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From: ben@moncol.UUCP (Bennett Broder)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: tuning equipment..
Message-ID: <447@moncol.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jul-85 11:24:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: moncol.447
Posted: Tue Jul 30 11:24:24 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Aug-85 21:43:19 EDT
References: <4064@alice.UUCP>
Organization: Monmouth College, West Long Branch, NJ 07764
Lines: 30

> I was wondering if any electronic tuners exist.i.e. a box which you
> could place before ANY instrument - twiddle knobs to indicate the note
> and the octave (and maybe instrument?) and then play that particular
> note on the instrument. The box would then indicate (of course) if the
> played note was  higher or lower than the correct frequency.


I have had experience with two types of chromatic tuners.  The first
has an analog meter which has correct pitch marked in the middle, and
sharp and flat regions to either side.  You set the knob to the note
you want to tune, play the note, then read the meter to see whether
you are sharp or flat, and by what degree.  Using it to tune a guitar,
I found it would tune four of the string adequately; with the other
two I had to play harmonics to get the meter to register reliably.

The other type of tuner I tried was much better and easier to use.  It
was a strobe tuner made by Conn.  Basically it consists of a rotating
disk which is illuminated by special light that is modulated in time
with the instrument you are trying to tune.  After setting the knob
to the appropriate note, you play it and observe the markings on the disk.
Their direction and speed of rotation indicate whether the instrument is
sharp or flat and to what degree.  The strobe tuner worked quite well
playing the strings open or using harmonics; additionally, stray
resonances that caused confusion when tuning with the analog meter
were easily ignored when using the strobe tuner.

Ben Broder
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