ETD Displays

[Richard Brekne]

Robert Scott wrote:

Lots of great stuff

> This seems to be what Bill Bremmer and others have been calling
> direct interval tuning.  While an ETD can be used this way, it
> seems to me like using a nail gun to drive nails by swinging the
> tool like a regular hammer.  It ignores the real power and
> potential of an ETD.  If all you want to do is compare two
> notes, your ears are better suited to that task than any ETD.
> The power of an ETD is in its ability to encompass the
> entire scale at once and give you an absolute reference for
> every note so that you do not develop cumulative error.

I think its a misconception to believe that the ear is so superiour to
the ETD in all things. I would say that the brain / well trained ear
combination is better equiped to make many subjective decisions that are
needed to resolve inharmonicity issues that the ETD stumbles on. The ear
itself, even a well trained one, can get fooled for a variety of reasons
more often then one might think. This is easy enough to demonstrate.
Actually it seems like one of the main reasons many good aural tuners
rely on the ETD is to avoid some of these problems.

Using the ETD actively in the direct reference mode lends itself towards
training ones ear even in ways one perhaps doesnt expect to see a need
for unless one has spent time actively doing so. This is perhaps why I am
so passionate about this. I have seen several eyes open big time by
running through a few direct referencing sequences with them, and my own
experience with self retraining my ear has convinced me of the value of
this approach as a learning aid.


As an active Tuning aid ?? I think Kents last posting brought up some
very keen points relating to the more general multiple-partial side of
this.  Combining those benifits with the direct referencing approach
would seem to me to provide a visual representation of what ear tuners
have been trying to hear and control all along. As Kent points out new
visual tuning skills would need to be developed, but hey... thats the
whole point... what more might we learn in the process ? The discussion
of whether to approach this with a direct referencing method or a
calculated curve method should really be a matter of personal choice. I
belive the SAT offers the tuner that choice on a single partial basis.
How many tuners utilize this feature is really not the point. Those who
find value in this approach appreciate the availability of it within the
ETD. And experience wise this is largely an unknown so I personally find
it hard to understand that anyone should presuppose then that such useage
would be a waste time. Perhaps I misunderstand those who seem to be
saying such things.... I dont know.

>
> Once you have an offset defined for every partial of every note,
> it is conceptually possible to use this information to provide
> a multi-partial display.  I expect that if this option were
> available, it would not be used very much.

Ya never know until its there... nor do you know what knowledge we may
find in the doing.

>
>
> -Robert Scott
>   Real-Time Specialties

I like your program alot Robert. And I am looking forward to information
about Tune Lab Pro.

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no