Sweet Sound

[Ron Nossaman]

Hi Jim,

Speaking from the non-expert seats, I've got an observation or two. 

I don't use an ETD, so I can't really make meaningful, or at least
quantifiable, comparisons, but what I think you are talking about is very
similar to what I mean by the concept of minimum garbage. While the ETD
produced tuning is probably more accurate, it doesn't include the
work-arounds that a good aural tuner provides to sidestep coincident
partials that aren't..., false beats, odd whistles, banshees, and other evil
spirits that conspire to sabotage the tuners' efforts. While the ETD tuner
is (perhaps) looking at the best 'numbers', the aural tuner is relying
almost exclusively on subjective impression for the final determination as
to where to leave any given note/unison. He/she's making accuracy
compromises in favor of subjective enhancement instead of favoring accuracy
over subjective result. As the HT people have been saying all along, and the
aural vs ETD people perhaps haven't fully realized, there can be a
subjective difference between different methods of tuning even when ALL of
them are very well done within their inherent criteria. Tuning for perfect
thirds progressions, at a book rate for a given octave (stretched to the
theoretically correct limit) doesn't mean it is going to sound pretty.
Perhaps a little diddling of the stretch, or interval progressions is
necessary to blend in a faint but nasty partial mismatch that's way up there
where the ETD doesn't look, or care. In other words, the absence, or
minimalization, of these aberrant nasties is what makes the tuning sweet...
minimum garbage, and it takes human judgement to factor it in. It's not
Voodoo, it's optimum compromise/enhancement. Sometimes the best trail is a
little off center on the paved path. The half dozen or so beginning tuners I
have tried to explain this to all initially wrote it off as demented raving,
and you can too. %-) They all eventually came back around to it when their
linear procedures weren't working for them and each one said it helped them
a lot more than they thought it ever would. For what it's worth.  

It may seem sloppy, but it's pretty. Yes sir, I'm a pretty sloppy tuner all
right. Hey... wait a minute.

Now I DO have to get back to work.

 
 Ron