source file: mills3.txt Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:06:31 +0200 Subject: Re: TUNING digest 1202 From: Prent Rodgers Terry Truman wrote: >.Greetings, > If you had your choices, what would be required in a tuning >machine that would suit your needs? A very wide open question, I >realise. > I'm in the initial stages of design for a precision, >multi-temperament machine initially aimed at Pipe Organ enthusiasts, >which could provide facilities for up to 100 temperaments. >Being for organs, it is primarly for 12 tone systems, but there is no >reason why this could not adapted to other uses. > > Let me know what you think, or are these machines anathema ? >Terry. I used to have a marvelous portable tuner I used to build many microtonal machines about 15 years ago. I can't remember the manufacturer or model, but it was a small blue box with 12 tone choices, and two dials to tune them either ten cents or one cent sharp and flat (coarse and fine adjustment). It had a set of 12 or so LED's that would rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise until the note was in tune. It had another dial to select the octave. It went missing on a road trip in '81. What I liked about it was the rugged construction, which allowed me to use it in the garage where I built instruments without worry over spilling machine oil, solder, or ashes into the guts of the machine. Today I use a laptop computer, but I am always worried about damage. I haven't found a good tuning program for the PC, but it seems like it should be possible to listen to the microphone input and report frequency in real time. Today, I build a set of .wav files in CSound and select from the desired pitch, then tune by sound. I really miss the rotating LED's. There are a number of products on the market today that provide microtonal tuning support. I have looked at the Accutone model 250, with preprogrammed scales, and a three light strobe for $400; Korg model MT-1200 wihch can be programmed to temperments of your choice for $300; Peterson 5000, with 112 customer definable temperment files; Precision Strobe Tuner PST2, with the rotating LED's that I found useful before and programmable temperments, for $325. All of these assume that you are tuning 12 tones to the octave, but let you alter any of those 12 to any note. With a little fancy temperment switching, you can tune any number of tones to the octave with little trouble. Yours, Prent Rodgers Boise, ID 83706 Internet: prodgers@us.ibm.com = SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: Manuel.Op.de.Coul@ezh.nl Subject: Another version of 12-tET PostedDate: 10-10-97 19:53:56 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 10-10-97 19:53:27-10-10-97 19:53:27,10-10-97 19:53:56-10-10-97 19:53:56 DeliveredDate: 10-10-97 19:53:56 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125652C.006242AD; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:53:16 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA13513; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:53:56 +0200 Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:53:56 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA13500 Received: (qmail 3744 invoked from network); 10 Oct 1997 10:53:52 -0700 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 10 Oct 1997 10:53:52 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu