[CAUT] tuning paradigm (was P12ths)

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Tim.

I agree, which you sum up in your closing sentence. As far as that goes 
one can extend this to regulation, voicing, even design issues.... 
within some degree of reason I suppose. 

That said... as I read Richard Wests  post it seemed to me he was 
calling for a standardized vocabulary for making clear the vague 
descriptions of tuning issues we hear routinely. And I agree. Simply 
using phrases like <<narrow octaves>> is not all that specific. I run 
into folks all the time who when pressed to describe their idea of 
phrases like <<narrow octave>> end up revealing quite different 
perceptions of what that actually is. The same applies to all such phrases.

Ok... in the general sense of the point you wish to make below... then 
this is not a problem... we dont need to actually know what the 
difference is in your conceptualization between a narrow and a wide 
tuning to understand that the job has actually to do with pleasing a 
pianist and not ones self. But in much of the rest of the discussion in 
these 3-4 threads going on right now... we do.

Cheers
RicB

    Fred,

    I think I understand what you are saying here.  It is not up to 
    technicians to decide what is a correct tuning?  That is my 
    philosophy.  As I commented earlier when talking about Fernando 
    Ortega, recording artists prefer tunings that have very narrow 
    octaves.  From what I can tell it is because of how the octaves 
    interact making the unisons sound out of tune.  It is not for me to 
    tell Fernando or Jim Brickman what they should prefer.  A piano
    used  for accompanying a choir seems to work better tuned very
    narrow.  Now  Olga Kern sounds better with a quite wide tuning.   My
    job is to make  the artist happy.

    Tim Coates