In article ,
"Clifford J. Nelson" wrote:

This is just a reprise and some more. It's questions about the physics
and mathematics of audio.

In article ,
"Clifford J. Nelson" wrote:

Stan Freberg presents: a bell note.---

The voices on Volume Two of Stan Freberg Presents The United States of
America are annoying, so, I said "Stan Freberg knows more about the
sound quality of spoken words than anybody else; I have to find out how
to get the voices on that CD to sound great". I did it: there are two
knobs on each Pioneer DSS-7 mirror image speakers I use; turn the mid
range knob to almost nothing and the high end knob a little more than
that and then the voices are entertaining, and the four Bix Beiderbecke
Story CDs are great too, now. That was a big surprise to me, I thought
Stan Freberg had become an alcoholic and the Bix CDs were counterfeit or
something. I can change the equalization and it changes the word
"Borneo" to "Corneo" or "Porneo". There was no standard equalization
curve for records in the USA until about 1956, so, everybody has to
guess what Bix's cornet really sounded like. I still can't demonstrate
how good 35 year old pop music was to my young nieces and nephews, and
my parents couldn't 35 years ago either. The equalization can bring out
of tune music in tune. Two hours after Ronald Reagan died the TV played
his voice and it sounded annoying, out of tune. Two weeks after Frank
Sinatra died the radio played the first song I've ever heard him sing
out of tune on. www.bixbeiderbecke.com says it well, "Through his music,
Bix is alive".

The Pythagoreans said mathematics was:

1) arithmetic
2) geometry
3) music
4) astronomy

Maybe 3 and 4 are out of order, I can't remember.

I'm looking for some web sites about the mathematics of music and the
equalization curves that will bring great musicians back to life so to
speak. I don't know where to start looking.


An open letter to Randy Brian:

From:
Subject: Are your broadcasts desafinado?


Dear Randy,

Here are some things I have posted to some USENET newsgroups.

Equalization curves:

I think Europe used the CCIR equalization curve or the new name ITU or
something like that instead of the US standard RIAA curve for records. I
ought to explain myself: I won a fifty dollar jackpot on the nickel slot
machines at the EM club in Bamberg Germany in 1966 and put ten dollars
back in and hit again. I used the ninety dollars and some more to buy a
Philips stereo record player with two small speakers. It had a wooden
case. The three Beatles albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper's
sounded very very good. Make that (very)^3. I can't get any music system
in the USA to sound that good or even in tune. I was in Germany again in
1975 and heard a song ("Indian Love Call" by Ray Stevens) from the radio
in a Mercedes-Benz bus and the announcer said "ausgezeitnich" as if she
were saying the word "delicious". I agreed and I bought the album when I
got back to the States, but, it is no good on any system I've tried
here. Everything you plug into or out of can change the equalization,
but I think it can be made to sound good with a graphic equalizer.

There was no standard equalization curve for records in the USA until
about 1956, so, try to guess what Bix Beiderbecke's cornet really
sounded like in 1927. I can change the word "Borneo" to "Corneo" or
"Porneo" in the lyrics to one of Bix's songs with an equalizer.

http://www.kspc.org/ "Forward Into The Past" from 2 PM to 5 PM Sundays
California time plays a lot of good music from 1925-1945. It is very
good if it is equalized correctly, but how can it be done?


Then, months later, I wrote:

I apologize for misleading anyone about US music systems.

I realized that I have bought thousands of dollars of Japanese equipment
since 1969 (there was nothing else in the stores), so, I remembered an
old American name Harman Kardon and got an HK 3380 receiver and HKTS 14
5.1 speakers and a DVD-31 player and spent about 18 hours trying
different cables and wires and speaker positions. I discovered the
"secret of the tetrahedron" for two channel stereo: The subwoofer on
the floor in the middle, two satellite speakers for the left and two for
the right channels raised on stands that are shoulder length high. The
listening position is at the fourth vertex of a tetrahedron and I look
straight ahead to the center of area of an equilateral triangle whose
corners are the left and right channels and the subwoofer.

The base notes are in tune and in sync and everything is just right in
the following songs and maybe I'm on the right track to finding an
equalization curve that will demonstrate how good the great musicians of
the past really were.

Rubber Soul track one, Revolver track one, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band track eight, Yellow Submarine track four, Clockwork Orange
soundtrack track three.

I thought it would be a good idea to ask an expert. Should I buy one of
those new turntables and vinyl records to listen to 1925-1945 music or
get CDs and play them on the DVD 31 (audiophile-grade digital to analog
converters!). It's been more than 35 years since I have felt goose
pimples from recorded music.

Bucky Fuller wrote that when something annoys you it is because it is
somehow at the wrong frequency. He went to Brazil few times and he was a
comprehensivist, so, this isn't too far off topic is it?


I listened to the album GETZ/GILBERTO over and over about forty years
ago on a Harman/Kardon stereo system my brother had because it sounded
so good. I have ignored it for more than thirty five years because it
just didn't sound good anymore on different music systems. Now I'm
starting to get paranoid about the Internet translations from Portuguese
to English of the titles of the third and forth tracks which are "To
hurt my reputation" and "Untuned". Is it a message from Brazil recorded
March 18 & 19, 1963 in New York City, that has taken so long to reach me
here in California? Does it reveal a vast conspiracy or something? How
can I get a good translation from Portuguese to English of every song
from that great album?

I got an email from the List for the discussion of Buckminster Fuller's
work.

Dear Clifford
if you wish I can send you my italian translation-version
of DESAFINADO (STONATO=OUT OF TUNE)

It is interesting that when Jobim sings the term desafinado
he puts a desafinato accord also !!!
(Playng in fa, the accord is sol 7b5)

......Tu mi accusi sempre di stonare un po'
sfortunatamente non ne ho colpa no....

biagio

The newsgroup rec.music.brazilian had this to say:

Try this web-site for some pretty good translations to english...

http://www.etc.ch/~jason/tabs.html

...although some of the translated phrases I would disagree with. But
most of it looks good!

Anyway, almost the entire Getz/Gilberto album is done for you there.
And
you can double check with some portuguese speakers here.

And someone also said "desafinado" means "off key".

Here is another translation, Slightly Out Of Tune (Desafinado).

http://kokomo.ca/pop_standards/sligh...une_lyrics.htm

Look for the headings "Equalization" and "Desafinado" in the newsgroups
sci.lang.translation and rec.music.brazilian and soc.culture.brazil and
rec.music.beatles and rec.audio.pro to see what people have to say.

What would you think if I sang out of tune?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?

Are your broadcasts of Forward Into the Past desafinado for some
listeners because they don't have the right equipment?

I'm not promoting any particular kind of music. I heard a bugle call on
an Air Force base about 1982 and I liked it (very)^3 much. It was just
one long note, no melody, no harmony, no lyrics, no tremolo, no vibrato.
I don't know how many overtones a bugle has or what they are, but, they
were just right. That's what I like. Any song, any instrument, but, in
tune.

Cliff Nelson

Dry your tears, there's more fun for your ears,
"Forward Into The Past" 2 PM to 5 PM, Sundays,
California time, at: http://www.kspc.org/

Don't be a square or a blockhead; see:
http://users.adelphia.net/~cnelson9/

I found out that if I put three inch thick foam pads under each of the
four small but heavy HKTS 14 satellite speakers, then many more music
CDs are in tune, especially the electric base notes. They play from 100
Hz to 20 kHz. The subwoofer plays from 25 Hz to 120 Hz. I had no idea
that there was so much resonation from what I put the speakers on. The
AVR 635 owner's manual describes the far-field and near-field
equalization procedures that use the calibrated microphone and the Texas
Instruments DSP chip (www.harmankardon.com). Does anybody know if the
AVR 635 can tune up speakers in general? I'd like to use my older
Pioneer DSS-7 speakers for front left and right front and the HKTS 14
5.1 together for 7.1 sound, if I ever get enough money to buy an AVR 635.

Cliff Nelson

Dry your tears, there's more fun for your ears,
"Forward Into The Past" 2 PM to 5 PM, Sundays,
California time, at: http://www.kspc.org/

Don't be a square or a blockhead; see:
http://users.adelphia.net/~cnelson9/