Tuner 2 v1 & v2 — a tuner, for instruments that make sound

Why v1 and v2? Because v1 is maybe a little drab, but v2, for all its graphical excitement, seems to get too excited and kind of glitch out. Watch the video; I’m not trying to hide anything here.

Both versions work for any instrument that tunes to even temperament between A0 and G#7.

Version 1: There is a keyboard display across the top, beginning with A, which tells you which note you are tuning to (nearest note to the pitch detector’s input); the notes change color as you change octaves, blue = A0 – G#1, green = A1 – G#2, and on through red, yellow, aqua, magenta and finally white.

On the bottom is a display. When in tune, the center green lights show. As the note falls flat, yellow and finally red lights to the left of the center give you an idea of how far flat you are; at complementary pair of lights (also turning from yellow to red) are on the right for sharp notes.

Version 2: The notes are displayed across the front page, in big, bold UIs buttons! (A# is denoted by a white UI in the top right hand corner.) Except sometimes, it glitches. If you play the note a few times, it usually settles into place.

The patching is done correctly, but this patch… there may be a limit to how many connections a patch can support, I’m thinking? Because once I crossed a certain threshold… weird stuff started happening. I will submit a bug report, but I think the bug may just be, you know, hey, what are you thinking with all these connections (there are a LOT of connections in this patch).

Pixels along the left side of the front page show the octave your note is in; A0 – G#1 = blue, the next octave is green and so on, through red, yellow, aqua, magenta, and white (if you are so inclined as to play notes that high).

In both versions can also generate a sine wave tuned to the closest note of the input (middle stompswitch — momentary), if you would prefer to tune by ear.

The audio path is stereo, but the pitch detection can be taken from either the left or right input (but not both).

A special thanks to my patrons on Patreon for their support: Rob Flax, Stepan Grammatik, brockstar, Mats Unnerholm, D Sing, Will Scott, drew batchelor, Miguel, Steve Bragg, Joab Eastley, Tomi Kokki, Mitch Lantz, Ben Norland, Daniel Morris, Roman Jakobej, Mark Crosbie, Steve Codling, and Timothy Cleary!

If you would like to support my work on ZOIA, please visit patreon.com/chmjacques

Footswitches:

Left, latching — mutes the input; when the input is passed (i.e. not muted), a light in the top left corner will be white

Middle, momentary — generates sine wave tuned to nearest note of input

Right, latching — V1: shows the order of colors per octave below the keyboard display, if you forget/wonder
V2: switches between left and right input for pitch detection (a red pixel will light up when the right input is in use)

Front panel:

Besides the GUI aspect, there are two controls:

Sensitivity (magenta) — the pitch detector is… very accurate. Perhaps too much so. As you increase the sensitivity control, this will dissipate. For the OCD (like me) who has bad tuners on their guitar (like me) and needs to have that green light _stay_ on. So I guess this is really a desensitivity control.

V1: L or R input (aqua pushbutton) — when off, the pitch detection is taken from the left input; when on, it is taken from the right input
V2: omitted (see stompswitches)

4 comments on “Tuner 2 v1 & v2 — a tuner, for instruments that make sound
  • Christopher H. M. Jacques on said:

    I made that bug report, and it looks as though the tuner v2–and maybe other UI uses–will be a lot more stable in a subsequent firmware.

  • Christopher H. M. Jacques on said:

    If you should want/need to change the colors used for the tuner:

    On the fifth page of the patch (#4), there are two CV out switches. (There’s another on the sixth page.)

    I color-coded these switches, but if you are having trouble distinguishing the colors, the top CV switch is red, the bottom is yellow (and the one on the page after is green).

    The inputs of those switches control the colors of the UI buttons. UI buttons go up in color from blue to green, etc. following the order for ZOIA modules. And they do it in a very specific manner. .x01-.x75 is their brightness, and X determines the color (0 – blue, 1 – green, 2 – red, etc.).

    So, to change the yellow lights to blue, you would bias the input of that switch to something like .070 or so.

    If you want a reference point, just add a UI button and start biasing until you find a color that works for you, and then change the switch’s input to correspond (UI buttons have a color option, but this only affects the optional CV output; all of them behave the same when biased/receiving CV).

  • nathan_krahn on said:

    Question, I find that for low registers the tuner consistently tunes flat (especially my cello). Is this something that other people have experienced?

    Otherwise its a beautiful tuner, I’m very new to Zoia and I was hoping this would replace a tuner on my board

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    • Platform:
    • Category: Utility
    • Revision: 2.0 ish; or both versions, or something; read the patch notes or check the video
    • Modified: 4 years ago
    • Views: 868
      Likes: 12
      Downloads: 1248
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