Peterson iStroboSoft

[daniel.sneed]

[...]iOS is worse than Apple OS. 2009 Macs run Yosemite and it's no slower than SL -- in fact, adding an SSD has put off my upgrade for at least a year.[...]

Exact same situation here. My 2010 MacBookPro is still up and running with Yosemite. Adding some memory and SDD did fill the gap. It handles all my actual projects, without a glitch.

[mikehalloran]

The in-app purchases include a "Keyboard" set that includes stretch tunings for grand, upright, and Rhodes piano. 20 bucks for the set.

Thanks.

The description just said Sweetenings which I took to be Mean, Pythagorean and other possibilities. Since they make a big deal on the hardware side, I figured they might mention it if the App had Stretch available.

[Shooshie]

The in-app purchases include a "Keyboard" set that includes stretch tunings for grand, upright, and Rhodes piano. 20 bucks for the set.

Thanks.

The description just said Sweetenings which I took to be Mean, Pythagorean and other possibilities. Since they make a big deal on the hardware side, I figured they might mention it if the App had Stretch available.

It's got all kinds of things. "Sweetener" isn't really the same as temperament, though it's related. Sweeteners are specific adjustments they make for various instruments which help put the pitch where players of those instruments generally want them.

For example, orchestral wind instruments tend to play in a tonic-based Just Temperament for the 4th, 5th, and major/minor 3rd for every key.

For cello, violin, and viola, they have perfect 5th intervals for the open strings.

A random example of sweetener for Bluegrass Dobro:

• Half-tempered tuning for open A, D and G

Another random sweetener for acoustic guitar:

• Peterson Sweetened tuning for acoustic guitar in modal DADGAD tuning with optimized fifths

There are dozens of these things. I don't know if I'd use them or not. I know my instruments' tendencies, and I place the pitch accordingly. The sweetener might confuse me; but I do intend to try it and see if it helps. I think I'll end up preferring equal temperament all the time, because that keeps me in the center. When I play in ensemble with other instruments, I adjust the pitch for whatever interval I'm playing against the primary line at any instant. That changes constantly, so it's an ear/airstream reflex. However, I can see how tuning the strings of any stringed instrument could benefit from something that takes into consideration the kind of bridge used, or the use of capos, high strings, or anything else that might make tuning self-defeatingly difficult.

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

Just for grins, I put together a gallery of iStroboSoft screenshots. I really like this app, and I believe it's something that everyone can benefit from.

To see them all at full resolution, just COMMAND-CLICK all the pictures and links to make a series of tabs you can click through quickly.

Strobe Displays

• The Strobe
  
  
  Spectrum (Line)
  
  
  Spectrum (Bar)
  
  
  Spectrogram
  
  
  Oscilloscope
  

Preferences and Settings:

• • Sweeteners
  
  
  • Guitar Sweeteners
  • Temperaments
  
  
  • Strobe Controls
  
  
  • Tools (Spectrogram page)
  • Settings
  • Transpose the Input from the Front Panel
  
  • Capo (transpose wheel)
  
  
  • Adjust Concert A from Front Panel
  • Tuner Settings

I'm not completely off my rocker for posting all these pictures (maybe a little). I really do think that seeing is believing, and it's hard to find these screenshots anywhere that I've looked (and I've looked in the places where they SHOULD be). So, if you're not already a believer, feast your eyes on these tuning tools and their settings. Tell your friends, families, and lovers!
(the latter really digs when you talk about it in bed. Trust me on that! )

Shooshie

[mikehalloran]

I spent the $10 for iStrobesoft but haven't gone for any of the in-app purchases. Not yet, in any case.

I'll see if it saves me any time tonight. I'm recording guitar accompaniments for a show I'm doing on Saturday. The way I do it is tune to a chord, play a number of measures, tune to a second chord, do the same and so on. I then chop it up and assemble the song. It's a time consuming process but the only way I know how to still sound like me on the guitar.

This has given me the idea to record my 12 string for the first time in six years. As I was preparing the guitar, it occurred to me that, because everything is open (or open with a capo), I am not limited to tuning the courses in octaves. Nor am I limited to tempered thirds as this is a solo show.

[dosuna11]

Great app.

[dosuna11]

Hey James, I have a 4S iPhone with OS 7.1. I noticed no slowdown in my phone.

[cuttime]

On sale for .99 cents.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id308296029?mt=8

[Shooshie]

99¢ is good, but remember that for full functionality you need the in-app purchase of at least several of the tools. I say don't bother with the "sweetenings" unless you know what you need, but all the other tools are pretty much essential. Probably $20-$30 in purchases.

From that list, these appear to be the ones I'd recommend:

• 3. Tuning Tools -- - - - - - - - - - - - $9.99
  4. Harmonic Tuning -- - - - - - - - $19.99
  8. Extended Frequency Modes - $4.99
  • • • Total: - - - - $34.97

The sweetenings aren't bad to have, and you can get the whole kit & caboodle for $59.99, but if you'd rather figure out the sweetenings later, these three items will cost you just under $35.00.

I got along fine with only the basic strobe for a couple years, but the new tools are useful in other ways, such as practicing consistency of tone, or visualizing where you're dropping pitch between attacks (for wind players), seeing the harmonic balance of each note throughout your range, and that sort of thing. Excellent teaching tools, too.

Shoosh

[Shooshie]

I spent the $10 for iStrobesoft but haven't gone for any of the in-app purchases. Not yet, in any case.

I'll see if it saves me any time tonight. I'm recording guitar accompaniments for a show I'm doing on Saturday. The way I do it is tune to a chord, play a number of measures, tune to a second chord, do the same and so on. I then chop it up and assemble the song. It's a time consuming process but the only way I know how to still sound like me on the guitar.

This has given me the idea to record my 12 string for the first time in six years. As I was preparing the guitar, it occurred to me that, because everything is open (or open with a capo), I am not limited to tuning the courses in octaves. Nor am I limited to tempered thirds as this is a solo show.

Man, your dedication and determination is inspiring. I really mean that.

Shoosh

[stubbsonic]

Shooshie, you mentioned long tones. What is your axe? (I play trombone).

I just got the iStroboSoft for $1. And am curious about the add-ons.

I have a few other apps, one called e-scope3in1, another called n-Track Tuner, and one called Tunable. The first two offer a variety of sonic visualizations (FFT, sonogram, etc). Tunable shows your pitch track in a pretty useful way.

Because I do tune pianos occasionally, I'm thinking the keyboard stretch package would be very helpful with that. Has anyone used it for that? I know there is very expensive software that will actually listen to the piano notes and tell you how much stretch there is.

I suppose what might be handy is to see how inharmonic the overtones are (i.e., just how sharp) to help determine the stretch manually.

[mikehalloran]

If you look on the Peterson web site, you will find the documentation for the two hardware units that have stretch tuning. In there, you will see Peterson's charts for their stretch tuning recommendations for various types of pianos. They list recommendations for all 96 keys–in case you run into a Bösendorfer Imperial Grand…ya never know.

[mikehalloran]

I spent the $10 for iStrobesoft but haven't gone for any of the in-app purchases. Not yet, in any case.

I'll see if it saves me any time tonight. I'm recording guitar accompaniments for a show I'm doing on Saturday. The way I do it is tune to a chord, play a number of measures, tune to a second chord, do the same and so on. I then chop it up and assemble the song. It's a time consuming process but the only way I know how to still sound like me on the guitar.

This has given me the idea to record my 12 string for the first time in six years. As I was preparing the guitar, it occurred to me that, because everything is open (or open with a capo), I am not limited to tuning the courses in octaves. Nor am I limited to tempered thirds as this is a solo show.

Man, your dedication and determination is inspiring. I really mean that.

Shoosh

Thanks. I'm still a musician and I need to figure out how to make music.

As it turned out, myn '67 D12-35 needs heavier strings before I try that again. My strings were too loose to be stable on some notes but the iStrobSoft.app was a time saver.

For that gig, I wound up knocking out some charts and having my wife play accompaniments into my iPad using an iMic and Twisted Wave. I edited the tracks in DP 8, bounced them back into Twisted Wave and ran my iPad into the house sound. For one song, I used SmartGuitar in GarageBand and played it live.

Smartest thing I ever did as a voice major in college was to marry a piano major.

[mikehalloran]

Well I just tried to buy it and discovered it requires iOS 7. I'm on 6.1.

I get that all the time withy 1st generation iPad. ☹

I bought it for my iPhone 5S and iPad Air -- works great. I wasn't going to spend another $10 to put the older iStrobosoftt HD on my 1st gen iPad, however

Just for kicks, I went into the App store on my 1st generation iPad. I went to the tab for "Not on this iPad" in Purchased and saw iStrobosoft so I clicked on Download to see what would happen. I expected to see that this wasn't going to work in iOS 5. Instead, it gave me the "...there is an older version, would you like to download it now?" message. OK... so I clicked on "Yes" and it did.

When it loads, it is iPhone sized. Click on the button marked "2x" and it goes to full screen. I've not bought any of the in-app extras and have no idea if they would work on this iPad 1. No matter, I've got it installed without shelling out $10 more for the privilege.

Merry Christmas!