[pianotech] Fw: Tuning, was advertising

[tnrwim at aol.com]

How is the aural tuning going to compete with the recorded and stored tuning that has 
been used and tweaked numerous times in a process of refinement that is unavailable anywhere else?



Ed

This is the difference between a strictly ETD tuner, and one who knows how to tune aurally. To tweak the machine, the ear must be used. Once that tuning is in the ETD, it will reproduce it over and over. But to get there, the ear must be used. 

This is what Duaine doesn't seem to understand. He thinks whatever the machine tells him is the end product. He doesn't have the aural skills to refine the ETD tuning. 

Wim





-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Foote <a440a at aol.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Thu, Jan 27, 2011 3:53 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Fw: Tuning, was advertising



Wim writes:
 >> There is nothing wrong with using an
 ETD. I use one every day, as do most RPT's.  But until you actually
 know how to tune aurally, which you admit you don't know how to do,
 you will NEVER know how much better an aural tuning is. You might be
 satisfied with an ETD tuning, but that doesn't mean it's better than
 an aural tuning. 


        Whoa!  there are some pretty strong suppositions here. Using a machine, after 16 years of aural-only studio work, made me a better tuner. 
 How much better is the aural tuning than the ETD?  The vast
majority of aural tunings I have seen have been inferior to an ETD's, (at least, on the better pianos).  What does the 
aural tuner do when correcting a 3 cent flat piano?  Can we, aurally, make that .7 cent correction as we go?  I think not. What of 
the piano that has varying degrees of off pitch?  Can the ear compensate on the way through the scale?  I think not.  
  And I don't  believe that the ear is more consistent than the microchip,either,  so repeat tunings, in critical applications, 
are better served by the machine.  
	How is the aural tuning going to compete with the recorded and stored tuning that has 
been used and tweaked numerous times in a process of refinement that is unavailable anywhere else?  There is no cumulative 
refinement available with the strictly aural tuning, we have to reinvent the whole thing everytime. However, the machines can 
feed us back that last tuning we did on that Bramyoungway piano, allowing us to critique it each time we use it, making corrections
until there is nothing less than what we consider ideal. Every aural tuning will be a little different, which one is better? 
   There may be some aural tuners that can surpass the ETD on full size pianos, but I haven't seen one in a long time, and submit that they are 
the exception to the rule.  At the root is how accurately can we measure? Do you want a carpenter that uses
a measuring tape or one that eyeballs everything? 
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT


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