Featuring for tuning by matching partials?

Jacob L

I would love to see the ability to tune a note by calibrating to a partial of a lower note then matching it. For example, tuning C5 from F3 as a pure P12: the app would listen to the 3rd partial of F3 then calibrate the display so you could tune C5 to it. Can this be done in pianoscope? Otherwise consider this a feature request 🙂 I know it's possible to do this in TuneLab and maybe some other ETDs.

Jacob L

I realized that you might be able to sort of do this by turning off automatic note detection and playing the lower note whose partial you want to tune to, for example set note to C6 then play F4 to measure the 3rd partial... but it doesn't seem to work reliably. When I play C6 first then play F4 immediately after it does seem to give a measurement. But if I then set the pitch to C#6 and immediately play F#4, it doesn't register anything, like it's not detecting the note it's looking for so there's no display.

Here is my idea of how this feature might be implemented in PianoScope:

1) play the note you're tuning, automatic note selection selects note
2) hold down a button "tune to partial"
3) while holding "tune to partial", play the lower note whose partial you want to tune to
4) once the pitch registers on the display, release "tune to partial". the button changes state, and an arrow indicator appears on the scale as the new tuning target (similar to pitch raise mode)
5) when done tuning the note, press the button again to return to normal mode.

Frank Illenberger

Jacob L Thank you for the feature suggestion. In principle, this could work with pianoscope's tuning curve algorithm. But I am not sure what the benefit of this would be. Can you explain?

Jacob L

No reply?

Rick

Why do you want this feature; what is the outcome?

Jacob L

Frank Illenberger

Sorry for the delay on this!

Yes, it would useful for a type of "hybrid" tuning. Say for example I'm tuning C6 aurally, and want to tune it as a pure P12 from F4. I set the pitch to C6 and play F4. I look at the strobe and quickly memorize the motion, then play C6 and compare. Or say I want to tune C6 as an equal beating double octave & P12, I can play C4 and F4, memorize their strobe speeds, then tune my note C6 in between. It's sort of analogous to using the aural check intervals.

This is a simpler suggestion that what I wrote in my previous post, all I'm really asking is to be able to select a note and play a lower note with a partial coincident with the selected note, and measure that partial's pitch on the display.

An aural tuner I'm learning from uses Tunelab in this exact way. Tunelab additionally allows you to swipe on the display to calibrate the pitch, so you can quickly "zero" the strobe on whatever partial you want to match.