machines or not? what?

[Tony Caught]

Tony Caught wrote:

" I am at the moment trying to understand why so many people who use these
machines recon that they are so good. To tune a piano from A0 to C8 by
machine and say its tuned is to me just unbelievable. Who is kidding who ?"

Richard  Brekne Wrote:

Oh this is very very do able Tony.  RCT, SAT, TLPro and even Tunelab 97 are
quite capable of providing a very good tuning this way. That isnt to say you
shouldnt tweak the tuning afterwards, nor is it to say that any given tuner
might find a routine better suited to his/her own styles. But you certainly
can
get a decent enough tuning this way

I think every ETD should be seen in that perspective personally. Keep the
ears
on ! :)

" Richard I quite agree that the tenor & treble in 99% of the pianos comes
out great, it is the bass I am referring to.
Tell me, how many tuners go back and tweak the bass afterwards. I know, its
close enough and the customer is deaf anyway.

25 years ago I listen to a lot of piano teachers who where buying pianos and
the general comment was  " I want a piano with a rich mellow tone, not one
of these Japanese pianos their too sharp and bright. "
Today the new batch of piano teachers say " I want a piano like the Japanese
one I learnt on, some of the others are too dull. "

Are we going to wind up in 20 years time saying " I prefer a bass that
grates" because I lot of users don't know better.

Point is Richard, that the new lot of tuners, and some of the oldies
(including me)are using these machines and either don't know what to listen
to, or use them because they have lost their hearing. Sure, a three week
course on how to tweak them would help but they are not "Tuners" they are
Tuners aids.

Hopefully the people that write the programs for these ETD's are listening
and are hard at work rewriting some of the software to overcome the known
existing shortfalls. It would appear that this is going to be the tuning
method of the future so lets get it right now before it gets to late.

Tony Caught
Adelaide Australia
caute@bigpond.com.au