ETD Displays

[Kent Swafford]

on 2/27/01 6:06 AM, Richard Brekne at Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no wrote:

> Personally I could really get into an ETD that displayed tuning
> information in a manner very similiar to this. The lower line
> would represents the zeroed reference note (already tuned) and
> the upper line the note presently being tuned. The lower line
> then would always be still, and the upper line would vary
> depending on the tuners movement of the tuning pin for that note.
> 
> Its easy (at least for me) to imagine this upper line sliding
> back and forth as the pin is adjusted, at the same time listening
> (and watching) for the "best" partial and "wholistic" match. Its
> also very easy for me to imagine the usefullness of such a
> display in learning / teaching about just what tuning really is.
> Combined with present day curve graphs such a tool could be
> invaluable as a teaching / learning / tuning aid.

This might be easy to imagine, but it would be impossible to execute.

How would the ETD differentiate between the upper and lower note that you
say will be sounding at once with all those (slightly offset) coincident
partials sounding all at the same time? With all the coincident partials
going at once, how could one display be assigned to one note and the other
display assigned to the other note? Solve _that_ problem and I'm sure the
programmers will be happy to incorporate your idea.

> Again I must say I fail to see why there is so much resistance to
> multipartial displays amoung ETD authors. Isnt it time we move
> past the dancing dial ?

I know you don't mean to negatively characterize the state of the art of
ETD's (but it sure sounds like it).

Multi-partial displays could be developed to read more than one partial of a
_single_ sounding note, but would you then describe them as the "dancing
dials", plural? The displays dance because they are more sensitive than
piano strings are stable. Less sensitive displays could be developed, or in
the case of RCT, you can just go to the preferences for the spinner and
decrease the sensitivity, but less sensitivity is a loss not a gain.

Sophisticated use of modern ETD's (with their lone single displays of one
partial at a time) _can_ in the course of a tuning make use of data from
more than one partial of individual notes. In other words, the lack of
multi-partial displays can be ameliorated through good tuning technique.

For example, if you are tuning a note in the mid-range at its 3rd partial,
who says you can't sound the note a 4th below and look at its 4 partial?
(The deviations won't be applicable to the 4th below, but differences in
spinner rates could detect a mistuned unison or a mismatched pair of bass
strings, or a 4th that can't be right because the difference in spinner
speeds between the two notes of the 4th are too much, etc.) Or tuning a note
at its 3rd partial, who says you can't play the note an octave below and
check out its 6th partial(s)? Or tuning a treble note at its second partial,
who says you can't play the note two octaves below to see how the 8th
partials of the unison check out?

Its true, there was a time when I thought ETD's needed multi-partial
displays, and I still look forward to seeing ETD's that incorporate this
feature. But, I believe existing ETD's can right now provide much of the
benefit you seem to be seeking.

Kent Swafford