[ntp:questions] Using NTP to calibrate sound app

A C agcarver+ntp at acarver.net
Wed Jan 30 05:06:31 UTC 2013


On 1/29/2013 12:04, unruh wrote:

> Actually for a piano, there is ALWAYS beating. The three strings have
> three modes, and it is impossible to tune all those three modes to the
> same frequency, because the soundboard couples them. Thus the three
> modes all sound to gether with slightly different frequencies. This is
> part of what gives the piano its distinctive sound over say a
> harpsichord.

The piano tuners that I have met have been tuning professionally for 
decades.  They always clamp and damp two of the three strings (on the 
upper half of the keyboard, the bass notes only have two strings or 
fewer) and tune each string independent of the others.  The strings from 
adjacent notes and further along the soundboard will vibrate, too, but 
not as sympathetically as the other strings struck by the same hammer.


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