CNC machines ? Chromatic mode should definitely be useful. The visual feedback requires an accurate reference frequency. You may play with A4 value or ratios to get desired non musical frequency value.
To wrap up, Thanks, HN community. Your feedback, comments, suggestions, and technical discussions have been truly humbling. We're delighted to offer a complimentary premium version of the app to anyone who contributed to this thread, once it's released. Just email us when it's available.
There is a short video here https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gZbP7svgBUM (not comprehensive. uses simulated sine wave and app generated tones). There is no web or iOS version.
A few years ago I made a small tuner that mimicked the strobe effect by resampling the signal with interpolation to match the wave period (similar to an untriggered oscilloscope) and applying an IIR bandpass filter to get a clean sinewave, then showing the sinewave as a color gradient instead of an oscilloscope view. I tried a few different variations but couldn't figure out how to control the speed (sensitivity) of the movement and make it independent of the input frequency/period (apart from showing more or fewer periods in the pattern) and also it required a strong biquad filter to remove harmonics that would bleed into the strobe pattern (a similar effect can be seen in the turbo tuner (*) guitar pedal that uses LEDs to show a spinning pattern and sometimes the pattern smears or flickers), but this introduced unwanted lag. Here is a screen recording of my old app: https://youtu.be/IjYv1fDEopY
(*) I'm not affiliated in any way, I was just researching this a lot.
Interesting. It took time for us to get the waveform stability working. We also have a smoothed wave overlay on top of raw signal. This is more a filtered version of input signal. Tried adding more filtering to get the sine wave output. But, it was too much CPU intensive. We also tried adding few overlays to this stable waveform. They did not work well and hence removed them. I agree, there is no good way to make the speed independent of input frequency. The plucked note pitch variation in flat bridge instruments like South Indian Veena is too wide when compared to pointed bridge instruments. We are planning to add additional cue that shows if a note is in tune based on pitch variation midpoint. This might help tuning the string or setting the frets relatively accurate.
Thanks for your valuable feedback. Instrument list and temperament profiles would be expanded before adding other new features. The project started as a tuner app for South Indian Veena & as a fretting aid (based on ratios).
On base notes, have you tried using Just Intonation and other tuning profiles. They use perfect 5th. I will take a look at C# and Db difference in other temperaments. Maybe, our nomenclature needs a re-look.
Sorry, I don't only mean C# and Db, but just in general - the flat and sharp won't be the same outside of equal temperament. (I'm guessing details like that might matter to trombone players but I'm not sure; I play a C instrument myself).
I've only taken a cursory look and haven't tried playing violin with your app yet, but I'll post more feedback when I do!
Wow, impressive stability. In case of violin (bowed instrument), the waveform stability is visualised very well. Closer to sine wave. I tend to see less harmonics than plucked lutes like South Indian Veena. Please select 2 or 4 waveform periods in settings, set the desired reference note and try.
Thanks. I've been looking for a new app to give me immediate feedback on my pitch accuracy while I play, because the violin has no frets and my ear isn't good enough yet to identify whether I'm a little sharp or flat on each note. I think realtime feedback could really help me train my fingers.
I'll post more detailed feedback in a day or two when I've had time to experiment. Hopefully you'll still be checking the thread.
There are also tuning apps that draw the cent deviation as a line, I think the T1 tuner is one such app, you can see a line graph moving and vibrating as you play your note. A similar app to veena is the airyware tuner that shows the soundwave graph moving left or right.
Post your detailed feedback when you have time or e-mail us. Will be checking the thread. If there is even a slight variation of pitch w.r.t reference note the visual feedback will rotate. But, the feedback would give an idea about the deviation.
Pitch detection is computed and can sometimes be influenced by external noise or sampling limitations.It can jump. However, the visual display is based on the period of the reference note (or set frequency), allowing it to function independently of the detected pitch.
I guess this is a similar idea to the Peterson Strobe tuner? I think they have a rotating object which presents dark and light regions at the chosen frequency, which is a similar idea to building a visualisation on a set of samples whose length is the period of the chosen frequency.
This is a great answer. If I understood correctly: The feedback you give the user is different than a usual tuner in two ways: it is framed by the reference note, and is two-dimensional.
Yes. The pitch displayed and needle interface is based on measured frequency. It also shows the nearest note name based on this measured value. The visual waveform interface's stability is based on reference frequency set. There is still scope for improvements to detect the pitch variation of plucked strings and provide an analysis. The tuner supports Just intonation which are based on ratios. Here fundamental, fifth and octave have perfect ratios (1, 3/2, and 2) and they can be visualized. Kindly try if you have an Android mobile. There is also a play button to sound the reference note.
