Soundboard Resonances and the Wogram Article

[Ron Nossaman]

> Perhaps the issue has more to do with power.  As I hear it, there are two
> kinds of power from a piano.  One has to do with attack the other has to do
> with a sort of cumulative resonance that occurs when, for example, you play
> a large chord at the forte level and get what can almost be described as a
> swelling or full orchestral resonance.  

Or bloom, maybe? In my experience, these boards bloom as well 
as anything I've heard.


>For me, the danger in making sure
> that the board can't be overdriven at any level is that you run the risk of
> reducing the power such that you can't get that full orchestral resonance
> and the piano can sound a little too subdued, light, restricted, or whatever
> you want to call it, and/or, you diminish the level of attack.  

I don't find this to be a problem. The only thing I've found 
along these lines is that these boards aren't overly tolerant 
of the harder or lacquer filled hammers that are required to 
drive a lot of soundboards. To my ear, they have plenty of power.


>While that
> may be an issue of what we are used to hearing, choices can be made along
> this continuum, presumably, and we might find ourselves needing to respond
> to the particular requirements of a pianist or concert hall.  The question
> is whether that's a choice that should be or can be made and, if so, what
> are the trade offs and how would you approach a piano that you wanted to be
> sure delivered the maximum power.    
> 
> David Love

I don't think I'd be interested in building a piano that 
delivered maximum power. I'd recommend they shop around until 
they found one they liked, then just try to keep it operating 
at that level. If they wished to favor volume over sustain, 
I'd make the ribs slightly shallower. If they wanted sustain 
at the cost of volume, I'd make the ribs deeper. As it is, I'm 
aiming for what I think is a reasonable balance between power 
and sustain, with a good tonal balance between registers, wide 
dynamic range, and transparent transitions with a tone that 
doesn't degenerate into distorted mush at high attack levels - 
a difficult enough combination to find in the wild.

Ron N