Version 2.6 of the Autotuner now includes a simple pitch graphing function (at my request). Choose Frequency Variation from the Display menu. I’m talking to Tatsuaki about further enhancements, but even now you might find it worth upgrading to.
(Tatsuaki Kuroda has designed a tuner for PC or Mac with facilities far outstripping the usual hardware devices. At our request, the program has been modified to permit a wider range of reference frequencies, making it an ideal tool for analysing 19th century originals. You need a soundcard and a microphone. If you don’t have a microphone, just plug your earphones or an un-powered loudspeaker into the microphone input. http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~tuner. You’ll find a metronome on the same site.)
I asked Tatsuaki for a way to be able to identify notes on the graph, and he has come back with a further enhancement. You can use the L & R arrow keys on the keyboard to move the highlight along the graph after stopping data acquisition with the pause control.
Oooh - I can’t wait to try this!
This sounds like what I was trying to do, using the autotuner and post-processing the output in excel and making my own graphs (remember Terry? Did I send you the stuff I was playing with? I don’t rember if I did).
I’ll have to try it when I get home from work – more later …
Time marches on, and so does Tatsuaki. Version 2.7 of the Autotuner now available for download has a very large increase in the samples recorded, and now identifies the notes on the stave. Notes above or below the stave have their octave number printed above. Flattened notes have a b in the dot.
You can use the mouse or arrow keys to move back along the sample stream to interrogate the samples.
Thanks, Terry and Tatsuaki. Great little program, and I’d encourage even the less technically oriented (Luddites, like me) to play with it. It can help highlight pitch problems and, more importantly, timbre problems.
It also strikes me as the best tool for setting cork position on an unfamiliar flute. No second-guessing, no patent-head required. I just discovered a better spot for a cork, now that my tone and timbre are getting darker.
Tatsuaki tells me this morning (“ohayougozaiasu Terry McGee san”) that in V2.7 he’s allowed for 1100 samples which you can record, then interrogate for pitch. So you can close or avert your eyes, record your scale or random series of notes, or even a tune played slowly, then stop the sampling with the Pause control, and use the mouse or arrow keys to look for notes that were not well in tune. (Remember to warm the flute up first and tune it, or of course you will see the effects of warming and lack of tuning on the trace.)
Interesting to set the sample rate to “very fast” (which you can afford to do with 1100 samples!) so each note gets cut into a number of samples. That tells you if you arrive on pitch and stay on pitch, or perhaps droop down from or slide up to the note.
