Wayne, I've always been of the mind that using both Aural skills and ETD measurements is better than each alone. It makes sense, doesn't it? The more information you have, the more you can do with it (or the more confused you can become). I own a Verituner and to practice aural tuning, I would set it in manual mode and go through my normal temperament sequence, being sure not to watch the Verituner display. Then, after I did the best job I could on the temperament, I would check each note and see what the cents offset was on the Verituner. This was very helpful in sharpening my aural skills. You can do the same with unisons. Set a three-string unison the best you can and then use the ETD to measure the relative differences between the left/center string and the right/center string. Although I trust my Verituner information, I still use aural check-points as I go. In this way, if things seem off, I can correct early on in the tuning instead of waiting until the entire tuning is finished before realizing I don't like it. I know there are purists out there that may shun the use of ETD's but I feel my customers deserve the benefit of the best technological advances along with the use of aural verification checks with a critical ear. Also, I like to experiment with alternate temperaments. I'm not good enough to tune all sorts of historical temperaments by ear so I must rely heavily on the Verituner. It's a matter of using something you trust. I've never used an SAT product so I really can't comment. All I can say is that I've never had a complaint on a tuning using a Verituner. Corte Swearingen Chicago
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