•While it is true that the 20-note tracker bar of Wilcox and White is in simple ascending order of pitch, the arrangement of reeds in their cells may not be. In my Symphonia, the tracker bar runs front to back, as the rolls play from left to right, but the reeds are arrayed along the front, like pia...

•Jim Hendershot could try tuning his 150-year-old square grand piano to A=415 Hz which is one semitone below modern concert pitch. Harpsichords are tuned to this pitch, as it was common prior to the nineteenth century, although in the early days there was no such thing as a standardised pitch, each ...

•I just came on to this topic in today's posting. The topic of pitch raising and overpull has been discussed extensively on the Pianotech discussion list. Search their archives: http://www.ptg.org/ http://www.ptg.org/tech.htm http://www.ptg.org/archive/pianotech/ New wire will stretch for a period u...

•It is possible for a plate to crack whilst tuning, especially if the pitch was much lower than normal. An additional two tons tension will possibly be added to the plate; this strain is taken up by the plate with influences from the wood from which it is secured. The casting may have not been good ...

•[ Joseph Osborne wrote in 150406 MMDigest -- > One problem I could not fix was a steady pitch vibration coming from > right behind the belly rail, just under the soundboard, centered left > to right (i.e. around note 44). Hi Joseph, This may not be your problem but I had similar troubles and eventu...

•The term "piccolo" on a tunesheet is normally used to describe movements which play music with emphasis on the higher pitch treble notes. Those boxes are made from 1865-70 onwards and have a separate smaller higher pitch treble comb. Later in time the term was also used for boxes with a single comb...

•You need to find the right paper stock, supplied by a company pitched at the retail end of the paper-conversion market who'll do smallish orders -- quite hard to locate, as it turns out. Music-roll paper is a bit thinner than commercial writing paper, about 60 gsm (grams per square meter, the norma...

Mr. Pleatman: >> How difficult would it be to write a program to >> convert played music do midi? >In my humble opinion, conversion from pitch to midi is very difficult. No question it's a difficult problem. However, if the folks on this list don't mind, I've been noodling around an idea for an algo...

Steam calliope, 32 whistles, chromatic, lowest pitch circa "Middle C", with brass carillon-style keyboard and bellcrank linkage to spring-loaded balanced poppet valves. Powered by 30-horsepower vertical firetube boiler, all mounted within a 20-foot-long rubber-tired circus wagon with ornate facade. ...

Hi Jon, I read your advice on the '20 cent' tuner and couldn't agree more; I have brought a few 60 year old-plus players up to standard pitch without breaking any strings. It just takes patience and two to three tunings to get it there. As for the manufacturing date of a piano, do you know of any ot...

Hi all, I always enjoy talking about the art of piano tuning. And I feel relatively confident that every tuner has his own set of rules regarding changing the relative pitch of a piano. Personally, I term any pitch change of more than 20 cents as an "aggravated pitch change" because it aggravates th...

In response to Ed Gloeggler's request on piano and Violano humidity control in regard to tuning etc. Ed tells us that his Violano drops and raises in pitch more or less evenly according to humidity changes. The problem is quite normal, but few persons notice it. Other than a few select piano owners ...

•Both points of view are correct! The sound of an organ is determined both by the types of pipes used and the pitch ranges in which they are played, but also the scaling and voicing of the individual pipes is very important. For any given pipe type (e.g., bourdon or violin or diapason), its tonal qu...

•Has anybody tried out Autoscore by Wildcat Canyon Software. They claim it is a tone recognition program that converts any input pitch to MIDI. If it really works as they pitch it (pun partially intended), it would prove an interesting way to transcribe older instruments (Like roller organs, music b...

•Robert Linnstaedt wrote in MMD 980123: > ....I should expect a Celeste to be found on larger instruments. > Unless the on-pitch rank ever plays alone, the original scheme may > have been to tune the two to straddle the pitch so the net effect > would sound in tune with the rest of the organ. :-)...

•I was saddened to hear about the passing of Carl Wilson. Because, you see, until I heard about him on the news I wasn't aware that he and I shared the same musical gift, perfect pitch. No wonder I always thought the Beach Boys' harmony was cool. (So what am I doing in Information Systems? Don't ask...

•Joel Hoshaw's posting raises some interesting questions. First, since he reports disc boxes varying over a small range (Gb through Ab), I'd guess that we're just seeing the gradual upward "drift" in standard pitch that affected (afflicted?) orchestras and pianos during that era. We should try corre...

•Hi Fritz! Well, I'm sure someone will have a more scientific explanation, but one purpose is that the pitch is lowered by cutting out the middle, thus one can produce a lower tone with a shorter bar (within limits). I think it also affects the 'ring time' and note quality of the bar. Conversely, a ...

•The short answer to the question about why the center of a xylophone bar is scooped out is that this increases the volume and resonance of the bar while decreasing the pitch. If, for example, the center section of a bar is one-half the overall thickness, then its pitch will be an octave lower than ...

•In explaining transposed band organ tuning to a friend this morning, the original reason for pipes being stamped with notes that differ from their actual speaking pitch finally dawned on me. The following refers to music rolls, but the same logic may be applied to cardboard books. Certain smaller o...