Forgive me if this has come up before (a C&F search yielded confusing results) but could anyone who has had experience with a good electronic tuner suitable for accertaining accurate chanter note values please offer a product reccomendation?
Most (admittedly low budget models) that I have tried in the past have proved fairly useless for anything other than instruments with pick ups that you plug directly into them (eg. guitars).
Many thanks for any help,
Harry.
Previous discussions:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=15264&highlight=tuner&sid=eb0ab9359f9c0a804b9969d47413f5e5
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=13082&highlight=tuner&sid=eb0ab9359f9c0a804b9969d47413f5e5
…
A tuning fork tuned to the bell note works for me. It’s the best tuner I ever bought (and one of the cheapest).
The Peterson V-Sam ($249 from most online sources) is like the VS-II with a metronome and highly programmable. I also have the Korg OT-12m which is nice. If you can afford it, I’d reccomend the V-Sam before the Korg. It is an expensive tuner, though, and the only reason I have one is for instrument making. A tuning fork works perfectly if your reed/chanter are in good form.
Dionys
hey harry its knight rider? i have a korg orchestral tuner ot 12 it cost 120 sterling its a good one,but i dont use have the stuff thats on it.but then again it tunes in all diffrent keys sharps and flats.so could be handy’
I’ll also cast my vote for the VSAM… I use mine nearly every day.
Harry,
I use a Korg Chromatic tuner CA-30 and it picks up all of the notes on the chanter with ease. It even picks up all drones, including the base drone. There is at least one for $15 on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2372028147&category=1288
Try that one before spending $250. Just make sure you don’t have a nasty brother that is a fiddler – he may be inclined to set it to A443, so you can’t tune those pipes.
Cheers,
Virgil
Thanks all. I have a tuning fork alright, it’s actual note values I’m after though and I don’t mind forking out a bit more (if you’ll pardon the pun).
Hello Night Rider, how’s your black, leather and crome turbo booster getting on?
The Peterson machines look thin on the ground over here in the old world and I’m not an Ebay person. The Korg OT-12 looks good. It’s going for 118 euro on a german site.
http://musicians-gear.com/cgi-local/priceslist.pl?src=662&ex=EUR_VAT
Thanks,
H.
The problem with nearly every tuner specified other than the VSAM and VS-I and VS-II is that they can’t be used to tune a set of pipes other than the bottom note.
For the pipes you either need a tuner that can tune in just intonation, with a selectable scale root, or the ability to accurately factor in the offset from equal temperment to just intonation.
Best bet is to use the tuner to get the bottom and back D’s in tune, and listen for consonance with the drones for the rest. If you’re trying to tune every note on the chanter with a conventional chromatic tuner, then you’re going to have dissonance with the drones. Of course, if you’re doing this because you’re recording a movie sound track and the composer insists on perfect intonation along with the string section, that’s another story, but for the most part, the less expensive electronic tuners aren’t a whole lot of use, better to get a tuning fork or spring for the VSAM or similar.
The Seiko ST-909 is accurate and can be recalibrated to suit whatever instrument you want. It is a bit more money than the guitar tuners you mention, but is quite popular here with band teachers in schools. You can use the built in mic, or plug in a directional mic for more accuracy.
djm
Nope, the Seiko ST-909 won’t do it… Doesn’t have just intonation or shiftable scale roots… I think there is a very high end Seiko that does the job.
I must agree with my learned peers that pipes are probably best tuned by ear (or at least it’s best to be able to tune them by ear without tech aid). I just want to be able to read the values of the notes accurately and easily for several purposes.
If I really wanted another machine that would dominate peoples tuning then I’d get another set of pipes!.. they are the most elaborate and definitive tuning standard in the world of course ( if you really HAVE to play them along with the lesser instruments).
Regards,
Harry.
I too used just a tuning fork to get the 440 “A” right then tuned by ear the rest of the D set. This still works for me. However I purchased a cheap chromatic Korg CA 30 tuner a short while ago and found it very useful as a tuning aid when adjusting and fiddling with old chanter reeds, and for tuning the C and Bb chanter. Also useful for checking when one suspects that a chanter note is off and your ears are tired and you can’t quite decide what it is that bothers you.
I’m trying to get it together on the flute so the Korg CA 30 is fun too for checking the different degrees of pitch you can get by varying ones embouchure, turning the head joint in/out, blowing harder/softer etc.
I’ve just this metronome that spits out an A=440 tone. Would be nice to have one that did D, G, etc. Can’t stand tuners. Reading dials all day. Yyykk! Like workin’ for the feckin’ natural gas company.
I shopped around for an electronic tuner last year and didn’t see anything like the Franz IMP 2000 Electronic Pitch Pipe. Must be a new product. Chromatic, adjustable, loud too apparently. Around $50 US. Hmmm…