Maybe only I noticed, or just an impression, but it seems that the K2 piano has more release, duration. What do you think? Why does it happen? This is strange because the length of the Steinway D string is 2.70, while K2 is 2.11. Should not Steinway last longer?
Maybe only I noticed, or just an impression, but it seems that the K2 piano has more release, duration. What do you think? Why does it happen? This is strange because the length of the Steinway D string is 2.70, while K2 is 2.11. Should not Steinway last longer?
Hello Professor:
Common sense says a longer Steinway string "should" have a longer release duration by virtue of having longer strings. There are at least two factors at work here which might confound the final answer:
1) What is the damping efficiency of the felt damper on K2 vs D? (I don't know, as K2 was intended to be a composite instrument constructed in the minds of Modartt engineers and sound designers.) Clearly, if K2's key release dampers are softer, or more massive, or exert greater contact area AND higher contact pressure than those of a physically modeled Steinway D, then the instrument with the most persistent damping efficiency should silence a vibrating string in a shorter duration.
2) Is a given Steinway D string any more "massive" than its counterpart shorter string of K2? Again, I cannot answer with any degree of finality or authority. Do recall that shorter bass strings mandate that MORE copper wound around them to lower their resonant frequencies. If you were to compare the copper winding's "thickness" of a lowest A note of a Steinway Model M (5'7"), you would find that it is clearly thicker than the lowest A note copper-wound string of a Steinway Model D (9').
As an aside, if a concert grand piano of any make had zero copper winding around it, then the longest string would have to be 26 feet in speaking length to resonate at 27.5Hz of lowest note A0.
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Short answer to your initial question: not necessarily.
Cheers,
Joe
Thank you, friend jcfelice88keys. I believe that, as you have argued, the algorithm that defines copper plating of strings is the answer. For they sound freer.
However, with regard to the softness of the felt of the hammers and dampers, I do not think so. For I am referring to the duration with use of the pedal, that is, the attenuation curve of K2 is markedly longer.
But I agree with you that Steinway, because it has harder hammers, has a more pronounced occlusion peak than K2, giving the impression that the note decays more quickly.