SAT & RCT & TuneLab97

[atonal@planet.eon.net]

> 
> While it might very well be true that more data derived by sampling more 
> notes would produce a better tuning, you get into a "diminishing return" 
> situation, where more data might not be worth the trouble.
> 
> The strength of calculating tunings based on measurements of a few notes 
> taken from various portions of the scale is that the resulting tuning can 
> match the general level of inharmonicity of the piano as well as the 
> general overall change in inharmonicity from one part of the scale to 
> another. In other words, one can let the VTD provide the overall shape of 
> the tuning, the macro-tuning if you will. The human tuner can then 
> provide the micro-tuning by tweaking individual notes, like those notes 
> on either side of the breaks or "maverick" notes that for whatever reason 
> do not have the "expected" inharmonicity. For me, it is the combination 
> of aural and visual techniques that is attractive, better than 
> visual-only, better than aural-only.
> 
> Kent Swafford
> 

	In TuneLab97, there is a feature that allows you to construct a 
visual stretch curve based on notes that you sample from the piano 
into the computer. You can adjust entire areas of notes to conform to 
a more uniform curve, the 'macro tuning' feature that Kent mentions 
above, and you go through and tune the piano accordingly. With this 
system, you can choose as many or as few reference notes as 
you want, of course, more reference notes and smaller 
calculated areas work better than few notes and larger calculated 
stretch areas.
 	However, coming from an aural tuning background, 
there are times that I disagree with the placement of notes in a 
calculated area of the TuneLab97 tuning, using aural checks, I find 
that 'maverick' notes need to be micro-tuned (ie: by the human) to 
fit into the overall tuning scheme. Particularly, the bass sections 
below C2 often don't read accurately into the machine and therefore I 
don't use the machine to calculate low bass tuning, aural checks 
suffice to the bottom of the piano. However, I have been chagrined 
repeatedly at the top end of the piano, I've tuned what I consider a 
fairly wide stretch, only to have TuneLab97 tell me that I'm 
considerably flatter than what I thought! Setting a wider stretched 
reference note and calculating the top end tuning results in very 
clear, brilliant high treble, yet allowing me to set the stretch 
wehere I like it. A combination of aural and visual techniques are 
what works here, and is one of the reasons I like using TuneLab97.    

Big problem: laptops have miserable battery life, learn to tune 
quickly 8-)


Rob Kiddell, 
Registered Piano Technician, PTG
atonal@planet.eon.net

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