[sdiy] Top Octave Generators, beehiving and leakage

[Donald Tillman]

   > From: "Mike I" <mirwin at marketbridge.ca>
   > Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 15:21:14 -0400
   > 
   > That old  ETI- Powertran String-thing article by Tim Orr makes some mention
   > of the beehiving problem.
   > 
   > Funny to see that   "Key Click" and "Leakage" have become virtues    :D

Well, yeah!  Making a musical instrument is the art of turning
imperfections into tools of personal expression.

I believe there's a fundamental difference between "beehiving" and
"leakage".  

Beehiving is when unplayed tone sources can be heard in the output;
any tones you hear with all the keys up.

Leakage is the sound of tonewheels seeping into the electromagnetic
pickups of their physically adjacent neighbors.  Laurens Hammond was
well aware of this effect, and addressed it by arranging the
tonewheels in fifths so that the leakage effect would be most musical.
Since fifths in the equal tempered scale are detuned from the 1.5
harmonic frequency, a side effect of leakage is a subtle chourussy
animation.  

  -- Don

-- 
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California
don at till.com
http://www.till.com