[sdiy] Cheap frequency counter for oscillator calibration

[thx1138]

On 4/22/10 9:46 AM, "Adam Schabtach" <lists at studionebula.com> wrote:

>> Hi Guys,
>> 
>> Just for fun, Ever try using a tuning fork and your ears? It is a bit of a
>> work but the voicing is so much better on a piano.
>> 
>> I use a Peterson Strobe tuner that I have had for about 30 years and it
>> performs very nicely. I usually set the end to end v/0ctave to be exact as
>> possible using a 4 1/2 digit DMM. And make sure octave switches are not
>> throwing any offset voltages into the tracking.
>> 
>> Freq counter, it is possible but pretty sterile sounding results in my
>> opinion.
>> 
>> I guess it is a curse to have perfect pitch sometimes.
>> 
>> Just my 2 cents.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Terry
>> 
> 
> Hi Terry,
> 
> Do you have any opinions as to why the results obtained with a frequency
> counter are "pretty sterile sounding" when compared to the results obtained
> with a strobe tuner? It's not that I don't believe you, but it seems odd to
> me that there would be a difference.
> 
> --Adam
> 
> 
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Hi Adam,

>From my experience at Oberheim and E-Mu I tried the Freq. Counter and tuned
Osc. Without hearing the output and then I listened to the output via
headphone/speakers and it seemed to loose all warmth. I seemed that if I
tuned the Osc. By ear the voicing was much more pleasing.

I tuned my piano by using the strobe tuner and the voicing was terrible. The
difference is sympathetic string interaction vs absolute freq. Setting.

The error in piano is much more pleasing than trying to get the last 2-3
cents of accuracy in. I would call this the warmth factor. Harold Rhodes at
Fender demonstrated this to me when I did some work for him back in the
early '70's.

But the 83 milivolts per note is a given and 1 v/octave needs to be set
correctly or you will go sharp or flat up and down the keyboard.

The Prophet V allowed microTuning but I am not sure any other synths did.
Being I am also a wind player and using a LyriconII as my controller is a
different issue.

Regards,

Terry