Tune!It Help

Introduction

Menu Command Summary

Chromatic Tuner

Spectrum

Waveform Display

Harmonic Analysis

Reference tone

Virtual Keyboard

Ear Training

Custom Tuning

Temperaments

How to use Tune!It

Trouble shooting



Introduction

Tune!It is an innovative program designed to tune musical instruments on a PC using a microphone or directly connecting the instrument (with a pickup) to the PC's sound card. Tune!It automatically detects the pitch of the input signal and shows the corresponding note and its deviation in cents. Optionally the harmonics, the spectrum or the wave form of the input signal can be displayed in real time. Other features include :




Menu Command Summary

File Menu

Settings Menu

Tune!It's settings can be changed or adjusted in the following areas :

Tools Menu

Help Menu

Menu shortcut buttons




Chromatic Tuner

The chromatic tuner is TUNE!IT’s default mode and shows a meter box with digital displays at the top of the screen and a piano keyboard at the bottom half of the screen. The chromatic tuner can be activated by clicking on the Tuner button. The chromatic tuner detects the pitch of the input signal and displays the corresponding note and it's deviation from the selected tuning ( A = 440 Hz and equal temperament tuning is the default). The note will be highlighted in red and its deviation is shown in the cents (1/100 of a semitone). Cents will be displayed digitally as well graphically in form of a floating red rectangle. The note is exactly in tune if the red rectangle shrinks to a line over the 0 cent mark.
Note : Make sure to play only one note at a time otherwise incorrect readings may occur (e.g. on a guitar plug only one string and mute remaining strings ).


General Settings

The following paramaters are available to customize the behavior of the Chromatic Tuner :




Harmonic Analysis

The harmonic analysis shows information of the harmonics of the current note being tuned. The display can be de/activated by clicking on the ‘HA’ button . For each harmonic the following information is shown :

It also displays the InHarmonicity coefficient which is used in piano tuning.

The following parameters are available :

The display can be paused at any time by using the Pause button.


Waveform display

Displays the waveform of the current signal. The y-axis represents the amplitude, the x-axis represents time. Only a number of cycles of the current frequency will be displayed.
The amplitude can be adjusted by dragging the mouse up or down, whereas the number of cycles can be adjusted by dragging the mouse to the left or right.


Calibrate Sound card

Tune!It can check and adjust the sound card’s calibration. Some older sound cards (especially cheaper clones) do not sample exactly at the specified sampling rate, which can result in pitch readings with a variation of up to +/-15 percent of a semitone. Calibration is specified in cents with a accuracy up to 1/10 of a cent e.g. -2.4 cents (a cent is 1/100 of a semitone). There is the option of automatic calibration or using a external reference frequency.
The automatic calibration process lasts about 2 minutes. Make sure no other applications are running at that time. At the end it will display the measured result and optionally adjusts the calibration.
The other calibration option is via an external reference frequency. You would choose this option when you have a known reliable sound source (e.g. tuning fork or the ‘NIST Time and Frequency Division’ broadcasts 600Hz , 500 Hz and 440Hz signals over the telephone) . In this case Tune!It will ask you to enter the frequency of the external signal and will then measure the signal and update the calibration if necessary (e.g if Tune!It's reading showed -12 percent, it will set the calibration to +12.0 ).


Calibrate reference pitch

This option is accessible via the Tools menu. It allows you to calibrate the reference pitch (which defaults to A = 440 Hz) by using another instrument as a reference. Tune!It asks you to enter the note/octave of the note of the reference instrument, measures its frequency and then updates the reference pitch .


Temperaments

By default Tune!It uses the equal temperament tuning which is most commonly used in modern western music. In equal temperament tuning the distance between adjacent semi tones is the same and therefore allows for tunes to be transposed into any key. However Tune!It supports also a number of historical temperaments which can be selected via the temperament combo box. As these tunings have non equal distances between semi tones and therefore cannot be transposed, you have to specify the key for the tuning via the Temperament Key combo box. By ticking the ‘use A ‘ checkbox you can force the A note to be based on the A as specified in the ‘frequency of A’ box. If ‘Use A’ is not checked, the base note of the selected tuning will be have no offset and be the same as in equal temperament tuning.

Edit Temperaments

This option allows you to change, add or delete temperaments using a Notepad type editor . Alternatively you can use MS EXCEL by opening the file tmprmnts.csv directly , which resides in Tune!It’s installation folder. A temperament is defined by it's name and a specification for each of the notes C, C#, D,,,,Bb, B . The specification can be in two ways :


The temperament CSV file has the following structure :
The first column always indicates the row type which can either be ‘*’ for comments or ‘T’ for temperament definition . Comment rows are optional and can appear anywhere. A temperament (‘T’) row contains the following information :
Note : When editing the file with a Notepad type editor, all fields in a temperament row have to be separated by a comma (e.g. T, My Temperament , 0,6,4,2,0,6,4,2,0,6,4,-4 )
When editing the file with MS EXCEL frequence ratios (e.g. 3/2) may be displayed in date format . In this case you have to substitute the '/' by '@' (e.g. 3@2) .


Spectrum

This mode can be used to explore the harmonics of the input signal. The spectrum can be activated by clicking on the Spectrum button. The spectrum is a graph showing the amplitude of the frequencies contained in the input signal. The peaks in the graph represent the harmonics of the signal. The spectrum can be displayed in 2 or 3 dimensions with time as the third dimension (3D Spectrum). The frequency scale also shows the corresponding note scale so that the harmonics can be easily identified. The spectrum display can be paused at any time by using the Pause button.
The following parameters are available :




Pause button

Click on the Pause button to temporarily stop Tune!It display of the spectrum, the harmonic analyzer or the wave form display . To continue with the real time display update hit the Pause button again. Alternatively you can use the space bar .


Reference Tone

A reference tone can be produced in two ways :

The duration of the reference tone is controlled by the Repeat Rate which offeres two modes of operation :

The following parameters are available to customize the reference tone :


Repeat Rate

This parameter specifies how quickly the reference tone will be repeated . This is useful for midi patches with decaying signals. The repeat rate is specified in beats per minute (e.g. 60 means a repeat every second, 0 no repeats at all).

Note : By default the Repeat rate is set to 0 which means there is no repeat and the reference tone stops as soon as the key or mouse is depressed. If the repeat rate is > 0 , the reference tone is switch on with one mouse click or key stroke and will only be switched off after another mouse click or key stroke.


Virtual Keyboard

You can use the QWERTY keyboard to play a reference tone. 3 octaves have been mapped to the keyboard in a piano keyboard type fashion where the the lowest octave C starts at the 'Z' key , the middle octave C starts at the ',' key and the high octave C starts at 'T' key .
In detail the 3 octaves are mapped as follows :

qwerty

The low C corresponds to the low C displayed on Tune!It' piano keyboard. The octave range of the piano keyboard can be customised in General settings.


Custom Tuning

Custom tuning is a feature where one can define different tunings or tuning sequences for special instrument tunings e.g. open G tuning for guitar. A tuning consists of a set of notes which can be defined by note/octave, an offset in cents or frequency and an optional harmonic . Up to 128 tunings can be created. Each tuning can have up to 256 notes. Tune!It comes with predefined tunings for guitar, cello, violin, bagpipe and piano .

Custom tuning can be activated/deactivated by clicking on the custom tuning icon in the toolbar. When activated, a tuning and note selection list will be appear in the toolbar and the currently selected note will be displayed together with details such as harmonic number and offset.

Customized tuning can be either done in ‘single note’ or ‘automatic’ mode. In ‘single note’ mode only one note is selected at a time and pitch detection will be focusing on that note only. Select a note from the note list or advance to the next note by using the Next button . You can also go back to the previous note by using the Previous button . In ‘automatic’ mode Tune!It will automatically detect the played note but only from the list of notes of the currently selected tuning. Automatic mode can be activated by selecting ‘Automatic’ from the note selection list (last entry ). Optionally a reference tone can be played during custom tuning.


You can either create or change custom tunings by




Edit Custom Tuning

This option will allow you to edit the custom tunings using a Notepad type editor . This way you can easily change, add or delete tunings as an alternative method to the Custom tuning settings panel. Alternatively you can use MS EXCEL by opening the file tunings.csv directly .
The custom tuning file is stored as a CSV file (comma seperated values) which has the following structure :
The first column always indicates the row type which can either be ‘*’ for comments, ‘T’ for tuning information and ‘S’ for tuning step information. Comment rows are optional.
A tuning must begin with a ‘T’ row followed by ‘S’ rows for each tuning step.
A tuning (‘T’) row contains the following information :

A tuning step (‘S’) row contains the following information :
Custom Tuning Editor

Custom tuning allows you to create special instrument tunings. A tuning consists of a predefined set of notes which represents a particular tuning or tuning sequence for an instrument (e.g. open G tuning for guitar). Each tuning can have up to 256 notes. Up to 128 tunings can be created. To select, change or add tunings, the following controls are available : T u n i n g s

N o t e s T u n i n g s

Select a tuning from a list of existing tunings. The selected tuning can be changed (notes added, changed or deleted) and then saved by using the SAVE or OK button.




Import Custom Tuning

Imports your tunings from a CSV (comma delimited) file. To create a CSV file, you would initially export the custom tunings (Export Custom Tuning ) and then modify the exported CSV file in MS Excel by changing, adding or deleting tunings.


Previous button

Goes back to the previous note during Custom tuning . Alternatively you can use the <- key , Next button

Avances to the next note during Custom tuning or skips the current ear training test . Alternatively you can use the -> key ,


Ear Training

You can use Tune!It’s ear training to improve your musical listening skills. Tune!It’s ear training is melodic, which means it will play random sequences of single notes such as intervals or melodies which you have to recognize and repeat using your instrument. To begin with the ear training, click on the ‘Ear’ button or check ‘Ear training’ in the options menu. Once in ear training mode, Tune!It will play a random melody and then wait some time (twice the duration of the melody) for you to repeat the notes with your instrument. It will then check whether the notes you played match. If yes, Tune!It will commence with a new test , otherwise it will repeat the current test. You can also use the Next button to abandon the current test and continue with a new test. To exit ear training, press the ‘Ear’ button again or uncheck ‘Ear training’ in the options menu. There are many options to customize ear training which can be set in Ear training settings . You can customize Ear training with the following parameters :




How to use Tune!It




Trouble shooting

If Tune!It does not respond to your input signals, check the following:

If Tune!It shows readings from background noise, decrease Tune!It's sensitivity until the background noise is eliminated. Alternatively turn the microphone level down.
If you can’t hear the reference tone, make sure that the MIDI or SW Synth output channel is not muted. You can check this in Windows volume control or your sound cards mixer program. If you have selected the Sine option for the reference tone, make sure that the Audio output channel is enabled.