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RE: Schiit's Manhattan Project Revealed

Posted by PAR on October 23, 2017 at 16:56:33

In Reply to: Schiit's Manhattan Project Revealed posted by 13th Duke of Wymbourne on October 23, 2017 at 14:20:19:

Yes, instrument makers would once tune instruments to A=430Hz. However only from the late 18th to the early 19th centuries for classical music. Earlier pitch could be as low as 415Hz and later up to 440Hz. I was at a talk on historical pitch a couple of months ago when it was remarked that some German orchestras now are tuning to 443 Hz.

I have no idea what Moffat is on about with " the Gadget" as lowering all recordings to C=256 means that except for classical works over a 20 year period at the turn of the 19th century the pitch will be wrong. It also completely ignores the fact that the conductor or instrumentalist will have taken on board the pitch of his/her or the orchestra's instruments and other factors such as hall reverberation time when setting the tempo. So lowering the pitch whilst retaining the tempo is an artistic abortion.

I expect that the "gadget" is deaf to actual pitch but assumes 440Hz and lowers by a fixed percentage. Then any recording that actually uses A=430Hz will also be wrongly reproduced.

To quote Moffat " Hmmmmmmmmm. Lloyd Loar, master builder at Gibson from 1919-1923 built the best sounding banjos and mandolins ever. Rather than build instruments to a set of prints, he individually tap tuned the instruments to C=256 Hz for best musical performance. At that time, that was a useful mean of the non standardized pitches of the day for hillbillies, bands, and non-classical orchestras." Yes but where is the evidence that any other luthiers used that pitch?

Sorry, but my recordings of banjos and mandolins from hillbilly bands playing Gibson instruments of 1919 - 1923 are rather limited.

There also seems to be a fallacy in the argument that the natural tuning pitch of a given instrument and the different pitch that it is tuned to in performance and which is fixed in a recording can be corrected in relation to each other subsequently. The pitch of the recording can be changed but the resonances that the luthier has optimised for a given pitch will not reappear. Of course if there are other instruments in the recording made by other makers who have used another pitch....

Blonde Mona Lisa anyone?

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