tuning time

[Don]

Hi Clyde,

All the edt's do take some small amount of time to set up. They also so far
as I know all take time to "resolve" their display. My ears can hear a
"beat" start to happen and I often have a "sixth sense" of whether the
string being manipulated is flat or sharp, so the "resolution time" is near
zero. When I use an edt I end up verifying the results "aurally", so it
takes me longer.

I almost "never" use my edt to tune unisons--this task is better suited to
the ear, and if I do try to use an edt I don't like the results. I feel
this is due to imperfections in the piano.

I also find that in the extreme bass my "ears" like fairly wide octaves.
With RCT that means using the custom overpull to "tweak" the calculated
tuning.

I also find that "stored" tunings are rarely much use at the concert level,
partly because of the extremes of climate that I live in. I do have several
for "just in case" at various R.H. levels.

Don't get me wrong--there are times when the edt has "saved my bacon". I
would not dream of not having one available to use....which reminds me of a
tuning some years ago where due to mis communication I had to do a concert
tuning while an orchestra was rehearsing the Brahms academic festival
overture. Bacon saved!

In the home I tend to always use an edt and 99% of the time I use a pitch
correction mode. It offers the client less than a concert level tuning but
at the same time allows over compensation for the drop in pitch. I do
generally tune the bass aurally as it is annoying to "tweak" RCT to where
my ears want it. For musician clients I try to have them listen to various
types of octaves and try to fit their tastes rather than my own. As I have
mentioned before I have one client who prefers 2:1 octaves in the bass of
her piano right down to A0. Sounds horrible to me but "ideal" to her.

At 07:26 AM 12/30/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Don and list,
>
>I'd like to raise a question about the "longer if I use an EDT" line
(assuming
>you meant ETD, electronic tuning device).
>
>Does anyone want to comment on why tuning with an EDT should take longer,
which
>is also the way I find it?  My hunch is that, for average pianos, the
human ear
>is more forgiving than an ETD is, especially at the ends of the keyboard.
>Therefore a person has to work harder to get those lights or spinner to stop.

>Regards,
>Clyde

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.

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