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Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

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Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#101

Post by Cthulhu_ »

jasode wrote: post #93
anitil wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-guitarist but one-time musician, why are guitar tuners needed? Other stringed instruments seem to not need them, and I never thought to ask. (Obviously you might need an absolute reference if you don't have absolute pitch)

>, why are guitar tuners needed? Other stringed instruments seem to not need them, I love how that innocent question reveals how a popular phrase for objects (i.e. "guitar tuner" instead of "violin tuner") alters public perception. It hides that fact that other stringed instruments like harps/violins do use outside aids (electronics, smartphone apps, or websites[1].) Some observations: - guitars are more common than…

I also heard that professional musicians - guitarists as well - can tune their instrument by ear.

Pianos need regular tuning too, done by experts - they change tone depending on weather, temperature and humidity as well, so they have to be in a stable environment if at all possible. But these people can mostly tune them by ear, or they will have a tune fork for the base tone (A I believe) and work from there.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#102

Post by dotancohen »

anitil wrote: post #56
titzer wrote: post #42

About 20 years ago I bought my first digital guitar tuner, a Korg, that is about the size of a deck of cards. It had a monochrome LCD screen that mimicked an analog dial with a needle that moved to indicate flat or sharp. Years passed. Guitar tuning apps became a thing. I downloaded a few over the years. Then the one (free) one I had started showing ads. Little by little, update by update, the ads became more annoyin…

As a non-guitarist but one-time musician, why are guitar tuners needed? Other stringed instruments seem to not need them, and I never thought to ask. (Obviously you might need an absolute reference if you don't have absolute pitch)

Go to any place with a piano that is not used by professionals. Some places (here, at least) have public pianos, like train stations.

Press any of the keys and the same key on a different octave, together. For instance, Do and Do. Do you hear that slow oscillation of the sound going up and down? That is because the piano is not in perfect tune. If you were to try that on a concert piano before the show, the sound would be perfectly stable.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#103

Post by Cthulhu_ »

lucas_membrane wrote: post #82
anitil wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-guitarist but one-time musician, why are guitar tuners needed? Other stringed instruments seem to not need them, and I never thought to ask. (Obviously you might need an absolute reference if you don't have absolute pitch)

Orchestras tune up to the concert master, usually one of the violinists. So everyone gets to tune one of their strings to the pitch of the one string of the concert master. Almost all of the strings in an orchestra (excepting things like guitar, banjo, lute, sitar) have 4 strings (violin family), with the frequency intervals (ratio of frequencies) between adjacent strings being usually a perfect fifth, or perfect fou…

Have to say, there's something really satisfying about an orchestra tuning before a concert. If everyone's tuned in, everything starts to resonate together which is when you know they're in tune.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#104

Post by Cthulhu_ »

epse wrote: post #57
anitil wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-guitarist but one-time musician, why are guitar tuners needed? Other stringed instruments seem to not need them, and I never thought to ask. (Obviously you might need an absolute reference if you don't have absolute pitch)

All string instruments need regular tuning, but with things like violin, more emphasis is put during lessons on being able to tune your instrument fully off of hearing a single reference pitch

With violins - or other fretless instruments - isn't it also that they're a bit more forgiving if they're slightly out of tune? I did gather that violinists do the vibrato / wiggling on purpose because, it being fretless, they can't hit the exact note.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#105

Post by Gravityloss »

lucas_membrane wrote: post #89
omnicognate wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say "always" (for the violin), but that has problems itself. Eg. If you're playing with an equal temperament (eg piano) accompaniment your open G will not match it and there's no other way to play that note. Presumably advanced violinists have to choose their own tradeoffs, but I was always taught to hear the fifth and would always be aiming for a just fifth (tuning an equal tempered fifth by ear would be a neat tr…

> presumably the frets are equal-temperament semitones apart Guitars are made of wood, which bends (both the neck and the top) as one adjusts the tension of the strings. As the neck bends, the length of the string between the bridge and nut changes, and the height of the strings above the fingerboard varies in quite a complex way along the neck, changing the amount of tension added by pushing the string down to hold…

Guitars have a neck tension rod with an adjustment screw that changes the neck bow. They also have intonation adjustment screws that adjust the location of the tail bridge for each string individually. Then there's still tail bridge string height adjustment.

Neck adjustment needs to be done because seasonal moisture changes can change the bow of the neck. Depends on guitar. This is mostly for proper playing action, so strings don't buzz but aren't too high from the fret board either.

Intonation needs to be changed when you change some other things, like the things mentioned above or string gauge for example. There a tuner is very handy, you can compare the string fretted on the twelvth fret to its harmonic there. The differences are small and hard to hear.

Same things apply for electric basses.

Don't know how things are dealt with on a violin or cello, but the lack of frets certainly makes some of the adjustments unneeded.

With guitar, you only adjust these things when doing maintenance, not in the back room and certainly not on stage.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#106

Post by drw85 »

This is exactly the problem with modern software.

They don't stick to their tasks anymore, but implement all kinds of "utility"-things.

The complexity and quality suffers big time, because instead of being a good piece of software highly optimized to do a few things really well, they all become massive assortments of useless utility crap.

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#107

Post by nyanpasu64 »

rglullis wrote: post #51
titzer wrote: post #42

About 20 years ago I bought my first digital guitar tuner, a Korg, that is about the size of a deck of cards. It had a monochrome LCD screen that mimicked an analog dial with a needle that moved to indicate flat or sharp. Years passed. Guitar tuning apps became a thing. I downloaded a few over the years. Then the one (free) one I had started showing ads. Little by little, update by update, the ads became more annoyin…

F-droid shows at least a dozen different apps, none of them with ads. Even if the open source apps were not a perfect fit for your case, you could have taken 10% of the money you spent and made everyone's life better.

I haven't tried F-Droid tuners, but F-Droid's metronomes were an utter disappointment. Though I haven't tried developing and uploading a better one myself, so...

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#108

Post by amelius »

Kaibeezy wrote: post #92
sriram_malhar wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP is dissing one app, but making a generalised comment on all software apps in the tuner/metronome category. There is no shortage of well done apps that cost very little (most of them cheaper than the cheapest korg tuner) and packing in way more functionality. If OP's comment was something to the tune (heh) of "I tried a bunch of paid top-rated apps and I prefer my hardware tuner", I'd consider it a fair comparison.

I read it as dissing all free/crap/adware. Which is like dissing TV adverts or billboards or, I dunno, stickers on racing cars. So, cough up for Netflix, or move to an area where people have expended effort to make sure billboards are not permitted, or, I dunno, go watch the ponies. It’s all out there, just got to pay one of the prices. If you don’t want ads, you pay, or pick up one of dozens of perfectly serviceable…

I'm ok with ads. I just don't want to see them everywhere I look.

And no, "just" move to another place is not a proper argument:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergo_decedo

Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search

#110

Post by opan »

titzer wrote: post #42

About 20 years ago I bought my first digital guitar tuner, a Korg, that is about the size of a deck of cards. It had a monochrome LCD screen that mimicked an analog dial with a needle that moved to indicate flat or sharp. Years passed. Guitar tuning apps became a thing. I downloaded a few over the years. Then the one (free) one I had started showing ads. Little by little, update by update, the ads became more annoyin…

If you stick to apps from F-Droid you can avoid this in my experience. I don't think any apps I have contain ads. Not sure if F-Droid actually bans them, or if it's the quality that comes with being free (as in freedom) software.
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