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For those of you who have asked for a sample of my tuning, here is one, courtesy of a local PBS station:

BDB,

Could you clue me in as to where the piano's microphones were located?

Why I'm asking: granted, I'm only listening on smallish headphones, but from what I hear, the voicings in the 3rd and the 4th octave are carrying through very warmly, while the 5th octave, especially at forte, sounds quite harsh, almost metallic. I was wondering whether that's to do with the recording, or my playback, or whether it was perhaps voiced that way deliberately?

I really cannot, as I tuned and went home, but it is usually miked with a couple of mikes under the lid. The piano is an old Kawai 600 from the 1960s, which has seen a lot of use. I first tuned it for a show with Woody Herman, and when I tell people that now, they ask, "Who is Woody Herman?" It is kind of harsh in the upper registers, but as I often say, there are limits to how much voicing one can do. The television lights have an affect, too. It was warmer than usual on the stage.

Bumping this for Maximillyan.

If possible, I like to hear pianos with no mic interface. I realize that's not possible in this case. If I do hear a recording, I withhold any critique unless the unisons and octaves are howling like a pack of wolves. Mics, room acoustics, and recording equipment mess up any good sound if they aren't perfect, and they seldom are.

As there :

What size is that piano ?

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6GjQDkF_AMQVW5mbGFGOHBLTGs/edit?usp=sharing (sorry for the music

On the BDB record, unison seem to shorten the tone somehow (sorry)

Issac, can you explain what it is about a unison that will cause the tone to shorten?

Quicker decay, perhaps.

Yes , Chris, I (thanks Dan) think that when we say "tune the attack" it is not the attack per se that is empowered by the tuning, more the decay moment, the attack is then cleaned because energy is immediately given to a larger spectra, then, the power allowed immediately can be regulated by tuning the decay more or less "late" . The range of possibilities is not that large and depends of the differences in spectras, iH, voicing, (string lenght eveness in the unison , string quality and hammer quality)

You can strive to obtain much power immediately, or allow the attack to "enlarge" , this gIves more control on tone to the pianist. I believe that basically the playing hand that tells the brain when to tune (hence the possibility to tune with earplugs up to some point, as the thickening of tone is perceived)

The idea "hear 2 strings as it was one" is good as long as the string imagined is thickened and more present, more lively.

The tone can be explosive but at the beginning of the aftersound.

I have no other easy trick than to evaluate how the tone escapes and "tune the attack", but to do so we need to focus on coupling at a certain level, when adfing the 3 string straightness of tone can be balanced.

Tuning good intruments make this easier to perceive.
Then, voicing can be envisaged leaving more power at the attack.

Greetings

Sent here via link on Max's thread.

Really nice BDB. Voiced just right for soft jazz. Piano and double bass compliment especially well.

This question was never answered.
Isaac seems not to know much about this sort of piano from this era. They had a tendency to shortness of sustain. Was this Isaac merely being pretentious again?

...

Thanks rxd. I asked because I notice on some pianos that some unisons seem to vanish quicker when tuned in while others, most, do not. I thought maybe that Isaac was thinking that this phenomena was happening on BDB's recording, so I was just wondering about a physical explanation.

You always can cut a little in tone at tuning time, then on old Japanese pianos short tone will be even worse. I listened with better equipment and could not decide if it was unison or the piano, but I had to go before listening to the whole video.
Then
Then if you lengthen the (fundamental) tone by tuning unison at FFF so you get more energy to drive, but dynamics may lower.

That just relate to the use of impact energy, but when the piano have short sustain, that one reduce your options. Eventually, playing very strong while tuning gives a little more material to work with. And the player can do the same then.

Music very nicely played

Does the pianist not have at least something to say about it? It's not like he's poking around on an old Underwood. He takes the best that the tuner can provide with what he has to work with and creates his desire with very specific skills at his finger tips.

I must confess to not listening again, I started to but refused to pick through all the talking but the pianist can do much more than we think.

The sustain varies very subtly from note to note in all pianos. A stage piano doesn't always get the maintenance it should and equality of sustain suffers.
while there are ways of poking through the strings with a long needle to obtain more sustain from the hammer, tuning on the day of a big production like this rarely allows for any refinement.

I have to sincerely question isaacs experience of this kind of work. He claims to know but his comments show a distinct lack of understanding. There's more of self promotion in his nit picking criticism. I would expect sympathy with the situation from a real fellow professional. He sounds to me like a really talented amateur who hangs around the profession and then totally falls apart when the real job has to be done. I've known quite a few.

I may have lost some of my goodwill energy, may be.

I don't do much concert work those days indeed. You would it be you had to listen to numerous samples of my work so you could admit how great I am...

You can stay sitting, no problem. Beside, I am presumptuous as all Frenchies probably.
With all due respect to honorable colleagues...

This sample sounds as good now as it did eight months ago. The piano is marvelous and the musicians are top-notch. I may start sounding like a skipping record (remember those?), but microphones don't hear like we do. For broadcast purposes, sound is limited or compressed, or both, so it won't sound like it does in the actual performance in the room. 'Great job!

Yes, if a piano sounds the same after 8 months, that is great stability.

You might have just discovered a new way to look at piano tuning stability: literarily. This is great! Think I'll look too. Could be one of my tunings has been holding for some 10 years now. Come to think of it, literarily is really not the best word here. We may need to coin a new adverb: audio-literarily. (I'll race you to the copyright office.)