Fred- This is an interesting comment, and brings us back to my comment that a significant part of the effect of Kent's tuning with the Tunic program may be due to the use of the program to tune unisons, one string at a time. Not to mention that Kent does a preparatory tuning that would probably pass for a tuning in many situations. Incidentally, though I heard the Tunic/Hailun as sounding very "clear," I also felt it sounded a bit "cold," and wished we could have had time to voice it more fully. Or was it the effect of the unisons? Ed S. > > Hi Rik, > For me it is a question of where to put emphasis, what is most useful to > obsess about. In tuning, I find I obsess more and more on unisons. Going > back to some of the early subject matter in this thread, to string > coupling, I'd say that while coupling occurs, there is a difference > between a coupled unison and a true unison, and it is both apparent to > the ear and to the ETD (though sometimes there needs to be some > interpretation of the ETD output or fiddling with position of the devise > relative to the strings). Coupling could be said to be the point at which > "beating stops." Which means that there aren't any full "loud soft" > cycles. There is, however, still an interference pattern, and we hear it > as a wow (to try to put it in letter form. I think we all know what the > sound is). Then there is the point where all that wow disappears, and the > unison is completely clear. > Now if a whole piano is tuned with all unisons as close as possible to > what I describe as completely clear, the sound of the instrument is > pretty dramatically different from an instrument where there is still > some wow in many if not most unisons. I think that difference is quite a > bit greater than what can be achieved by fooling around with tweaking the > placement of pitches relative to one another. Always assuming a > reasonable set of parameters as a starting point. > I am quite aware that many people swear by many subtle alterations of > pitch "by aural means" and others swear by their own formulae of non- > equal. It's a controversial topic. The position I am taking is quite > naturally subject to the criticism you offer: "I am saying it doesn't > matter, hence I am saying that nothing matters" (to take it to its > logical conclusion). But, hey, I have a fairly tough hide and can take > it. In any case, I am certainly not saying "nothing matters," but simply > putting priorities where I think they really lie. With respect to tuning, > I think unisons, and every single unison on the piano, are by far the > biggest factor, and tend to be discussed far less than this or that magic > formula for temperament and/or stretch. > Regards, > Fred Sturm > University of New Mexico > fssturm at unm.edu > > >
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