Hi Fred
Hi Ric,
I don't think you could call Jim's tunings for the tuneoffs "ETD
assisted." They were calculated tunings, not altered "by ear"
except maybe for unisons, from what he has said. For the first
event, in Chicago, Jim used an RCT calculated tuning, the preset #9
stretch. RCT was brand new then, and he wasn't that comfortable
using the interface, so he transferred the numbers to his SAT and
used that to tune...........
I drilled Jim once about this to try and get at the truth of the
matter. That was at a work up to an exam session in Reno. He said
outright at the time he always listened as he went... just out of habit
and wouldn't characterize his tune-off tunings as purely by the dial.
He said at the time that for almost anyone who ever had become
reasonably skilled at ear tuning it would be really very difficult to
completely turn off the ears. He have had to have worn ear plugs that
really closed off his hearing to do so, and he didn't do that. So I am
basically just repeating how he described his tune-off tunings to me
himself.
From my own at this point rather extensive experience using both RCT
and Tunelab, I'd have to conclude that if any well trained tuning ear
picked apart a tuning done straight by the dial... he/she'd better be
able to notice the tell tail signs. There is a certain kind of evenness
and clarity that results from straight forward by the dial tunings
generated by single partial curves. I would think that picking this up
in an audience situation from several to many meters away listening to
someone just playing a piece might be rather difficult to pick up
without special and purposeful training to do so... (and gawd only knows
why someone would spend the time to do that :) ) So I always judged the
tune-offs as being fatally flawed from the get go. Still... they did
show one thing. The audience at hand was not able to make a conclusive
choice. Which either says more about the audience then anything else...
or that once you get past a certain degree of refinement we move over
into the arena of how conscious the tuning was and how well the result
matches the intent. And in that arena the machine is per definition
only a reproduction of someone elses algorithm imposed by a third
parties interpretation of the dial. Not that this doesn't result in a
very much more then satisfactory result in itself mind you.... but I've
already conceded that point. Only an ear/intellect combination (at
least at the stage still) can compensate and balance for the various
para inharmonicities found throughout the piano, and only the intellect
can attempt to execute its own conscious intent. I will always spend 20
or so minutes if I have them in a critical concert situation to tweak my
default ETD setup by ear. And I always find things to change that I have
no doubt imparts an increased degree of sonority and smoothness to the
overall end result. I am less sure whether this is always noticeable...
but it sure as heck was a couple weeks ago in that String/piano quintet
link I posted.
Cheers
RicB
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