sound. The reduced horizontal deflection, or changes of vibration mode, will produce proportionately less damping within the sound envelope. This should be demonstrated by increased sustain and greater stability in the decay transients. The more stable a string is held and the less it deflects in eccentric motions the more stable should be the decay envelope.

A vertical coupled string should display a graph with a strong and stable attack transient followed by a period of sustained stability (400ms) before it displays any variation caused by damping as the mode of vibration changes.

The initial attack transient should show a greater dynamic range for a similar energy input on the amplitude scale. The 400ms portion is where the fast and strong initial attack is experienced. The sustain transient should clearly reveal this also, there should be a lessened change due to less movement of the string by comparison to the ‘horizontal’ graph as its modal deflection by comparison is greater. Thus, more radical by approximately half as much again over the vertical system.(More movement means more damping – greater change!)

The implications of this behaviour should be demonstrated in an amplitude/dynamic graph.⁵⁴⁴

⁵⁴⁴ Wayne Stuart, email interview with author, 1st February, 2012.