Somewhere in the archives there should be a couple of articles in which the aural skills were matched against the machine skills of Jim Coleman. The machine tuning won 3/2 over Virgil Smith! So, they did it a second year and Virgil won the second one 3/2. Decent tuners are decent tuners. Les bartlett -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Susan Kline Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2011 10:38 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Respect I think I've offered quite a bit of respect, Chuck, during this discussion, including to Duaine. I do think that the newer ETD machines are far superior to the old. I still think that an aural understanding and ability to discern quality in a tuning is a necessary skill for someone who has made piano tuning his or her life work. I often hear tunings on professional recordings which I frankly disagree with, and these days it seems likely that many have been done using state of the art digital equipment. Older piano recordings, done in the 1930's or 1940's never exhibit these tuning problems, even when one can hear that the temperaments are sometimes not conventionally equal. The stretches are beautiful, and the unisons and voicing are usually superb. There is warmth to the sound, there is a glow which can be heard, even through the primitive recording techniques. Primitive in some ways, but they capture some beautiful aspects of piano sound which often are lacking in later eras. So, I tip my hat to the piano tuners of that time, many unknown, across the decades. Our profession is about musical sounds, with a strong prerequisite of adequate mechanical function. Avoiding a direct experience and understanding of musical sound by delegating it completely to a machine while refusing to listen to it is never going to achieve quality, IMO, because the attitude just isn't there. The beautiful sounds are also our reward for what we do. What can one say about someone who refuses to listen to them enough to understand them? Susan Kline On 1/29/2011 5:22 AM, Chuck Behm wrote: > >The unadorned ETD tuning is not going to achieve quality - Susan Kline< > > Susan - I have utmost respect for your point of view and your ability > to tactfully present your ideas, but I must take exception to this > statement. > > I believe that the level of tuning attainable using a high quality ETD > is remarkable. Granted you need to master hammer technique, but to > flatly say that a quality tuning is not possible without understanding > aural tuning flies in the face of reality. > > The Veritune machine that I use performs calculations for each piano > that I tune that are far above what I could ever achieve aurally. To > begin with, it's measuring the vibration rate of each and every one of > the first eight partials of each string up to 100th of a cent. It then > matches those partials against the partials of the others strings and > uses logarithms to find the "sweet spot" where each string should be set. > > To top that off, the machine records all of this date, so that the > next time the piano is tuned, it has the information at its > fingertips, so to speak. > > Could I do all those calculations and keep track of it all in my head? > I would be as likely to be able to recite pi out to 1000 places > backwards from memory! It just isn't going to happen! > > I set the temperament of the piano using my Veritune machine, and tune > the unisons by ear to the temperament string. Being able to tune a > piano completely by ear, while a great talent to have, is not a > prerequisite to being able to do a great job of tuning. > > Please don't misunderstand me on this, Susan. An aural tuning done > well is a beautiful thing - the tuner is an artist and the piano is > her canvas. What you do is an art form of the highest level. > > But give those of us who use an ETD to tune the benefit of your > respect. I believe, after all, that simple respect is all that Duaine > is looking for here. Chuck > > P.S. Saying all of that, I would also say that if one is going to use > an ETD to tune, it needs to be top-of-the-line equipment. Going to > Radio Shack and buying a $20 guitar tuner isn't going to cut it.
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC