only aural tunings are good

[Don]

Hi Les,

Piano tuning comes down in the final analysis to a matter of "taste".
Machines or programs have no taste other than what the "creator" puts in
them, or that which the end user "tweaks" into them. In my mind it is clear
that for most if not all musicians the only thing that matters is unisons.
Next in line would be octaves--but to offer an extreme example--at least
one tech does successfully stretch to the top until the octaves are 75
cents "high". That's about 30 cents higher than I find to my "taste". Not
wrong, just....different, and his clients like it.

What the Chicago folks left out was an aurally tuned piano. Too bad! It
would have been quite revealing to them like as not to find that no one
really thought the aural tuning perfect either. They also probably did
*not* do the experiment double blind--where no one in the room knew which
piano was which until after all the evaluations were done. It is not clear
whether one person did *all* the tunings or whether several people donated
their efforts. If it was more than one tuner, then the results (and
conclusions) are less valid. Ron K. would you care to clarify?

At 10:33 AM 10/18/02 -0500, you wrote:
>I've been musing over the report of the Chicago program comparing ETD's
>and the end result, "Only an aural tuning can be trusted."

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T. Tuner for the Center of
the Arts

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