In a distracted moment today, I learned that it is the sound of the open strings vibrating against the soundboard of an acoustic piano. So, THAT'S where it comes from!
In some recordings, they specifically place the recording equipment close to the soundboard because it gives the richest sound output - however the drawback is the whooshing sound... which apparently, not many people can hear.
The frequency of this "whooshing" is very low - hovering around 20-25 Hz. Some human ears can't pick up sounds in this frequency and auditory scientists speculate that the range of frequency hearing is genetically determined.
Fascinating, huh?!
hehehe ;-)
freak! just kidding. I will have to check it out and see.
I didn't know that! How interesting. So I guess I prefer the audience version of the recording!
And about Gould - I KNOW!!! I think its adorable that you can hear him in a sort of low croon when he is tuning the pieces internally!
(e:tinypliny) - During my time spent in recording studios, I learned that many sound engineers seek out the sound that you refer to as "whoosh". They consider it part of the natural sound of the piano box and think that it adds richness to the sound. If memory serves correctly, the idea to reproduce the sound of the piano that pianist experiences. On other hand, some sound engineers feel that a piano should be recorded so that it sounds it does from the audience in a concert hall - so no sound of the box and no whooshing.
My "problem" with classical piano is Glenn Gould. In some of his recordings you can hear him humming (for lack of a better word) as he plays.
Oh, OK, so you're saying I'm more evolved (i.e. more advanced)? Ok, I can handle that.
;)
Maybe this undercuts my evil intent, but its interesting to analyze what this really means. As you probably know, lower frequencies are travel farther than high frequencies.
And there is that popular science observation that Elephants can actually hear the lower frequencies rather than feel them - and they use this fact to communicate across the wilderness of Africa.
As humans, we live closer to each other, we don't hunt anymore, our societies have little to do with predation and danger awareness as probably mammals in the wild do.
It is possible that through evolution, we have progressively lost the gene-expression needed to hear the low frequencies - or maybe the allele controlling the trait is recessive. So hearing or not hearing these kind of sounds is merely an indication of what kind of population we share our genetics with, and where in the evolutionary tree we diverged from the parent population in Africa - and of course, which alleles we received from our parents and whether they are homozygous or heterozygous for the trait. :)
Yes, that was my total evil intent.
Gee thanks Tiny.
Now I feel insecure about my inferior ears that can't hear that sound.
GREAT.