SAT Pitch Raise to Lower Pitch SOLUTION!

[Farrell]

We have all been off the mark. This can be done with the SAT I, II, or III.
It is necessary to do an FAC tuning. I emailed Paul Sanderson with the
problem, his email to me follows:

"Dear Terry:

Decide how flat you would like the piano to be when you are finished, I will
use your example of fifty cents flat.

1) Store an offset of fifty cents flat,  cents to -50.0, hold SHIFT, press
RST, release RST, release SHIFT.
2) Measure the three stretch numbers for the piano, or if you want to use a
generic you should be able to lift the three stretch numbers from the
generic
tunings on your SAT III (after you get it back from updating) by HOLD SHIFT
2, press the STRETCH button, release the STRETCH button, press the STRETCH
button down a second time, release the STRETCH button, press the STRETCH
button down a third time to pick up the final stretch number, release the
STRETCH button, release the SHIFT 2 button.  If your particular SAT III
picks
up the first stretch number but does not pick up the second or third stretch
number try releasing the SHIFT 2 button after releasing the STRETCH button.

(My comment: Or, you can simply enter the three stretch numbers that you
measured on the piano. You can also measure your three stretch numbers on
your flat piano while in the initial -50.0 cents pitch offset mode!)

3) Select the PAGE in memory you want to create the FAC tuning on.
4) Roll over from the STRETCH to MEM button and the SAT I or II or III will
create the FAC tuning and literally subtract (for this example) fifty cents
from each note as it stores the tuning to memory.  For example: A0 is
normally -13.9 cents, it will be stored to the page as A0 -63.9 cents.  The
tuning will be stored at 50 cents flat until you store another tuning on top
of that page in memory.

(My comment: At this point, you are ready to go into pitch raise mode (to
the offset pitch of -50.0 cents) - you can use it in the normal way and it
will overshoot the half-step flat target in the normal manner to result in
the whole keyboard being 50 cents flat at the end of the pitch raise - just
what I was trying to do!)

A couple notes on picking up the stretch numbers from a generic tuning, at
first we did not have the stretch numbers for the generic tunings in the
header listing.  That is where the SAT III program gets the stretch numbers
from when you use the SHIFT 2 and the STRETCH buttons.  If your original
header listing does not have what appear to be stretch numbers just before
the serial number in the header listing then the SAT III cannot pick up
stretch numbers that are not there.  Also if the program in your SAT III is
very early you may have to lift up the SHIFT 2 button in between lifting a
stretch numbers from a header (as I tried to explain above).

Sincerely,
Paul Sanderson"

None if this appears in the manual (except the simple pitch offset).
Unfortunately, I do run into the need to do this procedure once in a while.
I'm glad that now I will be armed with this quick and easy method of doing
accurate one pass pitch raises to non-standard pitches. Keep in mind also,
this method can be used to accurately raise the pitch of a piano (that is
cared for - I see a few of these now & then) from A440 to A442, for example,
such as in a concert situation.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 6:27 PM
Subject: SAT Pitch Raise to Lower Pitch


> Dear SAT Wizzes:
>
> I am having trouble with use of the SAT pitch raise and pitch offset
feature
> (I am using a SAT III). I know how to, and use, both independantly without
> problem. However, take the case where a poor neglected piano :-( is 100
> cents flat in bass, 125 cents flat in tenor, and 150 cents flat in upper
> treble. If the goal is to get the thing up to standard pitch - no problem.
> But lets say that we choose (or are directed to by piano owner) to only
> bring the piano up to a pitch 50 cents below A440 (i.e., do the final
tuning
> 50 cents flat).
>
> In this situation, I set a pitch offset for 50 cents flat. My plan would
be
> to to a pitch raise (using the pitch raise overpull feature of the SAT)
> starting in the bass section (I want to pitch raise, with appropriate
> overpull, to a final pitch of 50 cents below A440). So starting on A0, I
> strike the key and press the measure button and see that the SAT indicates
> that A0 is 50 cents flat (it is 100 cents flat of A440, but because I have
> the pitch offset set at 50 cents flat, it only indicates that A0 is 50
cents
> flat of the target pitch offset). Then the next step is to have the SAT
> calculate an appropriate pitch compensation to overshoot the 50 cent flat
> target pitch and would presumably result in an overshoot of about 10 cents
> above the 50 cent flat target for a resultant value of about 40 cents flat
> (then of course, by the time I am done pitch raising, A0 has fallen back
to
> the targeted 50 cent flat pitch offset).
>
> Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. When I use the pitch raise
feature,
> it completely ZAPS any reference to the original targeted 50 cent flat
> offset and simply calculates an appropriate pitch raise overpull for pitch
> of A440, i.e., if I were to then tune A0 after using the pitch raise
> feature, it would indicate that I need to raise A0 about 125 cents (the
> original 100 cents it was below A440, plus the 25% overpull for the pitch
> raise that the SAT throws in).
>
> Is this a limitation of the SAT :-(?  I find it hard to imagine that I am
> the only one that needs to do such an undesirable procedure. Please tell
me
> I am overlooking something :-) (and then be specific as to what)! If it is
a
> limitation (I can't believe Dr. Sanderson missed this situation), does
> anyone know of a slick way around it?
>
> Terry Farrell
> Piano Tuning & Service
> Tampa, Florida
> mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
>
>