ETD's; selling RCT and Mac powerbook

[Alan McCoy]

Clyde, 

If you are coming from strictly aural tuning to an ETD you really do need to
take the time to learn how to interpret what the display is telling you. A good
way to do that using RCT is to program in your aural temperament sequence and
tune that way for a while until you have developed a trust in your
interpretation of the machine (manual page 59).

You can certainly mix and match aural and ETD tuning whether with SAT or RCT. I
tend to calculate a tuning and tune it with the machine first (I am assuming
here that we are tuning the piano and not correcting pitch) single strings
only. Then I'll listen to the tuning and make aural corrections if necessary.
Then unisons. Then listen again to intervals. Then unisons again.

But then there are those pianos that simply can't be tuned by any method- say a
Lester spinet with an Alcoa plate. For those an axe or catapult would be most
appropriate.  :-)

After reading some other posts on this topic I want to underline something
others have said. Do experiment with octave tuning styles and with partials.
For example, on most pianos I like octave style 4 and partials 7 in low bass, 6
in upper bass, and the 3rd partial in the tenor. But say for a Steinway B, I
like octave style 5 or 6 and partials 10, 6, 3. Pianos with higher
inharmonicity and in concert settings will allow wider octaves. While low
inharmonicity pianos need cleaner octaves. The manual does have good info on
selecting octave styles and choosing partials (pages 23-30 in the version 3
manual). Do sign up for the cybertuner list. You will get lots of experienced
help there.  

Alan

At 07:05 AM 2/16/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>This came as a surprise to me when I started using RCT several weeks
>ago.  I was led to believe that RCT would improve my tunings greatly
>over what I could do aurally, so it was demoralizing to finish a tuning
>and think, "Whoa!  I don't like this at all!"  I suppose this is covered
>in the manual that comes with the software, but I am having trouble
>taking the time to read it all.  
>
>Does it work, after the tuning is calculated, to just do a couple
>octaves aurally in the tenor break area and follow RCT for the rest?  Or
>are there other helpful hints?  (Oh, yes, the piano in question was
>definitely scale-challenged!  :-))
>
>Clyde Hollinger, RPT
>Lititz, PA
>