Posted by Rick Denney on January 25, 2001 at 10:42:26:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: 7 Valve Tuba posted by Ed Heckman on January 25, 2001 at 10:26:27:
I have a very nice Roland MIDI tone generator that makes a very nice digital tuba sound, if you mix a bit of reverb into it. That would be a lot cheaper, and a lot easer to play. And you don't have to breathe.
Seriously, I play quartet arrangements through that synthesizer all the time, and they do not sound in tune. The synthesizer is perfectly in tune, and absolutely centers the needle on my Korg tuner on every note. So why does it sound bad? Because it tunes to an equal temperament scale, and that's not the scale that sounds in tune on chords. It's not the scale played by string players, nor by singers, nor by anybody else with continuous control over pitch. The problem, of course, is that if you set up the instrument to play in tune in a given key, then you'll have to change it when the key changes.
And even a piano is not REALLY tuned to the equal temperament used by my synthesizer. It is tuned to a compromise temperament that is a bit better for the more common keys and not quite as good for the less common keys. That's why the best piano tuners don't use electronic tuners. I have a book that's four inches thick describing all the different tuning systems used in the last four centuries, and equal temperament is just one of them. That's why there is no such thing as "perfect" intonation--nobody can define "perfect" in terms of unchangeable notes. If the pitch of the notes must be held constant, then intonation must be compromised, as it is on a piano. But this would be unacceptable in a brass ensemble.
Rick "who would rather have manageable intonation than perfect intonation" Denney