PianoTech Archive

From Terry Farrell <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>

Sorry for the bad sound clips. My son the computer whizz set me straight!

Clip #1:

From David Andersen <david@davidandersenpianos.com>

LOVE the sound of the square grand, Terry. Bravo. Wow. It actually sounds great recorded. My mind is blown. If I had to buy Joe Garrett and I a round of drinks for every time I've
dissed square grands in my career we'd both be dead of alcohol poisoning.  I humbly acknowledge my idiocy and arrogance about "period" pianos here and now. That piano sound is beautiful. Great job, Terry, and it sounds like there was a team behind you?.

That said, I wish the C3 had been tuned and voiced?ropey, dude?and a much starker difference was thus created?.the creamy new Ronsens vs. the clangy old Japanese hammers?mmmm. Well played, my good man?  :---)

David A. 



 
On Feb 10, 2013, at 8:49 AM, Terry Farrell <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

> Sorry for the bad sound clips. My son the computer whizz set me straight!
> 
> Clip #1:
> 
> <20130210 110858.m4a>
> 
> Clip #2:
> 
> <20130210 111303.m4a>

From Terry Farrell <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>

Thanks for the compliments David. Coming from you makes me feel very good about what I was able to do with this square.

Your comments on the C3 are spot-on. I bought this piano at the Carnival Cruise Line warehouse in Miami - it had come directly off one of their cruise ships. I have not touched it at all since buying it - well, except to move the darn thing out of my way! So yes, it is untuned, unvoiced, etc., etc. I acknowledge that I was being a tad deceitful with my comparison. However, I do think that even if the Yamaha was straightened up a good bit, the square would still sound pretty darn nice!

Not a big team was involved with the square, but they did play some key roles. Ron Nossaman did the string scaling, Joe Garrett helped me with a number of technical points, Ray Negron made the set of hammers and Kiri Ramdeo, a student at University of South Florida here in Tampa did the artwork on the plate. 

I should perhaps add that Ray really came through for me on the hammer set. This piano had some "rebuilding" done to it some years ago (guess is about 40 yrs. ago). Included in that work was a new set of hammers. These things looked like the product of a kindergarten class project - they were all hacked up, many only hitting one string of the note, some hitting wrong notes, etc. We based the boring angles on that set of hammers - we made the assumption that the hacked hammers at least reflected the original boring angles (not a smart thing to do). It was impossible to make the first set of hammers that Ray made work - they all required WAY to much trimming to make them function. Ray very graciously offered to make me a second set of hammers at no cost to me that would be based on a set of boring angles I calculated. The second set ended up working perfectly - some minor trimming, but nothing radical. Ray was quite the pleasure to work with on this.

Below is a picture of the replacement hammers that were on the piano from the 40-years-ago "rebuilding" - and these aren't even the really bad ones!:

From Jon Page <jonpage@comcast.net>

In the archives, there are not audio files, just  .bin  files.

-- 
Regards,

Jon Page

From "Joseph Garrett" <joegarrett@earthlink.net>

Paul, (et al)		
That worked! I think the problem is/was in the Digest form..that would not
work. But, when you sent me the "direct" file, it immediately kicked into
the proper mode and played! Damned 'puter stuff! Drives me whackoer than I
already am! Grrrrr!
Joe


> [Original Message]
> From: Paul McCloud <pmc033@earthlink.net>
> To: <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
> Date: 2/10/2013 3:25:30 PM
> Subject: Fwd: [pianotech] Square Grand Sound Clips THAT WORK!
>
> In case you missed, here they are again.  Give me a sec and I'll convert
them to mp3.
> P
>
> ----- Forwarded Message -----
> From: "Terry Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2013 8:49:33 AM
> Subject: [pianotech] Square Grand Sound Clips THAT WORK!
>
> Sorry for the bad sound clips. My son the computer whizz set me straight!
>
> Clip #1:
>
>
>
>
> Clip #2:
>

From "Patrick C. Poulson" <pcpoulson@sbcglobal.net>

Terry: That's pretty good sound for a square grand! 
Patrick C. Poulson
Registered Piano Technician
530-265-1983

From Arlie Rauch <adarpub@midrivers.com>

On my Mac I got the .bin files to work by using MacLinkPlus, a translator program.  I didn't know what else could run them.
Arlie Rauch

On Feb 10, 2013, at 6:26 PM, pianotech-request@ptg.org wrote:

> Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:23:08 -0500
> From: Jon Page <jonpage@comcast.net>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Square Grand Sound Clips THAT WORK!
> Message-ID: <51181DCC.5040009@comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> In the archives, there are not audio files, just  .bin  files.
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> 
> Jon Page

From David Boyce <David@piano.plus.com>

I really enjoyed listening to these!  There is something curiously  
satisfying about the square piano's sound.  I think John Field's 
Nocturnes would sound beautiful played on it. And I'm certain that it 
will be more satisfying to play than even the best of the "digital" 
keyboards.

Thank you for sharing the files Terry.

Best regards,

David.
www.davidboyce.co.uk