[pianotech] Beginner's calibration question

David Boyce David at piano.plus.com
Tue Dec 29 06:32:27 MST 2009


Robert, thank you for those clarifying comments!

I should have said, that I was aware of possible variables with sound cards, so I tested my A440 tuning fork against the "what is phase" website 440Hz tone on both my laptop at home and a PC at work, and found the fork beatless to both the laptop and the PC  I concluded from this that if the pitch wasn't A440, then the two computers and my fork were out by exactly the same amount! I chose to trust that they were all at 440Hz.

It occurs to me that, as I happen to have three latops in the house at the moment, I could try running that website 440 tone on all three together, and see how it sounds.....

Best regards,

David Boyce. (happy Tunelab user)


>Any tone that you get on your computer from a website is actually rendered based on your soundcard's crystal oscillator for its precise pitch.  Two different computers >can go to this same website and get slightly different pitches.  So when you use this source for calibration, the calibration is only as good as the crystal in your >soundcard. 

>International phone lines do not significantly distort the pitch of the sounds they carry.  So I would trust NIST over the phone lines more than I would trust any >random soundcard.

>Robert Scott
>Ypsilanti, Michigan



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