If you spent a great number of years as myself, tuning by ear, you would understand that there is a flaw in the Verituner concept of it adjusting the tuning as you move along. In real life tuning anomolies, usually incurred by highly variable iH, an aural tuner who lays out a somewhat centralized temperament and then stretches the tuning out to bass/treble extents from it, a process occurs where previously tuned notes need to be readjusted sometimes to make a fit. This is impossible for any ETD to emulate on a tuning based from left to right (or vice versa) chromatic tuning progressions (as most all ETD tuners do it). It will make the best of what its got, but thats about it. At a seminar 4 years ago, we tuned a Yamaha C5 and a Kawai RX2 using 3 different ETD's. Sanderson, RCT and Verituner using predetermined tweaked templates which matched the overall stretch (highest/lowest notes). Unisons were all tuned by ear. partial maching was manually set to correspond for all ETD's in the same ranges of the keyboard. All three produced near identical tunings less than +/- .5 cents deviation on any note. This was pretty well an average/good case scenario as far as piano type was concerned but it was quite clear that the ETD's pretty well work very much the same in the end results. This type of measurement comparison is called "absolute precision" ...we were looking at each note individually as far as its deviancy on absolute frequency, not beat rate comparison. Clarity was fine for single/double octaves on all the tunings. The tunings were considered acceptable by all of us, but not perfect, when we eventually went over it with a fine tooth comb. They certainly would have passed an RPT exam requirement and satisfied all but a highly discerning concert or recording studio setting.Interestingly enough, 2 P5's in the temperament on the Kawai were all tuned a little wider than our ears prefered and when aurally adjusted, two M3rd intervals were slightly compromised to be out of line with their progressive beat rate. Essentially, the deviation error was split (we argued about this a bit), something none of the ETD's could do. A small adjustment was made in the treble also in the killer octave since our previous adjustment when expanded out created a new problem there. You understand the issue which ETD builders face...they have yet to devise software which sends you back to previously tuned notes to do compromises when the adjusted intervals/notes fit worse elsewhere later on. The only way to get around this is to have software which reads the entire piano (ie. samples every note) before the first note is even tuned. (Dirk's does this, unfortunately the algorythms don't do much more than the other ETD's with the information) Then it needs to have a very precisely set bunch of rules and controls which give priority to some intervals over others, and also has the flexibility to make compromises when anomolies as shown above exist. Another issue is that it is very rare that two aural tuners will always agree on compromises (like we fortunately did after some arguing). Some techs will abandon precise M3rds or other RBI's over cleaner more consistant SBI's like 4ths and 5ths....or vice versa. A decision would have to be made by the software programmer as far as taste goes, and you know what they say about "there is no accounting for taste".
Correction: Step (3) in the Reply on April 11, 2015 of the first post above should be"Tune other keys within one octave (e.g., from C4 to B4) according to perfect fifth and perfect fourth", (it was C3 to C4).Latest update on IC Piano Tuner v4.0.0, Beating Viewing Mode and Pitch Mode become Continuous Mode and Interval Mode, aimed to speed up the tuning process, with new updates as,(1) In Continuous mode, pitch data are provided continuously. A new C4->B4 stretch tuning function is added to allow user to stretch tuning the middle octave quickly by strike single string at a time (without playing two strings together).(2) User can save preferred default parameters such as A4 frequency, noise level cutoff, and the duration of the beating curve (beating history), as well as the stretch tuning results of C4->B4 which provides one kind of "fingerprint" associated with the piano quality.(3) In Continuous mode an automatic higher partials beating enhancement is provided to automatically suppress impact from the lowest partial(s).(4) Noise cutoff range is increased to accommodate low sensitivity of some computer microphones.Billhttps://www.cc-ast.com/icpianotuner.html
I just purchased this tool and am a little disappointed. As it turns out there is NO realtime display of either pitch or beats that I can find. This is not mentioned anywhere in the publicly available documentation.Apparently this tool records sound for 1-2 seconds and then processes the recording as described in the documentation. This process (record, analyze, display) repeats every 5 or so seconds. The button allows the user to pause this cycle. There isn't any obvious mechanism to control when the tool starts recording although the "button" turns various colors (green yellow and red) to indicate what it's doing. This makes using this tool to assist the tuning process nearly impossible although it is effective in analyzing the final result.However the price is very reasonable. Too bad the product falls short of expectation.
I read the reply...Sorry, I missed it earlier. I may give IC a try just to get an idea of how it performs as end result. I have some customers of mine who have asked about ETD's to help them tweak their pianos or keep them in tune between longer tuning intervals. They are a bit hesitant on anything with a big learning curve. Even with RCT, I rely on making many choices of octave tuning style based on my aural skills, and I always still tune unisons by ear. I believe there is an ETD which reads the whole tone and all its partials to allow unison tuning (Stopper's Pure 12's), Tunic onlypure, but most other ETD's will only target one partial for the spinner.Audacity was not made for piano tuners, it actually is used by sound/recording engineers and audiophiles for analyzing and modifying recordings. Its just that it is used by many tuners now when discussing tunings and beat rates on internet forums. Yes, it is not easy to first navigate, but it is a powerfully accurate tool once you learn it. Professional tuners who were first trained in aural tuning to a high degree almost all have some reservations about ETD's. Initially, the tunings take longer...and that means loss of money. Familiarity with the software and tweaking the way in which you tune can eventually eliminate this. ETD's allow you to navigate the keyboard anywhere and in any order compared to aural tuning. ETD's allow you to immediatly see if a close to target frequency is a tiny bit sharp or flat of an absolute frequency, without the need of a comparison note...aural tuners need to swing the pitch through to find that comparatively, a little more wear and tear on the piano and a bit of time loss. One drawback of ETD's when they are sampling is that by default, they are regulated to listen to a certain part of the attack/sustain/decay envelope. Not all pianos/notes are stable for the entire duration and quite often we will see a frequency roll flat, or even sharp after the initial attack, or on the latter part of the decay. RCT will show the listening "ear" about 1 second after the attack and will cut out at a certain amplitude of the decay...other ETD's are likely to be different. This listening period and its location is also something not all aural tuners are in agreement with. Some tend to veer towards the initial attack, others tend not to.
Still trying to make this program work for me. Not easy. Nothing at all in the manual about WHERE the program counts beats. Is the user supposed to EXAMINE the wave pic that appears when a key is struck and try to figure out how many visible wavelengths there are in 1 second? Is that it?And why does the information re partials flash for less than a second and then just DISAPPEAR? No time to READ the partial information.And why does that bit button continually flash "red," "yellow," and "green" for no obvious reason, all on its own, uncontrollably, with no rhyme or reason?In fact, what is that button for?This program is mysterious.
Topic: Tuning Software - IC Piano Tuner: Focusing on Beats! 