[sdiy] Interesting article on top octave generators.

[Mike Bryant]

Yes the Railsback tuning is more dramatically flat and sharp at the two ends, but the other thing about a piano note is it changes frequency slightly once the key is released and the damper is in place.  So for some types of playing the difference isn't so pronounced unless either the sustain or sostenuto pedals are pressed so as to keep the original pitch for longer.

Railsback tuning is done with the sustain pedal pressed so in normal play the ear doesn't tend to hear the notes quite so dramatically flat or sharp, hence it makes sense that synths with stretched tuning are tuned more towards the damped frequencies.

Some pipe organs also have stretched tuning, but nothing as dramatic as the Railsback.  But often this is simply because the organ is only 'in tune' at one temperature, humidity and barometric pressure.  Hence some days the organ sounds fabulous, and the next day quite lifeless.
________________________________
From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of Gordonjcp <gordonjcp at gjcp.net>
Sent: 06 January 2025 10:53
To: synth-diy at synth-diy.org <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Interesting article on top octave generators.

On Sat, Jan 04, 2025 at 09:05:11PM +0000, Mike Bryant wrote:
> I've always shipped my custom 'all digital since 1984' synths with Railsback as one of the tuning options.  I know that it has definitely been used on several film scores.
>

So, now I know what the term "Railsback" is.

Let me show you an interesting thing:

https://gjcp.net/images/junotuning.png

This is a comparison of the divider coefficients in the Juno 106 voice board ROM with a "perfectly" tuned twelfth-root tuning.

It's kind of the same shape, isn't it? I notice that the lowest notes on a Railsback tuning are way flatter and way sharper being anything up to 30 cents different, and I'm not convinced that I can hear a difference between "ROM" tuning and "perfect" tuning.

I suppose that's another experiment to add to the pile, eh?

--
Gordonjcp

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