Re: [Harp-L] cross tuned chromatics

[Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On May 26, 2012, at 2:55 PM, JON KIP wrote:

> anyone see any plus side to using cross tuned chromatics?

I feel (and I could be way off base) that while the cross tuning is 'purported' to be to shorten the slide travel AND give a bigger opening to the reed chambers, it was actually done to ISOLATE the reeds being played from the next closest reeds. In other words..no overdrip. With a cross tuned instrument the reed you are playing is separated by an entire PLATE, placing the next reeds (phonically) in line far away. In practice, I don't see it. If a person is an accurate 'hitter', there shouldn't BE any overdrips or overshots. And anyway, if one WAS to overdrip, one would STILL get a note sounding. The difference is that the note wouldn't be the next note in the scale but would be actually HIGHER up the scale. And would THIS be acceptable? I don't see why it would. 

As for larger opening..everyones face is different and people have differing oral cavities and lung strengths, jaw strengths, etc., SO, the duty rests with the PLAYER to use the proper adjustment(s) in embouchure, pressure, suction, opening closures, throat restrictions (or NON restrictions).  
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> I've recorded tests of slow scales on cross and straight tuned chromatics, close miked...hand held, and there is always a sound between the notes with the cross tuned instruments.

This may be merely a situation of playing fast enough whereas the last reed (reeds) played are STILL swinging. And another thing. As one is skipping across holes, we must remember that our breaths are being 'air splitter' cut up by the plates IN the mouthpiece assembly. Try blowing across a detached mouthpiece. You will get a sort of buffeting air sound. Ok, now add reeds to the mix. Even reeds some distance away. The turbulence 'could' activate them.

One of the things I found early on was that the Hering chromatic is actually TOO sensitive. One can sound the reeds at some distance AWAY from the mouthpiece. This right there dictates that you MUST play them very cleanly. Otherwise you will get side tones from every little overdrip that you do. Hohners, on the other hand, require  bit more 'tickling current' (to use an electrical term) to get them moving. In other words you need about 1.310 times your normal running pressure to sound notes on a Hohner. You need about 1.144 times with a Hering. They are very touchy. (disclaimer..not familiar with the wonderful Suzuki line(s))
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> The sound is really obvious on cx12's and on the cross tuned 64's...

I noticed. But in the case of the CX, I am a 'slide slapper' and the noise of that slide is disconcerting to me. The 64s always seem sluggish on fast articulations (see 1.310)
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> perhaps, and this is what I suspect, but haven't tested,  it all washes out when it's not close miked.....

Yes, I think so. From my Polish mothers book of famous proverbs: "A man on a white horse in a Warzawa snowstorm...won't notice it"
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> lots of music happens between the notes..... 
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> hmmm...
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> I may have answered part of my question, in that the sound probably doesn't record when you get away from the mike (mic)

Just as the sound you hear between the notes is ever so slight, the farther you get from a mic will make it even moreso. 

smo-joe 
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