[pianotech] Old can of worms (was Re: tunelab vs verituner)

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/11/2012 12:24 AM, David Love wrote:

> Sure I enjoy tuning.  But I enjoy it more when it's efficient,
> accurate with the least stress and achieves consistent results.  With
> respect to customer perceptions, the proof of the pudding is in the
> tasting.  I don't believe they want you around for two hours if you
> can achieve the same result in one.  They have lives to lead too.

Somehow, the presumption among ETD users is that aural tuning is 
stressful, yet aural tuners don't complain about stress and wish they 
had an ETD. Maybe it's just the aural tuners who do find it stressful 
who adopt ETDs as a result. A few ETD users I know went back to aural 
because they found it more satisfying. Doesn't matter at all either way, 
but I think the fewer false premises that are repeated and pounded as 
truths, the better.


> Honestly, I'm surprised at some who have no problem embracing every
> new idea when it comes to soundboard making, scale design, action
> technologies, blah blah blah, but when it comes to tuning, ETD's
> somehow diminish the product.

It's always easy to argue against something not stated. I still don't 
recall ever reading in any of these discussions that ETD users produced 
inferior tunings. Quite the contrary. I'd hazard that a large number 
(no, not most) of them couldn't produce any tuning at all without it, 
yet can do quite adequate tunings with. Producing adequate tunings is 
what it's about. First, do no harm. The best of the ETD users, on the 
flip side, are also good aural tuners in my experience. It's not a 
balanced either/or equation. Aural skills are always a plus, and NO, 
that doesn't mean I'm saying ETD users can't tune. Also, the state and 
degree of technical enlightenment of any individual tech or the 
community as a whole doesn't hinge on embracing EVERY new thing that 
comes down the pike, especially those new things that aren't new at all, 
or even the one thing chosen for argument as today's binary benchmark 
for enlightenment or arrested development. "New" doesn't equate to 
"better" across the board, or at all for that matter, unless it's useful 
to the individual. We get to choose and pursue what works for us, to 
whatever degree we are interested, capable, and can find the means to 
feed ourselves doing. So far, that is, but it's getting more stressful.
Ron N