Jake Johnson wrote:Interesting question. I think that the only way to arrive at an answer would be to hire a tuner who tunes by ear to tune one of the Pianoteq instruments. The problem would be that the tuner would have to have a fairly thorough knowledge of Pianoteq Pro, with its abilities to adjust the balance of the unison detunings and more.
Hello Jake,
As a person who was born with perfect pitch, and who tunes pianos professionally since the early 1970's, I would like to share how I tune a real piano (by ear). After "laying the bearings" in the two octaves that flank middle C, I proceed to tune the octaves in unison with the overtones I hear from the originally tuned two octaves' worth of strings. It is only then that I go back to the piano and "begin" my own specialized tuning process with the trichords (notes with three thin, steel strings per note).
Upon confirming that the middle string (of the three per note) is satisfactorily tuned, I proceed to tune the string to the left of middle, such that it emphasizes the octave overtones (i.e., the "even-numbered" partials are in tune with the middle string). Next, I tune the string to the right of middle, such that it emphasizes primarily the interval of a twelfth (octave + a fifth) -- the odd partials.
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Regarding electronic tuning devices:
Most electronic tuning devices are set to tune all notes to equal temperament in the usual approximately 5 octaves that they "hear". What? Only five octaves? Aren't electronic tuners supposed to hear the full range of a piano? Essentially, yes, except that many electronic tuners are really designed for tuning guitars, and their accuracies are inadequate for the extremely fine adjustments required for piano tuning. When one goes very high, or very low in the piano's keyboard range, such electronic tuners either "wink out", giving you no signal, or they pick up weird overtones that are almost harmful to the human tuner. (They can be off as much as a fifth, high or low, without the human tuner knowing the wrong overtone is being picked up.)
Although I admit to using such a tuning device as a referee (when I have trouble making my various tuning checks work to my aural satisfaction), such tuning devices generally do not work "out-of-the-box" with zero compensation for inharmonicity. If an educated tuner is going to use these devices, he must be aware that he must listen "to the piano", rather than simply tuning to a strobe device.
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Now, to your question regarding Pianoteq Pro:
It is because the grand pianos are essentially 9' concert grands (the U4 upright excepted), the degree of stretching becomes less and less a factor, because the strings are longer. In other words, inharmonicity of Pianoteq's concert instruments is less an issue than in real-world (i.e. shorter grand and stumpy upright) pianos that are found in peoples' homes and studios. Additionally, Pianoteq's detuning sliders do not facilitate tuning individual strings of trichords. Yes, I have played around with attempting to tune Pianoteq by ear, but the adjustments are too foreign to my normal piano tuning technique (using a tuning hammer/wrench by "feel") and blocking individual strings with rubber wedges.
Short answer about Pianoteq:
It is because of Pianoteq's detuning sliders' inability to adjust tunings of individual strings within a given note, that I do not tune Pianoteq in the manner that a real acoustic grand would be tuned.
Cheers,
Joe
Last edited by jcfelice88keys (20-06-2015 18:21)