4 ms·

I’ve experimented with this on guitar and it does sound good. Maybe because its familiar but different at the same time. Or maybe because so many things sound

• javchz 5y ago
  > Maybe because its familiar but different at the same time. I would bet on this. That's why a lot of people like the concerts versions, instead of just listening to the studio version. It's the same... but feels new again, thanks to those small variations and imperfections from a live performance. Still, I find it interesting they did the research for this, I love myth-busting, to know if urban legends are true or false with the foundations of data. I wonder if for people with Absolute pitch this tuning could mess with them.
  • fuzzfactor 5y ago
    With strings the same instrument will play, respond, and end up producing a significantly different response profile in respect to both the playability and the harmonic tonal profile [0], depending on the tension of a particular diameter & composition of string and its resulting frequency. You also have the variable of whether the string instruments simply are retuned before testing alternate standards, or if the full reselection of string gages optimized for the instrument dimensions & current pitch have been accomplished for each particular tuning standard before testing. Keep in mind that this is quite a task on a full 88-key piano where more than one identical string is hammered per note so there are over 200 strings to replace after 88 optimizations for any given tuning pitch standard. And you will need to have all posible string gages indivdually stocked in abundance, not merely commercially available standard replacement string sets. To a point, the higher the string tension can produce higher decibel output from equivalent instrument operation techniques, and this is what musicians really notice most even on piano when their fingers and/or bows are not in direct contact with the strings. And imagine if you will, the look on the face of a Stradivarius owner when the first set of proper steel strings arrive and are set up correctly. Then again you wouldn't want to tighten the stings too much and break the irreplaceable fiddle. Seems to me the pitch inflation over the centuries follows the technology of manufacturing higher-tension strings gradually more reliably over time, this was a slow multi-generational process but it seems shockingly fast when the advances are applied to established instruments which are considered far more static and fully standardized already. Eventually if you push the limits to the max you are going to exceed the sweet spot, maybe not for every instrument but the whole orchestra may not benefit, and if you have a good idea of how sweet it was you would know what to go back to. And this is disregarding vocalists (or soloists sometimes with a Stradivarius) who are often divas that must be catered to at the expense of everyting else. Remember perfect pitch today would be badly imperfect in any non-440 environment. And you can only imagine how someone "born with perfect pitch" in a pre-440 world felt after the standard got away from them. [0] https://www.sharmusic.com/pages/tonal-profiles/ https://www.sharmusic.com/pages/tonal-profiles/