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I see that it supports non-equal temperaments but what is the tuning sequence? The default sequence for equal temperament doesn't make sense to me as a basis for tuning something else. Do you have to go through the entire equal temperament sequence and then go back and modify everything?
It would make more sense for many long-time ETD users to just do a measuring pass in chromatic order for the notes that are usually governed by the tuning sequence in the midrange. Then start tuning...
Of course, we can just go through the tuning sequence without tuning to treat it as a measuring pass, it just requires more jumping around.
It would make more sense for many long-time ETD users to just do a measuring pass in chromatic order for the notes that are usually governed by the tuning sequence in the midrange. Then start tuning...
Of course, we can just go through the tuning sequence without tuning to treat it as a measuring pass, it just requires more jumping around.
Ron Koval
Ron,
Is this related to the non-equal temperament discussion above, or is it a general suggestion?
I would think that once the inharmonicity of all the temperament notes were measured the program would be able to programmatically go through the tuning sequence to create the optimal tuning. Then the tuner would only need to tune those notes once and they could be tuned in any order (normally chromatically). Unless very far off pitch, I can't imagine that the inharmonicity would change significantly enough to change the ultimate calculation.
I might add a new setting in tuning preferences to select whether new tunings start with the current Temperament Mode (default) or a Measurement Mode (Meas. Mode). This setting might be set once and stay set until next change.
If set to Measurement Mode, all notes from F3 to A4 will be required to be measured chromatically staring with F3. This time the suffix next to note name might be "(meas.)" to denote that it is neither (rough) or (fine) tuning of the current note but just a measurement.
Then notes from A4 to F3 can be tuned chromatically (or in any order)
The remaining notes can be expanded chromatically towards bass and treble (as it is now)
Please let me know if such a change would be okay for you.
It would make more sense for many long-time ETD users to just do a measuring pass in chromatic order for the notes that are usually governed by the tuning sequence in the midrange. Then start tuning...
Of course, we can just go through the tuning sequence without tuning to treat it as a measuring pass, it just requires more jumping around.
Ron Koval
Ron,
Is this related to the non-equal temperament discussion above, or is it a general suggestion?
No, just general. Although I bet if I stepped through your sequence a number of times it would become easier...
I might add a new setting in tuning preferences to select whether new tunings start with the current Temperament Mode (default) or a Measurement Mode (Meas. Mode). This setting might be set once and stay set until next change.
If set to Measurement Mode, all notes from F3 to A4 will be required to be measured chromatically staring with F3. This time the suffix next to note name might be "(meas.)" to denote that it is neither (rough) or (fine) tuning of the current note but just a measurement.
Then notes from A4 to F3 can be tuned chromatically (or in any order)
The remaining notes can be expanded chromatically towards bass and treble (as it is now)
Please let me know if such a change would be okay for you.
Yes, I like this idea. The current setup is confusing to me since I've never tuned aurally.
Another suggestion: Include a couple sample tunings so that "out of the box" you could do some tuning without taking measurements, or do a pitch raise and then take readings after it's closer to pitch. You could maybe have a grand, upright and spinet sample. TuneLab has this and it can be handy.
Thank you Scott, Ron, Richard for the suggestions.
I have released PiaTune version 4.8.
Now when starting new tunings you can choose blank option or load one of 3 generic inharmonicity data for grand, upright and spinet.
By setting the new option New Tuning Mode to Pre-measurement, you can now measure all notes from A4 to F3 chromatically first and then fine tune them in any order.
Thanks, Hakki. I have recommended this to a tuning-curious college student of mine, and we're just starting out (learning how to properly use the hammer and tuning unisons only).
I'll have more time after the new year to play with it and review the manual...
I couldn't find a piano I thought I saved...When I tap on 'open' nothing shows.
I had trouble moving the red line(while at a piano) on the inharmonicity graph to find the note I wanted to remeasure, but it seems to be working fine this morning.
I was able to enter and use a temperament easily.
Thanks for all of your work - I've recommended this software to a newer tech as well.
I used the pre-measurement - realized that I needed to go up from A4 before tuning down into the tenor. I guess that means that the software needs info from above A4 to make a better match going down into the tenor? That seems like a good approach to reach above the temperament to make poor scales sound better.
It would be helpful to be able to remeasure right from the inharmonicity graph to see if the curve improves with another measurement.
I was working on a Wurlitzer spinet, so moved the stretch settings a bit to better match my preferences. I'll test more, but it seems that I would like to have a bit more control over the number of partials for each section? The toughest test that I care about is how any software handles difficult scales.
I spent a couple of hours at a piano at the university.
Take any suggestions/observations as just signs of frustration due to the learning curve that happens with any new program! We all become familiar with a certain way of working with one ETD, and then learning something new can be difficult. I really like the logarithmic scale display, but hadn't learned how to manipulate the spinner/needle speed yet. I paged through the manual again. last night and that really helped clear things up!
I found that stepping through chromatically while watching the inharmonicity values was just about as good as looking at the graph - especially for a quick check. It really helps to see the string breaks and changes of scale design.
I was able to manipulate the intervals used to nearly match my Verituner settings on this Samick grand - there were a few differences that I'm going to look into later.
The pitch raise function seems to be reactive to individual notes rather than having any kind of smoothing function?