RCT

[Don Mannino]

Greg,

Since preferences in things are mostly based on opinions and personal taste, you should not try to pin this down to some demonstrable absolute "this is better because."  Most of us agree that a Mercedes is better than a Hyundai, but hey - tell me one thing that the Mercedes does better!  They both will get you where you need to go at the maximum speed limit, they both can be ordered with lots of options, but few would argue about which is better, at least after trying them both for a little while. Many, many people are very happy with the Hyundai, but I think most would argue with the Hyundai owner who scoffs at the Mercedes as no better!

A few of the points which, to me, make RCT worth the cost:
- The sound of the tunings is very different between RCT and TuneLab.  I have not been able to get TuneLab to generate a decent (to me) temperament, for instance.  Even RCT has trouble doing this on some pianos, but it is much better than TuneLab.  Dragging a generic curve to match inharmonicity measurements does not give the same affect.
- With RCT, you sample 5 or 6 notes, you select the tuning style, and it calculates an excellent tuning. There is no messing around with dragging the chart around and doing a visual estimation of an aural tuning. It is easy and accurate.
- If you don't care for the default octave styles, you can individually tweak them to taste, and this is repeatable from one piano to the next.  No need to guess.  Again, I find this much easier in actual use than dragging that generic curve around.
- The tuning display is more precise to use.  I have used both extensively, and have concluded that RCT's is much better.  Others who have used both may want to chime in - I think they will agree.
- RCT allows easy, graphical comparisons of different tunings, making it very easy to compare two tunings in the computer.  I use this a lot!
- All piano tuning involves compromises, and (no offense to Bob) Dean understands aural tuning extremely well, so was / is able to design the software with the right compromises built in.
- The harmonic analyzer is a very useful tool, which I use on most tunings to help choose which partial to tune to.  This cannot be discounted as a minor difference - it is extremely useful.

Since TuneLab does a good job for you, then enjoy it! Obviously it suits your needs - but this is not really sufficient qualification to be called as good as RCT.

Don Mannino
(Beta tester for RCT and formerly TuneLab, but with no financial stake in either one)