Hi everybody!

I assume lots of you guys are using ETDs in your daily work. So I think, instead of asking you how good they are, maybe it is helpful for you to think of, and speak out, What improvements do you think could be made to your current ETDs that will help your piano tuning? The considerations could be speed, ease of use, accuracy, special concerns, the pitfalls you have found, etc. etc.

For instance, are some of them slow in response?

When a piano's pitch is more than 50 cents flat then the ETD is not able to identify the note we want to tune (it automatically sets the note one step below) and one must manually set each note.

It would be an usefull feature to be able to adjust the ETD to set itself to the note above what it actually hears and thus have it automatically identify the note being tuned. For example if it hears a G#4 it should set A4.

This is not practical. Suppose you are tuning G#4. It was very flat, but now you have brought it up to the correct pitch for G#4. As you play this newly-tuned G#4, the ETD hears a G#4, and according to you, it should now switch to A4. But you weren't quite done with G#4, so you don't want it to switch yet. The problem is that the newly-tuned G#4 might sound exactly the same as the next note, which is an A4 that happens to be 100 cents flat. When are done tuning G#4 and you go on to A4, the pitch that the ETD hears is about the same. There is no way it can tell that you have gone on to the next note.

Robert Scott
Ypsilanti, Michigan

I'd like a temperament setter Measure F3, C4, and F4. Out pops a F3-F4 temperament that can be adjusted for alternate octave stretches with a dial. It would include other temperaments in addition to equal temperament.

OK. This can be a little tricky, but I am sure we can find a way to make it work.

Maybe put the ETD in "descending mode", that is the ETD will change to the lower notes but not to upper notes.

For example: Let's say you first tune A4 which is 100 cents flat so the ETD sets itself at A4, as you raise the note to 0 cents the ETD remains at A4 without changing to A#4 because it is in descending mode.

Once you are done with A4 you play G#4 wich is 100 cents flat, so the machine switches to G#4 and it will remain there until it hears a lower note.

And so on. This will work as long as you tune a lower note than the previous one. Maybe you will need to select manually an upper note and then tune by automatic descending steps from there...

Do you think it is possible to implement something like this?

Yes, that could be implemented. The question is, how many tuners would be willing to do a pitch raise from high notes to low notes? Because of the way low notes affect higher notes more than high notes affect lower note, most recommendations I have heard say to always to pitch raise from low to high.

Robert Scott
Ypsilanti, Michigan

You are right! I pitch raise from the lowest solid strung unison to the top and then from the highest wound strung unison to the bottom.

At least it will work for the wound strings.