Piano Dynamic Range

[Romeo]

Hi all! I am in desperate need of a dynamic range example for a piano. I need the piano & forte in db for, say, a note in each octave (c1, c2, c3 etc). Can anyone help??? Thanx a lot

Rich

[PianoGuy]

What kind of piano, and at what distance?

A 9ft Steinway D with your head next to it will register a few more dB than a poxy Baldwin Acrochronic in the next street.

Best you hire one of those meters that the fellers from Environmental Health use, the pale green ones with the fuzzy-felt ball mic on the top, and poke it at a few pianos.

If you're thinking about recording, then if fff is 0dB, ppp will be about -20dB.

[Romeo]

its for an assignment i'm trying to do... ideally i want an upright from about 1 metre, any piano will do but ideally a Ritmuller.

Thanks for the reply tho

Rich

[Bill Kibby]

This really is like asking "how long is a piece of string?"!! You'll have to meter it yourself, and decide on testing methods to suit your purpose. Pianos respond to the pianist's fingers, and even if you do tests with standard weights dropped from standard heights, it won't give you any useful comparison to a pianist. And one piano is different to another, not only in its overall volume, but in the balance between one section and another. And why a Ritmuller of all things? When one is playing competently, the dynamics of notes played by different fingers are all under separate control, so the pianist decides not only the overall volume, but the loudness of particular notes or groups of notes within the whole. That, surely, is the whole point of inventing the thing in the first place! The easiest way I can think of is to record the piano, then measure the amplitudes of recorded notes in a separate operation. But what purpose will it serve?

[Barrie Heaton]

This really is like asking "how long is a piece of string?"!!

Twice half it’s own length

Barrie

[Gill the Piano]

Barrie - if I'd had a maths teacher like you at school, I'd be even worse than I am now...