Susan, Yes, I have done recording sessions. And most of them were not in studios (though some were) - but in concert halls, churches, sound stages - get my drift? And yes, lots of opportunities for drift in pitch. And there were times where I actually had to come in and sub for another tuner - where they had to leave - so who knows what the original tuning was like in terms of stretch, etc. And who says there is opportunity to "take your time" etc. - there are often engineers and others such getting paid union scale per hour - with overtime (as with the Boston Chamber Music Society), so a tuner fussing around with the piano when they are ready to record again ain't going to be cheerfully put up with... So yeah, you figure out where the piano is at, fix the "oinkers", try not to make too many severe changes if you can help it... That's what I was taught by experienced recording session tuners who called me in to sub for them - which is how I got into that line of work. If some people get to tune in climate controlled studios, well, that's a nice luxury. Check some album covers and CD jackets - and you'll see that a lot of recording is done outside studios, to take advantage of hall and church acoustics... Some of Peter Srekin's recordings come to mind... The first time I ever did a recording session was at the Methuen Memorial Organ Hall (outside of Boston). It's a hall that was built especially to house a reconstructed 19th-century organ, with wonderful acoustics - which is why people like to record there - but no insulation whatsoever, against weather or against sound. We literally had to re-record every time a car drove by (it's on a quiet street, but cars do drive by occasionally). Pam Emerson tuned the piano to begin with, but the session ran way overtime and (being a mother) she had to leave. So I took over... The instructions I got from here is how I tuned recording sessions after that - as I describe above. And I got the same instructions from others afterward. After that I had occasion to tune in the Boston University Concert Hall after midnight - when it was used as a recording site - at the Skywalker Ranch sound stage here in California (which was used for recording by Harmonia Mundi, and I was subbing for the regular tuner who had to go to his daughter's birthday party) and at a bunch of small studios around here - in all of these places pitch drift was a concern. I wouldn't dare to use an ETD under those circumstances - staying with a gradual drift and fixing whatever stands out as a bad interval or unison is far the lesser evil than jerking everything back to where you started from... Israel Stein On 11:59 AM, Susan Kline wrote: > On 2/4/2011 4:39 PM, Mr. Mac's wrote: >>> > … This is where you have to trust >>> your ear 100% - an ETD is worse than >>> useless, it could get you in real >>> trouble... >> In my opinion this comment is >> baseless. The only way an ETD >> could get you into real trouble is >> lack of understanding. > Well, I don't have direct knowledge, > but I could imagine how things could > come undone. > > Recording studio, cool in morning, > piano in tune with ETD. Lights, lots > of action, studio gets warmer, piano > shifts just a cent or two ... and some > unisons get banged out enough that all > three strings are different places, > though not by much. > > ETD wants to put them exactly where > they were in the early morning, but > two or three tracks recorded right > around lunch time are at the shifted > pitch already. > > Maybe someone who has done recordings > can weight in? I get the feeling > Israel has done this? > > Susan > >
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