Re: Re: Re: 8va heros


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Posted by Rick Denney on February 21, 2003 at 17:47:32:

In Reply to: Re: Re: 8va heros posted by David Courreges on February 21, 2003 at 17:22:47:

Yes--the square wave. That's what I could not remember.

Most pedals I hear include lots of noisy overtones. A clean 29-Hz Bb would be almost unhearable even if played very loudly. I can move speakers nearly to their excursion limit with a 29-Hz sine wave and it doesn't sound that loud, nor does the sound have any character or carrying power. It is more felt than heard.

Without those noisy overtones, we can hardly tell that any note is being played. And we can only identify the note if the overtones are well tuned--the spaces between them create a consistent difference tone that we hear as a pedal Bb. Most of the time, what we hear is lip-flapping noise, which is why pedals are so hard to tune--there is hardly any pitch to detect. Pedals often have overtones into higher frequencies than do the notes an octave above them. This high-overtone energy is sometimes what we interpret as a powerful pedal sound. The 64-foot diapason pipes on a giant organ have lots of these overtones; that's why they are diapasons instead of flutes. In the context of the ensemble, it may only be the hammer-on-frying-pan overtones that reach the audience. The good organist uses the longest diapason pipes only for the very rare special effect.

Rick "who detects an inverse relationship between the ability to play pedals really well and the desire to play them at every opportunity" Denney


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