Targets and Mini-Targets

The ‘main’ targets are every A on the piano (including A0 and A7).

The ‘mini’ targets are the D’s and E’s in the 3rd and 4th octaves.

The LC spreadsheet uses the locations of target notes to create the tuning.     LC requires the ‘main’ target notes be entered.

The ‘mini’ targets are used to further ‘shape’ the curve within the prime and the sub prime octaves.

Prime Octave Mini Targets:   Even though the prime octave’s width may be perfect, the piano’s scaling within that octave will often result in  ‘unbalanced’ prime 5ths  (A3/E4 & D4/A4).   The prime 5ths being different widths, will therefore beat differently.    The prime 4ths really expose this unbalance.

Balancing the prime 5hs, by raising or lowering mini targets D4 & E4 allow us to fix this problem.  Establishing the mini target locations is done during mapping of the prime octave.   Templates are used for this.

Being able to tailor the shape of the curve within the prime octave allows us to accurately fit the curve of the tuning to the scaling of the piano.

Mini Targets in the Subprime Octave: Raising or lowering D3 and E3 in the subprime octave, allows for much more accuracy in that 3rd octave.   The 3rd octave probably contains the biggest scaling issues of the piano.  Being able to shape the middle of the subprime octave gives us much more accuracy for tuning thru this potentially troublesome area.

As an example, sometimes a piano’s  D3 is a wound bichord and E3 is a plain wire trichord.   Using these subprime mini targets when creating the tuning with the LC spreadsheet, results in a much more custom tuning for the subprime octave.

Being able to map both main and mini targets in both the prime and subprime octaves, gives us the capability to create a super custom midrange tuning for that specific piano.

The main and mini targets are all used by the LC spreadsheet when creating the tuning.