Aural vs. electronic again

[tune4u@earthlink.net]

Interesting. I tune a C2-C3 using the same science but without having to
hear and match a beat rate--if the room is fairly quiet.

I tune the octave listening to the 6:3 partials (hit the 19th, octave above
12th, if needed to get in my ear the pitch I'm listening for). When I think
it's beatless, hold the octave down quietly, whomp and release the 19th to
energize the partials in C3 and C3--might even tweek C2 while listening. If
there is no beat or roll, it's a perfect 6:3

If there is a lot of noise in the unison strings and it's hard to find the
"sweet spot" you can hold the key down and whomp the 12th. Tune out the
rolls of this overtone and (unless strings are really sick) it makes, I
think, the  cleanest possible unison.

New topic: I'd like to see someone invent an ETD that could truly
differentiate between two very close tones, i.e., two strings. This would
help zero in unisons on your Betsy Ross quality bass notes and on the high
treble of every piano I tune. If it could also make hot chocolate and toast
bread, we'd have a heck of a piano tunin' tool, eh?

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Ballard" <yardbird@vermontel.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 7:05 PM
Subject: Re: Aural vs. electronic again


> At 11:29 AM -0600 1/20/03, <tune4u@earthlink.net> wrote:
> >What, please is meaning of "unison shimming," Comrade?
>
> It's an aural technique for correcting intervals, using unisons. I
> described it in the PTJ sometime in the mid-90s ('93, '94? I don't
> have the CD-ROM), called "Your Friend the Unison". I recently
> described it to Phil Bondi, who wanted to tune aural P12ths without
> having to rely on a working sostenuto (or playing one of the notes
> with a big toe).
>
> Essentially this is how it works. You want to tune C2 a 6:3 octave
> from C3. C2 is likely to be a bichord, so, one of its strings is
> muted. Or both strings can be open as long they are frozen dead
> breathless. (You know the old WW II movies: the enemy soldier holds
> the bayonet to your nostrils for two minutes and observes no
> condensation on its-cold-steel.) You play the octave and memorize the
> beat rate AT THE 6:3 coincidental partial level, as a musician would
> a tempo. If you don't know whether the octave is narrow or wide find
> out now. You then mistune the unison on C2 in the correct direction,
> duplicating the beat-rate which you just heard. This mis-tuned string
> will now be a perfect 6:3 octave (depending on the accuracy of your
> musician's sense of tempo). Tune the other string of C2 to it and you
> have now corrected the error in the original 6:3 octave.
>
> The unison got shimmed, right?
>
> At 3:57 PM -0800 1/20/03, Susan Kline wrote:
> >Bill? I assume you mean muting the notes individually with wedges?
>
> Are you referring simply to my choice of mute (individual wedge or
> strip), or possibly to whether I'm working with mutes on a note or
> with all strings open? Is the above a good description? Does anyone
> remember a game played by astronauts (first appearing in a sci-fi
> story 20 years ago) in which a conversation moves forward solely by
> questions? (The first person to make a statement loses.)
>
> There's actually no limit to the number of situation in which the
> basic principle can be applied. It's great for unison tuning two
> pianos, for instance. But it's definitely an aural technique,
> although I suspect there are analogous electronic routines. As a
> by-product, it shapes your unisons right up, as any impurities in the
> unisons will cloud the required measurement of beat rates.
>
> Bill Ballard RPT
> NH Chapter, P.T.G.
>
> "I go, two plus like, three is pretty much totally five. Whatever"
>      ...........The new math
> +++++++++++++++++++++
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