12ths tuning

[Jim Coleman, Sr.]

Hi Richard:

Yes I did tune my Stn L with your program. Even though it was not
tailor made for my piano, it sounded reasonably well. I really
like it in the midrange section. In the high treble I like to
spread the octaves a little more than the 12ths system provides.

I viewed the curves which were a result of the program. Very smooth.
As you said, it leaves the Bass a little tight. I would suggest
that while tuning downward into the the Bass, you could for
example: set TLab to B3 (previously tuned) and tune B2 to stop the
blocks. This will give you perfect 6:3 type octaves. If you decide
lower in the Bass to go to 8:4 type octaves at G#1, you could set
the Tlab to C#3 (whose 3rd partial is G#4) and play G#2. If the
blocks are moving, use the cents altering keys to stop the blocks,
then tune the G#1 to stop the blocks. This would give you perfect
8-4 type octaves. Keep going down by half steps until you get to
D#1 where it is even simpler: Set the Tlab to G#1 (its 6th partial),
Play D#2 and stop blocks with cents keys, then Tune D#1 to stop
blocks. You can carry this on down to A0. I do something similar
to this with the SAT on medium to large grands, but it is a little
easier since the entire Bass uses 6th partials to tune by.

The instructions given above only work on Tunelab97

One of the neat things your 12ths tuning does is spread the octaves
a little more in octave 5 than most other tunings do. When I tune
aurally in ET I like to get to pure 12ths just as soon as I can
coming up out of the temperament area. Then higher up, I compromise
between 12ths and 19ths. Pure 19ths give too much stretch until
you get into the top octave where it really helps to maintain pure
triple octaves. By using pure 12ths in the middle of the piano,
there is not as much discrepancy between 2:1, 4:1 and 8:1 octaves
in the top octave and a half. Congratulations on a great idea.

Jim Coleman, Sr.