Quick Display Of Notes With Cent Error?

andybiochem

Hi Frank,

Many thanks for such a great tool. I watched your introduction video, and it is incredible what you have managed to achieve & learn in such a short space of time.

I was hoping I could be so humble as to request a further feature of PianoScope?

My use-case is this: I am not a piano-tuner, but I am someone who tunes his own piano, though with very little time to dedicate due to a busy work/family life. I try to catch 10-15 minutes here and there to tweak individual notes, but I very rarely have time to cover the whole keyboard range. Reading through this forum, I have seen others also describe the same experience & limitations I have.

What would really serve me well is to be able to quickly take a snapshot of the current tuning state (already possible via New Pitch Raise > Pre-Measure), and then be presented with a list of the notes sorted by absolute cent error. No fancy graphics or display needed, just a list. I could then re-tune the piano piecemeal with the time I have available.

I have seen it described here & elsewhere that a piano cannot be tuned in this way, but I would suggest otherwise, as I have been using the PianoScope tuning data files to achieve just this for the past few months.

Below is a screenshot of a program I have written that uses the tuning file to report back the cent error in a way that helps me target the most divergent notes.

screenshot

(the listview shows each note and cent errors, sorted by absolute cent error. The graph shows absolute cent error and 1-cent marker/target line. The keyboard shows keys coloured green-yellow-red based on the magnitude of the cent error)

(note that I have my piano in Young 1799 temperament if the frequencies look a bit 'off')

It's clear from this display which notes need to be corrected, and I'm finding more frequently that most notes are within 1 cent error when I come to re-measure (depending on how hard the kids have been bashing the keys that week).

The downside to my own program is that I need to power up the laptop & copy tuning files across, which just adds to the time. It would be very handy to have a quick list to hand in the PianoScope app that lists the worst-to-best notes, along with cent error.

Many thanks again,
Andy

Frank Illenberger

Dear Andy, thank you for the detailed feature request. I think this is a good idea. In a perfect world this would be combined with an evaluation of unison quality. Such a feature won't make the cut for v3.0 but I will consider a it for a later update.

andybiochem

Many thanks for considering my request.

Could I possibly ask a question of how/when Pianoscope commits the JSON data to the tuning file?

I have updated my program so that it takes a live feed from the tuning file used by Pianoscope (by saving to Dropbox, then picking up the sync'd file in Windows). The idea being that I could then see the corrections being made to notes as I am re-tuning them in real-time (or near enough).

I am finding that the tuning file is not written to consistently after re-tuning a key. The only reliable way I have found to update the file is to re-tune a note, then re-measure the inharmonicity for that note, then drop back to the document browser....this then appears to write the new tuning data to the file, and my own program updates.

Is there a trick to get Pianoscope to commit data to the file more easily? Or a way to force an updated measuredTuning for a specific note?

Frank Illenberger

I am using the standard auto-saving behaviour for document-based apps on iOS. With this (as far as I know), a document save is triggered 15 seconds after the last change (the recording of a tuned note) or immediately when you put the app in the background. I haven't tested the exact timings however in the last years.
The behaviour you are observing might not only be connected to the timings of pianoscope but also to how Dropbox is behaving.

andybiochem

Fantastic, thanks for the information Frank.

Based on what you described I've managed to work it out. To get a new measuredTuning committed to the file I have to play the note at least 3 times in quick succession (i.e. within the space of 2-3 seconds). Then, 15 seconds later the tuning file appears to be written to, and the Dropbox sync updates, and my program shows the new measurement. Oddly, this doesn't work every time, perhaps 90% success. No matter, this is more than adequate for my needs.

I've now got my whole piano within 1 cent error...

...the piano sounds wonderful & I'm finding it very cathartic to identify an out of tune note, re-tune it in Pianoscope, and then immediately see the note automatically 'drop' back in under 1 cent error on my graph! It's a nice workflow.

My challenge now is to maintain <1 cent error over a longer period, dedicating only 10-15 mins tuning time here and there.

Again, many thanks for such an amazing app, and for having such 'open' and easily readable tuning files (unlike many of your competitors).

Best regards.
Andy

p.s. I've also had thoughts on a unison-purity project, but I'll start another discussion for that