[Harp-L] chromatic tuner and metronome (Abner Galdos)

["geoff atkins" <geoffatkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From: "Abner Galdos" <cdgaldos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [Harp-L] chromatic tuner and metronome
>The tuner is for adjusting the harps more or less.. 
>I've been told to get a >chromatic tuner to do the job. 
>I like the fact that this is an all in one box. Question:
>Would this be a good turner for work on diatonic harps...
>>From: JohnnieHarp 
>>Korg combi tuner/metronome  Amazon.com seemed to have best price

Hi Blueyes!
The chromatic tuners I have give me either a wavering needle, or worse a
system of jittery lights and a "too high, - too low,  -got it" trio of leds.
As the tunings of a harp aren't necessarily exactly Equal Tempered but can
also be modified to Just Intonation of various types, a chromatic tuner may
make assumptions you don't want. Read Pat Missin's excellent info at
http://www.patmissin.com/tunings/audio.html 

I have a better price: freeware. 
There's a good visual analyser called Visual Analyser 10.0.5 . 
It will work through your computer's sound system, and give you waveforms,
as well as the frequency of the sound to a precision of about one sixth of
one cycle per second. 
So you can read immediately if a reed is flat or sharp.
A computer is a bulky "box" but reed checking needs to be done in a workshop
environment, at a gig it's too late.
So now all you need is a metronome, which fits into the same box for the
same price. http://www.nch.com.au/metronome/index.html will give you a dozen
different measures, tempos from 40-208 and has a neat subdivision function.

Ninety eight cents remaining.  Geoff Atkins