[CAUT] P-12ths was: Tuning a Steinway D and aBosendorfer Imperial together

[Kent Swafford]

Fred, your post is thoroughly reasonable.

I have been trying to understand Stopper for almost 2 years now. There are
some obstacles. First there are language and cultural barriers. And second,
there is the simple fact that Stopper is trying to make money from his
discoveries; his vagueness may not be a matter of not "grasping the
complexities" as much as they are simply wishing to keep the knowledge
proprietary.

But make no mistake, Stopper's credentials are solid, and in 4 months of
intensive use of PureTuner (my nickname for Tunic OnlyPure) I have only been
able to corroborate his claims, not refute them.


Kent



On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 10:06 AM, Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu> wrote:

>
>   What I am trying to do is to point out that, IMO, "there is nothing
> magic" about the 19th root of 3 as a basis for tuning. It is simply
> indistinguishable from other mathematical ways of establishing equal half
> step relationships in the real, inharmonic world of piano tuning.
> Stopper argues otherwise (see his article, referenced in a post I sent
> previously). I don't find his arguments at all compelling. Others may. He
> makes the 19th root of 3 division the basis for the "Stopper comma," which
> he makes great claims for. He does say that to the "additional stretch"
> produced by beginning with a pure 12th must be added the inharmonicity of
> the piano, though his explanation of how this is done is VERY vague, and
> doesn't demonstrate a very good grasp of the complexities involved. An
> example of his explanation of inharmonicity and tuning:
>  "The inharmonicity itself pushes the whole scale away from the theoretical
> frequencies derived by the scale functional formula. The inharmonicity is
> already considered when tuning aurally, since the ear makes an integration
> of the harmonics to a "virtual pitch."  If an aural tuner tunes a slight
> beat-rate-narrow fifth, that fifth remain about the same amount
> beat-rate-narrow in instruments with different inharmonicity, wheras the
> absolute frequency deviation is up to some cents on stiff strings in the
> treble."
> He claims "the recent discovery of the Supersymmetry between the beats and
> the frequencies" based on his tuning. Perhaps if it is demonstrated to me, I
> will be blown away. I am skeptical. Actually, he seems more focused on
> electronic and other "essentially harmonic" instruments than on acoustic
> pianos.
>  Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
> fssturm at unm.edu
>
>
>
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