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The reference to the above material in an essay on acoustics from the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America interestingly states that keeping RH constant between 45 and 55 is best for maintaining musical tonal balance. They are referring to sound frequencies, something I was not aware of.
Last edited by Sanfrancisco; 10/08/19 12:09 AM.
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If you stick a tuning fork in your warm armpit, it will change pitch. But i don't see how that is useful whatsoever either.
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If you stick a tuning fork in your warm armpit, it will change pitch. But i don't see how that is useful whatsoever either. Correct but the point of the essay is- if you place tuning forks of different frequencies under your arm, different frequencies will effected to different degrees by the same increase in RH. This is not the case 45-55RH where the frequencies will remain balanced. Another way of viewing it is that the perceived frequency of lower pitched notes may change 5% with a RH increase of 15% but a treble note’s perceived frequency may change 10% with the same RH increase, thus adversely effecting the overall tonal balance.
Last edited by Sanfrancisco; 10/08/19 02:30 AM.
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This one made me look stuff up! The mass of a body of air decreases as humidity (water vapour) increases. It makes sense that as the mass changes, the frequency response would change.
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Ok, I understand the academic theory, but how is it applicable in owning and playing a piano? Or in the servicing of them? Are they proposing having micro-climates, one in the bass and one in the treble?
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I think cooler air is denser and that slows down the speed of sound.
Air with higher water vapor content, RH, would be denser than air with lower RH. Thus the speed of sound would be reduced.
Denser air would propagate lower frequencies better than less dense air. And higher frequencies would be damped more by denser air.
In addition higher RH makes felt heavier and thus the hammers are duller sounding as regards pianos. Touch gets heavier too.
And music is just people vibrating gases!
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I think cooler air is denser and that slows down the speed of sound.
Air with higher water vapor content, RH, would be denser than air with lower RH. Thus the speed of sound would be reduced.
Denser air would propagate lower frequencies better than less dense air. And higher frequencies would be damped more by denser air.
In addition higher RH makes felt heavier and thus the hammers are duller sounding as regards pianos. Touch gets heavier too.
And music is just people vibrating gases! Doesn't more dense materials propagate vibrations more quickly? Speed of sound in water is ~ 5 times faster than speed of sound in air.
Keith Akins, RPT Piano Technologist USA Distributor for Isaac Cadenza hammers and Profundo Bass Strings Supporting Piano Owners D-I-Y piano tuning and repair editor emeritus of Piano Technicians Journal
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The speed of sound in a gas is v = sqrt(k/rho), where v = speed, k = coefficient of stiffness, and rho = density. Air gets lighter with higher humidity, because an H2O molecule is lighter than and N2 or O2 molecule. Have you heard someone speak after they've breathed in some helium? The voice frequency goes way up, because the helium atom is so much lighter than the molecules that make up air. BTW, it's harder for airplanes to take off in high humidity, because the lighter air equates to less lift.
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The reference to the above material in an essay on acoustics from the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America interestingly states that keeping RH constant between 45 and 55 is best for maintaining musical tonal balance. Very good news that the same RH range that is optimum for the health of the piano is also optimum for the humans listening to the sound it makes.
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