[pianotech] understand the relationship of the heavenly bodies

[Thomas Cole]

Wim,

If you're going to make changes in an ETD tuning, it's better to make 
adjustments in how the machine calculates a tuning. In RCT, besides 
overall octave stretch, there are sliders that allow you to vary the 
stretch in each of the seven octaves of the piano. There are indications 
in the graphical display that show where the 2:1, 4:1, 6:3, etc. octaves 
are so you can make informed guesses as to what might sound better. This 
way, you don't run into trouble changing one note or one octave because 
many others are changed to agree with what has been changed.

However if a single note has slipped, then, of course, you can easily 
tune the offending string/s aurally using the usual 4ths, 5ths, octaves, 
contiguous 3rds, etc.

Tom Cole

On 2/4/11 11:21 PM, tnrwim at aol.com wrote:
> Chuck,
>
> Thank you for you very eloquently stated remarks. The ETD does 
> indeed create, in most pianos, a temperament that not all aural tuner 
> will be able to match. If all you do is tune the piano with the 
> machine, and leave the instrument alone, then the tuning the ETD 
> created will most likely be very pleasing to the ear.
> But here is where it gets complicated, and this is what I was trying 
> to ask Duaine, I guess, in a sense, you. After you've tuned the piano 
> with the Verituner, or any other ETD, and you do some aural checks of 
> the octaves, as Duaine says he does, what do you do when an octave 
> doesn't sound right?
> According to Duaine, he adjusts one of the notes of the octave to 
> make the octave sound "pure". First, as soon as you change one note of 
> the tuning, aren't you changing the tuning the ETD put on the piano?  
> There is nothing wrong with doing that, because now you're making 
> minor changes to make it sound more musical.
> But here is the big question, the one I asked Duaine. Let's say you 
> hear an octave out of tune. (C4-C5). How do you decide which note to 
> change? But more importantly, how do you know that the note you're 
> changing is going to be in tune with the fifth below that, or the 
> octave and fifth, or double octave? How do you know that changing the 
> top note isn't going to throw off the temperament that you asked the 
> ETD to put on the piano in the first place.
> In other words, to paraphrase you, how can you understand the 
> relationship of the notes of the piano, when you don't understand the 
> math and physics involved?
> Wim
>
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