Real Time Tuner App For Iphone

[Terry McGee]

Dan Gordon (Canberra flute player and computer scientist) has produced a Real Time Tuning Analysis system for iPhone and similar devices. It can be obtained from the itunes store at the frightening cost of $4.

 

Real Time Tuning Analysis was originally developed for flute - you can see the rationale and history behind it at: http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/RTTA.htm. But I suspect it will also prove to be handy in other fields such as concertina, enabling for example, anyone with an i-Thing to do a very quick and easy scan of the tuning of their instrument.

 

One trap which will affect concertina players is duplicated notes. Obviously if you play a C scale and then a G scale on an anglo, the tuner doesn't realise that many of the notes are duplicated, and will produce a combined figure. So, test the various rows separately! The same goes for push and pull on an English system. You should still be able to produce a complete listing of deviations within a few minutes.

 

I haven't tried this myself on Dan's app but it certainly worked well for me using the PC version, Flutini. If, like me you don't have an iPhone, you can download Flutini from the link above. To find out more about and to download Dan's app, go to:

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rttatuner/id870470418?mt=8

 

Note that the app allows for different pitches and temperaments, so should be a good investigative tool for analysing period concertina tunings.

 

I'll be pleased to pass on any comments on use for the app for concertina to Dan, so do leave them below.

 

Terry

[Chris Ghent]

Very excited to get this and just gave it a go in the iPad version. While I would prefer it rotatable that is not a great niggle. I will use it in my next tune job and compare it with my usual tuner to get a feel for its accuracy, but the great advantage of it is a truly great advantage, not having to put down the concertina and pick up a pen after every note.

 

If you want to chart a whole concertina and avoid the issue Terry mentions with duplicates, do one row at a time, or one direction for ECs, and then photograph the screen before resetting the tuner and doing the next row. To photograph the screen on IOS devices, press the round physical button and the off switch at the same time. You will see a soft white flash and a copy of that screen will be in your camera roll. This works on anything which is on the screen, a document, a book, a web page, an email.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Chris Ghent

[Chris Ghent]

Mmm, much more excited now..! Here is trial screenshot. This is the C row from a concertina last tuned in 2012 and played daily. Not in very good condition since I ran over it with a car late last year (not easily done..!). It was in a soft bag at the time. It is now a leaky bunch of ill fitting parts waiting until I have my new workshop built and time for a renovate. I have checked the results against a tuner I know and it tallies closely.

 

As things stand I will create three screenshots, one for each row.

 

Terry,

 

please tell Dan he has at least one convert, this will save aggravation and some time when tuning.

 

If Dan is intending to continue to develop the app, modifications to make it better for concertinas would be; I would like to be able to save screens with a name, and have room and the capability to write down the offset next to the tuning reading ie. +4/+8 when the reed is put on the tuning rig. My own paper method includes room for the offset ie. -4 / +1 or +13/+13 and also two or three letter ie. VO (valve opposed) VB (valve beside) Q (quiet) WTF, usually expressed as ? So a typical notation of mine might read C5 +4 / +5 VB

 

Edited May 7, 2014 by Chris Ghent

[Terry McGee]

In response to one of the flute makers, Dan commented: A plain text export function via email is top of my list of improvements and will be included with the next version.

 

Alternatively, you could consider using the PC version of Flutini which has an export function already. I could imagine you could have a spreadsheet template setup for typical cases, e.g. for Anglos. There would be a column to accept the plain text data from each of the three rows as exported from Flutini. The spreadsheet would then sort them to another worksheet to put them in note order. That second page would have the places for the extra data you want, plus places to log in details about the instrument such as make, serial number, comments, owner details etc. It would also have a graph of the whole instrument's tuning preprogrammed, perhaps with and without offsets, if that helps the workflow. Happy to mock up such a thing if it appears attractive.

 

Terry

[d.elliott]

Hmmm,

 

and Android users?

[Theo]

Got it on my iPhone now, but it won't work on my ipad which is not able to run IOS7

[Stephen Mills]

Hmmm,

 

and Android users?

 

Kurt Braun introduced me to PitchLab for Android at the Palestine, TX concertina gathering recently. It may not (or may) be as sophisticated for those who tune reeds, say, but it's good for identifying the key of a tune, etc., and I haven't really plumbed its capabilities much yet. It has a variety of display modes (see https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.symbolic.pitchlab) and it is free.

[d.elliott]

 

Hmmm,

 

and Android users?

 

Kurt Braun introduced me to PitchLab for Android at the Palestine, TX concertina gathering recently. It may not (or may) be as sophisticated for those who tune reeds, say, but it's good for identifying the key of a tune, etc., and I haven't really plumbed its capabilities much yet. It has a variety of display modes (see https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.symbolic.pitchlab) and it is free.

 

 

Clever little application, not sure how I would use it yet, but clever

 

Dave E

[Terry McGee]

Hmmm,

 

and Android users?

 

Unfortunately, Dan notes that he's not the person to do this. But he encourages anyone with that experience to do it, and would offer any help he can. So, form an orderly queue, Android developers, and let's get into it.

 

Terry

[Terry McGee]

Incidentally, if you were wondering what the app icon relates to:

 

 

it's a flourish from the cover of the manuscript for J.S. Bach's "Well Tempered Clavier". Seems appropriate...

 

Terry

[d.elliott]

 

Hmmm,

 

and Android users?

 

Unfortunately, Dan notes that he's not the person to do this. But he encourages anyone with that experience to do it, and would offer any help he can. So, form an orderly queue, Android developers, and let's get into it.

 

Terry

 

 

Not Me!

 

if you cannot touch it, squeeze it of feel it, the it does not exist

 

Dave E

[Terry McGee]

There's been quite a flurry of acceptance of the new app in the flute world, and requests for an export facility. Dan responded:

 

OK, got it about the export. The easiest way will be via email but there will probably be also a "to pdf" option that can be opened in iBooks / your favorite PDF reader etc.

 

[in terms of pasting into other applications....] Probably CSV is going to offer the most flexibility for the most people - I'd love to hear any ideas you have, though.

Someone else also mentioned the phone going to sleep, and I had one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments. It is easy to fix, and will be done in the next update which should be in about 3 weeks I think.

Terry

[Terry McGee]

Dan advises that an update to RTTATuner is now available on the app store. The most significant changes are an export function (I had a lot of comments saying that would be nice), and prevention of sleep mode during recording.

 

Terry

[Bruce McCaskey]

Just purchased the latest version, installed in on my iPad and it works well. Easy to use, one can quickly document the tuning of all the reeds in a concertina. I tried it on one of my Anglos, recording three screens by rows, plus a forth screen to capture repeated notes In the same row (like the low end G's on the C row).

 

By using the "copy to clipboard" function I was able to move the data into another favorite iOS App, PDF Provider, and that permits me to make comments and other changes to the basic data sheet. I'll post an example below.

 

By the way reviewing the data has me wondering what the threshold might be to trigger retuning a reed. I note that the App seems to flag off-frequency reeds by color. My thinking is that two or three cents off isn't enough to worry about, but six cents or more could stand adjustment. Of course, I expect this is one of those "it depends" type of questions. The instrument sounds good to me as it is, but does anyone care to offer an opinion as to a thumb rule for when to retune?

 

The attached is an iPad screen-print (jpg) of the PDF page within PDF Provider. I used the jpg for posting convenience here, but the PDF can be printed and viewed as any other PDF document without the iPad border material seen here.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Bruce McCaskey

[Terry McGee]

Looks good, Bruce.

 

We had a discussion a little while back on how good the tuning should be when it leaves the tuner, and the short answer was around 1.5 cents or better. But of course that doesn't equate to how bad it should be allowed to get before it heads back to the tuner. A guide is perhaps given by Ted Rossing, who advises (with a number of realistic caveats) that a "just noticeable difference" is about 8 cents. Now, maybe one reed hitting 8 cents isn't enough to trigger a 911 call (000 in metric speaking countries?) but maybe a few important notes exceeding that might get you moving closer to the phone? It's obviously going to depend a lot on which notes, whether you play with others, if you play chords, etc etc.

 

Something that will get you moving away from the phone is the reminder that, in the Equal Temperament system, thirds are already about 15 cents out. So, we do get used to tuning errors (but is that a good thing?). You can see that the direction of your 8 cents deviation becomes important there. If the 8 cents is pulling the 15 cents down to 7 cents, you may not be moved to do something about it. But if it's pushing it up to 23 cents, hmmmm, that's a quartertone.

 

I think, armed with what Flutini has told you about your concertina tuning, it would be good for you to test out the indicated notes in various combinations and musical contexts, and see if they bother you, and under what circumstances. Then you will be telling us what matters, instead of asking! I'll certainly be listening.

 

Terry

[Chris Ghent]

Bruce,

Before I splash out on PDF Addition would it be possible to type over the main graphic, say between the note name and the tuning reading, where the background is grey/blue..?

[Bruce McCaskey]

Once you create a PDF you are only limited by the capabilities of your software. As mentioned above, I used PDF Provider to mark up the output from the tuner App. Lots of similar PDF Apps out there in iOS (iPhone/iPad) land. I also use PDF Expert quite a bit, but preferred PDF Provider for this purpose because of its ability to create a PDF page directly from clipboard content. The latter is one of the output options of the tuner App, that is "Copy to Clipboard."

 

While you'd never mark up a page like this for serious work, I've taken the PDF I posted previously and added several things to it in various fonts to demonstrate the sorts of changes you can make. I think this will answer the question you raised Chris. I can't comment on the software you mentioned as I'm not familiar with it, but I know this works in the iOS world with the App I used. I assume it'll also work in the Android and PC world with appropriate software, but haven't tried it.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Bruce McCaskey

[Chris Ghent]

Bruce,

 

sorry about creating confusion, the PDF provider software has an addition called, yes, PDF Addition and I crossed the two. Thanks for the extra jpg, it certainly answers the question and I will buy the app and try it.