Integrated Tuner [All Editions]





You will find the integrated tuner in the main menu at the far right end. Please plug in a microphone to your computer. Please set the microphone as the default recording device in the operating system’s settings. If necessary, start FORTE again.



FORTE built in instrument tuner is intended to provide an accurate way to tune following instruments: Guitar, Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. It is designed to use any microphone/soundcard setup, with minimal user effort. Before using it, please make sure you have correctly setup your soundcard and microphone. To start Tuner, use Tuner Icon, available under Home tab:


Once you start it, Tuner window will appear:



Figure 1


Tuner window elements brief introduction:


  • Instrument combo box, the only user input is to select desired instrument to tune: Guitar, Violin, Viola, Cello or Double Bass
  • Strings of Instrument, according to the selected instrument image will display corresponding tunable strings, in Western notation. Lower string will appear to the left side, and higher string to the right side
  • Current String,  while playing one instrument note, it will display the closest note, in chromatic scale, Western notation
  • Tuner Scale,  while playing one instrument note, indicator will display how close we are to the correct note tune (frequency). Once we reach correct tune, in the middle of the scale, Ok lamp will start to blink. Tuner scale is divides to 20 steps between each chromatic scale semitones, for more accuracy.
  • Clip, indicate that we have too loud microphone input (blink in red), and user is expected to either lower down microphone input or to play note a bit less loud. Audio clipping will affect tuner accuracy.


NOTE: Tuner is designed to use A4=440 Hz

How to use Tuner

First step is to verify you have correct soundcard and microphone setup. Choose preferred audio input device, under Home->Options->Wave->Recording. Start tuner, by pressing Home->Tuner icon. If sound setup is ok, Tuner window will appear.


Select Instrument, place microphone close as possible to the instrument strings.


Adjust microphone volume to avoid Audio clipping, in two steps: First increase microphone volume, and play lower strings, until you reach Audio clipping. You will notice Clip lamp blinking for a short period.


 


Figure 2


Then decrease microphone volume, until you can play a note without Clip lamp activating.


Play instrument strings, on at time, check Current String for the tone detected. Check   Tuner Scale, for the current string tune. Adjust tune to one approximately one semitone below correct tune, and slowly tune it up, until it reach correct tune.


While tuning up a strung, and playing it, you will see Tuner Scale moving from left to right, towards central scale position:



Figure 3


As we move closer to correct string tune, colors will slide form Red (out of tune), Orange and Yellow (closer), to green (close)


Once we reach correct tune, Ok lamp will start to blink:



Figure 4


NOTE: Only tones displayed under Strings of Instrument (tunable strings) will activate Ok lamp, other detected tones will just show up central Tuner Scale position. These other tones are not of interest in tuning procedure. For example, if we choose Guitar, only E2, A2, D3 G3, B3 and E4 will activate Ok lamp.

Tips

For more accurate tuner results, use following tips:


  1. Place your instrument close to microphone, as possible
  2. Pay special attention to setup correct input volume, to avoid Audio clipping
  3. For Guitar tuning, use guitar picker to produce louder string sounds
  4. For Violin, Viola, Cello and Double bass use a bow to play tuneable strings
  5. Play longer tones, to allow more time to detect correct tune.
  6. One Ok lamp blink is not enough to verify correct tune, repeat tone play and Ok lamp blinks for several times (3-4)
  7. Avoid "Microphone Boost" option in Windows mixers, as it increases noise level, which affect correct tune detection.