Hi. I had the opportunity this afternoon to experiment with an SAT III at a friend's home. (My first experience with a VTD... II was trained years ago as an aural tuner.) I was led through the F-A-C procedure, set the temperament by device and tuned the strip-muted middle register. (The piano wasn't significantly out of tune and very close to pitch.) However, when I checked the octaves, they were beating quite noticeably (one to two BPS). Is this normal? Is it now in some circles considered acceptable for octaves to be stretched this much? When you use a VTD in noisy conditions, how can you have faith in what it's telling you without the benefit of aural verification? If the stretch is adjustable, can the stretch be reliably individualized for each instrument without aural verification? Thanks for letting me pop back onto the list and ask these questions. -Joe Gumbosky
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