3 ms·
> There is no science that can explain this sort of thing that I know of, and I fully expect that others would have different interpretations. The article had
by jefurii 10y ago
> There is no science that can explain this sort of thing that I know of, and I fully expect that others would have different interpretations.
The article had a pretty good explanation: that strings sound different at different tensions. Musical instruments tuned lower would sound darker, mellower, and "looser" than those tuned higher. The instruments would probably feel a little different to the musicians, who would probably play differently, especially if they'd just heard somebody expound on the mystical properties of a certain tuning. I'm not at all surprised that it would sound different.
- hunter2_ 10y agoThis is exactly it. If you have two identical pianos, both precisely equally tempered, but one tuned a half step lower, and then you played notes of the same pitch on both pianos (the notes are a half step apart, the pitch is not), they will sound different. Disregarding all the differences surrounding the natural wood and other materials, and the fact that it's impossible to use the same velocity, and the pianos aren't in the same exact position relative to the room, and everything like that -- you will be left with just the differences that have to do with tension. On an FFT graph, you'll have the same fundamental and a very similar next few partials, but eventually you'll see (and hear) the results of the different tensions. Those differences represent what people like and don't like about different tunings -- nothing to do with the slightly different pitch between 440/442/438/432/etc!