tuning

[USStuba04]

where can i find that thing that Pokorny tunes with...is it a cd or something???//

[WoodSheddin]

not sure of any connection to Gene Pokorny, but I have this and it works ok
http://www.thetuningcd.com/

[WoodSheddin]

Anyone wanna buy me a birthday present? I so want this.

[Scott Sutherland]

where can i find that thing that Pokorny tunes with...is it a cd or something???//

www.tuneupsystems.com is where you can find the one that Gene advocates. It's a much more involved and intense study of intonation than the Tuning CD and others.

[WoodSheddin]

where can i find that thing that Pokorny tunes with...is it a cd or something???//

www.tuneupsystems.com is where you can find the one that Gene advocates. It's a much more involved and intense study of intonation than the Tuning CD and others.

Which one to order? The Tuba book or the Bass Clef C book?

[MaryAnn]

I highly recommend the TuneUp system. I saw it demonstrated some years ago at a horn workshop; there were three college horn players with good technique but lack of knowlege about correct intonation (how the pitch of a note varies with its position within a chord.) In the half hour demonstration with the TuneUp CD, I saw/heard these players go from "being close" to playing perfectly in tune, just from hearing and playing with the demonstration CD.
MA, who can't figure out why such a simple concept is not taught to kindergarden kids

[Highams]

Yes, I've had this a few years and it's excellent as a check up on your intonation.
It's also invaluable to me with older instruments and getting them reasonably in tune.

www.euph9.freeserve.co.uk

[Chuck(G)]

MA, who can't figure out why such a simple concept is not taught to kindergarden kids

MA, there's a ton of stuff I can't figure out in the music field. Why, for instance, an orchestra will tune to A and then proceed to play a piece in F major...

[JB]

...I have this and it works ok
http://www.thetuningcd.com/

If you want to download (free) for a "test drive" something very similar to the tuning cd mentioned by Mr Chisham, check out http://members.cox.net/jazztrombone/tuningcd.htm.

While certainly not as substantial as the Tuneup System, it does allow you to create your own disc. Using similarly generated tones, I created a practice disc for each of my students -- those that use it regularly (!!) show positive results.

FWIW.

[Mark]

Anyone wanna buy me a birthday present? I so want this.

A friend of mine has one of these. I want one too!

[WoodSheddin]

Anyone wanna buy me a birthday present? I so want this.

A friend of mine has one of these. I want one too!

Have you heard it in use? What did you think? How does your friend like it? What does it sound like?

I am seriously thinking of getting one. The major hurdle is the price.

[Rick Denney]

I am seriously thinking of getting one. The major hurdle is the price.

Do you think one of those small-key Casio keyboards would serve the purpose? It might not be loud enough, but it would allow choosing the most appropriate tone for the drone.

Rick "who has an old Casio somewhere that would be small enough" Denney

[Mark]

Have you heard it in use? What did you think? How does your friend like it? What does it sound like?

I am seriously thinking of getting one. The major hurdle is the price.

Yes, we have used it with our low brass quartet. It creates a very pure tone for any note we ever needed and the volume can be varied from soft to very annoying. Of course, it can be monotonous .

Here is how we've used it: If were are playing a piece in Eb Major, we set in on Eb and practice the piece. It really helps to herd everyone into tune.

My friend who owns it is a middle school band director and he swears that his kids play much more in tune using this method.

I really like it and may very well make it my next major "tuba" purchase.

[Chuck(G)]

Anyone wanna buy me a birthday present? I so want this..

The engineer in me says it'd be cheaper to write down the frequencies of the notes on a card and then cruise eBay looking for a nice AF signal generator.

[WoodSheddin]

I am seriously thinking of getting one. The major hurdle is the price.

Do you think one of those small-key Casio keyboards would serve the purpose?

The speaker would not be loud enough. I have a tuner which I use now and it is not loud enough. The keyboard would require a louder speaker, perhaps even an amplifier. I would have to hold down the key while trying to play.

The Model 320 is all in one and I would guess can play pretty darn loud.

I have tried CD's but the tracks always seem to be too short. I could set it to repeat but it still involves using the stereo to play them.

[Chuck(G)]

Back in the old days, we used to set temperments by ear using a single A=440 or 435 fork. Best intonation training ever! The downside, of course, is the LONG learning curve....

Right, but it's like a lot of other things. Once you've learned to do it, it's WAY faster than using a tuner. You lay your bearings and then tune octaves, all by ear. No looking up all the time at some fool display.

[MaryAnn]

MA, there's a ton of stuff I can't figure out in the music field. Why, for instance, an orchestra will tune to A and then proceed to play a piece in F major...

Oh, well, that's easy! Violins don't have an F string!

MA

[Matt G]

In high school we had a Petersen Tone Generator and a Strob-o-Conn. We would dread the beginning of each rehearsal because we knew that near to perfect sine wave was going to be piercing our skulls any minute. However, it only took us about 2 minutes to tune a band of 80 as opposed to XX-minutes using the Strobe tuner. On occasion, when the pitch got really out, the director would use the Strobe. We were allowed to tune with the strobe right before rehearsal. It was cool that you could tune fifths and thirds in your overtone series on that thing.

The band did play very well in tune. That thing would get cranked up into the key of the piece we played at times, especially if it was an odd key for band like A-Major.

In college, I had took a recording techniques class. The teacher brought in a tone generator that could do perfect sine waves and even square waves. I don't remember what the make was, but it was a scientific tool. I do remember it not costing much more than the Petersen, but with a lot more gadgets to mess with.

[Chuck(G)]

MA, there's a ton of stuff I can't figure out in the music field. Why, for instance, an orchestra will tune to A and then proceed to play a piece in F major...

Oh, well, that's easy! Violins don't have an F string!

MA

Yeah, but they do have a G string and that would be much preferable to using the 14-cents-sharp-relative-to-F equally-tempered A. I suppose you could tell the oboe to play the A 14 cents flat...yeah, right.

[WoodSheddin]

In college, I had took a recording techniques class. The teacher brought in a tone generator that could do perfect sine waves and even square waves. I don't remember what the make was, but it was a scientific tool. I do remember it not costing much more than the Petersen, but with a lot more gadgets to mess with.

What's a square wave?

Hurts like hell to listen to. You get them when signals start to clip. Pure square waves are really annoying to listen to. One of the ways to setup the gains for amplifiers in car stereos and such is to use a 1kHz sine wave at 0dB gain. Turn the source up to as high as you want to send to the amplifier with that sine wave playing. Be sure to wear hearing protection cause it will get VERY loud at 1kHz. When the quality of the sound goes from just plain smooth loud to nail scratching then you have turned the gains too high. Back off a bit until the sound goes back to a sine wave. The nail scratching annoying noise was a square wave.

The square wave is a sine wave with the tops and bottoms flattened because your don't have enough juice to power a full sine wave at the requested wattage.

I used a lot of layman's terms but basically square waves suck to listen to.

Have a listen here http://www2.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handboo ... _Wave.aiff