not perfect?

[antares]

> From: Don <pianotuna@accesscomm.ca>
> Reply-To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 14:30:53 -0600
> To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Subject: Re: a different interpretation of 'tone', or 'color'.
> 
> Hi Antares,

Hi Don,
> 
> I don't think I can agree that there are "perfect" anythings. Machine or
> not we are still the frog on the log that can jump 1/2 to the end...on any
> jump. We just get closer and closer.

This is hard to understand for me Don.
For all the professional years behind me I have tried and tried very hard to
make the very best tunings.
Time and again I heard my own work from the back row and felt ashamed of
what I heard, and the next  morning at 8 we all start over again.

Then I learned at the Yamaha Academy that, although I was not such a bad
tuner, I still made many mistakes and that I was sososo.
So again I learned, and was able to slowly correct my mistakes and slowly
get better day after day and, as I said, course after course, just like all
the Yamaha students...
ask them, and they will agree immediately.

So finally, - one time - in my little life, after years of training, and
with the help of the best teachers, and with LUCK, I was able to make this
incredibly beautiful and perfect tuning. It was the last final exam tuning
at the last Yamaha course.
That last training had cost me my health. I was a nervous wreck, I had lost
many kilos, I could not sleep anymore and my wife (who was also in Japan and
met me every weekend) told me to quit immediately because I looked so bad.
But I did not quit. Of course not! It was all or nothing.

OK... so now years have gone by and I happen to have this marvelous ETD, and
I recognize immediately the very same tuning I made for my final exam at the
Yamaha academy. 
I use the checks and controls I have learned and it all fits, it is
beautiful, no...it is perfect!

And now you tell us that "we are still the frog on the log that can jump 1/2
to the end...on any jump".

What I do understand, I hope, is that we are talking about the same tuning,
called ET.
Many wars have been fought here about different kinds of tunings.
When I talk about the perfect tuning that rolls out of my ETD I mean ET.
That ET is like a Chinese puzzle.... It is incredibly hard to make all the
pieces by hand so that they fit perfectly, and...within a relatively short
time (we have to eat, right?).
That ET (and much more) we now can buy.

Every ETD user is probably just as happy with his/her box as I am.
Our tunings may vary slightly and maybe one is just a little better than the
other, but so what? Those tunings are very balanced and beautiful, and then
there comes a moment when an instrument is balanced too. It is in excellent
shape, it is right on pitch and we do not have to change a whole lot.
So we like the moment, have an easy time and, when in the right mood (nice
customer and a very good espresso), try to make the very best out of it.

That's the moment when we are able to make the perfect tuning, as long as we
agree on the limitations of our ET.

How come we should not be able to agree on this?
OK, I understand that there are always nit pickers, but I have made it so
clear now and.... I am not a nit picker, I just aim for the very best and I
know now that I will never be able to improve the ETD tuning we talk about.
It is like the highly trained chess player who tries to win from a computer
nobody can beat anymore.


>The Verituner seems to be an excellent
> tool. If it were "perfect" however, there would be no need for the end user
> to "customize" the tuning curves it produces. Tunelab Pro, RCT, and SAT 3
> all offer customization as well. That means the technician must have "good
> taste". 

Sure, but that is, as you say, a matter of taste, so if you like a little
customizing, you program that and you get what you want.
I do not like to alter the VT tuning because this machine adapts itself to
all the tones/characters of the piano.
Yet, with the VT too there are ample possibilities to do 'something' with
the tuning you want to make.
And then, after you have programmed your tuning, it comes out the way you
want it, and if you love it and than it is perfect. What more do we
want......

(On purpose I did not want to talk about the Verituner because I know that
there are other ETD's which are very good as well and this is not a contest
between ETD's)
> 
> I agree that tuning devices are wonderful tools. I *don't* agree that
> learning to tune by "ear" to concert level should be a requirement simply
> because those tools are so very very refined. It should be a goal to strive
> towards.

But I did not mean that we should learn to tune by ear to concert level. All
I meant was that it could be very practical if your box closes down (for
what ever reason) that you are able to continue the 'story'.
> 
> Perhaps all technicians should at least be competetant musicians as a goal
> as well. This would tend imho to improve our "taste".

So I think that most tuners have a certain talent for music but were, for
some reason, not able to develop that particular talent.

> I'd love to have had the wonderful training you have received.
> Unfortunately, not many of us get the opportunities you have had.

I realize that and I AM very thankful as I know that it is very hard,
generally speaking, to go to factories.



friendly greetings
from

Antares,

Amsterdam, Holland

"where music is, no harm can be"

visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/