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Hey Everyone

I'm sure some of you have heard about this...but my tech just turned me onto it last week (better late than never) and it stopped my ever constant quest for perfect intonation in its tracks

As you know I'm a recording songwriter, not a salesman for a tuner company but I just gotta point this out in case someone out there could use it

http://www.petersontuners.com/

f&*king awsome! :D

Comments

TheJackAttack Fri, 08/28/2009 - 08:26

The Peterson tuners bought out the technology from CG Conn for the Strobotuner. The strobe technology was/is the most accurate way to measure the interelationship of fundamental to partials. The downside is usually a size and weight factor. Peterson continued to develop models utilizing new technology including a model in the 80's marketed towards piano technicians (never liked that version myself). Mostly, Peterson marketed to wind band programs and touring guitarists. In addition, Peterson began including the offsets for "sweetened" tunings for guitars which are basically transcribed offsets. Not that there is anything wrong with that since inharmonicity is hardly understood by folks that use the practical results every day (half of the piano techs out there). The new technology is nice in that these factory sweetened tunings are saved on the device already on a flash chip and usually you can save your own prefered offsets as well-not to mention the form factor is much smaller now.

/hip pocket PMI on strobe tuners

djmukilteo Fri, 08/28/2009 - 12:49

Just our of curiosity....I have been using the NI Guitar Rig internal software tuner prior to recording guitars or bass. I usually let the player tune their guitar using that and they all seem to like it....
This seems like a better faster more accurate method and the price seems very reasonable....
Is this a no brainer purchase for the DAW or is it just hype?...

I'm always feeling like guitars fall are out of tune so quickly and they get a little off in the mix....and I'm always having to check there tuning between takes....of course this can sometimes be the player! LOL

jg49 Fri, 08/28/2009 - 13:23

Guitars and guitarists BAH! As Jack said the very nature of their construction makes them go out of tune as we tune them. By increasing the tension on any one string we are changing the tension on the wooden neck throwing the previously tuned strings out by changing the overall tension on the pliable neck which is why most guitarists start with the heavier gauge strings but really once you have it very close you can do it again and get closer. Fret distances are at best a compromise and adjustable bridge saddles can help but...there have been frustrated lifetimes spent trying to improve this. The better the instrument, the better the maintenance of tuning machines, nut and saddle, temperature and humidity, the gentler the attack the more likely an instument will stay in good tune, but for the true perfect pitch individual it will always have its deficiencies.

song4gabriel Fri, 08/28/2009 - 14:12

i dont know nothing about iphones or pda aps or whatever. i have used every tuner from guitar rig, pod xt pro, boss, intellitouch etc...and i can say with absolute conviction that the pederson stroboflip tuner is miles ahead of them.

for one the tuner itself is accurate to 1/1000th of a cent. and 2- the display readout also extremely precise.

i have absolute pitch and have been tortured by tuning, intonation since i was little. and the peterson stroboflip strobe tuner has rocked my world!

BobRogers Fri, 08/28/2009 - 14:34

Well unless you are doing Gregorian chants you are going to be out of tune. The twelve tones scale is out of tune, so you pretty much can't avoid it. John probably knows a lot more about this than I do, but I've sat through some long lectures on the mathematics and physics of scales and tuning. As has been said, basically everything is a compromise. There is no such thing as a perfect scale, so even a synth can't play "in tune."

Like every instrument, the guitar has inherent compromises. My approach is to adjust the bridge all of my guitars so that the twelfth fret octave is exact when played with a medium light touch. (This is, of course, after adjusting for relief and string height.) I tune each string both open and fretted at the third fret. I try to split any difference. I'll make sure that I don't tune sharp since the tendency is to pull sharp in the heat of battle, and when playing bass I can always tighten up to pull up a flat note.

I use a Peterson V-SAM for setting intonation and whatever is lying around for day-to-day tuning.