Hi Otto, Thanks for your response. It's often hard to get people to be specific about just what they think constitutes the right amount of stretch. Interesting that we agree on the general principle that what matters is "maximum coincidence of partials" but differ in interpretation of that principle. I favor higher partials than you do. And I think, like you, that my style of tuning makes harmonics match up & resonate with each other to the greatest degree. I should clarify when I say my octaves have a definite beat. That is true only in the upper registers, say above C5, and in a very gradual curve. I don't like particularly wide octaves in the rest of the piano. Wider than the "dead spot" for sure, but less than 1 bps. I find that, while I can hear the octave beats in the high register if I play those octaves in isolation, I am utterly unable to hear them in actual performance. And I listen for them, particularly in passages where they might stand out (going to concerts). When I first got an SAT about ten years ago, I tuned according to its generated tuning for a bit. Very nice, clean sound. Based on clean double octaves throughout the scale (except slightly wide 6:3 octaves in the bass). I certainly don't object to that sound, but found that it was a bit dull to my ear. I'll also mention that when I got an RCT a few months ago, I experimented with the wider pre-sets - 6 to 9 - and didn't like that sound. Problem being that the extra width of the octave is used throughout the scale. The mid-range in particular sounded to raucous. I prefer a more conservative approach in the middle and lower registers (a 5 in RCT pre-set), but have a definite preference for increasing width in the upper ranges. Years of experimentation, first aurally, then with ETD, have left me to what I do today, which may be on the "wide stretch" side. I'm interested to know whether I am on a fringe, or just "half way off the center." Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico --On Wednesday, June 2, 2004 7:36 AM -0700 Otto Keyes <okeyes@uidaho.edu> wrote: > Hi Fred & all, > > I guess I'm one of those "conservative" tuners. I like clean octaves, but > in-tune on the stretched side. Sorry, but I've never been much of an > interval counter, either before or after ETD's entered my tuning kit. > Though I have other devices, I primarily use TLPocket, because of its ease > of use, & it easily calculates things in much the way that I like to tune > aurally. Primarily, I use 6:3 octaves in the bass, & 2:1 in the treble, > though 4:1 or 4:2 are used on occasion as well, depending on what fits the > piano. Sorry, but in my book, "single octaves that have a significant > beat" are out of tune. > > Had an interesting comment from an artist who came through here this > winter. He played a piece that made use of lots of harmonics & overtones, > & the piano really sang. He commented that many places he plays, the > sympathetic overtones just don't work, which makes for a rather pathetic > piece. IMHO, with lots of stretch, the harmonics won't match up & > resonate with each other, but may pick up some of the nasty stuff that's > present in almost any piano.
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