Tuning Acrosonics

[Kent Swafford]

Bill Bremmer wrote:

>In a message dated 12/5/99 8:19:34 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
>kswafford@earthlink.net (Kent Swafford) writes:
>
><< My personal preference when dealing with a 
> large difference in inharmonicity at the tenor break is to give up on 
> smooth beat rates in the 3rds in favor of smooth beat rates in the 4ths, 
> 5ths, and octaves. >>
>
>Dear Kent,
>
>With all due respect to you as someone from who I personally have learned a 
>lot, how do I say it without being inflammatory, condescending, insulting or 
>just plain irritating?  The above statement suggests that one ignore errors 
>or variances which can easily result in the piano being tuned in Reverse 
>Well.

No offense taken -- at all. We don't scale 'em; we just tune 'em. This 
appears to be a discussion about which intervals should be given 
precedence in a situation where it is impossible to satisfy all the 
interval relationships. I am on solid ground trying to keep the octaves 
pure. This isn't done out of ignorance; it is just sticking with the most 
basic principals of piano tuning, that is, tuning a good temperament 
octave and tuning octaves out from the temperament area.

If you wish to turn up your nose at the uneven 3rds in my Acrosonic 
tuning, I guess I could turn up my nose at the 5ths that don't come out 
quite right in Jim Coleman's Acrosonic tuning. But the problem is the 
piano, not the tuning and not the tuning theory.

>Your idea of using a minimally stretched octave when tuning a high 
>inharmonicity scale on a spinet seems contradictory to logic at first 
>consideration.  But as I have learned from both you and Virgil Smith RPT 
>recently, you can give the piano a sweeter, more harmonious sound by doing 
>so.  So, I think it is a good idea and one which should be tried.  If it 
>appeals to the technician doing it and the customer, then it is a good 
>approach to use.

It is interesting that you see minimum stretch in high inharmonicity 
situations as counter-intuitive. Minimum stretch is the solution that I 
came upon years ago when I needed to make aural corrections to Accu-Tuner 
FAC tunings. As I have said before elsewhere, it was an absolute joy when 
RCT came along and calculated tunings that duplicated the tunings that I 
had so laboriously constructed aurally.

Kent Swafford