SAT & RCT

[dpitsch]

Jim, it is too bad that I missed out on the Virgil Smith/Jim Coleman Sr.
tune-off.
I used to live in Illinois, and I have a very distinct memory of driving up to
Chicago to hear Virgil do a concert tuning as part of the Chicago Chapter's
monthly meeting.  I tried to carry on a conversation with Mr. Smith about the
differences between 3/2 fifths and 6/4 fifths.  Virgil was not able to
communicate with me, as he had no idea what I was talking about.  He just said
that he tunes by fifths, and that was that!

I also remember he used some weird aural tests, like minor 3rds against minor
3rds, testing a perfect fifth by minor3rd/major 3rd.  He did not seem to know
about coincident partials, and what proper tests are using coincident
partials.  By the way, who choose Virgil to do this tuning comparison?  There
are many better aural tuners who know what they are talking about.  Virgil's
write up in the Journal some years back convinced everyone I talked to that he
was so far out in left field, he didn't know how to describe to the PTG
members how he really tunes pianos.

As to ETD, I still stick to my guns, that pianos of quite different scales
come up with the same "stretch number", and this is such a false belief I
can't believe tuners still use "stretch numbers" or "FAC" or whatever computed
numbers they prefer.  I have tuned many temperaments, in front of the local
PTG chapter members, and proved to them both aurally and visually how poor
these stretch temperaments really are.  I find that I am not alone in my
doubts about electronic tuning devices being able to set a temperament without
the aide of the human ear.  Cutomized tuning are, and always will be the best
in my book.

I show as proff the recent addition to the new SAT 3 of variable stretch.  So
many tuners got so disguisted with stretch charts and stretch numbers,
Sanderson had to admit something was wrong.  I even remember you advocating
using a different stretch number than what the piano supposedly called for
(measuring F4 at F5 vs F6), mostly because those of us with ears could hear
the temperament did not turn out very well using the stretch numbers as built
in to the SOT/SAT stretch charts.

Any replies pro or con are welcome from the list.

In my opinion, the best use of an electronic tuning aide is:
1) To measure the intervals used in setting the temperament by cents, which is
far different than hearing these same intervals by beats.  Getting the cents
to be even up and down a temperament is something an ETD can easily do in a
few minutes, and by comparison is a very long process to do by ear using beat
rates.
2) An ETD can speed up the time it takes to tune out from the temperament by
octaves, and makes tuning by 2:1, 4:1, 6:3 or whatever a breeze.