TlabPro tuning

[Greg Newell]

Jim,
    I tried this method today, finally. I had this particular piano tuned
to a rather wild HT so it took a couple passes to make it stick. What I
found after tuning was that the piano had a nice pure sound in the center
that became progressively wilder the further out you went. I also noticed
while playing that there were rather distinct crossover points. I could
really notice the 4:2 to 8:1 jump and C6. It rapidly began to sound quite
shrill to my ears. I guess I just don't like that much stretch. The jump
from the pure 5ths to the double octaves at A4 was noticeable too but not
really as much as the one at C6. I goofed up the adjustment going down
into the bass and wound up tuning that aurally so I can't comment on your
instructions there.
    It was interesting to see how you use TuneLab. I, myself, don't go to
that much trouble. I change things in the program as I go. I still use my
ears to tell me if I'm on track or not for any given piano and will make
minor adjustments by adding a little to the offset on the way up if
necessary. On a few rare occasions I have simply closed the program and
done the rest by ear. If I remember correctly, those were instances where
I did not get very good inharmonicity measurements in the first place. I
should have tried again but didn't.
    Jim, the reason I'm replying here is not so much to comment on your
style of tuning or the way you personally use TuneLab but rather to
support the effort of Bob Scott by saying that this program produces a
very good tuning without the need but with the capability of fiddling with
it. There are many who would be very happy to have their pianos tuned just
how TuneLab builds a tuning from the sampled notes of their piano. For
those of you out there in tuner land who might be considering an ETD
choice I urge you to take a look at this program. It is robust in what it
can do for you. It also allows for a great deal of flexibility in the way
you wish to use it as Jim points out. It's also perhaps the most cost
effective way to jump into this fascinating world of computer aided
tuning. I've seen laptop / TuneLab97 packages sold for as little as a
couple hundred bucks.
    Thanks for posting this method Jim. Perhaps I'll play with it a little
and post one of my own someday. Tuning is such an individual endeavor as
we all have our own tastes to satisfy. Happy tuning!

Greg

"Jim Coleman, Sr." wrote:

> Here is the way I tuned my piano today. I thought some who own
> TunelabPro might be interested in it. It gives results very much
> like I like to tune aurally.
>
> TlabPro procedure  11-30-01
>
> After measuring inharmonicity on 6C's, go into the "T" curve
> adjusting mode by pressing the letter "T". Set Bass for 6-3 matching
> with the drop down menu. Set the Treble for 3:2 matching with the
> treble dropdown menu.
>
> Use the 4-arrow adjusting method and press the up or down arrows to
> make the lower deviation curve a relatively straight line in the
> Bass and
> more or less the same for the treble side of the curve. There may
> be a
> slight deviation from the straight line in the high treble but you
> can ignore
> that for the moment. Of course, the Tuning curve in the upper half
> of the
> "T" curve display  will sweep upward in a typical exponential
> curve which
> is a little like the flare of a trumpet bell.
>
> Press ESC to get back to the Tuning mode display and tune downward
> from A4 to the Tenor break. This will give you pure 5ths and will
> graduate
> into the 6-3 octave mode as you approach the Bass. Test all aural
> intervals available to make sure there were no lapses in your eye
> judgments. If you notice any variations from smooth beat rate
> progressions, recheck the display of all the notes involved.
>
> Next touch the "T" to readjust the Tuning curve. Change the Treble
> side
> to 4-2 matching. Now looking at the lower deviation curve, utilize
> the 4
> arrow mode to adjust the curve in a relatively straight line. The
> software
> will keep the note C8 on the zero line. If the curve has a slight
> upward
> curve just to the left of the C8, but the rest of the line is
> fairly straight, this
> will give a good tuning at least up to C6. Press ESC and tune from
> A4
> up to C6. Take note of the value of the C6 tuning.
>
> When you get to C6 press "T" to get back into the curve adjustment
> area.
> Change the Treble side to 8-1 matching. With the up or down arrow
> in the
> treble section adjust the deviation curve to a more or less
> straight line
> again and check the value for the C6 block in the upper tuning curve.
> Adjust the arrows until the value is the same as was noted previously.
> This should give you a relatively straight line again in the lower
> display
> with perhaps a slight variation within the top octave. A simple
> way of
> doing this is to place the cursor on the block representing the C6
> on the
> Tuning curve and then using the "I" and "K" keys in place of the
> arrows to
> make the adjustments until the C6 value is the same as before. Press
> the ESC key to get back to the tuning display.
>
> This type of tuning in the treble will give a balance between
> double octave
> tuning, pure octave 5ths, double octave 5ths and triple octaves.
> This will
> result in top single octaves with beats of 4 or 5 per second, but
> will make
> the high treble sound more "in tune" melodically.
>
> Tuning down into the Bass using 6-3 octave matching works well for
> most all pianos. By the time you get down to C2 it might be well
> to have a
> little more stretch for medium or larger pianos. Note the tuning
> value of C2,
> then press "T" to get into the curve adjustment display. Change to 8-2
> double octave matching to get a little more stretch. Place the
> cursor on
> the note C2 in the upper tuning curve and use the "U" and "J" keys
> to
> adjust the lower deviation curve to make a more or less straight
> line in
> the Bass side of the curve so that in the value for C2 in the
> upper right
> corner of the screen you have a value very close to what you
> remembered
> from before the change from 6-3 tuning. This will make a smooth
> transition from 6-3 tuning to the 8-2 type tuning.
>
> If all this sounds too complicated, whoever said piano tuning was
> easy,
> that's why they pay us the big bucks. Actually "doing it" is much
> simpler
> than writing about it. Once one understands the principle, the
> doing is
> really quite easy for the experienced tuner.
>
> Jim Coleman, Sr.

--
Greg Newell
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net