Wow I just got the KAB strobe

[quote]10-01-08: Stringreen
Hey Johnny53... Next time get off of the orchestra level. The sound bounces
off of the floor and is adversly affected.[/quote]Well, I had to stop working a
couple years ago due to health, so I don't have a lot of spare change for the
best seats. I was able get this seat for $17, which is like student pricing. At
Seattle Symph's price for front row balcony (if it had been available), I
probably would have had to pass. Did you play for the New York Phil or the
Met? I know Lynn and Jim Levine are buddies going back to their Cleveland
days.

My brother studied cello at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
(CCM) from 1968-1973. During that time opera singers Tom Fox and Kathy
Battle were there too (Tom Fox is also from our high school in Cincinnati),
along with actor Dorian Harewood. In the Fall of 1972 Harrell and Levine left
the Cleveland Symphony, Harrell for CCM and Levine to direct the New York
Met. Levine's originally from Cincinnati. So sometimes when he was back in
town he'd stop by CCM to visit Harrell and check out the local talent. Basically
I saw Levine discover Kathleen Battle. My brother studied with Harrell that one
year, and said he learned so much from him it felt like it invalidated all that
he'd studied up to that point.

I'm looking forward to seeing/hearing Harrell again, but I wish he'd still trot
out his Montagnana instead of the DuPre Strad, at least for some of it. The
DuPre has a broader tonality and a deeper bass, but I've never heard a cello
sing in the upper register like his Montagnana.

With my direct drive turntables with pitch control, I found that--compared to the tempos Basie set--even a 1% variation made a significant difference in how engaging his band's presentation was.

And this, good sir is why Regas typically measure fast - so that they're more "engaging". Louder and faster is an age old demo room trick. If you're liking "dead-on" 33.33, maybe you'll like 1% faster more, or even playing a 33 at 45.

I'm just kidding about playing at 45, but my main point is to try to ascribe the correct causality to what you're observing. We all fall into this trap from time to time.

The kind of speed stability that results in "better" sound isn't observable with a strobe disk. Having said that, the KAB is a very nice tool, as is the Hagerman UFO.

For those of us blessed with perfect pitch, I suggest we get out a tuning fork or a musical instrument strobe tuner and listen - to verify that playing at dead-on 33.33 actually reproduces music on pitch - that the disk was actually cut on speed (e.g. A=440 or thereabouts).

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Thom, I agree with you about using a tuning fork if the test record has a 440 hz tone band on it. Like Stringreen, I am a violinist and as you know we tune the violin to A 440hz. I have a Stereo test record that must be 25 years old and it has a 440hz test band and I play that and adjust the speed until it matches the tuning fork. I have found that it works great.
Carter

10-02-08: Thom_mackris

JohnnyB53:
With my direct drive turntables with pitch control, I found that--compared to the tempos Basie set--even a 1% variation made a significant difference in how engaging his band's presentation was.

And this, good sir is why Regas typically measure fast - so that they're more "engaging". Louder and faster is an age old demo room trick. If you're liking "dead-on" 33.33, maybe you'll like 1% faster more, or even playing a 33 at 45.

Ah, but Mr. Mackris, notice I said "1% variation." I didn't specify if I meant fast or slow, and that is one of the keys to Basie and those who follow him such as Quincy Jones. Basie was the absolute master of swing, and swing has to have time to ... well ... swing! And that means knowing when to be languid as well as energetic. A 1% increase in his tempos will wreck the vibe as surely as a 1% decrease.

But overall your point is well taken, and also relates to raising the pitch slightly above A=440Hz. I am a percussionist, and both vibraphones I've owned were tuned to A=442, presumably to cut through the mix a little more. I have heard that Leonard Bernstein tuned his orchestras to A=442 also, to give them a little more snap and brilliance.

Rega's slightly-faster-than-standard is--as you said--a demo parlor trick, similar to having one system slightly louder than the other. When I was in audio retail in the mid-70s in SoCal, the Big Box stereo store down the road from us often set the tweeter controls of the national brand speakers to the -3dB position so their high-margin house brand speakers would sound "better" to buyers in a quick audition.

Thanks for the additional tips on using the KAB with a record and clamp attached; that would create additonal drag. I will try it today and see if I can get it even closer to the correct rotation speed.