Hi Eric,
Interesting thoughts. I am a professional musician
and owner of a K1. I could write pages (and have,
back in school) on how and why pianos are tuned the
way they are -- they are giant mess, pitch-wise, for
many many reasons, but through lots of compramises you
end up with something that sounds good. I will say
that when I originally built and set up my K1, I chose
a sidetone/offset frequency of 440Hz because that is
the tuning note (A) at standard US "concert pitch."
The K1 wasn't dead on, though, and adjustments are by
10 whole Hz, so it bothered me a bit and I chose 600Hz
because it sounded good on my headphones and seemed a
popular choice. :)
I can't comment on the difference in received CW tone
on a K1 versus K2 because I've never heard a K2. I
find the sidetone on the K1 to be pretty rich,
harmonically, but not bad. I'd prefer it a little
less so, though, or with a different distribution of
harmonics present at different levels (sounds like a
good new add-on - essentially a synthesizer/eq for
your K1's sidetone - how about it, guys?! ;) ). What
makes one instrument sound different from another is
partially the harmonic content and the amplitudes of
each harmonic relative to the others. Another aspect
is the start and stop of the tone (waveform shaping?).
I am sure someone could design a sidetone that would
sound like an instrument or some other more "pleasing"
tone. Then they could patent it like Harley Davidson
did with their sound.
As far as why we have the frequencies we have on the
piano (or any other western instrument), it's
generally based on the A above middle C being 440Hz.
The rest of the notes are based on that,
mathematically. It isn't always 440Hz, though - it's
a bit higher in most of Europe (442-444Hz) and has
historically been all over the place - as low as maybe
380 and as high as 490. There are lots of theories as
to how 440Hz became popular - could go on about that
but I won't. :) Suffice it to say that instruments
made of certain materials, at certain sizes, will
resonate (and "sound") better at certain frequencies.
I think that, over time, the evolution of instruments
and pitches settled in a range that works best with
the material and acoustic limitations that we face.
(It's still not static, though)
Why the particular tones within the octave? It's a
western thing - they've got way more notes in
traditional Indian music and fewer in China.
73,
Jason
ak7v
--- EricJ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> With so many musicians on here, including the K1/K2
> designer, maybe someone
> would comment on why sidetones are the frequency
> they are. Actually, I have
> been thinking more about how people choose the
> OFFSET they prefer more than
> the sidetone, but it's the same idea.
>
> It's interesting that you should say the sidetone
> was offensive because it
> was not a pure sine wave. It is my understanding
> (not being a musician
> myself), that humans prefer tones with harmonic
> content. Pure sine waves
> sound simple and harsh to the ear. Maybe we would
> find that even with a
> sidetone, there is some preferred harmonic content
> that makes it richer and
> more pleasing to listen to. The same goes for the
> offset frequency. I, and
> others, have commented on how much better the K1
> sounds to us compared to
> even the K2. I don't know what quality the K1 has
> that makes us think that
> way, but there is something going on there that
> makes me choose the K1 for
> ragchewing. Something makes it less fatiguing or
> otherwise more pleasant for
> me, and it is independent of the speaker as I have
> traded external speakers
> back and forth bewteen the K1 and the K2.
>
> While thinking about it, and again, not being a
> musician, I began wondering
> why piano keys are tuned to the very specific, but
> seemingly odd frequencies
> they are. The lowest note on a piano is 28.5 Hz. Who
> decided something like
> that? Esp. way back 200+ years ago. All of the white
> keys are harmonically
> related to that bizarre 28 and 1/2 hz, now I know
> the reason for that, but
> why did they choose that particular frequency? I
> don't know the answer to
> that, but maybe it evolved over decades or even
> centuries of humans
> responding well to certain notes and not to others.
> (I should have done some
> basic research first, I guess). I doubt they were
> chosen at random and
> probably really do seem to be frequencies humans
> prefer.
>
> If that is so, why don't we pick offsets that
> correspond to musical notes?
> Why do most of us pick some arbitrary offset rounded
> to the nearest 50 or
> 100. When we talk about offsets here, we are nearly
> always talking about 500
> or 600 or 700 or the screeching 1000 hz or higher
> offset that comes fixed in
> a lot of earlier rigs. Maybe the offset on the K1/K2
> menus should be
> calibrated in musical notes instead of arbitrary
> decade increments.
>
> Eric
> KE6US
> www.ke6us.com
>
>
>
>
>
> -Original Message
