Peterson tuners, how accurate?

[SUSAN P SWEARINGEN]

I don't understand why anyone would want to mess around with a Peterson when
you have ETD's like the Verituner that do real time multi-partial sampling.
Sure, the Peterson is half the price of a Verituner but are you really
saving anything when you shell out $650 for a device that can't even sample
partials?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Neuman" <piano@charlesneuman.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 8:59 AM
Subject: Re: Peterson tuners, how accurate?


> After reading a little more, I have some more thoughts: It seems you COULD
> use something like a Peterson, as long as you'd do the stretching
> manually. You could tune in the order you'd tune aurally, with the
> machine's help, and use the ETD to help you put the right stretch in by
> tuning to the appropirate harmonic. That way you have complete control
> over what kind of octaves you're getting.
>
> Alternatively, you could calculate your own tuning curve with a fancy
> programmable calculator, based on some manual inharmonicity measurements
> that you'd take. I'm curious: Did Al Sanderson publish his algorithm for
> calculating the tuning curve based on FAC? Or is that secret info?
>
> I realize that while it seems you CAN do the stretching calculations
> manually, the more advanced ETDs save time by doing it for you. But I'm
> not convinced that the better ETDs would necessarily do a better job. If
> you had the right program running on a fancy programmable calculator or
> pocket PC, I think you could end up with just as good a tuning curve. Now
> all I have to do is try it...
>
> Charles
>
>