Promising tuner for the blind

Phil Halton · From: Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA

For years I've been trying to find a tuner that I can use (I'm legally blind and can't see well enough for commercial tuner use). Today I found a PC-based tuner that has promise. Its called Chromatia Tuner V33 and is a multi-temperment tuner with a feature that lets you tune without looking at the computer screen. That's the key! It has an audible "beats" feature (not the same as the beats we think of when tuning). The beats feature gives audible feedback -much like a geiger counter that indicates "on center". This one feature makes the tuner accessible for the blind.

It has 36 built-in temperments-defaulting to equal temperment, and can be programmed to accept user-defined tunings. Which brings me to a question:

Can anyone supply me with "sweetened" settings for the steel in either cents or Hz? I don't fully understand the programming feature yet, but I know I can construct a file with note names and corresponding frequencies in Hertz as in the following example:

MIDI Hz Note Name
72 523.31 C5
73 554.498 C#5
74 587.534 D5
75 622.538 D#5
76 659.641 E5
77 698.944 F5

I've thus far been able to tune to equal temperment with this tuner (which is exciting for me), and I know there are many alterations to ET for the steel. If I could get a listing of these frequencies from anyone on-list I'd be in real good shape as far as tuning goes.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

BTW: the tuner software can be found at
www.fmjsoft.com

Don Poland · From: Hanover, PA.

Phil, I am sending you a link to Jeff Newman's website that has his tempered tunings in HZ format. Hope this helps, if not, let me know and I will meet you in the ISGCC room and read the info to you, while you add it to your program.

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Here's a meantone temperament for E9. Relative to ET with A=440, F# is right on, BEADG go higher than ET, and C# G# D# A# E# go lower, 2 cents per step. So the major thirds are 8 cents narrower than ET. This is hot off the calculator so there are probably some goofs. This would be the higher octave of a standard E9 tuning; divide by 2 for the lower octave.

Phil Halton · From: Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA

Thanks ERnest,

Exactly what I was looking for. I would be very interested in knowing how these values are calculated if you care to give a lesson. I went online and found a table of ET frequencies. I then took an old Newman tuning chart, and using a cents/hertz type calculator modified the frequencies in the ET table to account for the cents adjustments of the newman chart. Well, I'll be dogged--it worked pretty good. This meantone temperment is very interesting--is it one you use? Are there other variants of this that are well suited to the steel?

Thanks for the good info and again, if you could point me to sources where I could educate myself on this whole temperment calculation process.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Here are the numbers for pure JI, with A=442 Hz as many steelers prefer:

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Phil, there is plenty of material to read online if you Google temperament and comma.

If your vision is good enough, maybe this table will make sense. This is how I made the numbers that I posted above. I used the Windows built-in calculator, which will do x^y if you click on "Scientific" in the View menu.

Peter Jackson · From: Midcoast Maine, USA

Bill, as a blind steeler this is great. I plan to check this tuner out. Question, do you read tab? I have not been able to figure out how to read tab. I use Jaws, the sreen reader program, but so far have not benn able to read tab on my own. My very patient wife reads tab into a small recorder and I make do with that method. I'd love to figure out how to tab on my own. Man, all that tab,so close yet so far.
Thanks in advance for any tips.
Peter

Phil Halton · From: Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA

Hi Peter,

Two things I'd like to say,

Firstits nice to meet another blind person working their way through the adventure of Steel Guitar. Have you checked out the ISGCC (International Steel Guitar Conference Center)? Oddly enough, there are three blind people on that chat room, and the software that runs the whole deal was written by a blind guy, so it works well with Jaws. Do a forum search for ISGCC and you'll find some more details and web addresses.

Second, as far as tab goes--don't take this wrong, but I'd get away from tab as soon as possible. There's just no easy way for us to read it, but most importantly, its more a hindeerance than a help in my view. Whoa! Let me explain that a bit. If you rely on tab, you're only going to get good at copying other peoples ideas. You won't know how those ideas arose and why they work--you'll just be able to play them, but without the feeling they gave the origionator. I think its a much better idea to spend your energies on learning the layout of the neck--chords and scales-and be able to transpose that information into any key at will. Then, you have the tools to make your own music and you can confidently toss tab out the window. You'll no longer need tab--you'll have arrived at where tab is intended to take you--and you'll have shaved years off your learning curve without the struggle and eye/brain strain involved in memorizing hundreds of tabs and trying to find a common thread amongst them.

That statement will probably get me in some trouble, but it's what I've found to be true. If you want to struggle through some printed material, may I suggest "The Missing Link" and "Secrets & Shortcuts" by Reece Anderson. If you apply the principles he teaches in that material, it'll be one of the last books you'll ever have to read on the subject. After that, one of Reece's "SmartTabs" would help to solidify the knowledge you'll have gained. After that, forget tab--you won't need it anymore--you'll be making music instead of mimmicking someone elses experience. Again, do a forum search for "missing Link" for more info.

Best of luck Pete, and maybe I'll see you in the ISGCC rooms.

Peter Jackson · From: Midcoast Maine, USA

Hi Bill. Thanks for the tip on ISGCC, I will definitely check it out.
After rereading my post about accessing tab as a blind player, I probably sounded a little dependant on tab. In fact, tab appeals to me more as a reference than the last word in learning PSG. to me ,tab would increase my learning curve in some areas. I do play along with CD's to practice intonation,and try to learn about what the masters are doing. Indeed,i play along with radio shows to tighten up my chops. Nothing ,in my opinion takes the place of playing with friends. I learn more playing with friends for one hour,than I do playing along with CD's for three hours.
I do appreciate your input,and perhaps we'll "se" each other on ISGCC. thanks!

Phil Halton · From: Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA

Hello B0b,

I wonder if you can give me the cents offsets from ET for thoseJI Frequencies? I've constructed an Excel worksheet to calculate 8 octaves of frequencies based on a base reference (A4=440 etc) and a set of cents offsets for the 12 semitones of an octave.

With this, I can create various tempered frequency tables for the Chromatia tuner by simply setting the global reference and tweeking the cents offsets.

It's alot easier to work with cents, and I'd sure like to have that JI temperment you showed above in terms of cents offsets if possible.

One big limitation of this Chromatia tuner is that you can only have one frequency (with its octaves) per note. So, if your 4th string F# is a different cent offset than your 1st & 7th string F#'s, then you pick one and tune the other by ear. Or, make a second table for tuning the oddball cent offsets. Still in all, its a trade-off I am happy to live with. 90% of pulls tuned with a tuner and the rest by ear is alot better than nothing.

Thanks

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

There's a good cents chart for the JI ratios at this page:
http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Just_Tuning.html

Divide them by 100, and the remainder is the offset. If it's over 50, subtract 100 to get the negative offset (flat of ET).

I think you'll find that they come out really close to Jeff Newman's numbers.
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Had a few minutes so I made another chart:

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