How We Hear

[Jenneetah]

At 2:21 PM -0700 10/23/04, David Love wrote:
>Since the lower partials tend to be louder, you hear them almost 
>unconsciously when focusing on the upper partials.

For me it's a matter of musician's hearing. I look for the highest 
pitched partial (the 7th will do), I pay attention to only that 
pitch, and I zero-beat it. 95% of the time everything below it will 
also be beatless. The other 5% of the time? Well, zero-beating the 
7th is a great place to start.

BTW, I don't count beats. There's no sense in trying to bring numbers 
into tuning. What I do do is  again a matter of musicians' hearing. 
If I'm not zeroing a beat-rate, I'm shaping its speed according to a 
musician's sense of tempo.

At 4:54 PM -0400 10/23/04, Don wrote:
>I've never bothered to measure the 1st partial after an attempt to set the
>unison at the 7th partial using an etd. The aural results are what matter,
>and those, to my ear, were unacceptable.

Which would tend to imply that when a unison on such note *is* 
satisfactory to you, the 7th may still be beating. For me, such a 
disagreement is the exception rather than the rule. But maybe you and 
I need to meet at a piano somewhere to check this out. (at 8AM....)

Or maybe, it not the matter of a zero-beaten 7th partial resulting in 
a beatless 1st partial and everything in between. Maybe, you feel (as 
many people do, and I'm sure they'll chime in) that a unison without 
some sort of motion at some partial level is cold, bloodless, and 
lacks humanity. (In rigor mortis.)

I'm hoping that in these discussion on unisons that we can 
distinguish between whether one or another way can achieve a beatless 
unison, and the matter of taste as to that unison's attractiveness. 
You'll notice, I try to settle that distinction wherever it occurs.

At 8:31 AM +0100 10/24/04, Richard Brekne wrote:
>I have heard, and tried this approach many times... try and zero in 
>on the higher partials thinking that if they are clean as a whistle 
>the lower ones will be as well.  I really dont see that it ends up 
>working out tho... and I dont see any reason why it really should 
>anyways.

So what are the formulas governing the frequencies of partials. The 
difference between the mathematically pure partial frequency, and 
it's real-life equivalent on a steel piano string may be:

I=B(n^2)

But it's still a very simple formula whose only real variable is the 
Coefficient of Inharmonicity for that string. Two strings on one note 
may gave different Bs (this happens routinely in the more complex 
situation of wound strings, and of course in cheap low-tension 
scales), but if they have the same B, then it's rare that zeroing the 
7th will leave you with everything else below zero as well, except 
for a razzberry moon from the 4th, say. That's the 5% I mentioned. 
The 95% doesn't include cheap low-tension scales, and bass strings 
are forgiven for behaving the way they do.

>From about C4 downwards the partial ladders get too  unpredictable 
>to begin with, there is always one or two pairs in unisons that dont 
>match up, and the lower you get the worse the problem.

It works fine for me throughout the plain steel of a scale of proper 
tension. Mind you, depending on the voicing, the size of the piano, 
and whether it's the first or last of the day (occupational hazard 
for aural tuners), the point at which the highest partial I'm working 
with moves from the 7th to the 6th and on down may change as I move 
up the scale.

>I talked with the tuning instructor at Japan about this as well last 
>time, and they listen for lower partial pairs, encourage you to play 
>relatively softly so as to avoid overly exciting higher ones to 
>begin with.

What's real in peoples' minds is real in its consequences. Kept at 
the subaudible level, it won't cause trouble. For me, any level of 
volume has its highest audible partial. (But that's my problem.)

>I find myself rarely paying attention to anything beyond the 4th 
>partial in unisons.

When someone complains that a unison is whining it's because the 
highest, tiniest partial folls over first, followed by each partial 
thereafter, on down the series. That's the "whine", the 
"nyyyyooooowwww".