Over the past year, I’ve been diligently refining pianoscope. Now, I’m thrilled to start the public test of version 3.0 —brimming with exciting new features. Let’s take a closer look!

Improved Tuning Curves

pianoscope 3 has an improved algorithm v3 for calculating tuning curves based on artificial intelligence. For many instruments, it achieves a better stretch in the bass and – if desired by the tuning style – purer twelfths in the treble.

The old algorithm v2 worked with fixed interval weights, which you could see and edit in the settings. The new algorithm v3 calculates the weights dynamically depending on the instrument. Therefore, the style settings only contain the desired adjustments of the weights, which are all set to 0% by default.

New documents created with version 3.0 or later automatically use the new algorithm v3. Existing documents will continue to work with v2 or v1 for compatibility reasons until you explicitly switch them to v3 at the end of the interval list in the tuning curve panel, or until you change the tuning style. You can tell that a document is in compatibility mode by the v1 or v2 suffix in the title bar of the tuning view.

Better Partials Display

The display of partials has been improved with the following new functions:

Show the levels of up to 50 partials to support voicing of high frequencies
You can now disable the normalization of partial levels. This makes it easier to observe the decay of individual partials.
Optional loudness modeling for imitation of human hearing when displaying the levels of low-frequency partials.
Specify the shown partial amplitude range in decibels and optionally show a decibel scale.
Improved the capturing of the first partials of low bass notes.

More information in the new user manual.

Passthrough

The tone generator in pianoscope has a new mode called Passthrough. If you are using a wired or Bluetooth headset and activate this mode, pianoscope captures the sound you are playing or tuning via the microphone and plays it back live via the headphones. If you select a partial bar in the partials view, the app applies a bandpass filter that isolates the frequency range of the selected partial.

With many Bluetooth headphones, there is latency in the audio connection. Passthrough therefore works best with wired headphones.

Time Charts

With time charts you can visualize different parameters of a piano sound and see them evolve with time. To show the time charts panel, tap the new Time Charts item in the main menu. This feature requires iOS17 / iPadOS 17 or later.

More information

Multi-Channel Audio

pianoscope 3 can now process signals from multiple audio channels and seamlessly combine the results into its pitch display. The signals can come from external audio interfaces or from built-in microphones.

Newer iPhones such as the iPhone 15 Pro not only have one built-in microphone, but four, and newer iPad Pro models even have five. If you activate the new Use Multiple Mics switch, pianoscope uses several of the built-in microphones. The app analyzes their signals independently of each other and combines the results. This can improve tuning consistency, especially in the case of false beats in the high treble.

More information

Prefer No Interruptions

By default, iOS plays a ringtone when a call comes in and interrupts the audio recording. This can interfere with tuning. If you want to work without interruptions, activate the new Prefer No Interruptions switch in the audio settings. iOS will then only visually display interruptions such as incoming calls.

Save And Restore Settings

With the new Save function in the settings panel, you can save all currently active settings under a name and recall them at a later time. If you add the gear symbol to the toolbar of the tuning view, you can also call up saved settings directly from there. This is a great way to setup different app configurations for tuning, concert, pitch-raise, voicing etc. and be able to quickly switch between them. You can also use this function to transfer settings to another device.

More information

Export & Import Tuning Styles

You can now export a custom tuning style to a file and import it on another device.

More information

Searching for Documents

If you tune pianos professionally, over time you will create a variety of tuning documents. The built-in search function helps you find a specific document again. Enter one or more terms in the search field to list all documents that match those terms. For the search results, not only the file name of documents is taken into account, but in pianoscope 3 now also the content of the following fields from the instrument settings:

Manufacturer
Model
Serial Number
Notes

Searching for documents works both in the iOS Files app and in the document management within pianoscope.

Quick Look Preview

The iOS Files app offers an alternative way to find a specific tuning document in a list. In the Files app, tap and hold on a tuning document, then select Quick Look in the following context menu. The so-called QuickLook Preview will appear, which lists the most important information of a document without needing to open it with pianoscope.

The preview shows the following information about an instrument:

Document name
Manufacturer
Model
Serial number
Tuning style
Temperament
Pitch range
Reference pitch
Date of last tuning
Date of last pitch raise

Improved Tuning Curve Zoom

In the Tuning Curve panel, pinch horizontally with two fingers to smoothly adjust the curve’s width, or pinch vertically to change its height. The latter gesture is new and makes it easier to distinguish closely spaced deviation curves.

Longer Freeze Times & Freeze Time Sets

When using the gray freeze indicator, by default the pitch is frozen between 300 and 600 milliseconds after the attack of a note, depending on the register. In pianoscope 3, you can now change the freeze duration to values as high as 5000 ms. Choosing longer freeze durations can help to resolve the frequencies involved in strings with false beats but it can slow down the tuning work.

To make it easier to switch freeze durations, pianoscope 3 now offers three different sets of durations with the following default values which can be edited.

Short: 300 - 600 ms
Medium: 800 - 1000 ms
Long: 2000 ms

You can switch between the different sets of freeze durations in the settings panel under Pitch > Indicator > Freeze or directly in the tuning view. To do this, tap and hold the snowflake symbol in the main toolbar.

By default, the pitch measurement for freezing starts immediately with the attack of a note and ends after the provided duration. By tapping on values in the new Delay column, you can shift the start of the measurement by the selected duration after the attack.

Joining The Beta Test

If you want to join the beta test for free via TestFlight, send me an e-mail to support@pianoscope.app with your Apple ID and I will send you an invitation to the test version within the next days.

In the beta app you need to do a purchase of the pro version. But this will only be a test transaction and will not incur any payments or costs.

I look forward to receiving feedback!