Fine Tuner Options

[river]

+/- 20 cents isn't a sharp or flat; one semitone is 100 cents, hence the name. if you consider that an equal tempered tuner will be wrong anyway (for an instrument like the fiddle, which is tuned in perfect fifths), +/- 5 cents is accurate enough to work with.

if you want to be really accurate, you need a strobe tuner. these are very flexible (you can tune in equal temperement, or just temperement, or perfect fifths, or anything else you like), and they're very accurate, but they're also very expensive. more likely to be found in a recording studio than someone's house ;-)

[Terra]

All i can say is buyer beware, these's item are ok, but by NO MEANS ACCURATE, I have 2 at the moment, 1 works by picking up sound via a mic and the other works by clipping it to the scroll(vibration) and both have different readings of about -5 to +5 at the same time. When you think the + or - 20 is sharp or flat the plus or -5 is quite a lot.

Search the internet for reviews of these products as there are only 4 or 5 item which are supposed to be VERY accurate.

Rachel.

Yeah I'm kind of happy sticking to listing by ear and tuning it that way. The fine tuner on my violin (the little round things) are wierd... I don't like using them because they confuse me and it's easier to use the pegs on the violin (at least for me it is).

[pushpull]

+/- 20 cents isn't a sharp or flat; one semitone is 100 cents, hence the name. if you consider that an equal tempered tuner will be wrong anyway (for an instrument like the fiddle, which is tuned in perfect fifths), +/- 5 cents is accurate enough to work with.

if you want to be really accurate, you need a strobe tuner. these are very flexible (you can tune in equal temperement, or just temperement, or perfect fifths, or anything else you like), and they're very accurate, but they're also very expensive. more likely to be found in a recording studio than someone's house ;-)

Interestingly, Peterson, who make very fine and expensive strobe tuners and a software version to run on a mac, now produce one as an iPhone app. For about a fiver!!!!

I'm just waiting for any announcements from the mac developers' conference next week before stumping up for a phone (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Jacobi]

I don't want to go (IMG:style_emoticons/default/offTopic.gif)
and this may be a silly question!
but...

To what ranges of accuracy can people actually hear notes, and if you use some measuring device surely there comes a point where you tune it much more accurately than anyone could ever detect?

[Terra]

I don't want to go (IMG:style_emoticons/default/offTopic.gif)
and this may be a silly question!
but...

To what ranges of accuracy can people actually hear notes, and if you use some measuring device surely there comes a point where you tune it much more accurately than anyone could ever detect?

My theory is, if it sounds right to me it's in tune (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[AmandaL]

To what ranges of accuracy can people actually hear notes, and if you use some measuring device surely there comes a point where you tune it much more accurately than anyone could ever detect?

Playing a musical instrument will make your ear more discerning in general, so range accuracy will vary between individuals.

For very tiny adjustments though, only electronic equipment would have enough sensitivity to detect changes in the pitch.

[kerioboe]

I use a website and do it by ear. They have the pitch of GDAE and I listen to each one while doing it. The pegs do slip sometimes when I'm tuning them but I push them in when I am tunening and they stay for the time that I need to use it. Userally the whole day. But over night it becomes untuned sometimes quite a bit. I was asuming it was because I only had it a week now and it is still new so the pegs are still a bit stiff.

I still think there's a problem with your pegs as they shouldn't become untuned "quite a bit" just over night.

[Terra]

I still think there's a problem with your pegs as they shouldn't become untuned "quite a bit" just over night.

It wasn't so out of tune yesterday. If it's a persistant problem then I will take it to a luither. But it seems ok. I think the pegs had been slipping but they arn't slipping so much now.