Frequency tolerance, limits (Digest 1405 Topic 3)

Hi Steve,

At 01:40 PM 5/5/98 -0400, you wrote (Digest 1405 Topic 3):
>From: Steven Rezsutek
>Subject: Frequency tolerance, limits (was Optimal Integer Ratios for 12et)
>
>... What do folks out there consider as a useable lower limit in
>frequency? IOW, "How low do you go?" :-).
>Personally, I find the "D" below bass "E", (roughly 37HZ?) to be
>rock-solid, the "C" below that to be just on the limit of what I
>perceive as a distinct *musical* tone, and the "B" below that (typical
>of most 5 string basses) to provide a nice rumble when it's supporting
>something an octave up, but lacking something as a musical note on its
>own. [That's why my 5 stringers both have high Cs ;-)] By the time I get
>to the low "A" on a piano, it's pretty much a growl that happens to have
>some semblence of pitch to it.
>...
>Aspiring bassist wants to know...

Your comments remind me of a trick we do on my mom's piano. We would take
advantage of the fact that you couldn't tell what note the lowest key on the
piano was. To make it sound like it can go lower than it really can, we'd
throw in the lowest key (the low A) with another low note. So a descending
scale would go:
C
B
A
A G
A F
A E
A D
A C

So "Mission Impossible" would go:
A D
A D
A F
A G
A D
A D
A C
A C#

An actual "A" would not make as much sense with some of the above intervals,
but the "growl" that came out seemed to go along with any other note.

And all these years I thought it was just a problem with
my mom's crappy piano...

--Mark
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