<HTML>In a message dated 12/11/00 9:18:47 PM Pacific Standard Time, jonpage@mediaone.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">At 07:01 PM 12/11/2000 -0500, you wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Dear Group,     I wonder if we will ever see in our time that the RPT examine will be done with an ETD alone.  Someone stated that the EDT device is comparable to the computer revolution.  I think that this is true.  Yes, I can add 24983987349873982987349873 + 20394803984029809384 divided by 2098098209830498309 and find the square root of this number in about 14 days if I do it by had but a computer can find it in about .03 seconds.   Sometimes it is very hard to let go of the old way but the way computers develop they will in time, if not already, be able to set a temperament better and faster than our ears ever could.  It is just a matter of time.       Can you imagine this list a few hundred years from now.  All of the ETD tuners will be the old fogies and lord know what they will be tuning with.   Probably a laser tuning hammer that works by mind direction only. flame suit in place and standing near a fire hydrant. Leo Silverman </BLOCKQUOTE> When I started about 30 years ago, electronic tuners were the black sheep of the piano technician community. Now ETD's are well accepted and almost requisite by some. What_is_this world coming to... Cheer up, Jon Page,   piano technician Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. <A HREF="mailto:jonpage@mediaone.net">mailto:jonpage@mediaone.net</A> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </BLOCKQUOTE> Reasons for needing to be a good aural tuner:       1. Your customers calls you back because several notes in the piano were not in tune. You go there, check it with your ETD and it tells you it is fine. Then she or he says "can't you hear it?"       2. Your ETD battery goes dead and will not charge up. This has happened to me on the first tuning on Monday morning of a very busy week. Should I say "Sorry, Mrs. Jones, I cannot tune your piano today, because my ETD is not working."  Or, to send my SAT in for a new battery and takes a week to get back, which I did. I would have lost a whole weeks worth of work had I not had my aural skills. I hope that the tuning tests never lose the aural part. ETD's are excellent sources and in many cases, a good quality piano can be tuned properly using the ETD alone. But because of the above reasons, I will never support the aural section of a tuning exam be eliminated. Dave Peake, RPT Portland Chapter Oregon City, OR www.davespianoworks.locality.com </HTML>