This seems so appropriate...
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DougMac
Super Member
I'm a fiddle player. Picked the Strad out no problem. G string was "fuller" sounding and the E string wasn't quite as strident. I wonder if they used the same strings on both. I can hear a pretty significant difference between strings. Also, my fiddle sounds different based on the humidity. I'm now 61 and have been playing the same fiddle since I was 8, so I'm pretty used to its sound.
It's all in your head, Doug. There's no such thing as getting really used to something, intimately familiar with it (like somebody with their own stereo making changes) and then being able to pick out a difference that other's, who aren't as familiar with what is being tested (like listeners to different gear in blind testing), might not be hearing.
That can very much be true. In this case however, all people chosen were professional violinists, not random people off the street, so it did take one variable out of the equation, and if any group should be able to tell the difference, it should have been them.
So you can take this as the Strad sounds just like any other violin, or that blind tests are biased towards a null result.
If those professional violinists owned a Stradivarius violin themselves, they might be more apt to pick it out, no?
To be honest, I don't think it was mentioned that none did own a Stradivarius. Even if they didn't, being professional players, you'd think they'd be more familiar with them and the differences between violins, than average people with no experience at all. At least I would think. I don't know that for sure.
"When Fritz asked the players which violins they'd like to take home, almost two-thirds chose a violin that turned out to be new. She's found the same in tests with other musical instruments. "I haven't found any consistency whatsoever," she says. "Never. People don't agree. They just like different things."
Sounds pretty familiar to me...:yes:
Sounds pretty familiar to me...:yes:
I don't get how 2/3 liked the new instruments, but yet she found no consistency. That seems pretty consistent :scratch2:
I remember watching something on TV about the Stradivarius and the 'expert' consensus of those studying one was that there really wasn't anything that special about it- but you know how correct the TV is, or anything else really.
I have a Stradivarius in my closet...actually a 100 year old Czech violin from a toy factory marked Stradivarius for some reason. Maybe that is what they were playing - a fake!
Jon_Logan
Addicted Member
If it was found that a difference could be heard between a trumpet and trombone, would you then be ready to allow other things to be compared by the same method?
When sampled and posted on the internet as a cheezy mp3 file, probably not.
KeninDC
Hazy Cosmic Jive
I picked the 2nd as the Strad. Why? It sounded, umm, "better" to my ears. Measure that.
I grew up with a sister who played first violin in H.S. and was taught by a member of the National Symphony Orchestra. I had a friend who went to Julliard for fiddle lessons. I was also dragged to numerous recitals and have heard many an actual Strad.
Perhaps our violin players are less keen/trained when it comes to listening. Mick Jagger supposedly listens to music on a lowly boombox. But he sure as **** knows how to sing.
BTW, my sister did a great version of Country Honk.
I grew up with a sister who played first violin in H.S. and was taught by a member of the National Symphony Orchestra. I had a friend who went to Julliard for fiddle lessons. I was also dragged to numerous recitals and have heard many an actual Strad.
Perhaps our violin players are less keen/trained when it comes to listening. Mick Jagger supposedly listens to music on a lowly boombox. But he sure as **** knows how to sing.
BTW, my sister did a great version of Country Honk.
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