source file: m1396.txt
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 19:13:49 -0500 (CDT)

Subject: RE: JI Tuning Resolution

From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison)

>I grant you that typically the wave will not be strictly periodic,
>because the player's bowing, lipping, or blowing will not be entirely
>steady.

   If so, I would have expected it to be audible, and also moderately
random.  The variations I'm referring to are generally neither.




>If there are indeed overtones of constant amplitude that do not fall
>within the harmonic series of the fundamental, there must be an
>independent source of energy producing them. I don't think this occurs
>too often in any significant proportion in the types of instruments
>we're talking about.

   Other than noise elements of course, but that's a different topic of course.




>Under a steady airflow, the Bernoulli effect that explains their motion
>predicts a periodic behavior...

   I'll presume that you've read more on the topic than I have, although
I've certainly read a fair amount.




>>...if that were true, then the fact that the lower harmonics are
>>closer to harmonic than the would be relevant.
>>Boy, am I confused!

   Forget it;  It was a tautology:  If it's true that JI properties are
more related to lower-harmonics, then the tuning of the lower harmonics is
more important than that of the higher harmonics.

   The point though is that the lower harmonics seem to be much more
periodic than the higher ones, since the overall waveshape (which is
dictated by the lower harmonics) seems to stay pretty consistent, but the
details (dictated by the higher harmonics) vary a lot more.