The beauty of the Solina String Ensembke and other synthesizers

One very helpful feature is that they have a tuning knob.


So for high or loudly played notes for example, the player increases or stretches the frequency so that the note sounds correct to the human ear-brain.


On electric guitar this is done by bending notes and using the feedback from our brain to find the right amount of string bending in real time.


On iPad GarageBand for example it can be done by using the pitch bender wheel. It is funny that to make a very high C sound like a C it has to be bent more than a semitone up. This is how our brain perceives. There must be a reason for this.


In other words a high octave of 1000Hz is not 4000Hz. 4000Hz sounds very flat. And in fact 880Hz sounds a flat uninteresting octave of 440Hz. Especially if 880Hz is at high intensity. Our brain needs more than 880Hz! And good instruments like a Steinway piano do not have the 2nd overtone (2nd mode of vibration) of a 440Hz vibrating at 880Hz. This would make a wrongly sounding note. Like a cheap toy. The scaling of the strings is so arranged that the strings is so much tensioned before breaking so that the inharmonicity of the steel string make the 2nd overtone higher than 880Hz so that it sounds correct to our brain. This is the result of hundreds of years of piano evolution.


See also the nearby euroelectron posts.