The Effects of Music Hall Acoustics Upon Grand Piano Tone
Daniel W. Martin · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1953
Single keys of a concert-grand piano were actuated by an automatic mechanical blow-striker. Magnetic tape recordings were made of the piano tones in Music Hall (Cincinnati), with the recording microphone located at selected positions on the concert stage and in the auditorium. A similar recording was made in an anechoic space used for acoustical measurements on pianos. High speed level recordings of the magnetic tape output reveal significant differences in scale balance at the various positions. Spectrum analyses of selected tones were also recorded vs time for the different microphone locations. The recordings show that room reverberation greatly affects the tone-wave envelope and that piano directional characteristics influence the spectrum of the tone to a limited extent.