Hi to Ric Moody and others interested: You asked why I prefer to tune unisons by ear. As others have said, it is faster. It may possibly be more accurate in the midrange. On the SAT in an FAC program the machine listens just two octaves above the fundamental. In real life aural tuning, we listen to 6th partials, 7th partials, 8th partials, 10th partials, 12th partials, etc all at once. The higher we listen, the more accurate is our fundamental. For example, if I tune the 8th partial of A4 within 1 bps, the 4th partial is within .5 bps and the fundamental is within 1/8th bps. If I tune the A4 4th partial with the machine (at this location, 1 cent equals 1 bps), I would have to have the strings within .5 cents (not too hard to do). However, if I tuned the 16th partial of A4 within 1 bps, everything below in the partial series would be twice as good (the 16th partial of A4 would be at A8 which is too high for me to hear anymore but young audiophiles hear it all the time). In aural unisons, I try to get everything within .5 bps (that takes 2 seconds to hear a beat. partials within the 7th octave don't last that long). For purposes of the Tuneoff, I was willing to put myself at a disadvantage in tuning all unisons with the machine, knowing that I would just have to be more careful. Even though it is not advisable to tune Bass unisons with the machine, I'm willing to try just to keep the contest between ears and machine fair. For Concert work, I like to tune unisons just like Ed Foote does. I didn't realize I was being Weinreichized,but it does make sense. After tuning both side strings with the SAT III, I tune the middle string by ear and listen to the overall sound of the unison which is "the proof of the pudding". If there is a slight beat in any of the strings, I can tune the middle string in such a way as to minimize the beat phenomenon. There are times, though, where I will tune each of the three strings to the machine. Of course, this means I have to do more rubber mute moving, and it is helpful to do a little quality control work by listening and improving if possible by changing one string. These little differences are normally so small as to not be detectable in the listening audience. The mute moving is quite simple when tuning the two side strings with machine. I place the rubber wedge between the 1st and 2nd strings while tuning the Rt string, Then I move the wedge 1 click to the Rt (between the 2nd and 3rd strings) and tune the Left string. I then move the wedge two clicks to the Rt and tune the center string. I can do this quickly by the braille system so that I do not have to get up to look where they are placed (I remain seated while tuning Grands). Jim Coleman, Sr.
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