The intensities of scales played on nonpercussive orchestral instruments at various dynamic markings and the resulting dynamic ranges are reported. We are able to deduce the size quanta corresponding to one step in a dynamic marking and the number of quanta in the dynamic range of a musical instrument using deviations from smoothed curves. The average dynamic range of the nonpercussive orchestral instruments in about 11 db between the dynamic marking of pianissimo and fortissimo; the average intensity at 10 meters is about 59 db re 0.0002 dynes/cm2.

Authors: Clark, Melville; Luce, David
Affiliations: Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA ; Melville Clark Associates, Cochituate, MA(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 16 (October 1964) Paper Number: 328
Publication Date: October 1, 1964

Click to purchase paper as a non-member or you can login as an AES member to see more options.

No AES members have commented on this paper yet.

Subscribe to this discussion

To be notified of new comments on this paper you can subscribe to this RSS feed. Forum users should login to see additional options.

Start a discussion!

If you would like to start a discussion about this paper and are an AES member then you can login here:
Username:
Password:

If you are not yet an AES member and have something important to say about this paper then we urge you to join the AES today and make your voice heard. You can join online today by clicking here.