RCT TlabPro and SAT III

[Richard Moody]

| Ric Moody stopped in to visit me yesterday. He drove down from
| North Dakota to visit his son who lives in this area

I actually live in South Dakota, but no biggie.  After all we say Jim lives
in Phoenix when he really lives in Tempe.  : )  North Dakota doesn't exist
don'tcha know after Rand McNally left it out of one of their atlases.  Even
the governor there doesn't like the name "North".  He wants to leave it out
and just call it Dakota.  North he says makes people think of cold weather.
I don't know why he cares as ND has more millionaires per capita than any
other state. Or it used to.  Maybe it slipped, er drifted a little?

    Jim's tapes should be a bonanza to all tuners, machine or not.  The
aural tuners will get a pretty good idea of what machines do as he does
give lots of aural checks.  Three major devices are demonstrated, Tunelab,
RCT and SATIII.   Each has its attractions depending on your needs and
preferences.   There is a significant cost factor so those wondering how
they compare, this is the best opportunity short of live demonstration with
hands on tryouts which of course means time and money also.  There is a
learning curve with any machine and these tapes should certainly cut that
time a whole lot.

    An interesting side note, on the SATIII tuning Jim did something to get
purer 5ths and yet keep the 3rds progressing nicely.  I have been
experimenting with purer 5ths as I believe that 5ths come out purer on the
piano than on paper, probably because of inharmonicity.....and who knows
maybe a little soundboard magic.  Lets put it this way, I can get purer
5ths than what I was taught, or what the books say, and Jims sounded purer
than what I was taught.   There is only one problem, time.  It does take
longer.   You have to go back or at least I do, from as low as C3 to make
corrections, and as low as F2 to prove mistakes.  Then the trick is to keep
the the 8ths, (octaves) 12ths, (octave + 5th) 15ths (double octaves) and
19ths (double octave + 5th) clean, esp in the bass.  If you can't get it
you have to know if it is you or the "flaw of the instrument" as the
ancients used to say.  However a strong will (strong enough to achieve mind
over matter) will rule in the end and all ears will be satisfied.  Or
simply revert back to theoritical ET.
---ric





----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Coleman, Sr. <pianotoo@imap2.asu.edu>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Cc: <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 12:29 PM
Subject: RCT TlabPro and SAT III


| Hi to all:
|
| This week I did a video tape comparing the RCT, the TunelabPro and
| the SAT III. Many people have suggested a Tuneoff between the
| three instruments several times on the pianotech list. As in the
| Tuneoffs with Virgil Smith I always predicted that there is not a
| dimes worth of difference between the tunings. Here is a chance to
| see for yourself. This is Coleman vs Coleman vs Coleman which rules
| out ego tripping. These videos are available from Superior
| Instructional Tapes now.
|
| Ric Moody stopped in to visit me yesterday. He drove down from
| North Dakota to visit his son who lives in this area. I utilized
| Ric as Camera man while taping the last segment of the above video.
| The neatest thing he did was to tune out the unisons after I did
| the machine tuning. He did a great job. I don't think I will tune
| my piano again for awhile.
|
| In the taping of the use of the RCT, I used a number 6 Octave
| Tuning Style (OTS). This worked out beautifully for my Steinway L
| in the treble. In the Bass, I departed from the program and
| demonstrated a method for getting pure 6-3 type octaves using the #6
| OTS.
|
| In the demo of the TLPro, I adjusted the Tuning curve to be
| similar to what I had done with the RCT and what I have determined
| from past experience works fairly well. In the SATIII portion I
| demonstrated the judiciout use of the Double Octave Beat (DOB) in
| achieving my personal preference for octave matching.
|
| I used many aural tests throughout so that the demo would not be
| so boring. 3rds, 10ths, 17ths, octave-5ths, double octave-5ths and
| M6ths, 3rd-10th-17ths were used often to show the smoothness of
| all of the tuning systems. Single, double and triple octaves were
| easy to hear, none perfect, but all well balanced to give a nice
| overall sound.
|
| Jim Coleman, Sr.