piano strings, inharmonicity

I wrote:

>> One possibility would be to adjust the tuning based
>> on the partials (spectrum) of the notes being played.

To which Clark replied:

>Do you mean by this an idea similar to the tuning of pianos, where the
>perceived ratios are retained but due inharmonicity don't correspond with
>an absolute spectrum, if so wouldn't this sort of on the fly retuning be
>analogous to instrumentalists adjusting their intonation to match that of
>the piano?

Yes. Such an adaptive tuning is analogous to the kind
of retuning done on piano strings - though the deviations of
the partials in many inharmonic instruments may be many
orders of magnitude greater than the kinds of deviations present
in strings.

In fact, I wrote an article describing this technique in detail in the
J. Acoustical Society called "Adaptive tunings for musical
scales" and I am nearing completion of a version
written in MAX (a MIDI programming
language) that I will put on my web site as soon as I can.
Of course, it will be limited to MIDI instruments,
and I have had to make several concessions to make
it work fast enough for "real time" retuning.

Bill Sethares