Anders Buen Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I do not know if this has been published here before, but maybe some of you might find this little informal listening test a bit fun? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/10116919/Interactive-Challenge-your-musical-ear.html I was able to spot the cheap one, but unfortunately not the Strad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christian bayon Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I was right on the 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Burgess Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 That's easy! The one that sounds the best is the Strad, and I didn't even need to listen to the clips to figure that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheConcertmaster Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I too, was also right on the 3. There was something about the strad sound that screamed "Italian!" to me, especially on the first set of double-stops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anders Buen Posted June 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I was able to spot the Strad when I took the test over again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torbjörn Zethelius Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 Got them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urban Luthier Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I agree with David -- the test is rigged! There was one nice sounding violin, an ok sounding one and one that sounded, well not so good. With the assumption the best one is the strad, making the correct match was easy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Stross Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 The skill of the player was well chosen..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlVcl Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 With that level of technical accomplishment what damn difference can it possibly make? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Appleman Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I couldn't stand to listen. The playing was so god awful and the intonation so bad I have to go play some scales to clean my ears out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Noon Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I too got them all correct, but cheated by thinking. 1666 Strad... probably not the most impressive of the Strads, but still possibly clean and even Old German, owned by player... violinist should sound most comfortable playing this one Cheap VSO ... well, this one's pretty obvious from tone and playability Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter K-G Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I do not know if this has been published here before, but maybe some of you might find this little informal listening test a bit fun? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/10116919/Interactive-Challenge-your-musical-ear.html I was able to spot the cheap one, but unfortunately not the Strad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Jacoby Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 Haha I gave the test to my nine year old and she got them all right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Stross Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 Haha I gave the test to my nine year old and she got them all right! How ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertdo Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 the playing was not great but from what I read the student who played is actually doing an "internship" at the Ashmolean museum and was able to play the Beechback Stradivarius. She is not a violinist but rather has interest in art and archeology Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheConcertmaster Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 That's easy! The one that sounds the best is the Strad, and I didn't even need to listen to the clips to figure that out. I agree with David -- the test is rigged! There was one nice sounding violin, an ok sounding one and one that sounded, well not so good. With the assumption the best one is the strad, making the correct match was easy Although I agree that the Strad would indeed produce the best sound, to what extent does the "a highly skilled player produces decent sound on any instrument" factor come into play? I would be curious to know what the outcome would be if the test were again repeated, but having somebody with minimal skills (eg. a violin novice or even a non-violinist) play all three instruments. Would we still be able to correctly identify the Strad under these conditions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Beard Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 This is definitely a softball pitch. It was very easy to rank the three sounds, even over crapy laptop speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Stross Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I would be curious to know what the outcome would be if the test were again repeated, but having somebody with minimal skills (eg. a violin novice or even a non-violinist) play all three instruments. Would we still be able to correctly identify the Strad under these conditions? This is a completely irrelevant test. You want to make it even MORE irrelevant ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlVcl Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 ... She is not a violinist but rather has interest in art and archeology What was your very first clue?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Burgess Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 This is a completely irrelevant test. You want to make it even MORE irrelevant ?? I'll agree that it is probably irrelevant, unless a researcher like Claudia Fritz is monitoring actual initial test outcomes, verus what posters on the site claim after knowing which instrument was which. That could be very interesting! Yeah, the playing was a little painful to listen to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lusitano Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I got them right on the first listen, cringed a bit during the many intonation breaks and double stops screaming under excessive digging of the bow/overuse of rosin and I admit it wasn't very easy as no instrument was played "properly"... I'm curious to hear all the instruments being played by a competent violinist, now that would have been much more illustrative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheConcertmaster Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 This is a completely irrelevant test. You want to make it even MORE irrelevant ?? Yeah, I admit it didn't occur to me at first how this test is flawed. But on the other hand, it looks like the target audience of that Telegraph article and test was for your average layperson, many of whom are not even musicians, but who nevertheless are familiar with the name "Stradivarius" as having made "the most expensive violins." Nevertheless, that article ended up grabbing the attention of a lot of musicians (which could explain the 76% success rate of getting all 3 answers right, as I would expect a lesser success rate amongst the general population) Yes, perhaps this test is irrelevant for us members here on maestronet, but not for your average layperson... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael_Molnar Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 I got it right by luck. The first is very noisy. The second was much better with power. The third is the sweetest to my ear, but it lacked power which almost threw me off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lusitano Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 Might have been the technique used? All 3 recordings seemed strange to me, like they were played at different distances or positions relative to the microphone. Something tells me the cheapo violin really isn't "louder" than the Strad, very odd test tbh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rue Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 I got them all wrong! You guys are overthinking it...it's just a bit of fun promoting the exhibit... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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