>Simple enjoyment of the sweet spots? Would you set up the telescope to see the major wonders of the night sky for a computer to record, and not look through it? Each piano is different. The ETD may indeed calculate everything to some close approximation of optimum, but that destination is different for each piano, and it might be fun to experience directly how good or not good that instrument was capable of being? Not just good-bad, but unique? Varying in unexpected ways from its fellow pianos? Susan< Not to worry, Susan. I make sure I enjoy each piano thoroughly, giving it a good workout before I take my leave. After playing several of my favorites tunes, I do a final check for any strings that have slipped and clean those up. As to the night sky analogy, you make an excellent point. When I enrolled at the University of Iowa in 1972 in fact, it was with the initial intention of majoring in astronomy under James Van Allen. Although a great deal of time was spent pouring over data looking for anomalies, I really had the most fun when we would spend an evening at the local observatory, peering into space at the moon and the planets. I still remember the thrill of seeing the seven sisters for the first time through a 4" Unitron refracting telescope. But always, the serious work we did involved numbers and ultimately the wizardry of computers to crunch those numbers. Tackling the vast amount of data observed and recorded through both optical and radio telescopes without computers would be an exercise in futility. The ETD does for the tuner what the computer does for the astronomer. It takes all the data available, interprets it, and gives the tuner the optimum point at which to set each note of the instrument. Tackling the setting of the temperament of a piano using the ETD as the guide, by the way, does result in a destination that is slightly different for each piano, in that the road map that is laid out for the tuner to follow is set according to the individual variances in the partials of the strings. Variances which may be too slight for the human ear to discern. I do concede the point that for situations requiring a quick touch-up, such as during the intermission of a performance, the ETD is not going to be helpful. My work, however, consists only of full tunings not done under the pressure of time. Concert venues and recording studios are not plentiful in Boone, Iowa, I'm afraid! At any rate, thanks for your informative and thoughtful commentary on the subject, Susan. Chuck Behm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110204/fb96dd7f/attachment.htm>
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