Octave Tuning

Richard Brekne Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
Wed, 29 Sep 2004 08:50:34 +0100


Matthew Todd wrote:

> Okay, before I go all out practicing this technique, I want to make 
> sure I understand it.
>  
> When I tune the temperament octave (A3-A4), it needs to be a 4:2 
> octave, correct?  And one way to test this octave is to play the A two 
> octaves above the lower note as the test key, to hear the partials in 
> the octave, am I right?  If the octave you are testing has no beat 
> whatsoever, you have a perfect temperament octave, is this true?

Not exactly... it normally ends up being something between an 4:2 and a 
6:3.  There are several tests for each, and all rely on ways of aurally 
zooming in on the relevant coincident partials.  You need to familiarize 
yourself with the relavant tests.  Buy the book "On Pitch" from the PTG 
home office.

That said.. I repeat... the correctly tuned octave is one that meets the 
tuners specification. 

Cheers
RicB

>  
> Thanks!
> Matthew
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Mail 
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/50x/*http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail/static/efficiency.html> 
> - 50x more storage than other providers! 



This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC