electronic tuners

[Ron Koval]

Dear friends,

As a longtime Korg user, RCT user and having tried Tunelab, I may have a 
different perspective than others.

I started using the origional Korg box. Only accurate to +/- 3 cents.  What 
it IS good and useful for is to set the temperament octave.  Center the A 
and tune from Eb to Eb. (C to C, if you don't want to mess with changing 
octaves.) Check thirds, adjust, and do the rest by ear.

The Korg MT-1200 IS much more usable and has 3 preset stretch curves built 
in.  The best feature of this tuner is the ability to "half the meter".  
Instead of reading from +50 cents to -50 cents,(like most meter-type tuners) 
you can change to +25 to -25cents.  This makes the meter more readable.  For 
pitch raises, meter tuners make quick work of visually seeing how far below 
center the pitch begins.  Guestimate 30% above overpull and get in the 
ballpark for the fine tune. (Might be an inexpensive, fast way for aural 
tuners to get ready for their fine tune.

You can quicky tune 5 octaves of a's to see if any of the stretches fit 
before tuning.  Still with an accuracy to only 1 cent, use your checks as 
you go, and trust your ears.

I found that tunelab was too confusing for my liking, though with the new 
improvements, it's much easier.

In my opinion, if you are going to invest in a laptop, RCT gives you the 
best tuner available.  It's easy to sample, test, tweak and save a tuning in 
10-15 mins.  Plus if you want to try different temperements (or even smaller 
percentages of them!) the program is very easy to do.

I've never used the SAT, but watching other people follow the spinning 
lights, I'm thankful for the great display on RCT. (can you tell I'm happy 
with RCT?)

Good luck in making a choice between what's out there!

Ron Koval
Chicago Chapter

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