How low is a piano?

The lowest is A at 27.5 hz. Middle C is 262 hz. The highest is a C at 4286 hz.

On a 88 note piano, the low A is 27.5 hz.

Sorry. That should be 4186 for the highest.

4186 hz

Hmm

higher than the crossover point for most tweeters...

another reason pianos are difficult to reproduce...

Supposedly, the two hardest things to record are piano and human voice -- not because of frequency range, but because they have wider dynamics (soft-to-loud) than all other sources. Anyone else ever hear this?

Reproducing piano on a speaker is an interesting subject. I've owned a lot of different speakers, and of all of them, I'd say that the ProAc Response 1 was the best at reproducing piano in a lifelike way. The thing is, it is a small speaker with limited low frequency reach, and it wasn't my favorite overall.

OHM Walsh speakers cross over at around 8khz I believe in which case the single Walsh driver would handle most everything a piano can produce. Piano does sound very dynamic and natural on the Walshs.

Don't forget the harmonics extend way higher.

The Bosendorfer 96 key piano (rarely recorded) extends an octave lower than A0 on an 88 key instrument. Many digital pianos and keyboards (much more commonly recorded) also offer an octave of pitch control for each key, so they can also reach down below A0.

Marty

Harmonics of the piano are much more complex than regular overtones. It resembles a little percussion instruments but it might also be due to tempered tuning of the piano: http://www.precisionstrobe.com/apps/pianotemp/temper.html

Benchmark Media technical director John Siau mentioned once that warm sounding gear (enhanced even harmonics) can make piano sound like out of tune. He also mentioned that because of crossovers in speakers the best piano sound can be reproduced with good headphones.

The Bösendorfer 290 does not extend a full octave below the standard 88 key piano. The 88 key piano goes down to A0, the 97 key Bösendorfer 290 goes down to C0, approx. 16 Hz, an additional 9 keys, a little more than half an octave extra.

http://www.boesendorfer.com/en/model-290-imperial.html

Very interesting responses folks. Thanks! Am I correct about the low bass string? I wasn't sure.

Actually it's 41Hz in standard tuning.

Grimace - You are correct (41.2Hz). There are 5 or 6 string electric bass guitars that have additional B string (31Hz) but it is made only for ease of playing. Composers would avoid writing music for 5 or 6 string instrument exclusively where most common bass has 4 strings.

I wonder why they produce instruments like Bösendorfer 290, that go below human hearing. With church organs vibration could be felt - is it the same for the piano? I though for a moment that perhaps it was designed for dogs but in spite of common "superior hearing" belief, dogs don't hear below 60Hz. It must have been for whales!!!

I believe dogs hear on the high end, not the low. High-pitched whistles and such.

For a quick listen to the lower notes from a Bosendorfer Imperial via iTunes, check out the song "Not Zero: In Three Parts" from Paul Bley's album "Not Two, Not One". It helps to have decent speakers for your computer. Pretty incredible sounding....not your momma's piano.

Ojgalli,

Right you are. Should have said "about half an octave" lower. Digitals with a pitch wheel, however, do go a full octave lower.

Marty

Here's some of the "why" for the extra notes:

https://www.boesendorfer.com/en/pianos/pianos/Concert-Grand-290-Imperial