Eric, I would tune the pianos aurally. No matter how you go about this there are going to be compromises made. I would use an ETD to make sure that the pianos were all at the same pitch the same, then set a good temperament and tune from there. Two pianos that I have to tune together here are a Shulz-Pullman 118 upright and a Steinway "L". I use the above method and when I am through with both, I play them together, left hand on one keyboard and the right on the other. I play notes chromatically with both hands while listening for discrepancies, when they are found, first check the tuning individually on both instruments, to make sure that they are in tune with themselves, if both are fine then determine which piano you would like to compromise the tuning on. The pianos sound extremely close in the middle with the bass having the most comprimises made. Try it you might like it! Doug Atkins Registered Piano Technician Cedarville University 937.766.7566 atkinsd@cedarville.edu >>> "Wolfley, Eric (WOLFLEEL)" <WOLFLEEL@UCMAIL.UC.EDU> 03/06/02 12:01PM >>> Hello fellow cauts and caucts, We have an interesting scenario here and since it well may be a situation unique to our environments, I am interested in everyone's opinion on the subject. Our Chamber Choir, Chorale and Percussion Group are performing Stravinsky's Les Noces this weekend. I'm not familiar with this piece (yet) but it calls for 4 pianos. As it turns out, we can place 4 concert grands onstage our large auditorium without any hassle. The interesting aspect of this setting is that the 4 pianos consist of a Steinway D, a Yamaha CFIIIs, a Kawai EX, and a Baldwin SD-10. I'll bet everyone can guess the next question: How would you tune these pianos to each other? My assistant Lawrence Becker is the lucky guy assigned to that hall and is up there tuning right now for the first rehearsal using his Accutuner III. With instruments this dissimilar, my instinct is to pick the file of the piano that seems the most middle of the road and tune all 4 pianos to the same tuning file. In the past, I've experimented matching up 2 similar pianos in various ways (I use a cybertuner) with equally adequate and interesting results, but have not encountered a challenge like this before. What would you do?? I'm sure Lawrence will appreciate any input when he returns from his investigations. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eric Wolfley, RPT Head Piano Technician Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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