[CAUT] using as ETD

[Susan Kline]

At 02:25 PM 4/16/2010, you wrote:
>On April 12 at 10:23 PM, Susan Kline wrote:
>There is something awfully pleasant about being in touch with the
>instrument, without the distraction of any extraneous non-musical data.
>
>See, this is really the heart of the misconception. After I started using
>the ETD, I learned a lot more about the piano than I knew before. The ETD
>actually put me more in touch with the instrument. The diagnostic abilities
>the ETD brings to the table are far more revealing of the character of the
>piano than what we have at our disposal without it.


But .... but ..... but ............ (the mind boggles). The only 
thing that the ETD tells you is the minutiae of tiny pitch 
differences, and whether your unisons are holding. Where's the beef?

How can a machine telling you exactly where it wants the pitch to be 
compare with listening to the whole sound of intervals and unisons, 
how they interact, and the resonance and warmth of different 
stretches and unisons, for a couple of hours?

As for the trouble with notes changing behind one (like in Hansel and 
Gretel, where birds eat up the breadcrumbs), it seems to me that the 
answer is a second pass, which isn't a great hardship if the first 
one is fast enough. And I don't see the benefit of the ETD in this 
situation, since the machine will tune the higher treble exactly 
where it thinks it should be, but the lower registers would still be 
changing behind it exactly the same way as with an aural pitch raise, 
so the second pass would still be needed. Obviously, having a treble 
tuned to a nominal pitch while the middle register has sagged is no 
better (and maybe worse) than the aural situation, where the whole 
thing is wandering down together.

In my unusually humble opinion, of course. After all, women are not 
the problem!! <grin>

Susan