etd's and ears addendum

[Ron Koval]

So all this talk got me to thinkin'...

This tuning process becomes a self-reinforced feedback loop.  We create 
something using a specific series of checks.  Then to test the result, we 
use the same series of checks...  The variable in the equation is - the 
tech.  Now there are techs happy with this aural approach, or that aural 
approach, tunelab, Korg, Strobe, RCT, SAT and Verituner - all which can 
produce different final results, all proven and checked by the specific tech 
in question.  The clients too, get trained to expect a certain sound 
preferred by their tech.  Add to that the preferred differences between ET 
and the whole gamut of alternate temperament views ....  Remember the whole 
arguement that most aural techs aren't able to tune anything BUT a mild 
reverse well temperament?  (I'd have to agree to finding many, many examples 
of that around here.)

So...

What makes a great tuning?

We can't seem to agree on octaves.  There's the direct reference folks, the 
slightly expanded folks, the pure fifths, or octave fifths... beat, or dead 
on.  Is there such a thing as beatless?

Even the unison.  Dead on, or ever so slightly off to bring more life to the 
note?

I'm not sure David still quite "gets" the direction of my path... (I have 
the utmost respect for your work.  We've never met, yet I "feel" your warm 
soul through this connection.)

"I would never denigrate your skills or the skills of
anybody who uses the ETD as a powerful tool and as an ADJUNCT to
their ears, their body, their
intuition."

Close, but not quite...

"NONE OF
US GIVE A HOOT HOW THE BEAUTY HAPPENS, JUST THAT IT HAPPENS.  CAPISCE?"

There ya' go...

Here's where I take a sharp turn different than many and believe that a 
machine calculation is capable of producing a beautiful tuning.  It's an 
"ends justify the means" approach that has been argued over in the past.  Is 
someone just "following the lights" still a piano tuner?

I'd like to "raise the bar" again.  Aural approaches to tuning have made 
great strides (in consistency)in response to the development of the 
machines.  I like to search for the methods to give even beginning tuners 
the ablility to bring MUSIC to the instrument.  Yes, MUSIC.  Shorten the 
tuning learning curve to focus on voicing, actionwork and other approaches 
written here on the list.

There shouldn't be an excuse for random temperament errors multiplied 
through a tuning to end up with many of the wild bass and treble tunings 
I've heard.  "Hazing" new recruits with aural training simply isn't a valad 
reason.

Are we there yet?  Close, so, so close...

Ron Koval
Chicagoland

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