Laptop? (was Re: SAT for JP ?)

[Michel Lachance]

>Hi JP, Warren, and list,
>	$1200 is a serious investment, for $300 more, you could get a very
>fast pentium laptop (some slow pentium laptops cost even less than a
>grand).  Does anyone use a laptop to tune a piano?  if so, how is it
>different from a electrical tuning device?  What software do you use?  Or
>any comment?

With the laptop you would need a sound card with a microphone which are
not standard equipment on the cheap laptops.  As far as I know, the only
program available that is able to compute a tuning after the
inharmonicity curse of a given piano is the Reyburn's Cybertuner.  And
that one works only on the Mac's (all Powerbooks have a built in sound
card and a microphone).

One of the problem I see using a Powerbook instead of a SAT for daily
tuning is battery autonomy.  I could hardly tune more than a piano with
my Powerbook without recharging it as I can go on about twenty tunings (I
never count, really) with the SAT without plugging it in the outlet.
Powerbooks are also more bulky to sit on a piano.

Regards,

Michel Lachance, RPT