Re: Sustain

[Ted van Beek <double_reeds@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Pat:

This must be one of those translation problems.

The way I've understood the term: the continuation of
a tone after the removal of exitation. 

If I pluck a sting on my guitar, the tone will
continue for many seconds, true in pitch but with
diminishing amplitude. Same if I strike a key on the
piano (assuming I lift the dampers).

With free-reeds, stop blowing and within a tenth(s) of
a second there will be no sound. Not only that,
depending on the natural resonance of the reed, within
milliseconds the tone will change pitch as well as (to
keep it simple) volume.

Perhaps you meant that the decay of the individual
tones, as in a chord, varies with their individual
pitch and therefore is not uniform across the chord.
Of course this is true, but that's a natural
(nature-al) phenomenae. This may sound better on a
harp, but only because the "sustain" lasts for such a
short time.

Ted


- --- Pat Missin <pat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Guitars and pianos have much less sustain than
> harmonicas. Chords on
> guitars and pianos tend to die away before you
> really get a chance to
> notice how rough they are. 
> 


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