2017/11/12 19:31:44
batsbrew
WITH MODERN TUNERS...
it's dead easy to tune everything, to anything.
2017/11/12 20:05:54
Beepster
batsbrew
WITH MODERN TUNERS...
it's dead easy to tune everything, to anything.




Except fixed pitch instruments of course.
 
Even my old TU-2 (love that thing) I can scootch things up or down if I want but since I'm pretty much exclusively working in the box these days I just use GR5's tuner which is quite useful. Lots of useful goodies in that program... like the tape deck thingie which is great for slowing down solos I'm trying to learn.
2017/11/12 20:10:25
Beepster
Oh and when I was working with that accordian player I'd tune to her instead of to a tuner because of course the physical reeds in a squeezebox tend to have very slight deviations from perfect 440. Our banjo/mando/master of all things stringed used a clip on tuner though and although likely imperceptable to most people I always found it was just EVER so slightly off from the accordian (and thus me being tuned to the accordian). It sounded kind of organic/cool that way though.
 
2017/11/12 21:19:33
jamesg1213
batsbrew
WITH MODERN TUNERS...
it's dead easy to tune everything, to anything.


 
 ...unless you're recording a flute..or a piano..or a saxophone...or a...etc...
2017/11/13 01:26:54
dubdisciple
I an tempted to create an app that displays 440 tuning as 432 just to ease the minds of asshats
2017/11/13 14:39:33
codamedia
jamesg1213
batsbrew
WITH MODERN TUNERS...
it's dead easy to tune everything, to anything.


 ...unless you're recording a flute..or a piano..or a saxophone...or a...etc...



An acoustic piano is a pain, but flute or sax... or any woodwind/brass instrument? They are not fixed - they have a lot of variance for tuning. 
2017/11/13 15:13:37
batsbrew
codamedia
 
 
An acoustic piano is a pain, but flute or sax... or any woodwind/brass instrument? They are not fixed - they have a lot of variance for tuning. 




 
i think it should go without saying,
that we are talking in particular, about electric stringed instruments,
and to a large degree, any synth.
 
if a fixed pitch instrument like oboe or tenor sax is being recorded, you gotta do what you gotta do.
 
goes without saying.
 
any wind instrument has a bit of drift of pitch available, but not entire half steps.
2017/11/13 17:26:40
tlw
Beepster
Oh and when I was working with that accordian player I'd tune to her instead of to a tuner because of course the physical reeds in a squeezebox tend to have very slight deviations from perfect 440.


In a "2 voice tremolo" accordion the second bank of reeds that produces the tremolo is tuned a bit sharp, the exact amount depending on how "wet" the instrument is tuned. The tuning difference between the pairs of reeds also varies with the pitch of the note, the idea being to keep the rate of the tremolo constant. Which doesn't happen if the reeds are all tuned sharp by a fixed number of cents or Hz. Three voice tremolos tend to be more pitch-accurate because the flatter reed bank kind of cancels out the sharper one. Though they still "wobble".

Hohner once produced one model of melodeon/button accordion that had the tremolo reeds tuned slightly flat. For whatever reason, while humans find the slight sharpness of conventional accordion tunings quite acceptable against other instruments, the "flat tremolo" just sounded wrong. Really wrong.

Temperature and the amount of use/wear on the reeds can make a difference as well. To complicate things further the biggest producer of reeds and instruments is Italy, where a standard of A=442.4Hz can still sometimes be found.

Then you have the Cajun accordian tuning which is intended to make a diatonic instrument in the key of C sound better when played in C and G in a similar way to how blues harmonica "just" and "compromised" tunings work.

You can go mad trying to find the theoretically "correct" pitch to tune against when playing alongside some fixed pitch instruments. The best solution is to stop aiming for mathematical perfection and settle for things sounding good instead.
2017/11/13 17:45:15
Beepster
@tlw...
 
That was extremely interesting and informative... as always. I hope you are well, Mr. tlw. I might have more time (and attention span) to hang here in the Techniques forum now that I've FINALLY corrected the beds for the album I'm working on. That... was a bit of a slog (to put it mildly). lol
 
Cheers.
2017/11/13 19:37:13
tlw
Jarsve
They think that listening to music in 440 Hz is dangerous. Its easy to laugh at it, but for them its really imorprtant and then they need respect. At least so they come back for more work. lol.

 
You could try convincing them that A=415 (used by some orchestras that specialise in Baroque material) is even "safer". Then just transpose your A=440 stuff down a semitone and job done. Even better, get them to use A=415.4 which is even closer to a semitone down transposition.
 
As for them needing respect.... about as much as a serious flat-farther is worth. Accommodating them to keep them as happy clients is, of course, a different matter.
 
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