choosing an ETD

[Clair Dunn]

I'm sorry but I forgot the name of the person who was inquiring
about selecting and ETD--and it's so bloody hot here (even at 5:30
a.m.) that I can't bear to search :)
Anyway. Back in 1998 I was using TuneLab as I was learning. (I got
into this business because of a desperate desire to work on the
insides of the piano.) TuneLab enabled me to do a reasonable job
tuning. People who are already aural tuners will no doubt be able to
make TuneLab do a wonderful job. However, I was new and did not know
enough about tuning in general to make full and proper use of
TuneLab. When I learned that an experienced RPT wanted to vet my
tunings on old uprights on the chance that I could help him whittle
down his calls so that he could do more work in his shop, I
panicked.
Knowing that this was a once in a lifetime chance, I whipped out my
credit card and paid for RCT (Cybertuner). Since time was of the
essence, I read the getting started part of the manual and
"started". The first two pianos I tuned were in my shop and were for
his inspection and critique.
He "passed" me. And in fact added, that these were the best
electronic tunings he had heard. In my innocence I asked him how
could that be since the indications of pitch were right there to
see. That was when I learned there was more to tuning than matching
the pitch. Anyway, that $800 turned out to be the best money I ever
spent in this business.
RCT appealed to me on a very important logical level. It creates a
tuning for every single piano you tune. You sample the As of that
one piano and RCT creates the tuning file from what it hears. Since
even in my infancy in this profession I realized that all pianos
were different, this had enormous appeal for me.
And, another thing-- though at the time I had no interest in
Historical Tunings, didn't in fact even know that RCT had that
facility, here I am, 4 years later, with an interest and lo and
behold, with RCT, the means to pursue that interest, if only on a
rudimentary level.
I do know that it is very helpful also for voicing because it has
the facility to vivisect a single note into its component partials
and you can see the effects of voicing immediately.
As to its value when pitch raising, I can't say enough good things
about it. It makes the job incredibly easy and, I think, enables me
to handle very old strings in a manner that prevents breaking them
(given that I turn them down first anyway).
It also has other capabilities of which I am only dimly aware.

In short, I think you do get your $800 worth; but you may not use
various parts of it right away, or indeed ever, but it will
certainly not hold you back and will even, as in the case of the
HTs, encourage you to explore the piano in ways that might not be
possible without it.
Additionally, and this is important, in 4 years I have never had it
choke up, break down, have a memory overwrite, or anything vaguely
disaster-making. These days that is rare for a piece of software.
I am looking forward to the day I win the lottery so that I can buy
a pocket PC and the RCT version for it!
Anyway, I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Clair