OK, just one more of these, and then I'll be quiet. The same piano, again retuned, and still in EBVT. This time a slow, old-fashioned jazz sound:
http://www.box.net/shared/3moufol0zh
Really reinforces my memory\belief that a similar Well tuning was popular in jazz and in Hollywood in the 30's and 40's. A very distinct sound.
Several other new recordings are on the same thread at http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthre...ost1392913 . (A set of new recordings on almost page--the later ones tend to be closer to the intended tuning, and very small differences in pitch appear to make a big difference.)
The piano is a 1925 Mason & Hamlin 7ft RBB (a Reproducing model BB). Vide http://www.youtube.com/user/AmpicoGPM
Disregarding the tuning, in PianoTeq, I'm getting a similar "old piano" sound by raising the Dynamics and softening the hammers. The piano and mezzo settings are slightly lowered and the forte strike reduced all the way to around .80. That does the expected thing of keeping harder hits more harmonic, and seems to expose the lower inharmonic partials at times too, which are closer to being harmonic than the higher partials, while still audibly inharmonic. (I raised the Cut off and lowered the Q-factor on some notes, too--otherwise the softer forte hammer abbreviates the decay too much here and there.) Seems that this combination of "purer" harmonies on hard strikes and more audible low inharmonicity is a large part of what creates this "head inside an old piano" sound. (Bill Bremmer says that American pianos often have softer hammer felts. Nice match for the tuning, in any case, although I do understand that it tends to divide people into strong camps.)
By the way, as I learned by asking the person originally posting these, these pieces were recorded using a set of Avenson mics. Tiny omni's, apparently, that he pointed straight down into the piano: http://www.avensonaudio.com/sto2.php
Last edited by Jake Johnson (11-03-2010 14:51)
