Pitch Floating

[Kent Swafford]

Avery Todd wrote:

>How does one determine which note to use
>as the pitch standard if one wants to let it float?

My reply is going to sound like an ad for CyberTuner. When I get to a 
piano that I tune regularly I use the pitch raise mode to accurately 
measure the pitch level of the instrument. In pitch raise mode RCT 
automatically measures the pitch level and stores the data of each note. 
I start at A0 and play the note long enough for RCT to do the 
measurement, then hit octave up and measure all the A's of the piano, 
then do the same for all the C's. Then I go through slowly and look at 
the measurements and determine the average pitch level. I am convinced 
that this procedure has increased the stability of my tunings, because I 
am _tuning_ pianos and not fighting with them over pitch level. This is 
especially valuable with D's, who generally do not appreciated having 
their pitch changed. If I really must change the pitch level of a D, I do 
the correction pass, and then may measure to see at what pitch level the 
piano really landed and tune it there. Saves some grief, and yields good 
stability.

Kent Swafford