CAUT

This concepts has been brought up a few times in the past. I'm noticing way more RH variability at the U in the last few years and this seems to be accelerating in the last year. From freezing to balmy and rainy from week to week... I'm sure many of you have experienced similar swings. 

I think most of us can get a pretty decent one-pass tuning back to whatever pitch we select, but I've floated pitch for years to limit the cranking up and down;  the 'adapted' part would be to create a compromised tuning with the goal of giving the parts of the piano with the widest swings a little more room to move through the shifts in RH. I'm currently using PiaTune, which gives me a nice graph of starting pitches that is used for the overpull calculation. It can even show dots for the starting pitch of the last tuning which gave me the idea by seeing how the starting pitches 'breathe' through the changes. I may be able to show an image if I can figure out things here. 

I find that I can compromise up to around 4 cents between octaves, which seems to be what others were recommending in the past - set the float for the bass strings, then above the break set the pitch above or below 1 Hz depending on which part of the seasonal swing, return to overpull pitch and repeat as needed above the strut (like yamaha U1) 

Since I get a visual with PiaTune, and then can also smooth the actual measurements into a trend line, I've been experimenting with using that trend line to set the tuning (mostly in secondary practice rooms), limiting the excursion to around 4-5 cents. That way instead of a staggered float, I get a trended float which ends up playing pretty well and would hopefully translate into a better shift as the humidity ranges up and down. The goal would be a 'speed tuning' only at the extremes of humidity - close to the midrange, they get a decent tuning at 440. I'm just trying to come up with a method that doesn't add any time to what I already do.

I know it is a pretty minor effect, but any little bit may be helpful... Anyone else find this type of compromise helpful over time?

Happy New Year - time to run and get ready for next term!

Ron Koval

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Ron Koval
CHICAGO IL
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This piano has a longer slope than most above the bass break - Kawai GS40 in a church - horizontal line would represent tuned to calculation, grey zone represents +/-10 cents. See the mirror effect - Red dots before tuning at 50%RH vs grey dots 35% RH. So floating the pitch from 438 to 442, but looking to keep the extremes from being so large in the future...

------------------------------
Ron Koval
CHICAGO IL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-31-2024 15:32
From: Ron Koval
Subject: adaptive float - again

This concepts has been brought up a few times in the past. I'm noticing way more RH variability at the U in the last few years and this seems to be accelerating in the last year. From freezing to balmy and rainy from week to week... I'm sure many of you have experienced similar swings. 

I think most of us can get a pretty decent one-pass tuning back to whatever pitch we select, but I've floated pitch for years to limit the cranking up and down;  the 'adapted' part would be to create a compromised tuning with the goal of giving the parts of the piano with the widest swings a little more room to move through the shifts in RH. I'm currently using PiaTune, which gives me a nice graph of starting pitches that is used for the overpull calculation. It can even show dots for the starting pitch of the last tuning which gave me the idea by seeing how the starting pitches 'breathe' through the changes. I may be able to show an image if I can figure out things here. 

I find that I can compromise up to around 4 cents between octaves, which seems to be what others were recommending in the past - set the float for the bass strings, then above the break set the pitch above or below 1 Hz depending on which part of the seasonal swing, return to overpull pitch and repeat as needed above the strut (like yamaha U1) 

Since I get a visual with PiaTune, and then can also smooth the actual measurements into a trend line, I've been experimenting with using that trend line to set the tuning (mostly in secondary practice rooms), limiting the excursion to around 4-5 cents. That way instead of a staggered float, I get a trended float which ends up playing pretty well and would hopefully translate into a better shift as the humidity ranges up and down. The goal would be a 'speed tuning' only at the extremes of humidity - close to the midrange, they get a decent tuning at 440. I'm just trying to come up with a method that doesn't add any time to what I already do.

I know it is a pretty minor effect, but any little bit may be helpful... Anyone else find this type of compromise helpful over time?

Happy New Year - time to run and get ready for next term!

Ron Koval

------------------------------
Ron Koval
CHICAGO IL
------------------------------

This piano has a longer slope than most above the bass break - Kawai GS40 in a church - horizontal line would represent tuned to calculation, grey zone represents +/-10 cents. See the mirror effect - Red dots before tuning at 50%RH vs grey dots 35% RH. So floating the pitch from 438 to 442, but looking to keep the extremes from being so large in the future...

------------------------------
Ron Koval
CHICAGO IL

Original Message:
Sent: 12-31-2024 15:32
From: Ron Koval
Subject: adaptive float - again

This concepts has been brought up a few times in the past. I'm noticing way more RH variability at the U in the last few years and this seems to be accelerating in the last year. From freezing to balmy and rainy from week to week... I'm sure many of you have experienced similar swings. 

I think most of us can get a pretty decent one-pass tuning back to whatever pitch we select, but I've floated pitch for years to limit the cranking up and down;  the 'adapted' part would be to create a compromised tuning with the goal of giving the parts of the piano with the widest swings a little more room to move through the shifts in RH. I'm currently using PiaTune, which gives me a nice graph of starting pitches that is used for the overpull calculation. It can even show dots for the starting pitch of the last tuning which gave me the idea by seeing how the starting pitches 'breathe' through the changes. I may be able to show an image if I can figure out things here. 

I find that I can compromise up to around 4 cents between octaves, which seems to be what others were recommending in the past - set the float for the bass strings, then above the break set the pitch above or below 1 Hz depending on which part of the seasonal swing, return to overpull pitch and repeat as needed above the strut (like yamaha U1) 

Since I get a visual with PiaTune, and then can also smooth the actual measurements into a trend line, I've been experimenting with using that trend line to set the tuning (mostly in secondary practice rooms), limiting the excursion to around 4-5 cents. That way instead of a staggered float, I get a trended float which ends up playing pretty well and would hopefully translate into a better shift as the humidity ranges up and down. The goal would be a 'speed tuning' only at the extremes of humidity - close to the midrange, they get a decent tuning at 440. I'm just trying to come up with a method that doesn't add any time to what I already do.

I know it is a pretty minor effect, but any little bit may be helpful... Anyone else find this type of compromise helpful over time?

Happy New Year - time to run and get ready for next term!

Ron Koval

------------------------------
Ron Koval
CHICAGO IL
------------------------------