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<DIV>Hi List,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I thought I'd relate my first Tunelab 'experiment' used for real =
time
tuning. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I had an SF-10 (Baldwin 7' grand) that I had to tune =
yesterday. It's
in a theatre setting. They are having a particular show right now =
that
required that it be tuned weekly, so I had tuned it aurally the last two =
weeks. The first week, I spent some time and put on as nice a =
tuning as I
thought I could (within a two hour time slot). The second week, it =
sounded
so good to me, that I did little more than touch up the unisons. =
When I
was just walking out the door, the stage manager stopped me and wanted =
to talk
about a few notes that they had noticed that "didn't sound quite =
right".
Well, of course I stopped and listened. They pointed out a couple =
of notes
in the bass section, playing quadruple octaves (all four notes), letting =
them
ring for 4 or 5 seconds. The comment was "there was too much =
movement in
there for a piano that's just been tuned." They promptly =
disappeared into
the black, never to be seen again. I tried to 'adjust' the bass a =
bit
more, trying to stretch out the octaves a bit more in hopes that what =
they were
hearing was the higher partials clashing. (I have a tendency not =
to
stretch the bass out very much compared to other tuners.) The =
double
octaves were actually quite clean, being slightly wide.<FONT =
size=2>
</FONT><FONT size=3>I fussed with it for about another half hour, =
trying to put
it somewhere that sounded good, and ended up pretty much giving up in
frustration. (The areas of complaint are at the breaks between =
plain wire
and wound wire on the long bridge, but much more noticeably, at the =
break
between long and bass bridges. The first 4 or 5 notes on the bass =
bridge
are next to impossible to find a comfortable spot for.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So yesterday morning, I show up with my laptop, Tunelab, and =
several hours
to spend. I figured it would be worth a little extra time as a =
learning
experience for me.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>First thing I did was to just run my hands over the keyboard and
listen. Dang, I've heard concert tunings that didn't sound that =
good, and
I hadn't started yet. Next I put in my mute strips and fired up =
the
computer. I checked the pitch. Dead on. Well, I'm not =
so
familiar with things, so it took a while to get all the inharmonicity =
readings I
needed and run the Calcul8 program, but eventually, I figured it =
out.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I tuned, and tweaked, and tuned and tweaked in the middle =
register. I
wanted that sucker perfect!! Well, I had to argue with Tunelab a =
bit here
and there. Once it reached the octaves in the wound strings on the =
long
bridge, I think about E3?, it wanted to stretch them to the point where =
the
beats in the octaves really bothered me. So we haggled a bit =
there.
And as I tuned on up from the midsection, I noticed that the beat rates
increased, but not as fast as I would have liked. I didn't argue =
too much
at this point, as I knew I'd be coming back to check on it later.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Then I proceeded to tune down the scale through the bass =
section. It
was using more stretch than I normally do, but not huge =
differences.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So, now that I've covered the piano pretty much from end to end, =
now I
listen to the overall. Sounds nice, except it sounds Flat!! in the =
top
end. The bass is not where I like it the best, but it sounds good =
with
those big chords.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I pull out the temperament strips up through the midsection, =
leaving the
top two sections in place. The bass wasn't a big surprise. I =
had to
lower the pitch on some of them by almost a beat, but most weren't that
bad. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The real surprise for me came in the midsection, up through the =
temperament
area. I played up through the area without the mute strips in =
(mind, I
haven't tuned the unisons yet.) I couldn't believe it. Many =
of the
unisons were completely still, with perhaps 2 dozen strings giving me a =
slight
wwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww. That was a =
surprise. I
expected much worse.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The next thing I did, was to try to recalculate Tunelab with more =
stretch
for the top end. Eventually, I just gave in and tuned about the =
top two
octaves to what sounded right to me. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When I was done, I thought it sounded nice, but I wasn't really as
impressed as I'd hoped I would be. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It would appear that electronic tuning can make things very even, =
but I'm
finding out that it won't do much for a bad scale design. (This =
thing has
had the wound strings replaced at least once, and perhaps more. I =
don't
know all of the history, so it might not be Baldwin's fault...) In =
all
honesty, I liked my original tuning better. But I'm used to =
hearing that
too.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If any of you have suggestions as to what I might have done right =
or wrong,
feel free to send them along. This electronic tuning is pretty new =
to me
after a 20 year hiatus from the Peterson Strobotuner.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thanks for the input. Sorry if I've been a bit long =
winded.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I hope you're all having a nice weekend. It's sunny and cool =
here,
with just a gentle breeze.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Best wishes,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Brian Trout</DIV>
<DIV>Quarryville, PA</DIV>
<DIV><A =
href="mailto:btrout@desupernet.net">btrout@desupernet.net</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>