeps being made and it has never ceased to bother me, partialy because it is always (nearly) contrasted with declarations like the following two snips from Robins post. > > .... I never know whether a piano has a duplex or not unless there is > sufficient whistling and jangling to draw attention. > > However, many times while tuning I have looked down at the front duplex segment, > silenced it with the touch of a finger, and immediately noted a kind of drier, > dull, sound. Now it may well be that the whilsting effect that duplex's create or control or whatever are not related to longitudinal vibration, tho I have yet to see anything concrete that confirms this. But this point about not being relevant to piano sound still bothers me. Certainly if "piano sound" is defined as the tones generated by the individual keys we strike while playing or tuning then this claim is understandable. Yet "piano tone" is obviously quite larger a concept then just that, or the the second two snips above would never be brought into discussion. Certainly the duplex has an effect on piano tone, and depending on the configuration of the duplex (and subjective tastes of the listener) it can be pleasing, useable, or quite negative. Just how connected all this is with Longitudinal vibration has yet to be shown as far as I can see. Tho Sarahs posting was by far the best I have seen on the subject in 4 years of list participation, that there be no doubt of. Cheers ! RicB -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
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