From mskremote@yahoo.com Wed Dec 05 06:24:30 2012
Subject:Re: 30 yr old Korg BX3 question-Stretch

Hi Rock,

I have had first hand experience of the imprecise nature of piano tuning many years ago when I worked for a short time in a 2nd hand furniture store that used sell upright pianos that came in whole house deceased estate purchases. All I had was a little knowledge, an A tuning fork and a socket spanner with a long arm to allow tuning of the string pegs.  These were not Steinway's and were being sold as ornaments rather than players so I could do little harm in trying to tune them. Soon learned the difference between under and over damped etc. and the rudiments of tuning by ear, and that no 2 pianos could be tuned to the exact same pitch, and not one of these pianos to anywhere near concert pitch. 

The most interesting issue to come out of this discussion for me is Daniel's suggestion that electronic keyboards use exact octaves and intervals and for this tuning that science had established there is no audible difference or other characteristic that can be discerned between any major, minor etc. key (other than pitch) on these keyboards. 

This is contrary to my experience, although most of the time when my band runs across a song that the singer cannot manage in the original key, it is a song where I am playing guitar.  Shifting a song from say G to F# or F on guitar to my ears sucks the "brightness" out of it and I usually suggest we just drop it and move on.  This is different to say 80's rock where many of the songs were originally done with guitars tuned down a semitone. Also where the original recording is plus or minus more than about 2 or 3 cents I find I cannot work it out and transcribe until I have shifted it back to the correct pitch.  The "correct" pitch is of course pure guesswork on my part but I find it interesting the way it snaps into focus once it is in the correct pitch, according to my ears.

I have written a few songs and at the start choose a key that, to my ears, reflects the mood and emotion the song is meant to convey and also supports the melody.  This means that to my ears, and I suspect to those of many other songwriters, each key has an individual characteristic rather than being identical and interchangeable.  

The use of exact octaves and intervals makes me wonder if this is the primary reason that so many electronic keyboards do not sound convincing when emulating acoustic piano, and the fact that many, including myself, complain about the shrill or course sound of their Hammond tones in the upper octaves.  It may also explain the unnatural beating that some can hear in Hammond emulations, which are often worse for some notes than others. 

Cheers

Mark

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