jcitron wrote:That may have to do with your digital piano. My Roland LX-17 has the sympathetic vibration capability built in; however, if you have Pianoteq Professional, you may be able to adjust some of this using the various sliders and achieve this effect.
I'm afraid what I'm describing does not fall within the range of sympathetic vibration. Rather, the resonance I refer to is purely in the context of dynamical oscillators: how the hammers and strings interact with each other. Of course, this is a bit of a simplification since the position of the strike point is not at the end of the string; and the strings all have a fundamental frequency far higher than humanly playable, so it's not exactly true "resonance", so to speak. But I am not knowledgeable in acoustics, and I can't think of any other way to describe this.
To give a more detailed example, suppose we are at a grand piano with relatively soft hammers (to the effect that there is negligible hammer noise upon striking).
Let us play an octave tremolo with a uniform mezzo-piano velocity and damper pedal fully pressed.
Beginning with a low tremolo speed, one achieves a mezzo-piano sound where one can still clearly hear the strings being restruck (although the hammer noise is negligible, when the hammer restrikes a string, it generates a new attack that somewhat disrupts the sound we hear at that moment).
As one gradually increases the tremolo speed while maintaining constant velocity, one would expect nothing to change: just a faster mezzo-piano tremolo. This is precisely what we hear when we perform the tremolo at the higher octaves.
However, at lower octaves, the sound achieved can go beyond a mezzo-piano into a mezzo-forte or a forte, and the sound of the strings being restruck can no longer be heard (i.e. the sustained sound the strings produce are now louder than the attack generated by the tremolo). Going any faster will cause the strings to leave this state, and the sound of the strings being restruck is now once again audible.
While sounding rather esoterical, one can find use for this technique in operatic paraphrases or transcriptions/arrangements, most notably those by Liszt (as well as his Chasse-Neige), and it's just very fun to use as a party trick. I have been unable to replicate this technique in Pianoteq, so I'm wondering if anyone would be able to shed some light on how to do so.
