equal temperament

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

Regarding the exact (tricky) meaning of the string length in Pianoteq, please read following post:
http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/viewtopic...93#p928593

Hello Jake,

Thank you for your interest in this fascinating subject of tuning, inharmonicity and detuning.  Any questions you have, I would be glad to articulate what I happen to know about them.

I wish to make a comment about so-called perfect unison tuning:
Personally, in some of the worst tunings I have heard, I strongly suspect that the tuner used an electronic tuning device to "tune" each note of a trichord to exactly the same pitch!  To my ears, such tuned pianos sound "dull" -- in tune, but somehow not well-tuned -- to the point that one does NOT hear as much of the harmonic series in the so-called tuned notes. 

Yes, the above sounds paradoxical:  How is it that a perfectly (electronically assisted and zero de-tuning) tuned trichord sounds somehow wrong?
That's because the trichords need to be tuned in such a way that the individual notes' overtone series seem to "bloom" over a short time span.  The order of magnitude that I "de-tune" (actually, I hate that term, because I consider that I am "voicing" the note via tuning!) is on the order of, say, 0.2Hz or less(!) from absolute unity!  The reason that my left string will allow the octave overtone to "bloom" or "emerge" --- is something that happens only when you hold down the note for about 5 seconds or longer.  The same amount of "detuning" occurs with the right string that I voice the odd partials to emerge.

It is only now that I have explained the way that I tune trichord unisons that you can understand why a so-called perfect trichord tuning regimen leaves the piano dull and lifeless.  In fact, I am reminded of other famous sampled piano libraries, whose tuners must surely had "perfectly" tuned each string to be in absolute unison.  At the same time, this is why I think that essentially all of the sampled piano libraries might sound "pretty" at first blush -- but upon repeated playing, they seem lifeless.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Cheers,

Joe

I guess all of this elaborate tuning work only lasts for a short time (days, weeks, a month at most?) as the piano detunes itself over time.... am i right? Unless all the strings detune themselves by the exact same amount, which isn't likely to happen.

The standard tuning in Pianoteq is precisely  done as a "manual tuning from the real grand X", in particular by following exactly the inharmonicity pattern of the strings, as a tuner does when he listens to the piano strings. You can also get a 100% equal temperament in Pianoteq (which in particular ignores the inharmonicity of the strings) by chosing "flat" in the Temperament menu form the Tuning panel. This temperament is of course not recommended for pianos.

And a harpsichord will go out of tune during a concert whenever the central heating or central air conditioning in the hall turns on. Often at the conclusion of a piece or movement after the heating or air conditioning comes on, the harpsichordist will stop the proceedings and retune the instrument himself. He will probably spend most of the intermission extensively retuning the harpsichord as well.

Here in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, we have extremes of temperature and humidity. The church sanctuaries where the groups that I am a fan of perform all have their central heating and air conditioning pre-programmed by a central computer control on a weekly schedule that cannot be over-ridden by the orchestra when it's time for a concert. So harpsichordists, and indeed all string players in the Baroque orchestra with their sheep-gut-string instruments, are entirely at the mercy of the computer-controlled heating and air conditioning.

All concert harpsichordists have to act as their own tuners and repair technicians. Their instrument will require a thorough tuning when it is transported to the site of the concert, and will require touch-up tuning during every concert. There is also the likelihood for the need to replace broken strings and worn-out plectra during each concert.

You modern pianists have it very easy.