Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum EBVT and concert pianist's reaction

I asked the doctor of piano at a college I service (who performs regularly) if she'd be willing to try EBVT on her studio B, and she agreed.

She's crazy about it! The word she used to describe it is "rich." I do agree with that description; I find it to be very musical and lyrical on the right piano.

What's been your experience with this non-ET?

Thanks for that, Loren, I really do appreciate the report. It is the reason I use the temperament. I would have to conceded however, that the reaction you experienced may not happen 100% of the time or that at some point, that pianist may ask you to tune it once again in ET. That pianist may have had a similar reaction to any other mild WT or Meantone. Another of our participants has for many years experienced a positive reaction from the introduction of key color to the temperament.

I believe the reaction comes from experiencing newly found interactions in the music that were never there before in ET. Sometimes, people don't like what they are not used to but often they find the change refreshing and want to continue. Sometimes as well, they like it for a while but then want to go back to what they had always known. Only time will tell what happens in this case.

Yes, Bill. I told her if she ever decides she wants it back, to just let me know. In the meantime, I'm to tune it in ebvt until she says otherwise.

Great sounding temperament, btw.

I've also used it a few times, and for smaller scale concerts and so far (knock on wood) with 100% success...very positive comments. Its rich with color and new texture and I get the most commentary (and similarily notice also) in the melody area octaves 5-7...very brilliant sounding...

To which, I continue to add a hearty THANKS to Bill for his selfless time in development.

Rick

I love the musical sound of slower beating 3rds in some of the keys. It definitely gives shading that you don't otherwise get. As a composer and pianist, that really draws me in.

Loren, is it EBVT 1, 2 or 3?

3.

Thank you Loren

Did you tune it aurally or with Bill's ETD offsets?

David Bauguess

I tune the EBVT 3 as well using Tunelab. We recently purchased a new Yamaha Grand at my church. It set for a couple of weeks with the generic ET tuning from the store before I could get to it. It had a nice sound, but once I tuned it, one of the members in the choir said, "WOW! You tuned the piano didn't you? I can hear all those overtones!" Prior to the piano being tuned in EBVT3 it had a almost muffled sound. Once I put the EBVT3 temperament on it, the sound really opened up. The piano has a fuller sound. You can hear different personalities as you go from key to key. I ONLY tune in EBVT3 now. In fact I had a customer last night who said, "Hearing my piano sound this good, brings a tear to my eye." I continually have new customers tell me that their piano has NEVER sounded this good before. I use the Offsets that are preloaded in Tunelab. When I asked Robert Scott about the differences in numbers between his and the ones on Bill's, website, he explained that the numbers he came up with are from a special temperament design program that he created. He used all of Bill's instructions for tuning the EBVT3 and those are those are the numbers in Tunelab. He said that those numbers take into account inharmonicity, whereas I guess Bills do not, coming from an aural standpoint. So, on a piano that is pretty close to pitch, I take the samples as normal and once Tunelab has determined what tuning curve is needed for the piano, I layer the EBVT3 on top of it. I had a Wurlitzer spinet that was averaged about 150 cents flat and by the time I got done, it had given that piano a very nice sound. I am totally sold both on Tunelab and the EBVT3 and so are my customers!!!!!

Sounds great, Ryan! Yes, it definitely is a very musical temperament and full of character. It does give the piano a personality, something we've grown unaccustomed to hearing. Sounds great on larger grands.

Sometimes I use Tunelab's offset, other times I do it aurally per Bill's procedure.

Loren,

Do you hear much of a difference between when you use the offsets in Tunelab as opposed to Bill's aural procedure?

I don't. At least, nothing significant.

That's good. I've always wondered.

Ryan,

I wonder if you might post Robert's offsets. It would be interesting to compare them with Bill's.

David

EBVT 3 Offsets for Tunelab compared to Bill's

Sorry about the strange formatting. I had them in neat columns but when it posts, it messed it up. The number on the left is Tunelab and the number on the right is Bill's.


Tunelab Bremmer
F 1.49 1.8
F# -0.17 -0.3
G 2.73 3.1
G# 0.93 0.7
A 0.00 0.0
A# 2.39 2.9
B -0.16 0.0
C 3.31 3.8
C# -1.08 -1.3
D 0.62 0.9
D# 1.38 1.6
E -0.48 -0.4

As you see, the differences are very slight.

Bill,

Are you familiar with this?

I would assume Robert's numbers would produce a similar result with other ETDs, although there are other variables.

Bottom line curiosity: Even if it is subtle, I wonder if Robert's numbers are closer to your aural tuning than the numbers you've provided.

David