To show you how the pitch information is
displayed, Bach's Sarabande from the c minor cello suite is a good
choice (unlike many unaccompanied sarabandes, it has no double stops).
Here's the
score for the first four bars:
And here are the first two bars as rendered when
played
into the software:
This is the main screen, where you will
spend most of your
time. A pair of graphs, above and below a moveable
splitter bar, show
the pitch in several magnifications. Consider just the upper
part of
the display as shown in the above image: it gives a picture of the tune
it hears as a heavy black
line against a permanent horizontal array of colored lines. Each
colored line represents the pitch of one note in the scale - the solid
lines correspond to the naturals (labeled on the left) and the dashed
ones the accidentals in between, the white and black keys of the piano.
Their twelve separate colors help you keep your place on the graph
easily. (Imagine trying to distinguish your location amongst several
dozen gray lines). The full range of notes in this piece goes
from CC to eb'. Equal Temperament has been chosen for this example, and
you can see
the lines for the notes are all equally spaced.
In this overall graph we can see the
individual
notes mapped pretty well; but we are also most interested in the
details surrounding each note, which at this scale can hardly be seen.
We need to focus in on each individual note as well. So a second graph
is drawn below in parallel. [These two portions of the screen are
separated by a horizontal bar, a standard Windows display element
called a "splitter bar", which you can drag up or down with the mouse.]
The portion of the screen below
the splitter bar is
a fine-tuning
graph - a
magnified view of each individual note. The
horizontal center line of the graph represents "in tune" with the
nearest note being played, according to the scale and pitch
selected. The labels to the left indicate that each dashed
line of the vertical scale represents a pitch differential of 10 cents. The
color
of the trace of the graph
serves to label
which note of
the scale
is being measured, and it changes as the tune moves from note to note,
matching the color
of the
nearest line on the upper chart. A thin black
line through the colored trace gives the average value. In the above
image, the
area outlined in orange below corresponds to the region of the upper
graph outlined in orange there. The first note,
g,
is traced in brown on the lower
graph, and the vertical extent of that graph corresponds to the space
just around g,
from halfway to
f#
to halfway to ab
The second note is eb,
drawn in yellow-green, and for
the extent of eb
the lower
graph shows the semitone from halfway to d
to halfway to e.
And so on - the orange
regions should help grasp the concept.
Much greater pitch
detail can be seen than in the upper graph of the overall tune.
So here
is where you can examine the precision of the intonation of a
recording, and with a microphone, your own playing or singing. For some
purposes the upper graph becomes superfluous and we would choose to
drag the splitter bar to the top, giving still finer detail by using
the entire computer screen for the fine-tuning graph.
Again, the key to understanding the
lower graph is
that the color
of the trace gives the clue to the note being graphed.
This allows a seamless graph where time moves across at an even pace;
note names or other symbols won't work because there can't be an
interruption in the smooth horizontal flow of the graph.
In this example we can see the performer
plays the B
slightly lower than equal-tempering would call for, an approach exactly
antithetical to the modern ideal of raising the leading tone (to the
tonic c), but in keeping with the Baroque sensibility of tuning with
pure thirds. The eb is tuned high, also closer to a pure minor third.
But are these intentional or just normal variation? The second phrase
is almost equally tempered, and now the average pitch has risen 7 to 10
cents. The c' especially is clearly quite a bit higher than an octave
to the previous c.
You will see some artifacts on the graph
that don't
fit the ten notes of the tune displayed. Pitch extraction is not a
simple task, and there will always be odd sounds that will be
misinterpreted or create ambiguous situations. I believe the eye and
mind can quickly learn to look behind the few blips and blots to see
the information that is essential.
In real time tuning, the screen will
wrap around -
the trace will draw over itself.
A video of the
full-length Sarabande discussed above (actually, not the same
recording) is available to view
below. This can
immediately give you an idea of the program in action, without
installing it on
your computer. [note
- to repeat the video, it seems one must first click
|<
to reset the
video, or drag the pointer back to the beginning, before clicking the play
button again.]
However,
if you have the patience to give your ears a test, you can first just listen to
the audio, and see what you yourself can discern about the intonation
on this clip. Then you can compare it with the graph on the video, and
read my comments on the intonation. If you want to follow the score,
look below.
Bach Suite 5 Sarabande
Note
- the actual use of Tuning Meister
is much smoother than a video can show, as the frame rate is quite a
bit slower. This shows 16 frames a second, which captures 5 pixels per
frame. The original draws at 80 pixels per second.
When you have time, it can be useful to read a more detailed discussion
of the tuning info I gathered from this performance. Read it here.
If
you are a
singer, read this page about the display for Vocal
Vibrato.
In certain modes of practice it is useful to have the graph trace stop
when input ceases; similar to a voice-activated recording mode. For
instance you may wish to sing or play a short phrase without looking at
the graph, then check to see if your sense of intonation corresponds
with what the graph drew. To switch between continuous trace or
input-activated start and stop, check View
| Trace Continuous [or input dependent].
Now you can try actually analyzing some
sounds. You
may need to
manipulate the Recording
controls
to feed whatever music you wish to analyze to
the software.
We will look later at the
function of the Instrument
menu,
but for the
moment just select Western 440
from the sample entries provided therein. This is provided as a generic
template from which you can quickly set your own customized entries. Or
you may find your particular instrument displayed under the Instrument
menu,
and you can select it directly.
Then you can start the tuning
process from Options | Tuning Graph.
To monitor a performance you clearly
need to align
the graph to the singer or instrument of the moment, and to achieve
this you set Options | Pitch of A
& Range.
Note this dialog box is made quite wide
so it can be
as shallow as possible in order to keep most of the tuning screen
exposed. [If your screen has enough pixels, the dialog box will be even
wider, with a slightly different layout but identical controls]. First
adjust the limits of the graph, its upper
and lower
notes. If too wide
a range is displayed, more than you are actually singing, the
sensitivity of the upper graph is diminished.
If you desire a particular fixed pitch,
set that A
either by typing in the edit box
or moving the slider, and tune your instrument to the graph. It should
already show 440.0 Hz. Alternatively you may wish to accommodate the
graph to an existing sound; for instance, the organ might have gone
sharp, and you are content to sing at its pitch, or you want to tune to
the oboe's A. In that case, play a reference note into the microphone
and adjust the slider until that note's pitch on the lower graph moves
to the center line.
[It is helpful to know that moving the
slider for
the pitch of A
by one "page"
value changes it by 5 Hz, which is very close to 20 cents at 440 Hz.
Use that motion to come close, before pressing an end arrow or a
left/right arrow key for fine
adjustment by 0.1 Hz].
If you have a transposing instrument
such as a
trumpet, you will want to set the Transposing
Key. Shown are the settings
(also supplied as a sample
Instrument) for a Clarinet in Bb, although one might need a higher
range than this. The notes as shown on the tuning graph will now appear
named as they would in a score; the Bb clarinet's lowest noteappears
as e in written music, but
its concert
pitch is d. Keeping
the Transposed
Range Constant will allow
us to move the Transposing Key
to define a clarinet in A, eb, or c, while the writtenLowest
and Highestnotes
won't need to be adjusted -
they will always remain the same.
Currently you can
transpose from a ninth below to a tenth above concert pitch [as of
version 1.13]. If there is need for greater transposition, please let
me know - it is simple to change.
You won't want to
have to adjust these parameters
of Pitch of A & Range
every time and
so for that we turn to the Instrument menu, where you can save and
later retrieve different settings for your work with Tuning Meister.
