RCT 5 Getting Started-E
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1. Win Mac FOF oe I pe RCT manual POF RCT 5x CD Win Mac Install RCT 5 Wibu brand SentinelKey Reyburn CyberTuner Welcome to RCT s Getting Started Manual Congratulations on your decision to use Reyburn CyberTuner RCT This Getting Started Manual will teach you how to use RCT to tune pianos After reading this Getting Started Manual you may want to learn more about RCT Here s how Watch the RCT video tape or DVD included with purchase The video starts with the basics then goes into advanced details You don t need to watch it all in one sitting Use RCT s on line help accessed by pulling down RCT s Help menu or clicking the Help button in many of RCT s windows When running RCT use On Line help any time you need quick answers Refer to the RCT Reference Manual which is very complete and has an index This manual is in Acrobat PDF electronic format and is on the RCT CD installed in RCT s folder on your computer This manual is the best resource for learning everything about RCT s full capabilities What is Reyburn CyberTuner and how does it work Reyburn CyberTuner is software that turns a computer into an easy to use yet extremely powerful piano tuning device The two modules used for tuning pianos are Chameleon 3 Ch3 and CyberEar CE RCT has additional capabilities and modules such as Pianalyzer PTG Exam mode Custom Equalizer Preview Graphs and more These are not covered in2. This allows you to pre listen to the middle octaves and know if DMax and SOM were invoked see below Chameleon remembers the current set of A note samples until you sample another piano even if you quit RCT or turn off your computer This means you can calculate many tunings for a piano e g using different OTSes without resampling Partials Advanced Mode lets you select different partials for various sections of the keyboard Generally the partials selected by Ch3 s Smart Partials feature sound great on almost all pianos it is rare to find a piano which can be improved Chameleon allows advanced users to change partials just uncheck the box next to Smart Partials Click on a partial popup menu to see a list of available partials The notes affected by that choice will be darkened on the graphic keyboard Tuning Partials Size lt 6ft The Smart Partials feature will often choose partials 7 or 10 in the bass and 5 in the tenor These partials may appear out of place in the graph window They are non octave partials and the math of equal temperament makes them offset No need for concern Smart Partials makes good partial choices on any size or type piano Smart Partials gives more accurate stretch and a smoother bass treble transition The final test is to listen to the piano after tuning Chameleon will sometimes ask you for the piano s size for after recording It only displays the piano siz
3. percentage optimized for each note The first pitch raise pass usually leaves most notes within a cent or two even for pitch raises of 50 We recommend you pitch raise if A4 s pitch displayed immediately after sampling A4 in Chameleon is off by more than 8 cents or 2 Hz For optimum accuracy after pitch raising go back to Chameleon re sample and calculate another tuning then return to CyberEar and do a Fine Tuning To pitch raise with RCT In Chameleon click the Record button and record samples Click the Calculate button which takes you to CyberEar Easy Mode Hold down the mouse button over the Tuning Mode popup menu which is probably set to Fine Tune and select Pitch Raise The Pitch Raise dialog box will open If Pitch Raise is already selected reselect it In the Pitch Raise dialog box enter the piano s lowest plain wire note unwrapped string by pressing your computer s up or down arrow keys Usually the other settings in the Pitch Raise dialog box don t need to be changed See the RCT User Manual or video for more info If you re starting a new pitch raise click Start New If you re continuing a partially completed pitch raise click OK You ll return to CE If starting a new pitch raise AO will be selected Play AO and let it sustain while the Spinner fills in In other words don t tune the string until the Spinner fills in completely Then tune AO normally so the Spinner stops rotating Play the ne
4. this Getting Started Manual See the RCT video and the RCT Reference Manual on the CD for information on these features Do this first Install RCT from CD or SD card 1 Start your computer Insert the RCT CD ROM or SD card On Windows computers double click to open My Computer and double click to open the CD or SD card icon 2 Open the folder for your operating system Windows or Macintosh RCT 5 x only installs and runs on MacOS X or Windows 2000 and later Open and read the RCT Read Me file printing this file is highly recommended 3 On both Mac and Windows Open Install RCT 5 On Mac after the disk image opens drag the Reyburn CyberTuner 5 folder to the Applications folder 4 Open the WibuKeylInstall and accept the default installation options 5 After RCT is installed attach the Wibu SentinelKey to the USB port Normally there is no need to restart only restart if there is a problem On Windows open RCT from the desktop icon shortcut On MacOS X open your hard drive Applications Reyoburn CyberTuner 5 folder and open the RCT icon amp g gt E FEF i I RET manual POF Win Mac If your computer is a laptop you ll be asked to install SoftKey which lets you run RCT without SentinelKey attached You do so click the Install button Quit RCT remove SentinelKey and put it back in its plastic pouch and white or clear box On SentinelKey s box write down the computer ont
5. Started Easy Mode users now know everything well almost everything you need to know about RCT and don t need to read any further in this Getting Started Manual So put down this manual pull up your socks and go tune some pianos Advanced Mode users Readad on Chameleon s Advanced Mode To change from Easy mode to Advanced mode click on Chameleon s Easy Advanced switch More choices will appear discussed below If you switch from Easy Mode to Advanced Mode the Easy Mode default OTS 4 and Smart Partials will be selected Advanced mode is different from Easy mode in that clicking the Calculate button creates a tuning record and displays its tuning chart A tuning chart is a spreadsheet with pitches and partials for all 88 notes and is where you can name the tuning record if you want to save it described below To go from a tuning chart to CyberEar click the CyberEar button or pull down the Windows menu to select CyberEar or press the Enter Return key Octave Tuning Styles Ch3 s Advanced Mode lets you select from nine graduated levels of overall stretch ranging from very clean to very stretched Each stretch style is called an Octave Tuning Style OTS The OTSes are arranged in groups of three clean 1 2 3 standard 4 5 6 and stretched 7 8 9 Octave Tuning Style m MN O00 000 OOO sane eram clean standard stretched Custom EQ Hot tip OTS 4 uses a stretch style similar to w
6. not all tuning files Hint Every piano s serial number is virtually unique so including it in the header insures you can find a tuning record that exactly matches a particular piano Opening a saved tuning record lf your hard disk contains tuning records that have been previously created and saved for example if you purchased a Tuning Library from us or after you ve saved some tunings yourself you can open a saved tuning record instead of creating a new one To open a saved tuning record Pull down the File menu select Open File and open a tuning file To select often used tuning files use Open Latest under the File menu Files can be viewed as Icons or Headers View menu Icon view takes up less space puts only the first letter of a record inside a small piano icon and lets you view a record s header by placing the pointer over a record Header view displays each record s complete header in a scrolling window To open a tuning record click on it with the Magnifying Glass pointer If using the oe Tuning Hammer pointer press the Command Mac or Control Win key when clicking Then select CyberEar using one of the following methods Click the CyberEar button in the tuning chart window lt gt Pull down the Windows menu and select CyberEar Press the Return or Enter key Demo Pianos Ch3 permanently stores samples for five Demo pianos Wurlitzer spinet Everett console Kawai UST 7 studio Yamaha C3E 6 gr
7. or window just like other computer files To organize your tunings most efficiently save many tuning records in a few tuning files The best way to save a tuning record in a desired tuning file is to open the tuning file before clicking Ch3 s Calculate button The new tuning record will automatically be placed at the end of the open tuning file The Sort command Tools menu alphabetizes tuning records in an open tuning file using the text in the header That s why the first word of a tuning record s name should probably be the customer s last name or the piano model Naming tuning files intelligently can help you stay organized You may want to 11 use the 26 empty tuning files RCT creates for you A through Z or create your own e g Customers A F Customers G R etc Piano Library Concert Hall University Practice Rooms Steinways Yamahas etc Suggestion create one called Research for messing around or storing records from weird pianos To move tuning records from one file to another open the first file select the Tuning Hammer pointer View menu click on a tuning record to select it use Hea the Edit menu commands Cut or Copy open the second tuning file click in the desired location and use the Edit command Paste You can also cut and paste multiple tuning records or move records within the same tuning file The Find command Tools menu searches for text in the headers of all tuning records in an open tuning file
8. the right if the note is sharp and left if flat The rotation and movement of the Spinner increases the more out of tune the note is When a note is close to correct the Spinner will be centered on the black Target and its rotation almost stopped When the note is extremely close the Spinner will stop rotating and a dim ball called the Blush will appear inside the Spinner The Blush first appears at half the Spinner s diameter and gets larger as the note gets even closer until the Blush completely fills the Spinner when the note is virtually perfectly tuned Generally we recommend you try to get at least partial or temporary blush on all strings when Fine Tuning The better the piano the more discerning the client and the more skillful the tuner then the more you can try for maximum blush But in reality it s impossible or impractical to tune all strings on all pianos to a full blush The first time you open CyberEar the Spinner is set to rotate at 2 per revolution per second Students may prefer a less sensitive Spinner rate of 4 or more The Blush sensitivity will automatically adjust too To adjust the Spinner rate color or arc size click the Spinner button Note Switching CyberEar s NoteSwitcher automagically switches to the next chromatic note up or down Simply play an adjacent note and NoteSwitcher will switch to it NoteSwitcher hints If NoteSwitcher has trouble auto switching to the next note pla
9. will automatically be sent to you To subscribe to CTuner or RCTUpgrade see lt www reyburn com lists html gt Watch the RCT Mitch and Dean show DVD The 2 5 hour video of Dean and Mitch demonstrating RCT is a great way to learn about RCT We show most essential RCT features including taking samples tuning tips saving files and much more Make friends with the RCT Reference Manual and On Line Help The RCT Reference Manual has full and complete information about RCT The RCT manual is a pdf file that is loaded onto your hard disk when you install RCT If the PDF manual doesn t open on your computer you may need to download Acrobat Reader from www adobe com On Line Help is available while running RCT and will provide quick answers to most of your questions Click on a Help button in an RCT window or pull down RCT s Help menu RCT Support Despite all the resources already provided you may have emergency questions OD te Ko about RCT Free and unlimited support is available on our toll free phone number in USA or Canada but please check your documentation first Contact information is listed at the end of this manual If you don t get a live person when phoning the fastest way to get an answer is to fill out our Support web form at www reyburn com support html The support web form is answered quickly even if we re away from the phone If you have questions about your computer operating sy
10. and and Steinway D 9 grand Demo pianos are very convenient for calculating tunings for pitch raising or research not recommended for Fine tuning To choose a Demo piano click the Demo button select a Demo piano then click OK The Variance numbers will all be 0 00 Easy Mode will display Demo variance Click the Calculate button to calculate a tuning record The name of the Demo piano will automatically appear in the record s header Demo 12 Pitch Raising tips for Advanced Users The graph below shows the standard overpull percentages RCT uses when calculating pitch raises The overpull percentages jump from 14 to 32 at the break between wound and plain wire strings which is why you enter the lowest plain wire note into the Pitch Raise dialog box In the example graph below the lowest plain wire note is C3 which of course will vary from piano to piano CyberEar Pitch Raise Overpull Motes 1 85 i m In the Pitch Raise dialog box you can choose various settings such as Adjust the overpull percentages up or down by 5 in increments of 1 You can also create a Custom Overpull percentage chart see the User Manual for details These features are cool because they can help make your pitch raises more accurate in unusual situations For example weakly built spinets sometimes require more overpull and strongly built grands may need less overpull some tuners don t set tuning pins when pitch raising so might
11. e dialog box if it detects a low inharmonicity piano You can change the size later by clicking on the Size button The Size setting affects Ch3 s partial choice in the lowest octave Automatic compensation for short scale pianos Ch3 has two Limits think of them as watchdogs that help a lot when tuning scale challenged pianos such as spinets short consoles etc In the fraction of a second after clicking the Calculate button and before a tuning record is created DMax Double Octave Maximum and SOM Single Octave Minimum inspect every tuning record automatically sense scaling problems and as necessary make an interactive series of compromises so each piano will sound its best Ch3 s Limits use a thought process that closely mimics aural techniques First Ch3 tunes a two octave A2 A4 temperament using the chosen OTS s stretch for single octaves A2 A3 and A3 A4 DMax listens to the beat speed of the resultant double octave A2 A4 If it sounds good the tuning record is created and the watchdogs go back to sleep But if A2 A4 is too wide DMax narrows the single octaves until the double octave sounds Then SOM listens to the two single octaves A2 A3 and A3 A4 If they sound good the tuning record is created and the watchdogs retreat to bed But if the single octaves are too narrow SOM re expands them until they sound OK forcing the double octave to expand further than DMax prefers RCT s Limits ar
12. e invoked only if a piano needs their help Limits are not needed on most midsize pianos and never on well scaled big grands and verticals On some short scale spinets and consoles the A2 A4 double octave is narrowed by DMax and the single octaves still sound good so SOM is not invoked On problematical short scale pianos with substantial scale inconsistencies aka Piano Shaped Objects and less printable epithets DMax and SOM are both used You can tell when and which Limits have been used by looking at the Predicted Beat Rates and comparing them to an OTS s standard specs For specific beat rate numbers for each OTS see the RCT User Manual 10 Hot tip In essence RCT s Limits dynamically modify any OTS to match each piano s scale That s why many RCT users use one OTS on most of their residential non concert pianos We suggest you do the same for your first few short scale pianos Then if you decide you want to make further modifications read about Custom Equalizer and User Limits in the RCT User Manual Saving tuning records and files We recommend you don t save tunings for at your first few dozen tunings especially if you re new to computers This will help you concentrate on learning to tune with RCT After you re comfortable with RCT you may want to save tuning records and re use it the next time you tune that piano Why save tuning records 1 To save time about 2 minutes on subsequent tunings because you do
13. hat most pro tuners RCT and aural use on most pianos which is why OTS 4 is automatically selected in Easy Mode We suggest Advanced Users use OTS 4 on a few pianos listen to it then decide if you prefer a different style You may prefer a lesser stretched style such as OTS 2 or 3 especially for low inharmonicity pianos such as Kawai and Yamaha Higher stretched styles such as OTS 5 6 and sometimes 7 are often preferred for larger grands especially a Steinway D in a concert hall The tenth OTS is RPT Exam which emulates a Master Tuning for PTG s Tuning Exam OTS 4 with less treble stretch OTS choice is subjective critical listening is the best way to choose Octave Tuning Style beat rates are illustrated in this chart For more detailed info please see your User Manual Interval Width Hertz Octave Tuning Style OTS B Bass control octave A2 to A3 6 3 octave T Treble control octave A3 to A4 4 2 octave A7 lower note referenced single double or triple octave 1 0 2 0 3 0 SOM T Treble control octave Single Octave Minimum SOM B Bass control octave Single Octave Minimum DMax Double Octave Maximum see Auto Compensation below Predicted Beat Rates When a tuning record is created the predicted beat rates for B A2 A3 as a 6 3 T A3 A4 as a 4 2 and D A2 A4 as a 4 1 are automatically written into the tuning record s header displayed in its tuning chart graph file and CyberEar
14. mal great job and will help improve your aural skills Pay special attention to the bass treble break on short scale pianos e g spinets small grands short consoles where occasionally some notes may benefit from aural refinement Changing the pitch of a tuning All RCT tunings are originally created in Equal Temperament at A 440 To tune a piano to any other pitch in CyberEar hold down the mouse button over the pitch popup menu located at CyberEar s top center and select a pitch in Hertz or to offset the pitch in cents from 440 Hz choose Other To convert an Equal Temperament tuning to another temperament please refer to your User Manual The offset button can also be used to incrementally change the pitch 5 Fine Tune af Pitch Raise ed EEE After the piano is tuned When your re finished tuning the piano in CyberEar click the Done button If you were in Easy Mode you ll go back to Chameleon and be ready to sample another piano When you quit RCT you ll be asked if you want to Save changes to the Reyburn CyberTuner document Untitled before quitting RCT We recommend Easy Mode users don t save tunings so click Don t Save To learn to save tunings and re use them later read Saving Tuning Records and Files in the Advanced section Pitch Raising Pitch raising or lowering with RCT is very accurate and fast because every note is automatically measured and overpulled using a customized overpull
15. n t have to sample notes in Ch3 2 To insure a piano is tuned exactly the same every time increases stability 3 If a room is too noisy for recording good samples in Ch3 you can open a saved tuning record created under quieter circumstances CyberEar is much more tolerant of noise than Ch3 To save a tuning record in Advanced Mode Easy Moders can save records and files too After clicking the Calculate button select Tuning Chart in the Windows menu and proceed as below After clicking Chameleon s Calculate button a tuning chart will open The Predicted Beat Rates for that piano will be displayed in the header Double click in the header s empty space to select it then type the desired name for this record typically piano model and or customer name Stop typing before the Predicted Beat Rates run off the right edge of the header box Select Save under the File menu If a tuning file is already open the new tuning record will be saved as the last record in that tuning file If no tuning file is open a new tuning file will be created and you ll be asked to name the file Tips on saving files and records To insure optimum accuracy when Fine Tuning re use a saved tuning record only on the exact same piano For Pitch Raising a Same model piano is probably close enough any piano of similar size or scale may be OK for rough pitch raising A tuning file holds up to 240 tuning records A tuning file appears on your desktop
16. o which SoftKey installed and SentinelKey is locked Store SentinelKey in a safe place If you lose SentinelKey you ll need to repurchase RCT at full price You may install RCT onto as many computers as you like but SentinelKey and SoftKey let you run RCT on only one computer at a time To uninstall SoftKey choose Edit menu SoftKey and click the Uninstall button This allows you to move RCT to another computer See the RCT Reference Manual for more details Calibrate your computer to A440 Included with your purchase of RCT is a CyberFork an electronic metronome that outputs a tone at A440 Use the Cyberfork to calibrate your computer s soundcard to A440 You only need to do this once Detailed instructions are printed on a separate blue sheet and are on the Reyburn com download page Send in your registration card To insure you ll be eligible for free support and to receive update notices fill out and mail in your RCT registration card Join CTuner Registered owners of Pocket RCT and RCT Mac and Windows are eligible to join CTuner and RCTUPgrade CTuner is a free email discussion group about Pocket RCT and RCT and where we post announcements of upgrade releases RCTUpgrade is for users who only want to receive notices of upgrade releases without any discussion As a CTuner subscriber any email you send to the CTuner list will automatically be sent to all other CTuner subscribers Likewise email from other CTuner subscribers
17. ost accurate tunings Fair variance on one or two notes is OK But if any note reads Poor you should resample it by clicking on its key tuning fork icon or variance box The ear will appear over the note meaning its OK to play it To cancel a resample click the Stop button Keep trying until you get Good or Fair variance To improve Variance try these tips reduce extraneous noises move the computer or mic an inch or two point the mic at the soundboard choose a cleaner sounding string play a short sustaining note twice during sampling especially A5 A6 or A1 or pluck the string Click the Calculate button CyberEar will open and you re ready to tune strings Although you didn t see it happen an 88 note tuning record was created when you clicked Calculate Tuning records are more fully explained under Advanced Mode Tuning the strings in CyberEar CyberEar helps you tune the strings to the 88 pitches that Chameleon calculated When CyberEar first opens note AO will be selected as indicated by the note name in the big box in the center and by the pointing finger on the graphic keyboard Another note such as A4 can be selected as default start note in CyberEar Prefs Spinner CyberEar s Spinner looks like a round pie with two opposite slices removed The Spinner shows you if the selected note is sharp flat or correctly tuned The Spinner rotates clockwise if the note is sharp and counterclockwise if flat and moves to
18. prefer less overpull or you might like leaving pitch raised pianos sharp of 440 and therefore prefer more overpull Select pitch raise type Small is for pitch raises of less than 60 Medium for 60 to 100 and Large for 100 or more Large pitch raise mode doesn t sample each note Set caps limits for cents overpull in the bass and treble This helps prevent string breakage if the strings are rusty or weak and the piano is substantially off pitch You can also set a different Spinner rate and color for Fine Tuning and each Pitch Raise mode Select a tuning mode click the Spinner button choose the desired settings then click OK For example you may wish to set the Spinner rate to a less sensitive setting such as 4 or 8 cents per revolution per second to help you tune pitch raises quickly However pitch raising with RCT is so accurate it can be regarded as a fine tuning under many circumstances e g pitch raises of 10 or so which is why many of us leave Small Pitch Raise mode to the same Spinner rate as Fine Tune albeit a different color
19. stem or other non RCT software please contact the appropriate vendor or manufacturer Tuning a piano The two RCT modules that are used for tuning pianos are Chameleon and CyberEar Chameleon measures and records five or six sample notes then calculates a tuning record with the correct pitches for all 88 notes CyberEar helps you tune each string to its correct pitch with a rotating Spinner as a visual aid Easy Mode or Advanced Mode The first time you open RCT Chameleon opens with Easy Mode automatically selected To simplify the process of learning to use RCT we recommend you use Easy Mode for at least twenty tunings Many experienced users stay in Easy Mode all the time Easy Mode is called easy because it makes most tuning decisions for you automatically creating a tuning that will sound great on almost all pianos Advanced Mode is for experienced and adventuresome tuners who want to customize the sound of their tunings by choosing other stretch styles and partials Advanced Mode is described in this Getting Started Manual after we fully explain Easy Mode If you re using Easy Mode you don t need to read any of the Advanced Mode explanations To switch between Easy Mode and Advanced Mode click on the Easy Advanced switch in Chameleon Creating a tuning in Chameleon 3 To create a new tuning in Easy Mode Start up your computer and open RCT Set your computer on or near the piano grands on the plate stru
20. ts verticals on top of the pinblock or on the fallboard or music shelf Suggestion glue rubberized shelf liner to the laptop s bottom RCT automatically opens to Chameleon Click the Record button to begin sampling A finger will point to the note you should play Mute the unison so only one string is sounding and play the note You ll sample A4 A3 A2 A1 and A5 A6 if needed three times each Play each note with a consistent medium strength blow Hold down the note while the rings pulse around the ear and let up when the tuning fork spins 3 m Hot tip After playing A4 three times the actual pitch of A4 will be displayed in either Hertz e g 440 00 or cents from 440 To switch click on A4 s pitch reading This helps you know whether the piano needs a Fine Tuning or a Pitch Raise Generally if the piano is off by at least 2 Hertz or 8 a Pitch Raise is recommended More on Pitch Raising below When sampling notes to create a new tuning the piano doesn t need be in tune at correct pitch However it does need to be within 50 and Chameleon will automatically tell you if it s not If it s not you can sample A or tune the A string up assuming the piano is flat until sampling starts as indicated by the pulsing rings After each note is sampled three times Good Fair or Poor will appear under the note indicating the variance consistency of the note s three samples Good variance yields the m
21. xt chromatic note up NoteSwitcher will automatically switch and measure it offsetting the Spinner s black Target as needed Continue tuning chromatically up to C8 tuning each note s unisons as you go After pitch raising is completed click the Done button which returns you to Ch3 Resample and create a new tuning record Return to CyberEar select Fine Tune mode and retune as needed Pitch Raising hints Especially in the bass watch out for Note Switcher accidentally selecting the note a minor third below the note you want to tune To help avoid this set NoteSwitcher to up only press the U key To reset NoteSwitcher to bi directional press the B key For down only press the D key If the pitch raise is large open the file named chip tuning rctx which has a special tuning record optimized for large pitch raises If the next note up a half step is too flat for NoteSwitcher to correctly auto switch to set NoteSwitcher to up only or locked off press the L key to toggle NoteSwitcher on or off manually switch up one note by pressing the computer s space bar or the up arrow key then play the selected note If a note s measurement was poor noise incorrect note struck etc press the E key to erase the highest sampled note then reselect and re measure it Don t worry too much about getting a Blush when pitch raising especially if the pitch raise is over 50 Easy Mode users are done Getting
22. y the note it s stuck on then play the note you want to switch to To switch to a note several half steps distant play a chromatic run NoteSwitcher will follow along at about 3 notes per second You can also manually switch to any note The easiest way is to press your computer keyboard s arrow keys up arrow for note up down arrow for note down left arrow for octave down and right arrow for octave up Hold down an arrow key for rapid continuous switching Switch speed rate can be adjusted in your operating system s Control Panel Other ways to manually switch notes are to press the space bar to switch up one note hold down for continuous switching click on any key on CyberEar s graphic keyboard to immediately switch to it or click on CyberEar s navigation buttons note up note down octave up octave down Note order and muting procedure Most RCT users tune chromatically from AO up to C8 because it s quick easy and promotes tuning stability Others begin with an aural temperament sequence you can instruct RCT to use see RCT User manual Many of us use two rubber mutes or a split mute and tune unisons as we go others strip mute the entire piano tune a single string for all notes then tune unisons It doesn t much matter which order or muting method you use However it s important that you listen to aural intervals during and more importantly after the tuning This will help you make sure RCT did its nor
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