Accu-Tune/aural

[Tom Cole]

Don,

On a quality piano, I will frequently tune the individual strings with
an ETD, single mute style, letting the machine do the grunt work, and
then putting on the final polish with the ear. Listening to (and
"looking at") each string separately gives me some clues as to how I
will go back over the unison aurally (if necessary).

I'll leave it to others to figure out how to prevent those strings from "coupling".
I've tried bundling boards and they're way too thick! ;-)

Tom Cole

Don wrote:
> 
> Hi Richard
> 
> Nice post about the why. I believe you missed a point or two. If you are
> trying to tune a unison with an etd I believe most persons would mute all
> but one string to do so. This prevents the strings from "coupling". When
> the two or three strings are unmuted the pitch of the first tuned string
> will be slightly different.
> 
> This effect can be duplicated aurally. Tune a middle string (or accept it
> as a given). Next tune the bass side wire to the middle with the treble
> string muted. Now move the mute to the bass side and tune the treble
> string. Finally pull out the mute and listen to the (shabby) result. Often,
> even with a "performance" level piano the result will be a poor unison.
> 
> The "why" in my mind is quite clear. I doubt that there have ever been
> three strings with exactly the same termination/length/tightness of bridge
> pin/mating to bridge/voicing/perfectly cylindrical wire. (Well, maybe ONE
> such unison in the entire production history of the piano *grin*, after all
> accidents *do* happen).
> 
> At 09:35 AM 3/19/01 +0100, you wrote:
> >
> >
> >Richard Moody wrote:
> >
> >> I am wondering why SAT III can't tune unisons.  Or why everybody
> >> prefers to tune unisons by ear rather than by machine even though
> >> using the machine for everything else. The unisons I tuned with
> >> TuneLab sounded OK, but I do tune unisons by ear after tuning
> >> everything else with TL, hmmm I wonder why....   ---ric
> >>
> >Another thing is that ETD's are primarilly set up to listen to one string
> >at a time. Its not set up to sort out and deal with two coincidents at a
> >time, whether they come from octaves or other intervals or from unisions.
> >There are probably other contributing factors, and Robert and Dean should
> >probably expound on those for you.
> 
> Regards,
> Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.
> 
> Tuner for the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts
> 
> mailto:drose@dlcwest.com
> http://donrose.xoasis.com/
> 
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