Mike's Oud Forums

Fluke or tuning standard?

ameer - 4-19-2010 at 02:54 AM

I have noticed that in quite a few Farid El Atrash recordings the tuning standard does not fall on a semitone or even a quartertone; I just tried to calibrate a tone to it by use of a pitch shifter and it is approximately an eight-tone up from wholestep down or 1.8725 tones down from standard. My question is whether this is a recording fluke- quartertone shifts are pretty common in my experience- or if it's actually a preexisting tuning standard? I find that extra eighth-tone makes quite a bit of difference in terms of the "feel" of whatever you're playing, but that could just be me.