EBVT compared with FAC Prg for same`

[Kent Swafford]

on 10/29/00 6:46 PM, Billbrpt@AOL.COM at Billbrpt@AOL.COM wrote:

> But this is the way I make
> my living, taking care of the pianos in my community, in homes, schools and
> churches.  I don't go around condemning the pianos I work with, I render the
> best service I can.  I have always had the gut feeling that the FAC program
> would be useless to me for doing this, and this experience, at least so far,
> confirms this.
> 
> I just really wonder how well the "numbers method" really works for all of
> the other people who have tried an HT this way,

Hi Bill -- a couple points:

If you tune a lot of pianos with short scales, you would indeed be seeing
weaknesses in FAC tunings. Reyburn CyberTuner was developed to take more
data from pianos than FAC and adjust its calculations better for small
scales.

RCT used in conjunction with highly developed aural tuning tests delivers
superior results on all sorts of pianos. The "problem" I see with ANY
directions, including the ones included here with this post, for tuning ANY
non-equal temperament by VTD numbers, is the absence of aural checks that
can be used to verify the results.

This is why I believe, forgive me everyone(!), that Jim Coleman's well
temperaments are a dead end, because they exist only as offsets and do not
include complete descriptions of the intended aural results.

As expressed by yourself and others, the tuning of musical instruments
continues to evolve, and there is, I believe, still an unexplored
opportunity to integrate aural and visual techniques in the tuning of
non-equal temperaments. Tuning ET is not either/or when it comes to
aural/visual and neither should EBVT. Your aural and visual instructions for
tuning this temperament need to be combined, in my opinion.

I can tune equal temperament well because, I believe, I don't limit myself
to aural or visual techniques but rather fully use both methods. I am
convinced that a similar integration of aural and visual techniques could be
applied to circle of fifths temperaments. It is just a matter of taking up
the challenge and developing the techniques. RCT, for example, is not
limited to tuning through the scale in chromatic fashion because it already
includes the ability to tune temperament patterns in any sequence of notes.
There is a real opportunity to contribute to the profession by taking on
this endeavor of integrating aural and visual techniques for the tuning of
the non-equal temperaments.

Kent Swafford