RCT - The Daily Worker's VTD

[mitchkiel@olywa.net]

List,

    The recent discussion comparing Reyburn CyberTuner and SAT
has been interesting. 
   Better late than never, may I please add my 2 cents (or beats, your 
choice)?

   I think it's obvious to everyone that RCT has more features than the 
SAT. 

   But as has been wisely pointed out on this list, RCT's powerful 
features may be
attractive to an advanced tuner, but the "rest of us" don't care about 
features. 
We just want to tune a damn piano.
  This leads to the mother of all questions, the only one that really 
matters:
Which VTD will help you make your customers' pianos sound better? 
Restated, which VTD will make you more money?
   In my humble opinion it's no contest. RCT, winner and still champion.

   A simple test. 
   Sit down at any decent piano and tune it using RCT's Easy Mode. 
(Easy Mode hides many advanced features and turns RCT into a super-simple
no-bells-and-whistles VTD.) Don't get fancy. Just sample 5 notes, 
calculate a
tuning, then twist pins.
   The result will be a tuning that will sound better than with any other 
tuning device and, frankly my dear, better than most sweat-stained aural 
tunings. 
In other words, RCT tunings sound better. Simple question, simple answer. 
Better.

   If that's too simple for you, here's another workday example.
   Let's say you want to tune a spinet (?!) RCT automatically analyzes 
the piano's scale
and creates a customized tuning using the same thought process aural 
tuners. "If the temperament double octave sounds too wide, I'll shrink 
the two single octaves to less than their normal width til the double 
octave sounds good. But I won't allow the single octaves to become 
narrow; 
instead I'll leave the double octave to be a little wide if need be. "
Many users say RCT creates the most musical-sounding spinets,
consoles, and short grands they've ever heard (which might be more 
than a POS deserves!).

   Pitch raising is a burden we Averagistas bear all too often. But 
fear not! RCT's pitch raises are astoundingly accurate and fast,
and will help help you stay frustration-free.
RCT auto-measures every note and offsets each with its own
overpull percentage. With RCT the first pass is so close (typically within
a half cent for a 20 cent pitch raise) that your second pass can truly 
be a "fine" tuning.
   Bottom line: With RCT, pitch raises are *far* more accurate
than anything you've ever experienced.

   Based on some List comments I've read, size matters (...)
Now that RCT for Windows 95 is becoming available,
extremely small PC laptops will run RCT. For example,
the astoundingly tiny Toshiba Libretto 100 is a full-function 166 mHz 
laptop
that's only 8" by 4" by 1" and fits *in my pants pocket*.
Another great laptop for RCT (and all-around use) is the Sony Vaio 505,
about 10" by 8" and less than 1" thick, with optional 6 hour battery. 
Each of these computers weighs about 2.5 lbs. Their extremely thin
profile makes them far easier to carry around than any box-shaped VTD.
It's obvious (to me at least) that laptops and batteries will continue
to get even smaller, faster, cheaper, and more powerful.

   Errata: Jim Coleman inadvertently overstated RCT's price. Reyburn 
CyberTuner
sells for only $795. The optional Chameleon Library of 2000 tunings 
(200 common pianos pre-calculated to each of RCT's ten stretch styles)
is an additional $100. The Library is included free on all 
hardware/software 
packages we sell (which btw start at $1395 complete).
  But have I got a deal for you! If you order RCT 3.0 (Windows
or Mac) before its release in mid-October, you get the Library for free! 
(requires $200 deposit)
   RCT comes with a 30 day money back guarantee for anyone in the piano
tuning trade or any student in a bona fide tuning training program. 
This means you can try out RCT at no risk. If you don't like RCT
return it for a full refund (then go have your head 
examined cuz you'd have to be nuts ;)

   After the Providence convention last July, Dean and I shot a new video 
of us demonstrating RCT, 2 1/2 hours long and very complete. 
It's free to any piano tuner or bona fide tuning student.
Contact me or Dean and we'll send you one at no charge right away. 
(We'll leave it to you to decide whether the RCT Dynamic Duo is 
more photogenic than the loverly Mr. Jim Coleman ;)

Mitch Kiel


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mitch Kiel, RPT
Reyburn CyberTuner sales and support

11326 Patsy Drive SE
Olympia, Washington 98501 USA

1-888-I-LUV-RCT (1-888-458-8728)
email: mitch@reyburn.com
RCT Web site: www.reyburn.com