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Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

grooved.okat.best

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Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#161

Post by opello »

okatbest wrote: post #111
crazygringo wrote: post #26

This seems really clever -- kudos! I'm curious how it actually works? At first I assumed you were comparing the vinyl track to the reference digital track from some streaming service and either analyzing the frequencies with FFT or the timing of peaks. But I watched your demo video and you don't need to tell it anything about the song. Which makes me think you're rather doing an FFT and simply trying to match how wel…

Thank you so much! I spoke about why I'm not flat out saying how it works in another comment but let me answer your questions: 1) It actually might! Worth a shot I guess, but I don't have any comedy albums to try it out. I was able to get drum solos working fine 2) Was answered better by somebody else 3) I was able to get it to detect speed issues up to 9% off, beyond that it just stops working completely. Though tha…

This is pretty cool, thanks for sharing it.

Is this the aforementioned comment about _why_ you aren't being specific about the implementation?

> Eventually I decided to see if I could find a novel, more user-friendly approach that doesn't require you to put a thousand-dollars phone on a fast moving spinning thingie, and that's how Grooved came to be.

If it isn't then I couldn't find it. I was very curious about that too (both how it worked, and then the incentive for secrecy--totally your prerogative but again curious given the veiled-to-me explanation) but didn't seem to find such a comment. Protecting novelty seems like the implied reason.

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#162

Post by [deleted] »

Balgair wrote: post #125

Great idea! Thank you! However, I don't think I'll ever use it. My turntable doesn't have an adjustment for speed outside of 45s. So, if I find out that my table is too fast or slow, that's just going to bug me forever. So, I'd rather not know, seeing as I'm enjoying the music just fine as is. If you can, try selling this out to an adjustable turntable manufacturer in stock options, so that when all the people find o…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#163

Post by okatbest »

BuildTheRobots wrote: post #143
nickthegreek wrote: post #25

Just put a record on yesterday and my wife said it was playing too fast. I thought she was wrong, then I see this post today! I grabbed the app and gave it a go, 3.5% too fast according to your app. Now I have to figure out how to adjust the damn thing. Really appreciate a free nonsense free app. update: youtube to the rescue. pretty common affordable turntable( Audio-Technica LP60), so I figure I would put the vid l…

I'd be curious to know _why_ your wife felt it was playing too fast. Was it out of tune, out of tempo or something else?

You can try with my example video above! Listen to the first couple seconds of the song on my recording (skip to 0:08):

https://twitter.com/OKatBest/status/1795453042994680148

Then listen to the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NplyW8TF18

Maybe it's just me, but as soon as the guitar starts I can tell it's way too high pitched.

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#164

Post by okatbest »

opello wrote: post #161
okatbest wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much! I spoke about why I'm not flat out saying how it works in another comment but let me answer your questions: 1) It actually might! Worth a shot I guess, but I don't have any comedy albums to try it out. I was able to get drum solos working fine 2) Was answered better by somebody else 3) I was able to get it to detect speed issues up to 9% off, beyond that it just stops working completely. Though tha…

This is pretty cool, thanks for sharing it. Is this the aforementioned comment about _why_ you aren't being specific about the implementation? > Eventually I decided to see if I could find a novel, more user-friendly approach that doesn't require you to put a thousand-dollars phone on a fast moving spinning thingie, and that's how Grooved came to be. If it isn't then I couldn't find it. I was very curious about that…

Here's the comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40502383

Essentially I don't want to have somebody swoop in, replicate the same thing, be better at marketing, and charge money for it. I'm both protecting users because they shouldn't be charged for something that is free, but also protecting my ego because I spent time and effort and as far as I can tell I'm the first one to build an app that works this way and it sucks when somebody takes a community thing and paywalls it.

Once the Android version is out and everything blows over I might consider making the apps open-source so that anyone can see and learn how it works, then potentially make derivative works.

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#165

Post by kazinator »

criddell wrote: post #127
taylodl wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. That was often done when mastering with tape. Record at one speed, playback at another to make it sound more "lively." There are songs that were sped up that way anywhere from 25 to 40 cents. It's another reason why live music so often doesn't sound like the recording. When using digital mastering, you can also adjust the playback speed, but you can correct the shift. You get more "liveliness" without the sh…

Do you happen to know of any tools for fixing pitch issues in music files?

I used Audacity recently to fix some youtuber's backing track for guitar improv, by tuning down 7 cents. I reuploaded it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE3pgOkfYu0

In that case, it's a pure stretch: i.e. the tempo is slowed down by a factor of 0.996 to achieve the pitch change.

I also have an unpublished version of that track transposed from the key of Em to Dm; that was a pitch change preserving tempo.

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#166

Post by jameshart »

egypturnash wrote: post #68

All the turntables in my life as a kid had built-in calibration, in the form of four rows of repeating black/silver squares on the side of the wheel, a light flickering at the mains frequency, and a little dial to adjust the turning speed until the row of squares corresponding to your current combination of 50/60 hz DC and 33/45 RPM appeared to stop moving. It was a very clever trick.

For turntables which lack the inbuilt strobe but have the calibration pattern on the edge, you can also download a strobe app for your phone and use that to accurately measure and tune your turntable speed.

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#167

Post by hluska »

taylodl wrote: post #95
kevincox wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The needle doesn't pass at a constant "ground speed" everywhere on the record. On the outside the needle "travels faster" and in theory you have more detail. Near the middle the needle travels over the record surface slower.

That's one of the reasons you'd put your best song on side A, song 1 and your 2nd best song on side B, song 1 - you got the most detail on the outside track. I remember seeing an interview with Led Zeppelin quite a few years back where they were claiming they knew they'd have a smash hit with Stairway to Heaven. Which was funny, because I remembered then seeing an interview several years before where they said it was…

I’m not sure about this. Thriller (by Michael Jackson) is one of the biggest pop songs of all time. It was also the fourth track on the A side. Bohemian Rhapsody (another one of the best selling singles of all time) was the fourth track on the B side.

Those are two examples off the top of my head. If you give me a bit of time to put my kid to bed, I’m sure that I’ll find many more.

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#168

Post by criddell »

kazinator wrote: post #165
criddell wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you happen to know of any tools for fixing pitch issues in music files?

I used Audacity recently to fix some youtuber's backing track for guitar improv, by tuning down 7 cents. I reuploaded it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE3pgOkfYu0 In that case, it's a pure stretch: i.e. the tempo is slowed down by a factor of 0.996 to achieve the pitch change. I also have an unpublished version of that track transposed from the key of Em to Dm; that was a pitch change preserving tempo.

How did you determine 7 cents was the correct amount?

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#169

Post by Terr_ »

Random though from non-vinyl-aficionado here: Is there an easy way to temporarily leave a mark (and thus a sound) on the surface of the record, so that you can easily measure the time of each revolution without damaging the record or the needle?

At first I thought of a small square of scotch-tape, although I expect that might "catch" and damage the stylus. Perhaps blu-tack? A big water droplet?

Re: Show HN: I made a free app to calibrate your turntable by simply playing a song

#170

Post by opello »

okatbest wrote: post #164
opello wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty cool, thanks for sharing it. Is this the aforementioned comment about _why_ you aren't being specific about the implementation? > Eventually I decided to see if I could find a novel, more user-friendly approach that doesn't require you to put a thousand-dollars phone on a fast moving spinning thingie, and that's how Grooved came to be. If it isn't then I couldn't find it. I was very curious about that…

Here's the comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40502383 Essentially I don't want to have somebody swoop in, replicate the same thing, be better at marketing, and charge money for it. I'm both protecting users because they shouldn't be charged for something that is free, but also protecting my ego because I spent time and effort and as far as I can tell I'm the first one to build an app that works this way a…

That makes sense and seems like a justified concern. Sorry for what you experienced with Boop. And thanks for the reply and direction to the comment, I overlooked it.
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