Julien you bring up and interesting point. After building over a hundred keyboards I don't think I've ever heard 2x8 that I really like as much as a single good 8. Harpsichordists are stranger than the instruments. Right now I'm woeking on a french single which will have just one 8 which will have to be perfect' If you think of the organ Who would want two 8's sounding as harpsichord choirs do. Perhaps this is why the earliest french harpsichords did not have couplers. Were they thinking of contrast or blend? Delin faced this when he added the second 8 and decided to not go for the biggest contrast. 
The tutti sound maybe better to hear yourself in ensemble playing but do you want it all the time when playing alone? Jack Peters ok 

----- Original Message -----
From: "julian holman" <[log in to unmask]> 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 10:03:27 AM 
Subject: Re: plucking right! 

I have a Burning question since 

On 17. Jul 2011, at 17:36, Bill Jurgenson wrote: 

> In the stark light of extant instruments, only a very small number 
> have 
> what today is erroneously considered to be the standard disposition: 
> <8 
> <4 

I want to ask Why one would choose either the erroneous standard 
disposition or the proposed authentic one? 

It's a burning question for me because I have never been satisfied 
with the 2x8 sounds I have heard. (These happen to be All from my own 
instruments - I must be the only harpsichord maker who has never 
played another instrument) 

Always, I grieve for the loss of the textures of the individual 
choirs when they are coupled, and I wonder now if Perhaps, the loss 
of vocality of individual strings is due to the constructive/ 
destructive interference of the twinned vibrations, and if Possibly 
this effect, of the sound of the choirs becoming plainer when they 
sound together, might possibly be less with the proposed more 
authentic disposition? ? ? 



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Note:  opinions  expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  HELP .
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