[HAM] The beauty of Tonewheels - an alternate view

[Drew Hoelscher]

Good point.  It should also be said that the Hammond is not tuned like a 
piano (12edo - mean tuning, or as most of us prefer, a "stretch" tuning 
based on the mean tuning) (edo = equal division octave).  Hammonds are 
tuned to a rational intonation scheme - based on large integer ratios 
(mainly caused by the effect of using gears to set the speed of the tone 
wheels).  This also contributes to the unique sound.  (I hate to re-word 
what other posters have said, but one of pj's points is (by extension) 
that the sound of a Hammond is (or the complex sounds generated by a 
Hammond are) synthetic and not a natural harmonic series).

Interestingly enuf, for those who think human beings can't be fooled by 
approximations of sound, the Hammond sounds like 12edo to our brains.  
So, as in gospel music, the piano, with its stretch tuning and the 
Hammond, with its RI tuning, sound in-tune with each other!

-Drew


pj geerlings wrote:
> In the recent discussion about Tonewheels the focus seemed to be firmly on 
> waveform. I won't dispute that the waveform is not pure sinous and it is 
> probably not valuable here to weight the merits of individual differences 
> between extant units - this has already been covered.
>
> What I haven't noticed in the discussion is a recognition of the one thing 
> that is constant in the Hammond design. This is something I would call 
> "harmonic reinforcement".
>
> Everytime you play a chord on a tonewheel organ the harmonics that make up 
> each note are *always* in perfect alignment. This is because (for example) 
> the same tonewheel that is used to sound at the 5 1/3' pitch for the root of 
> the chord is also used to produce the fudimental of the fifth of the chord. 
> The net result is that are simply no harmonic pitches that would tend to 
> fight with each other.
>
> Yes, I know that the harmonic sequence is "off" and frankly, IMO, it is a 
> very small price to pay for *that* sound.
>
> peace to all,
> pj geerlings
> nubi3.com
>
>
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