ETD's accurate?

Ron Koval drwoodwind@hotmail.com
Wed, 18 Sep 2002 17:35:21 +0000


<snip>
>.  While you are laboring over that last .01 cent and becoming
>intoxicated by the nectar of creative tuning, I'm lubricating the action 
>and touching up the voicing.  Time, and money, better spent.
>
>David Love
<snip>

My concern is not so much with the .01 cent precision, but with the machine 
that may lead to a tuning that doesn't match the piano.  We pretty much 
agree on the "nice" pianos, there's only an academic difference between the 
machine calculations, and aural tunings.  BUT, there's a whole army of techs 
out there armed with spinning lights, sweeping needles, laptops, pocket 
pc's, all dealing with pianos that don't have the best scaling.  What are 
they to do?

Learn more about your chosen machine.  Jim Coleman has done a bunch of work 
on altering SAT tunings to match little pianos.  Kent Swafford (I think) has 
published some helpful hints about RCT tunings, choosing different partials 
for different sections of the piano.  I'm not sure about Tunelab, but I'm 
sure there is information out there.  Maybe get in the habit of tuning just 
octave notes first to get an idea of how the calculation fits the piano.  
Get familiar with the custom functions of your machine, so you can quickly 
adjust those octaves to match your ear.  Better tunings are reachable, 
without much extra time, or effort.
Or, easier yet, upgrade your machine.  There really is a difference to be 
heard on the tough pianos, getting the tuning to match the piano.

Ron Koval
(off the soapbox, back to the cave)



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