Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a577
From: a577@mindlink.UUCP (Curt Sampson)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Musical Frequencies
Message-ID: <4193@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 20 Dec 90 06:42:10 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 22

> mercuri@grad1.cis.upenn.edu writes:
> 
> I'm sure that at least a half dozen people have informed you that although
> your formula is "correct", it will sound like hell. Most instruments are
> "stretch tuned" (higher in the high octaves, lower in the low octaves) to
> accommodate for the nonlinearity in the hearing process. String players do
> this "automatically" as they are playing.

Actually, from what I have heard this nonlinearity is not in the hearing
process but in the string instrument itself.  I've been told that as the string
gets shorter the harmonics get flatter, thus necessitating a "sharpening" of
the string so that it sounds in tune.  I've never heard this applied to
anything but piano, though it must apply to all other *string* instruments as
well.  I don't believe that it applies to non-string instruments, especially
synthesisers, which would always have their harmonics in tune with the
fundemental (assuming they are programmed that way).

cjs
--
Curt_Sampson@mindlink.UUCP
{uunet|ubc-cs}!van-bc!cynic!curt
curt@cynic.wimsey.bc.ca