tuning multiple keyboard instruments

[Thomas Cole]

Paul,

Number A: Pipe organs are never in tune with themselves let alone any 
other instruments.  They also don't have the inharmonicity that pianos 
do, so I just tune the piano to A=440 and proceed like the organ doesn't 
exist. Actually, if I know the organ is not scheduled to be tuned for 
some time and, especially if someone has requested that the piano 
"match" the organ tuning, I'll play A4, try a few different stops and 
measure them with RCT. Now I can tune the piano so that _A4_ is in tune 
with the organ and the requester is informed of that.

2: I would calculate separate tunings for the two pianos. If the pianos 
are similar size, their tunings may be similar also. I can imagine 
scenarios where it would work to average the two tunings. It's a 
judgment call. If the tunings look very different (compare the graphs), 
then there is some question as to whether the instruments should be 
played together. A tuning calculated for one is not going to work for 
the other.

III: Actually, this could work. I just recorded a Yamaha P-120 keyboard, 
with a concert grand selected (it took me a while to figure out where to 
stick the mutes ;-), and the recorded graph looked somewhat similar to a 
CFIII graph. You just can't do anything about improving the variance 
numbers.

Tom Cole

Paul Mulik wrote:

>Potentially silly questions from a novice technician:
>
>A:  Suppose a piano needs to be tuned to another instrument (let's say a
>synthesizer or pipe organ).  Should I just make sure A4 matches and then
>tune the piano as normal, or do I need to determine precisely what
>temperament was used on the other instrument?  In the case of a synthesizer,
>I would think the temperament might vary depending on the setting (for
>example "concert grand" might use a different temperament than "honky-tonk
>piano" or "harpsichord").
>
>2:  Suppose I'm going to tune two pianos together, using RCT.  It seems to
>me I could just calculate a tuning for one of the pianos, and then use the
>same tuning for both instruments (without recording the second piano).  Any
>reason why this wouldn't work?
>
>III:  Going back to part A, what if I used  RCT to record the other
>instrument (let's say it's a synthesizer), and then used that to tune the
>piano?  What I mean is, suppose I started up the program as I always do, but
>after clicking "record," suppose I played each of the A's on the synthesizer
>(instead of the A's on the piano) and then proceeded to tune the piano as
>usual.  Would this work, or is this a crazy idea?
>
>Thanks,
>Paul Mulik
>
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