Robert Conrad, Registered Piano Tuner/Technician, Tucson, AZ
Here’s what some of the manufacturers say about tuning: Steinway & Sons … Unfortunately, no matter how expertly a piano is tuned, atmospheric variations, particularly humidity, and the nature of the piano’s construction constantly conspire to bring it off pitch. Your Steinway piano has been designed and built so that in normal use and under…
Here are the new and improved locations for each of those partial changes:
The Treble Partial Change should be lowered to G#5/A5
The Middle Partial Change should be lowered to A4/A#4
The Tenor Partial Change should be lowered to G#2/A2
Barebones explanation: On the FAC tuning used for the tuning, tune D4 and then set the SAT to A6. Play D4 and stop the lights using DOB (BlueShift+CentsUp). Use that DOB setting for tuning the treble (A4-C8). Make sure to remove the DOB when not tuning the treble. A bit more explanation: Once the FAC…
Contained below is a random collection of some of the tuning ‘listens’ recorded with my iPhone. In the collection are grand pianos of different sizes and manufacturers, some studios and consoles.
Many of the AccuTuner Blog articles are associated with a video. This link will take you to my YouTube channel which contains all my videos. Click here to go to my YouTube Channel
I have two SATIV “980”s. I use them both, one one week and the other the next. I don’t want to work without one. And, since a Microsoft Surface Pro is part of my tuning process, I have two of those as well. I’m backed up with both hardware and software. It’s great to know…
All ‘computer generated’ tunings have partial changes and those partial changes may contain an error. Correcting these partial change errors can greatly improve the sound of the tuning. The number of partial changes contained in the ‘computer generated’ tunings will vary depending on the ETD. This procedure will show how to use the Partial Change…
This “AccuTuner Blog” is a sharing of AccuTuner features, skills, experiences, tuning ideas and discoveries. Also presented here is an introduction to the Littau-Conrad Tuning System. If you have any questions, any new or interesting AccuTuner ideas, or are interested in an AccuTuner, give me a call or use this Contact form. I’ve been a…
The field of Piano technology is an unregulated trade. Therefore the Piano Technicians Guild has set its own standards of quality for piano technicians.
This post is on how to create a header sheet for the xMem sections of the SAT IV. There are probably more ways to do this than the one contained in the video, but this one works nicely and is fairly quick. This method uses Excel and Word. I hope this video can be used by those with only limited experience with Excel. Those with a basic knowledge of Excel, will have no problem with this method. (Contains video)
Library Files or .LIB files are the type of files used by the Sanderson AccuTuner IV’s ‘Extended’ Memory. This upper memory or ‘Extended’ memory greatly expands the capacity – the number of tunings – that can be stored in the SAT IV. This video will show how to use and work with Library files and Piano Manager for storing and retrieving tunings in the Extended memory of the SAT IV. (Post contains Video)
This video shows how a tuning is created using actual mapping notes and how the targets are arranged on the notepad. There is also some discussion in this video on how the “A4 numbers”, combined with the “4th” A4 Number, help to begin the mapping process. Using the mapping notes combined with the A4 numbers,…
The video below is a preview of the Littau-Conrad Spreadsheet presenting how our LC Spreadsheet looks and works with Piano Manager and the SAT IV. Creating the tuning begins on the Templates Tab. Once the targets have been entered into the ‘Targets’ boxes on the Templates tab, clicking on the ‘Copy to Adjust Tab’ begins…
Even the smoothest set of software-created numbers for the prime octave’s tuning ‘curve’, will often not be a good fit for the piano.
Because we can’t use the same partials to tune A0 and C8, there must be at least one partial change in every tuning software system. All tuning software systems contain partial ‘changes’. Whenever the software switches from one partial to another during the course of the tuning, an error at that partial change is very likely. Since every partial change is a potential tuning issue, the fewer partial changes the better. The higher partials are less reliable then the lower partials.
Inaccurate partial changes combined with scaling issues, can create problems in tunings.
This procedure is for pianos whose 4th A4 Number is generally less than 2.0 c. When the 4th A4 number is less than 2.0 c., the prime octave’s 2:1 can be either expanded or contracted – based on what the prime 5ths dictate – and still remain less than 3.0 c. wide. Most of the time on these pianos, the prime 4:2 octave will be either wide or pure.
My approach to midrange tuning is minimal beating. I don’t want to stretch any more than necessary to get a pair of good sounding prime 5ths contained within the prime octave.
This system uses the relationships of the prime octave (A3/A4) to the prime 5ths (A3/E4 & D4/A4) to determine the ideal widths for both the prime octave and the prime 5ths. This relationship will be found using the A4 Numbers the 4th A4 Number, and ‘Templates’.
In addition to correcting errors at partial changes, the Partial Change Corrector (PCC) may also be used to add stretch to the bass. The main difference between using PCC in stead of DOB, is that with PCC the adjustments stay with the tuning after the SAT is turned off, whereas the DOB settings are not.
The “A4 numbers” are the locations of the 2nd, 4th, and 8th partials of A4 when A4 is tuned to A440 (1st Partial).
There are a number of ways, when using an AccuTuner, to tune to non standard pitch. PCC is one of the easiest and most versatile. When PCC is used for tuning to non standard pitch, make note of the PCC adjustment so it can be reversed when the tuning is finished.
Using a sequence is a great way to quickly tune and make aural checks before committing to the complete tuning. (Contains button pressing video).
This post suggests a general approach to applying these FAC Tweaks.
All computerized tunings have partial changes and those partial changes may contain an error. Correcting these errors can improve the sound of the tuning. This procedure will show how to correct the three FAC partial changes when using an AccuTuner SAT IV. But before correcting the partial changes, consider lowering the tenor partial change from…