Hello, Speaking of sound and unisons here is the text I've send recently to a friend, explaining what happens this day : I am very exited today because I've find a way to tune with the sound of our best tuner. (P.S. He is the chief tuner at the concert service) Basically he stretches a lot but what characterize his sound the most is that it projects a lot and it is very lively and strong. I was always looking for a good way to tune in this mood, as mine is more on the mellow and calm side, with less tension /presence may be. I've find a good method today , when tuning a (very) bad Boston 125 vertical, with a very short sound in the treble. First I tune the sound in the rebound, so I play with my left hand firm enough to hear clearly the second part of the sound , the second part of the extinction curve. This I do usually, so the other thing new is that, I tune my unisons when playing the octave together (3 strings bass note, 2 strings high note, then I make simultaneous a good working octave with the max stretch allowed, and the rebound of my unison (2 strings, then 2 other strings). That way I tune and voice my piano with the tuning of unisons. (repeating the note often, as the sound was not long) Funny, when tuning as that there is no problem to check 17th, 12ths, 5ths , 3ds double octaves and so on because the sound is so clear and strong it is easy to hear any interval . -(!) I changed the way I hear, this time playing a little strong (forte), but I am sure I can try to have the same result when paying softly, as I've see Mr. X does (and as I do usually, as it is less tiring) What is more fun than never, is that this 125 cm piano sounded like if he had long strings, and with a very strong presence. Indeed when listening to unisons closely, some beats (high partials) take place , I feel I put a light beat in the treble to reinforce the effect of the rebound of the sound. (and add length) But the piano was really even and nice to play. I've meet this sound often when I came after 2 of the best tuners of the concert service . Actually, one of them I've see tuning all the piano with the sustain pedal wedged (engaged), he told me that it helps him (probably not to close his unisons ) when he is tired to have the good sound. I've tried that sometime too, once, the pianist tells me " I don't know what you've done to the piano but he is singing incredibly " (he even checked that with the sound engineer as he does not believe his ears) . That is a very pleasant way to tune, but I think it is possible only in large rooms with a little sustain. I like too to tune with a mellow sound, even a dark sound sometime, very quiet. The hammer is used as a voicing tool, so I check the notes playing consecutives notes, little scales , and as that I keep a musical reference when tuning. Voila, I will be very interested in your experiences too. With best regards. Isaac OLEG
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