Earlier this year I tuned a D and a Baldwin SD together. I tuned the D to its ideal tuning and then put the identical tuning on the Baldwin. It wan't the ideal sound for the Baldwin but they blended very well. I use a VT-100 for that and I have my own custom tuning parameters as the standard tuning is too FACish for my liking. Andrew Anderson At 10:57 PM 5/4/2007, you wrote: >Today was a first for me...tuning two pianos for a duo-piano "concert." > >Piano 1 is a Steinway D. Piano 2 is a Weber WG-60 (or something like >that model # - the piano is about six feet long). > >Pretty easy to hear why it's recommended to have similar sized/scaled >pianos to use together. :) > >How do you machine tuners tune two dissimilar pianos together? Tune >each to the ideal settings of the machine and call it good? Do you >play octaves and/or chromatically on both pianos together to see how >well they match? How do you make changes, or do you? > >Today was not an ideal situation in other ways. The Weber was 5-9 >cents flat. Also, either the A/C wasn't working, or someone forgot to >turn it down because it was 80F on stage. I shudder to think about >what will happen when the A/C brings the temp down. I'll be back >tomorrow night to retune, but don't look forward to another pitch >correction on the D. > >Here's what I did, and you guys tell me what you would have done differently. > >Pitch raise the Weber, then tune with open unisons to get the most >expanded tuning as will fit the piano. Tune the D with felt strips to >get a more contracted tuning. I started out tuning the A4-A3 octave to >match the Weber as best as possible. At various points up and down the >scale, I would play the same notes on each piano together to see if I >was getting off anywhere. Chromatically, fairly quickly. Then, adjust >octave stretch to better match the Weber without making the D sound >noticeably out of tune with itself. Generally, the D was slightly >contracted compared to what I would have done for solo use. In the >bass of the Weber, I had tuned the octaves a bit wide, hoping that >they would match with the D. It worked out pretty well, although you >wouldn't call it perfectly in tune. But it was pretty close, and seems >to be the right thing to have done. > >What was strangely cool was figuring out whether the D was flat or >sharp to the corresponding notes of the Weber. I mean, you're >listening to the same note on each piano, and one is "off." Is it >sharp or flat? Well, you can't play the note on the Weber and tune the >one on the D unless you have three hands. So I got that figured out >after a minute of thinking. It's merely doing our "regular" interval >tests on the notes of different pianos...one with the left hand and >one with the right - well, that's kinda fun. In a demented sort of way >as it seemed to screw up the brain in all kinds of weird directions. >But it certainly keeps one on his toes. > >Any input appreciated. > >JF
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