Days

[Richard Brekne]

Don wrote:

> Hi Richard,
>
> I had to develope a strategy for *very* high noise enviroments when I tuned
> at an outdoor music festival. I had to prepare pianos while the previous
> group was performing and the sound reinforcement topped out at over 100,000
> watts.
>
> I used a magnetic pick up input into an accu tuner and took the filtered
> out put and amplifed it, sent the signal to a *sealing* type of head
> phone--and wore earplugs to protect myself from the sound level. It worked
> very well and I could clear unisons aurally at any partial I chose to
> listen to.

This in itself is interesting, but its really beside the point. The
arrangers expected to have an ear tuner show up to do an ear tuning, they
had assured both myself and the sound / lighting crews that there would be
a quite environment for getting ready for the concert, and this was a very
doable thing. The management of the factory tho decided on a quite
different definition for what quite was then what was understood by the
arrangers. Turns out the sound guy was just a hair off a rats butt from
leaving the scene as well. This fellow, like myself, is also known for
being able to work under tough conditions. He is one of Norways most
respected in the industry. You dont expect a piano tuner to tune a piano by
ear, and then not provide a reasonably quite room. 

As for the rest of your setup for handling the job situation you sketch, I
congratulate you, and would recommend you for any such job. This kind of
thing is not my bag, and is really a different situation then what I ran
into. 

>
> I believe this stragtegem might have worked in your *impossible*
> environment. And I certainly would have tried.
>
Perhaps,, perhaps not.. I give you the benifit of whatever doubt I have
while leaving the question somewhat open, no offense... grin. But you would
not have tried your system on this occasion, you would not be a tuner in
Norway at this time if you used and ETD, and you would not even have
dreamed of the neccessity for doing work in this fashion. ETD's are not yet
accepted here, and if you had been working here for the last 15-20 years it
is highly unlikely you wouldnt be influenced by the going trends as well.
This is perhaps on the verge of changeing but that is another story.

Herein lies the real point to this story. They expect an ear tuning, would
not accept "anything less" (their words, not mine mind you) yet they
present the technician with a completely impossible situation for achieving
that. Incredibly impossible I might add.

On the side, I tuned the grand today after it was moved back to the jazz
club... grin.. I had tuned it two weeks ago for a show there and it needed
only very minor adjustments. So fortunatly for the concert friday and
saturday, it was pretty darn good to begin with. Tuning stability has
always been my forte.... grin.


--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway