Tuning in an Acoustically-Challenged Venue

[TunerJeff@aol.com]

Dear List,
     ((Wanted to throw in my own experience with a noisy setting....))

     About 10 years ago I got a call to tune a Kawai 6-ft at a "County Fair".
The concert was in the evening (...Maria Muldauer & band), but the stage was
located at the rodeo ring, which was BUSY all day long. Competitions
involving man & beast did not stop for the poor tuner/tech called to the
scene!

     I found that tuning against the bull-riding was quite a challenge (...to
be polite). Fortunately the sound-techies had just finished their set-up on
the piano. It was miked, amped, and fed to me through a set of top-quality
earphones... turned into a breeze tuning for me, despite the hubbub & rhubarb
from the crowd and animals.

     The beat rates were quite audible throughout the piano, in all
situations... and I was able to tweak the treble and bass controls for the
best hearing. I found that the graphic equalizer allowed me to nearly
eliminate the beats I WASN'T listening to at the time! A bass-heavy signal
gave the best audibility for beat rates almost all the way up the keyboard.
The only trouble was encountered in the high octave (duh!), but even here I
found that depressing the bass and pushing the mid & high end gave me an
audible signal to work with (...clean and tinny, but CLEAR to my aural
senses).

     Anyone who encounters such a situation should grab a sound-tech and
plead for help!
It works quite well to use headphones to tune aurally... but have the mixing
board beside you to allow fine-control of the tone that reaches your ears.

Regards,
Jeffrey T. Hickey RPT
Oregton Coast Piano Services
TunerJeff @ aol.com

ps-
    In concert settings with an amped piano; Ask the techies to pump the
piano through the stage monitor speakers to give you a jump on ambient noise.
A small push through the speakers at your feet can help to tune even if the
grunts (...er... roadies...) haven't finished with the rest of the stage
set-up yet. Not always useful... but worth the experiment next time you deal
with a noisy stage. (It ain't as useful if you can't tweak the levels a bit
for best hearing of beat rates.)

jef

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