[pianotech] phenomana - experiment.

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/18/2012 8:28 AM, Ron Koval wrote:
> So I've been thinkin'.... (I know, often dangerous!)
>
> Since the point of the experiment is to document where, if there is any
> change to an aural-type tuning with change in humidity,
> we shouldn't need to emulate a master tuning.

The point was to document the irrepeatability of BOTH aural and ETD 
tunings under different RH% as the piano changes, not just aural 
tunings. The point was that ETDs are way more accurate than pianos are 
capable of supporting, and the point was that whatever method was used 
to tune the piano, it wouldn't match the last tuning. It was intended as 
an illustration of the measuring marshmallows with a micrometer effect, 
and an attempt to inject some reality into tuning expectations by 
illustrating and somewhat quantifying the limitations of the instrument.

My thought was that the master tuning process would be as close as 
anyone would likely get to a repeatable aural tuning, that would be 
anything like acceptable to the armchair believers. I don't know this to 
be the case, having never participated in the process, but the committee 
process producing the most uniform and high quality tuning was cited 
repeatedly as the selling point for the process when the current tuning 
test was being developed, so that's all I have for evidence. So the 
aural tuning wouldn't "emulate" anything at all, and most certainly 
wouldn't be done with an ETD. It would BE a master tuning, if that's 
worth anything, and would be produced aurally. The question was how 
close to the previous master tuning is the next one on a given piano. 
It's the machine tuning that doesn't have to emulate the master tuning, 
since they wouldn't be compared one to the other, but the question was 
how close to the previous ETD tuning is the next one on a given piano. 
Whether either of these processes can produce anything useful is looking 
more highly doubtful each day. So far, I haven't seen any indication of 
hope that a baseline can be established as a point of departure.

Unless that changes immediately, I think it's time I officially 
retracted the experiment as ill conceived and apparently impossible to 
conduct cleanly.

Ron N